I'm Not Your Enemy (Enemies Book 2), page 1
I’m Not Your Enemy
Book 2 of 2
Cara Dee
Contents
Welcome to the Camassia Cove Universe
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Epilogue
More from Cara
About Cara
I’m Not Your Enemy
Book 2 of 2
Copyright © 2021 by Cara Dee
All rights reserved
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment and may not be reproduced in any way without documented permission of the author, not including brief quotes with links and/or credit to the source. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. This is a work of fiction and all references to historical events, persons living or dead, and locations are used in a fictional manner. Any other names, characters, incidents, and places are derived from the author’s imagination. The author acknowledges the trademark status and owners of any wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction. Characters portrayed in sexual situations are 18 or older.
Edited by Silently Correcting Your Grammar, LLC.
Formatted by Eliza Rae Services.
Welcome to the Camassia Cove Universe
I’m Not Your Enemy is the second book about Sebastian and Blake. You’ll find the first book, A New Enemy, here.
Camassia Cove is a town in northern Washington created to be the home of some exciting love stories. Each novel taking place here is a standalone—with the exception of sequels and series within the CC universe—and they vary in genre and pairing. What they all have in common is the town in which they live. Some are friends and family. Others are complete strangers. Some have vastly different backgrounds. Some grew up together. It’s a small world, and many characters will cross over and pay a visit or two in several books—Cara’s way of giving readers a glimpse into the future of their favorite characters. Oh, who is she kidding; they are characters she’s unable of saying good-bye to. But, again, each novel stands on its own, and spoilers will be avoided as much as possible.
If you’re interested in keeping up with secondary characters, the town, the timeline, and future novels, check out Camassia Cove’s own website at www.camassiacove.com. There you will also see which characters have gotten their own books already, where they appear, which books are in the works, character profiles, and you’ll be treated to a taste of the town.
Get social with Cara
www.caradeewrites.com
www.camassiacove.com
Facebook: @caradeewrites
Twitter: @caradeewrites
Instagram: @caradeewrites
One
Blake Kidd
I stuck my feet into my boots as my mother rang the bell and hollered that it was breakfast.
Some things never changed. To this day, breakfast was for everyone who worked on the ranch. A dozen people dropped what they were doing and headed for the main house every morning at seven. Some had just woken up, like me, and others had been up for hours already.
I left my cabin and trailed up the hill like so many times before.
But some things would never be the same either.
Nerves tightened my stomach on the way. Rosie, my old Lab, greeted me on the big porch.
“Hey, girl.” I dipped down and kissed the top of her head. “I’ll bring you a treat later.”
She loved this time of year. The fans weren’t necessary anymore, and she could wander around the porch and be lazy wherever she wanted, rather than chasing a shaded spot or a breeze.
Once inside the house, I hung up my hat and entered the big kitchen.
“Mornin’, son.” Dad briefly looked up from his newspaper.
The others, ten employees and a cousin who was visiting, were busy filling their plates.
Mom didn’t spare me a glance. She could pretend it was because she was busy pouring coffee, but we knew better.
It was a punch in the gut and filled me with regret.
I shouldn’t have come out to them.
The black sheep of the family had turned an even darker shade of black.
Dad was at the head of the table as always, and no other seat was reserved, but one chair close to Dad was generally saved for me. Today was no exception, so I sat down and reached for a few strips of bacon and two slices of toast.
Ma filled my mug with coffee but didn’t ask what was on today’s schedule like she usually did. Her regular smile was firmly in place, though. She loved taking care of the people on the ranch, and she flitted about throughout the meal. Her own breakfast would be enjoyed in solitude when everyone was back to work and she had cleared the table. Then she’d sit here with her coffee, toast, and radio. Sometimes, it was Willie Nelson. Sometimes a Christian show.
“Mark, you need to eat more than that,” she scolded playfully. “You just sat down!”
“Sorry, ma’am, but we gotta head out,” Mark replied. He crammed a muffin into his mouth and gestured to Keith and Ez. They were driving out to the western paddock today, if I wasn’t mistaken.
“Thank you for breakfast, Mrs. Kidd,” Ez said.
Keith filled in. “Amazing as always, ma’am.”
Dad glanced at them over the edge of the paper, then slid his gaze to me. “Were you goin’ with them tomorrow?”
I nodded with a dip of my chin. “Yes, sir. I’m fixin’ the gate today.” The big wrought-iron gate that welcomed people to the Kidd Ranch had taken a hit after a storm last weekend.
“Ah, right.” Dad nodded too and returned to his paper. “Good.”
The rest of the meal went by with nothing but low murmurs between the ranch hands. I wasn’t very hungry, but it was gonna be a long day, and I had to eat.
