Leigh Riker - Double Take

She still couldn’t believe Kyle had just stepped out of the dark—out of her past—like this. After her unsuccessful search to find him, she’d given up. By then, James was gone and his ashes were in the copper urn on her mantel. What was the point? The crisis, she decided, had passed. If Kyle didn’t locate her one day, he would have to remain a shadowy part of her childhood.

Cameron glanced at the mantel. If they did reconnect and she forgave him, she and Kyle would scatter their father’s remains—together—near their family’s original home. Near their mother’s final resting place, too.

Now he had found her, but seeing him again continued to unsettle her. He hadn’t reacted much to the news of their father’s death. But then he and Kyle had been poles apart for so long, she admitted. One minute she wanted to lash out, to punish him for leaving years ago, for not being there when James died. In the next…should she climb onto his lap, as she had at the age of five, or hug him as she had at twelve, the night he left their family? Any comfort seemed better than none at all.

Kyle winced then set the peroxide bottle on the crate Cameron used for an end table. “I’m sorry as hell, Cam. About Dad, too. But I only discovered where you were—where you are—a few days ago. When I got to New York, I looked in the phone book, then called Information.” He held her gaze, as if fearing she would send him away. “I do that everywhere I go. I check every name of yours that I remember from the program, plus your real name. I’m glad you returned to that when you left the program. Glad you didn’t invent an entirely new one.”

“I’ve changed names too many times in my life. I don’t need another.” Her forceful tone was meant for Ransom.

“Yeah,” Kyle said, “I know how that was.”

Ransom shot her a look and Cameron stilled. There was another reason she’d taken back her own name, and after all this time she finally recognized it. “I…guess I wanted you to be able to find me. If I used another name—again—you never would.”

Kyle agreed, then bypassed any further talk about James. Catching up, he told her about his career in the aerospace industry. He lived in Houston now—or had, until a recent job layoff caused by the loss of a government contract—but had traveled a great deal. In part on business but partly, he claimed, to be able to hunt for Cameron and, even now and then, for their father. “I wanted to make amends,” he finished.

“If you were so determined to find Cameron,” Ransom murmured, “why not use the Internet? You can find anybody’s number there—except your father’s, of course.”

Kyle didn’t answer, but Cameron noted he was careful not to make eye contact with Ransom. She didn’t bother to hide her own disapproval. Why was Ransom hanging around? Why didn’t he leave?

Ransom was roaming the small apartment like a convict on death row. Every time he met her gaze, which Cameron, too, tried to avoid, his eyes seemed to darken another shade. His barely leashed intensity bounced off the walls. They were beginning to close in on Cameron, too. Like Ransom. She didn’t have to look at him to feel that slow heat inside, to sense his nearness.

“I’m sorry about your job troubles,” she told Kyle, redirecting her own thoughts, “and just before Christmas, too.”

He dismissed his business failure. “I’ll get another. In the meantime, I have interviews—some here—plus unemployment benefits.” He moved his package aside on the chair cushion. Even those small gestures were her father’s, too. Maybe the years apart no longer mattered. “Of course, I also have bills to pay.”

Considering the circumstances, Cameron felt a strange sense of welcome peace wash through her. Even his total estrangement from James couldn’t override her relationship with him. With Kyle she wasn’t alone in this…whatever it was.

She didn’t buy Ransom’s theories about Destina. But Kyle, it turned out, wasn’t as sure. While Ransom filled him in on his version of Destina, he listened intently.

“So you think Venuto is responsible for our father’s death?” he asked Ransom. “And Cameron may be his target, too?”

Cameron clenched her teeth. She wouldn’t say a word. Let Kyle sort this out, come to the same conclusion she had, send Ransom on his way. For that alone, she might forgive Kyle. When Ransom finished his rant about the still-open investigation, Cameron added, “But no one has tried to reach me.” She held both arms out. “See? I survived last night by myself. I’d have been fine all day without you staking out my employer’s apartment, watching everyone who came and went.”

“The doorman and I found a lot to talk about.”

“Revenge?” Kyle was still working through Ransom’s theory. “After all this time? That’s hard to believe—”

“Destina swore to destroy your father for his testimony. He was always a threat,” Ransom said. “Isn’t that why your family went into the program in the first place? But apparently you didn’t agree about the need to keep out of his way.”

“I left WP for reasons of my own. That’s between me and my father—between Cam and me now. I didn’t leave because I thought Destina posed no further danger to my family. I was just willing to take my chances in the light.”

Cameron frowned at his surprising admission. The same old sense of loss she’d experienced since Kyle left “home” years ago raced along her nerve ends. The last quarrel with their father, the shouted words that couldn’t be taken back, words she didn’t quite remember, Kyle leaving in the middle of the night…

Ransom stuck to his guns. “Your leaving years ago doesn’t mean Destina can’t strike for vengeance even now. Or try for that missing money. He’s still a powerful man.”

“So is his son,” Kyle said. “Have your people interviewed Tony Destina?”

“When he stood still long enough. Tony’s been busy. Since his father’s release from prison, he’s had Venuto in some pricey private clinic. Right now no one seems to know where that is.”

He didn’t say more, and Cameron glanced away from Ransom’s dark eyes to exchange a look with Kyle. In contrast to Ransom, it was easy to read her brother’s face—composed yet concerned—and she could almost hear him thinking, I’m here for you.

But would he stay? Cameron blinked back the tears.

Oh, Benjamin.

The sudden thought of his birth name, so long unused, overwhelmed her. For that single instant she had allowed herself to see him as the boy he’d been years ago, before the program, before they lived in hiding and fear, before the trial and Destina. Then in the next breath he betrayed her all over again.

“I think Ransom is right. You’re in danger now, Cam.” He still didn’t look at Ransom, but Cameron did—and saw a flash of victory in his eyes. Her own brother had helped him. “I don’t like your being here alone,” Kyle said. “I don’t like you working until all hours then walking home by yourself. You didn’t even hear me coming tonight.”

See? Ransom’s gaze echoed the statement.

Cameron looked away. She busied herself putting the disinfectant back in the first-aid kit, then neatly lined up a stack of bandages in the case.

“I can—” she began.

“Take care of herself,” Ransom finished for her. He prowled the other end of the living room, not far enough away from her for Cameron’s taste. Why couldn’t she seem to ignore him as she wanted to? Why didn’t he go?

“I disagree,” her brother said, making things worse.

“Kyle…”

“It’s all very well to be independent, Cam—under normal circumstances. But obviously, this is not normal. Until Dad’s killer is caught, you aren’t safe either. If Destina feels you know where that money is—that damn money—he sure can’t learn that from Dad. He won’t stop until you tell him.”