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Oh, where to begin?
Ian stepped forward, but she hurried to answer. “Ara is coming home today. He came to tell me.”
Lies. But, in this case, lies were better than the truth.
Behind her, Ian let out a huff. She threw him a glare over her shoulder but didn’t address him otherwise. If she had to tell Kelso about Ian, and it appeared she would, Ian would not be present. Both men were already bowing up like cocks in a henhouse, and Keso didn’t even know about her relationship with Ian yet. Things would only grow more tense when she revealed the truth.
Turning back to Keso, she said, “Ian was just leaving.”
Ian’s hand landed on her shoulder, warm and heavy. Tingles of awareness shot across her neck and down her arm. Silently, she prayed neither man would notice her nipples puckered beneath her thin tank top.
“If someone’s been in your house and is taking your things, you shouldn’t be alone,” Ian told her.
Keso’s gaze focused on the spot where Ian touched her. “She isn’t alone. I’ll be here. She’s safe in our home.”
Her stomach dropped at the way he stressed our. Sure, the house belonged to Keso, but they hadn’t shared a home in over two years. If not for Arabella, Cameron would no longer be welcome. In fact, she probably would have returned—she slammed the door on that train of thought. No matter what her original plans had been when she left home, this was her fate now.
The muscle in the side of Ian’s jaw bulged as his eyes narrowed. Oh crap. She recognized that look. She did not have the patience for what came after. Sidling closer to him, she patted his chest. His hard pectoral muscle flexed under her palm. Memories of his warm chest pressed against her naked breasts swept through her mind. Now that she’d slept with him again, would she be able to think of anything but sex when she touched him?
Get a grip, Cameron.
“Why don’t you head back to the clinic and give Ara a last once over? Keso and I need to work out who will stay with her while I’m at the clinic with Brodie and Esme.”
Keso stiffened. “What happened to Esme? I thought you checked her out and said everything—”
“I did. She’s fine,” she assured him. “The baby just decided to come a little early. We delivered him late last night.”
“We?” Keso’s gaze swung between her and Ian.
“Mostly Cam.” Pride filled Ian’s voice, punctuated by the tight squeeze he gave her arm.
“Cam?” No one on the island called her by her abbreviated name, not even Keso.
“Ian, Keso and I need to talk. Privately. Could you please?” She motioned for the door.
Ian pursed his lips. The gesture was his classic move to keep from saying something he’d later regret. Often it didn’t work.
“Wes is back,” he finally told her. “He and I can handle the clinic tonight. You stay with your daughter.”
Tension eased from her shoulders. She’d been worried about asking too much of Keso tonight. Maybe Ian and Wes sticking around was for the best after all.
“Thank you.” She offered what she hoped was a reassuring smile. “I’ll be in soon. We can discuss everything then.”
Though who the hell knew what all everything entailed. Sure, the care of their patients was of utmost importance, but she knew better than to hope he’d skip revisiting the conversation Keso had interrupted.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” His whiskey brown gaze met hers. “Really?”
“I’ll be fine. Keso’s here. I won’t be alone.” Though they both knew he hadn’t meant her safety from the intruder.
Ian nodded. “I’ll see you at the clinic.” Turning to Keso, he lifted his chin. “See you around, Keso.”
Keso made a noise that sounded like a grunt. Undeterred, Ian strode to the door. With one hand on the knob, he turned to look at her over his shoulder. Keso’s gaze burned into the side of her face, causing heat to climb up her neck. But she couldn’t look away from the man who held her heart.
“Love you,” Ian mouthed.
Tears stung her eyes when she’d been sure she had none left. She nodded. What else could she do with Keso standing so close and her thoughts running wild?
Shoulders sagging, Ian pulled the door open, then disappeared. The faint click of the door closing seemed too final. The urge to run after him gripped her.
“I don’t think he’s only interested in Ara’s well-being.” Keso stood on the other side of the room now, inspecting the mostly vacant shelf.
Ignoring his remark, Cameron turned with her hands on her hips. “Have you been here when I was out over the past few days?”
“You think I took the pictures?”
“No. I just want there to be a normal explanation. I want you to be the one in the house. That wouldn’t bother me at all.” Because she trusted him. Despite the borderline Neanderthal display around Ian, she could count on Keso.
“When did you first notice something wrong?” He wandered around the room, searching for anything out of place.
She told him about coming home and finding the box tampered with.
His eyebrows shot up. “Yesterday? After Victor Roberts visited the clinic?”
She didn’t like where this was headed. “I guess so. I mean, I was gone all day, so I don’t know—”
Keso glared at her, not in anger but in determination. “You know.”
Fear slithered through her veins, causing chill bumps to dot her skin. Maybe she did know, but she didn’t want to know.
