Only Ever Yours, page 20
“I’m going to take you back to my headquarters so we can debrief properly.”
When we arrive, I’m told the specifics on the order to take me out. The only person I can imagine that would do this is James, but I have no proof, and I’m not sure he has that kind of money to spend. When I mention needing to call Camilla to let her know what’s going on, Horatio shakes his head.
“Whoever wanted you dead meant business. As of now, he, or she, thinks you’re dead. If you show up right now, you won’t be any closer to finding out who’s responsible and they can try again. Your fiancée was never mentioned, which tells me whoever wanted you dead, wasn’t going after her. With you dead, she’s safer than if you show up right now.”
“So, what do you suggest I do?”
* * *
Present
“After going over the plan with Horatio, he called Frank. I explained what happened and for him to go through the motions as if I died. He didn’t actually file a death certificate, but he handled the funeral and reading of the will. Everyone would think I was dead while I worked to figure out who put a hit out on me.”
Camilla’s sitting across from me, frozen in her spot and glaring at me. “So, let me get this straight. You let me believe for months you were dead, and this entire time you were alive.”
She stands and starts pacing the floor. “I cried… for days… weeks… for fucking months! I lost myself in grief.” Her eyes, now glassy with emotion, meet mine. “Do you have any idea what I went through? Our home, everything I owned… I lost it all on top of losing you. I found out I was pregnant… without you!” She releases a harsh breath, and I go to her, wanting to hold her, to comfort her. Finding out she’s pregnant should be a happy moment, but it’s been tainted because of what’s happened.
She backs up and raises her hand. “No, don’t you try to comfort me now!” she shouts as tears fill her beautiful green eyes, making them appear brighter. “You took my control from me and left me to fend for myself. I had no money, you shut down the accounts, and I didn’t even have a phone! You left me with that psycho.”
“That’s not how it was supposed to go down,” I hiss, pissed off at the series of events that followed. “Frank couldn’t find you.” I bridge the gap between us and thankfully, this time she lets me. “He’s had guys scouring everywhere in search of you. He even put a call in to your dad.”
“I haven’t seen or talked to him,” she admits with a shake of her head. “I was so out of it, I lost my grip on reality. And then, when I finally started to come around, I realized my phone was shut off and Noah said he would take care of it, but he never did. I’ve been with him this entire time.”
“Yeah, I know,” I growl, pissed at the world for fucking me over.
Her eyes go wide and she takes a step back. “Don’t you dare go there. You did this. You chose to keep me on the outside. You knew how much it hurt when my parents hid my mom’s cancer, and when my dad got arrested, I was blindsided.”
She shoves my chest and stalks around me. “You promised, Isaac!” she cries and her broken voice damn near breaks my heart. “Noah locked me in the room and was going to force me to marry him,” she says softly through her tears. “And this whole time you’ve been living here safe and sound!”
“Meu amor…”
“No! Don’t you ‘Meu amor’ me! If you hadn’t gotten me today, I’d be Camilla fucking Reynolds!”
“That was never going to happen,” I bark, the thought of that fucker staking any kind of claim on Camilla making me see red. “Why do you think I came to get you? One of Frank’s contacts tipped him off that Noah and you applied for a marriage license a few days ago. He told me to let him handle it, but I wasn’t letting it happen. I know you’re upset, but I did what I did to protect you.”
“Yeah, like leaving me for months with your psycho friend?”
I lean back against the cushion and sigh, mentally drained. “I don’t understand what’s gotten into him. We’ve been friends for years. I want to ask him what the fuck he was thinking”—and then ring his neck with my bare hands for what he’s put Camilla through—“but I still have someone out there who’s after me, so I can’t make it known I’m alive. Everyone needs to think I’m still dead, including Noah.”
Mentioning my fake death was probably a mistake because as soon as I do, Cam’s entire body tenses and her eyes go hard.
“Cam…”
“Damn it, Isaac. I’m so freaking happy and relieved you’re alive, and I know I shouldn’t be mad and hurt, but I am. In the beginning, every time Noah said you were dead, I argued with him. I searched everywhere for you. I even went to the country club and attacked James. When I found out I was pregnant, all I could think about was that this baby we created together was never going to know his father.” Her words crack and she has to take a calming breath before she can continue.
Fresh tears well in her eyes and my hands twitch to hold her. “Baby, please, I know you’re mad and hurt, and you have every right to be, but aside from carrying you out of that house, I haven’t held you in my arms in months, so can you please just let me hold you?”
She looks at me, struggling with whether or not to give in, and I wait with bated breath to see which she decides. When she nods once, my entire body deflates, and before she can change her mind, I pull her gently into my arms and onto my lap, taking a moment to smell her sweet scent.
“I’m sorry for keeping you in the dark, and for thinking you moved on quickly after my death. I misread the situation. When I found out you and Noah were getting married only a few months after my death, yeah, I jumped to that conclusion. I was thinking with my head instead of my heart. Or maybe it was my heart… Fuck! I don’t know. In my world, everything revolves around money. And since I left you everything in my will—”
“You left me what?” she asks, her brows furrowing in confusion.