I sipped my coffee and snuck glances toward Mom every now and then. She was dead set on acting like nothing had happened, wasn’t she? She’d burst out in tears and stormed out of the sitting room right after I’d told them two days ago. Since then, I’d been on the receiving end of smiles that didn’t reach her eyes and nothing else. She hadn’t spoken directly to me at dinner—or breakfast, for that matter.
It was worse than anger. I could take anger.
A few days later, I was working on the fence behind the bed-and-breakfast on our property. The storm had really done a number on us in the most annoying way. Nothing major had been damaged, just a million little things. And when the ranch spanned over four hundred acres, it was a lot of fences that needed to be checked out.
I didn’t complain too much. It took me away from the main house area, and that was all that mattered at the moment. I had to bide my time and lie low until my next gig started. Roadwork outside of Atlanta would keep me busy for six months starting on November 1. I was supposed to have another job right now, but it’d been delayed.
At the sound of a truck approaching, I straightened and looked toward the bed-and-breakfast. Dad parked right outside the building and spotted me.
I removed my gloves and reached for my water as he came closer.
Behind the bed-and-breakfast was all green grass and trees. The river had been fenced off about a mile away after too many close encounters from nosy gators. Our guests were here for a ranch experience and for the peace and quiet, not to fall off a horse when it got spooked by a gator.
Personally, I was on any side that drove tourists outta here.
“Lookin’ good.” Dad nodded at the fence.
I eyed the fence and thanked him.
Was he gonna say something about the other day? He hadn’t said anything that day either. On the other hand, he hadn’t stormed out or cried. It wasn’t in his nature to react outwardly to much of anything. He had a smile reserved for every grandchild, a gruff laugh for every inappropriate joke, and as long as Ma wasn’t in the room, he didn’t hesitate to cuss at the TV. But that was it.
Dad came to a stop in front of the fence and stuck his hands down into the pockets of his jeans.
“When my daddy told me not to go to war, guess what I did,” he said.
I furrowed my brow. “You enlisted.”
He nodded once. “When he told me not to buy my own ranch…”
Same story.
I didn’t remember my grandfather. I’d just heard stories of him being a mean old dick. Paraphrasing from Mom’s recollections. Dad wasn’t one to bitch.
“As you know, my family didn’t stay together,” Dad stated. He was uncomfortable talking about this. He didn’t normally get personal. “My sisters are in Texas, Danny’s in Milwaukee, Gob in Denver…”
Where was he going with this?
To make it easier for him, I went back to work. It worked for me anyway. When all eyes were on me, my walls went up.
“When I met your mother, that was all I wanted,” he went on. “A big family that stayed together.”
That worked out well, didn’t it? The perpetual screw-up, aka me, was the only one who’d stuck around.
“That’s why I stole a foolish idea from my daddy,” Dad revealed. “Back in the day when I helped out at his law firm, I didn’t get paid a nickel. Yet I always had money. I came home to a warm bed, Mama put food on the table, I had new clothes, a nice car… I wanted to keep y’all close, you see?”
Yeah, I was familiar with the concept. I drove a brand-new RAM 1500, I lived for free in one of the guest cabins, and I could put every expense on a black card.
It made me feel like a goddamn child, despite that I would be forty next spring. I’d worked full time my whole adult life, and I had nothing to show for it. Most of it was my fault—I couldn’t blame my folks for my career mishaps and shitty behavior—but it still stung not to earn a paycheck from this place. I’d helped my father build it.
“When your brother was eighteen, I started noticin’ some strange expenses of his,” Dad admitted with a twitch of his mustache. “He was writing checks that made no sense. Why on God’s green earth was he buyin’ a lawn mower? What did he need tires for? They didn’t even fit his truck.”
Oh shit. Oh fuck. I suddenly had an idea of what this conversation was about.
Blake screws up again.
I kept my stare fixed on the fence and drew a wire to reconnect the net with the post.
“Turns out,” Dad chuckled gruffly, “he was paying for crap his friends needed. In turn, they gave him cash.”
I was very familiar with that concept, too. It was David who’d given me the idea. My uptight, do-everything-right big brother. Even he had limits, and he’d never wanted to live here longer than necessary. So whenever a buddy was buying something that cost a bit more, David would offer to cover the charge with a check, and they would pay him in cash, slightly under the asking price. Everybody won—except Dad, who was footing the bill. But we’d thought he was oblivious. It was a huge ranch, a big business. Between cattle and horse breeding and the bed-and-breakfast and some other shit, it was impossible for Dad to keep track of it all. He had an accountant in Atlanta, for chrissakes.
“So when you asked him how he’d been able to secure a deposit for his first apartment in Nashville, you already knew,” I said.
“’Course I knew,” Dad huffed. “I just didn’t see the point in sayin’ it. I already knew my plan had failed. None’a y’all were destined for a life here, least of all Soph.”
I didn’t wanna think about her. It only reminded me of another string of failures. I’d let her down. I’d let Teddy down. And it made me think about Sebastian. I’d let him down too.