“Noah didn’t tell you?” This doesn’t make sense.
“Tell me what?”
“I had my will redone so you were my sole beneficiary. Aside from my life insurance policy, which you couldn’t file because I wasn’t really dead and it would be illegal, you were supposed to have access to all my accounts. Frank said he tried to approach you at the funeral, but Noah told him you were grieving and he would speak to you.”
“Noah knew you left me everything?” she asks slowly.
“Yeah. He walked in when I was having my will redone. I planned to tell you about my change of will, but it slipped my mind. But he knew. He knew that’s why Frank was looking for you, but he acted like he didn’t know where you disappeared to. When I found out you were with him the entire time, at his house, I thought you were just hiding your relationship.”
“He never told me,” she breathes. “I didn’t know anything.”
“Everything had to look like I was dead, but I never would’ve left you without making sure you were taken care of.”
“Oh my God!” She gasps. “Now it all makes sense.”
“What?”
“Noah wanting to marry me. He knew I was left everything…”
Holy shit, I didn’t see it. I was too blinded by the rage I felt over them getting married, thinking she could so easily move on and leave me behind.
“He said he wanted to take care of the baby and me and he could do that by me marrying him. When I refused, he snapped. Like, he turned freaking psycho. He went from sweet and caring, to crazy.”
“He was hiding you from Frank so you wouldn’t learn that you were a very wealthy woman. If you knew, you would have no reason to marry him.” Motherfucker! When I get my hands on him, he’s a dead man.
Camilla threads her fingers through my hair and I revel in her touch. Fuck, I’ve missed her so much. “Even broke, with nowhere to live, no one to turn to, I told him no. I told him you were the love of my life and I could never marry anyone but you.” She shakes her head and I fear what she’s about to say because I know I fucked up. I jumped to the wrong conclusions. “While I was mourning you, trying to figure out how to pick up the pieces and somehow live this life without you, you were hiding. I gave you my heart and soul, and even after you died, you had it, but—”
“No… Don’t say it,” I beg, knowing deep in my gut what’s coming next. “Please, baby…”
She slides off my lap, and as much as I want to hold her to me, I let her go because I deserve what’s to come. She pulls a ring from her pocket—the ring I gave her—and places it on my lap. “I had to take it off, so Noah wouldn’t find it, but I kept it in my pocket, so it was always close to me. I believed in us, Isaac. You were… are everything to me. But when shit got rough, you not only pushed me away instead of pulling me closer, but you thought my love for you wasn’t real… wasn’t enough. You thought I could turn to another man only days after losing you.”
“No.” I shake my head. “Cam, please. I fucked up.”
“Yeah, you did. And I could forgive you for faking your death to keep me safe, but what I can’t get past is that when you came to get me today, it wasn’t to save me, it was because you believed the worst in me.”
She backs up and I stand to go after her, but she puts her hands up. “I need some space. I’m not going anywhere until we know you’re safe, but I need some space.”
As she walks away, taking my heart with her, I want to beg her to come back, but I know I have to let her go, because I did this. I hurt her, and now I have to figure out how to fix it.
I sit here for several minutes, thinking about everything Camilla said. Noah not telling her about the will, trying to force her to marry him. Something isn’t adding up. And then it hits me, the day he walked in, when I told him about leaving her everything, he looked pissed. I assumed it was about something else, when he told me he was handling it.
Handling it… I swallow thickly as all the pieces of the puzzle shift closer toward each other. Noah has millions of dollars, access to Horatio… But what the hell were his motives? He’s been working with me for years. Why try to take me out now? Something tells me once I figure out the missing piece, everything will click together.
My phone vibrates in my pocket, and since only one person knows this number, I answer it without bothering to look at the caller ID.
“Find anything out?” Frank asks.
“Yeah, we need to find Noah. I have a feeling he might’ve had something to do with my death.”
“Oh, shit. All right, I’m on it.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
NOAH
“Honey, I’m home,” I call out with a chuckle as I walk through the door of my house with a wedding cake in my hand. Camilla’s been acting stubborn about this whole marriage thing, so I’m hoping something sweet will cheer her up. She is acting like her love for Isaac is all she’s capable of, but I’ll show her I can be a just as good, if not better husband to her. She might be upset now, but over time she’ll grow to love me. And if she doesn’t… well, I don’t really give a shit. Her dad will be in prison for the next fifteen years, and aside from him, nobody gives a fuck about where Camilla is. The one man who did has been blown to smithereens.
I tried to be nice. I took care of her while she mourned over Isaac. Was the shoulder she could cry on. I remained patient and understanding while she cried every fucking day. And when I found out she was pregnant, I didn’t even flip my shit even though I never wanted to have kids. And how does she repay me? By refusing to even give us a chance. She should be happy I’m going to take care of her and her baby instead of her being alone with no help from anyone. I didn’t want to have to force her hand, but her stubbornness has left me no choice.
I set the cake on the counter and head down the hall to check on my bride-to-be, when I notice the door to my guest room is open. Sprinting the rest of the way, I swing it open and call out her name. How the fuck did she get out? I search for her everywhere, but she’s gone. What the fuck! The door hasn’t been broken, which means someone let her out. But who?