“I reckon you can cut to the chase, sir,” I said and straightened again. “You’ve caught me doing the same thing David did.”
“Several times over the years.” He inclined his head. “It’s so much easier today too. Did you know I get a text message on my phone every time you charge somethin’ over two hundred dollars on the card?”
That was mildly disturbing.
Fuck.
I removed my hat and ran a hand through my hair, and not for the first time in my life, I wanted to be as far away from here as possible. Why the fuck did I keep coming back? Oh, because it was easy, and because I’d gotten fired a lot in the past. It was only in recent years, maybe three or four, that I’d gotten my act together—at least, when it came to work.
“I thought for sure you were leavin’ for good this summer when you went to see Sophia in Washington,” Dad told me. “I was real nervous, I admit it. I estimated you’d set aside about a hundred grand at that point.”
Hundred and fifty.
I shook my head grimly, admittedly insulted. I supposed I had myself to blame for all the years of lowering their expectations, but I hadn’t saved that money for myself. Or spent it, rather, because that money was gone. I’d bought a piece of land in Camassia Cove for Sophia and Dylan to build their dream home. She just didn’t know it yet.
“I’ve no intentions on leavin’, sir.” While I needed breaks from the ranch and took on short-term leases for apartments around the state wherever work was, I always came back. Sometimes I didn’t know why. I wasn’t particularly happy here. At the same time, I felt I had a responsibility. David and Soph had left, and Dad needed a right-hand man.
“Well…” Dad rocked a little on his feet, eyeing the fence. “Maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea?”
My brows knitted together. “To what? Leave?”
“Yeah. I…I can’t change your mama’s beliefs, son.”
Beliefs on wh—oh.
So he meant—he actually wanted me to get—
“It’s my god’s honest truth that I don’t care what you do behind closed doors,” he went on. “To be honest, I prepared myself already. I used to suspect David was…you know. Never in a million years did I think it would be you, but—here we are.”
I couldn’t grasp any of the emotions suddenly wreaking havoc within me; I only felt the blood drain from my face, my hearing suffered—it sounded like rushing water—and I couldn’t swallow.
He wanted me to leave.
“But you don’t have to sneak around with the credit card, is what I’m gettin’ at,” he added firmly. “I’ve crunched the numbers, and three hundred thousand dollars should be enough to get you up and runnin’ elsewhere. Consider it a token of my gratitude for everything you’ve done for the Kidd Ranch over the years.”
My stomach started churning, pushing nausea up my throat.
“It’s just easier this way, Blake.”
Easier. Right.
The man couldn’t even look me in the eye anymore.
“Mama’s been through too much.” Now he was making awful excuses. “She doesn’t get to see David’s kids that often, and now with Teddy not comin’ to stay either…”
“Right,” I heard myself mutter. Holy shit, they wanted me gone. Because I was the moron who’d come out as gay. In this day and age. I mean, I’d known I was going to hurt my mother, but I’d had some hope… That motherfucker—Sebastian. He had given me hope. He’d reminded me of the importance of being true to myself. Because if I wasn’t honest about who I was, nobody else got the real me either. And all the way home, after running away like a coward, I’d built up confidence that didn’t belong there. I’d thought, of course my own mother would want me to be honest. She would love me, regardless.
I’d also known that Dad wouldn’t be a big issue. As long as he didn’t have to talk about it, he looked past most things.
“I know I haven’t always been fair to you, son,” he told me. “I’ve pushed you harder than David and Soph because I see myself in you like I don’t do with the other two.” He paused. “That’s how I know you’ll be fine. You’re a good man. A hard worker. You stand tall—you’re strong. You do what’s best for your family.”
Was he trying to convince me or himself? Because I was about to fucking blow, and the last thing I felt right now was strong. He’d also never uttered anything like this to me before, partly because I hadn’t given him reason to. But now he wanted to push me out the door with a clear conscience.
You do what’s best for your family.
He saw himself in me? In other words, he believed he did what was best for his family too?
You do what’s best for your family.
As in, leave.
“I will transfer the money and tell your mother you’ve accepted a job out of state,” Dad finished. “She will feel guilty if she thinks you’ve leavin’ because of her.”
“But I am,” I blurted out. With those words, my pulse went through the roof and hurt slashed through me. “You’re kickin’ me out because my Bible-thumpin’ mother can’t handle me being gay.”
Dad flinched, only to come back with a narrow-eyed look. “Don’t be dramatic. You’re not a child, Blake. You’re almost forty years old. Surely you can handle livin’ on your own.”
Like that was the fucking issue.
“And we’re not kicking you out,” he added vehemently. “You’re still part of this family. I expect you home every holiday, just like I do with the others, but it’ll be—”
“Easier. Yeah. I got that.” I was done. I had maybe ten minutes before all the feelings reached the surface, and I wanted to be out of here by then. “Fuck this—give me ten minutes and I’ll be gone.”