I open my laptop in my office and click on the security footage so I can rewind it to see who the fuck I’m going to kill, only everything is black. Someone’s messed with my shit. I check every camera. All fucking black.
“Damn it!” I swipe everything off my desk and stand, punching a hole into the drywall. “Where the fuck are you, Camilla?” The officiant is due here soon and without the bride, there can’t be a damn wedding!
Think, Noah… Who could’ve done this? Nobody knows where I live. I’ve never even had anyone over before. When I fuck women, I get a hotel room.
Could I have left the door unlocked? I double-check the house again and then run out to my car. If I left the door unlocked, she’d have to walk, unless she found someone with a phone—but that doesn’t explain how the hell my cameras went offline.
I drive back down the street slowly, checking for Camilla. There are tons of woods out here, and I can’t possibly check them all. Eventually she’ll have to come out… Jesus!
When I get back to the city, I do another drive through to my house and back out again. Nothing. No goddamned Camilla.
This time, when I get back to the city, I go by her friend Yasmin’s place to see if she’s there. I’m not sure which unit she lives in, since I’ve only been here once to drop her off after the funeral so she wouldn’t have to grab a cab. I ask around and after several tries, find someone who knows her and where she lives. I could knock on the door, but if Camilla is here, that will only give her time to hide or skip out the window to the fire escape. So instead I kick the door in and stalk inside. There’s an older woman sitting on the couch and she screams, but when I point my gun at her, she shuts up real quick.
“Is Camilla here?”
“No! She hasn’t been around in months.” She sounds like she’s telling the truth, but I’m not about to take her word for it, so instead I search the place, finding Yasmin in her room, listening to her headphones and typing away on her computer.
When she looks up and sees me, her eyes bulge open. “What are you doing here? Is Cam here?”
Guess I have my answer. “Have you seen Camilla?” I ask, pointing the gun at her.
“No! What the hell is wrong with you?” Yasmin shrieks.
“Write down my number. If you see her, you need to call me. She’s in trouble and I need to find her.” It’s a lie, obviously, but if I tell her the truth, she isn’t going to tell me shit.
After I give her my number, I leave, unsure where the hell to check next. I’m driving around, checking some of the areas I think she might go to, like the marina, where she might feel close to Isaac. Then I remember she still has her dad, so I drive up there. Only the asshole manning security won’t let me through since I’m not an approved visitor.
“Is there a way I can call the man I need to speak to?”
“No, only inmates can call out.”
I search the area to see if Camilla is around, but when I don’t see her, I head back home. I have no fucking clue where she is, and when I still haven’t found her, I’m forced to cancel the wedding ceremony.
One thing’s for sure, when I find this bitch, I’m going to handcuff her to the damn bed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CAMILLA
Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring.
The sound of a phone ringing jerks me out of my deep sleep and has me glancing around to see where the noise is coming from. When I spot the device on the nightstand, I grab it and find a note that reads: answer me.
“Hello?” I mutter, sitting up and wiping the sleep from my eyes.
“Cam…” At the sound of my dad’s voice, my eyes open all the way.
“Dad?” I breathe.
“Hey, sweetie, yeah, it’s me. I’ve been so worried about you.” His words, matched with his concerned toned, have me tearing up. “Where are you? I just got a note that told me to call you at this number.”
“Oh, Dad, I’ve missed you so much,” I choke out.
“What’s going on, Cam? I tried calling you when you didn’t come to visit me, but your phone was turned off, and then I learned Isaac died in an explosion. I’ve been worried sick in here.”
“I’m so sorry. Isaac is alive. Someone tried to kill him and he faked his death while he tries to figure out who did it.” Isaac mentioned the other day, Noah is now a suspect, and it makes perfect sense since he has the means and clearly, for whatever reason, wants his money. If he was willing to hold me captive and force me into marriage, who’s to say he’s not capable of setting up Isaac to be killed.
“So, he’s okay? That’s good. How are you?”
Keeping it short, since our time is limited, I give him a brief recap about what’s happened with me. How I leaned on Noah, thinking he was being a friend, until the second I refused to cooperate and his switch flipped, turning him into a psycho, who was holding me captive and demanding I marry him against my will.
“Jesus, Cam. Thank God Isaac was able to find you,” Dad says, horror in his voice. “Damn it, I hate being locked in here.”
“Isaac didn’t save me,” I mutter. “He saw pictures of Noah comforting me at the funeral and when he was told we applied for a marriage license and learned we were living together, he assumed I had moved on. I just don’t get it. It’s like he doesn’t even know how much I love him. How could he believe I would move on that fast?”
“Oh, Cam. I don’t believe that. I’ve seen you two together. He knows how much you love him, but sometimes love has a way of making us stupid.” He chuckles under his breath, and for the first time I find myself cracking a smile. “The harder we love, the harder we hurt and we expect the worst, waiting for the other shoe to drop, because in our world, that shoe almost always drops. Maybe, instead of being mad at him for assuming the worst, you can show him why it’s okay to believe in your love. I know you fell hard and fast, but this is all still new. You both have a lot of growing up to do… together.”