“In thirty-plus years, no one has ever broken into this cottage,” he explained. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence it happens for the first time on the day that bastard steps foot on our island.”
Her hands began to shake, so she gripped them together against her chest.
Keso’s face softened. “You’re going to be okay.” He scrubbed his hands over her arms, chasing away the chill. “I’ll stay the night. We’ll figure this out. Once he realizes you can’t hurt him or his plans, he’ll move on.”
From the way he refused to look her in the eyes as he spoke, he didn’t even believe his own words. She’d always known Roberts could be a problem. She’d just prayed it wouldn’t ever come to that.
So far, that had been enough. Maybe now, time was up.
* * *
When Cameron arrived at the clinic almost an hour later, Ian stood in the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest. With his dark T-shirt, hard muscles, and scowl, he looked more like one of Victor Roberts’s thugs than one of the US’s top surgeons. If she didn’t know him so well, the opposing sight might frighten her, but Ian would never hurt her. In fact, after what he’d revealed earlier, she’d been the cause of both their pain.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” He bit out when she neared.
Oh, for Christ’s sake. She’d already told him she’d been attacked before she could make it back to camp after seeing him with Mallory. And afterward, she’d been too distraught. Was he really going to rehash that again?
She sighed. “Ian—”
“That’s why you were relieved when I got there this morning? Because someone had been in your house? Jesus, Cam, you should’ve said something.”
Wait. He was upset about the pictures, not their argument?
“I tried to tell you it wasn’t a good time. You insisted on ripping open wounds anyway,” she reminded him.
His mouth opened, as if to argue, but he quickly snapped it shut.
Deciding to let him off the hook, she changed the subject. “I didn’t know for sure. I was hoping Keso had just been home without me knowing.” She didn’t miss the way Ian’s face tightened at her statement. Oh well, she spoke fact. She and Keso shared a home of sorts with Arabella. They were bound by their love for the small girl and their past.
“You said things were missing. Do you think Keso would steal from you?” Worry and suspicion clouded his words.
Just what she didn’t need. Ian suspicious of Keso.
She shrugged. “They were pictures. I hoped maybe he just took them and planned to bring them back.”
Ian studied her through narrowed eyes. Her story wasn’t entirely ludicrous, but he wasn’t quite falling for it either. “Why would anyone want your pictures?”
She raised her hands, then let them fall.
“Wait. What kind of pictures were they?” The gleam in his eyes let her know what kind he suspected.
Heat washed over her. She’d taken pictures like that only once in her life… for Ian. “They were normal pictures,” she assured him. “I was only in one.” But she didn’t think she’d been the subject that caught the thief’s eye.
“So, who else was in them? Why would someone want your pictures?”
“One was of me, Keso, and Ara at her birthday party. The other was of Keira, Keso’s sister.”
Ian’s lips turned down. “Keso has a sister? Does she not live on the island?”
She shook her head. “She’s dead.”
Frown deepening, his eyes darkened. “What happened?”
She snickered. “What didn’t happen? Long story short, Keso’s certain Victor Roberts, or at least his men, killed her.”
Ian’s eyes flashed wide seconds before rage burned through them. “The man who was here yesterday killed Keso’s sister? Ara’s aunt?”
Lunging forward, she clamped a hand over his mouth. “Keep your voice down. We don’t exactly yell that accusation from the mountaintop.”
Ian pressed a kiss to her palm, sending shivers down her arm. She eased away.
“Why didn’t you tell me that yesterday?”
“Again, not information I like to spread around. We have no proof.” Except Keira’s own account of the way the men had tortured and abused her, and Cameron’s medical exam that confirmed every word. Still, going after Roberts wouldn’t end in their favor.
“That’s why you freaked out when I brought Ara out yesterday?”
She nodded.
“But you stayed alone and faced off with him?”
“To keep him away from Arabella, there’s nothing I wouldn’t do.” That was a vow, or perhaps a warning. Either way, she spoke the truth.
Ian straightened, considering her words. “You don’t have to do any of it alone.”
“I know, Keso—”
He clutched her shoulders. “I mean me. I have your back. Yours and Arabella’s. If this man is a threat to you—”
“No.” No, no, no. Already Keso was fixated on stopping the other man. She didn’t want Ian in harm’s way too. “Victor Roberts isn’t worried about me or Arabella.” Probably a lie. “If it was his men, I’m sure they’ll move on now that they’ve dug around and realize how boring I am.”
Ian gifted her with a rare eye roll. “You’re far from boring, baby.”
Despite her attempts not to, she smiled. “I need to check on Esme and the baby.”
“And I need to make sure your daughter realizes she’s going home to rest, not chase mermaids.” From the exasperation in his voice, she assumed he’d already tried and failed to convince her.
“I’ll come help you when I’m done,” she promised. Sliding past him, she entered the clinic and started toward Esme’s room.
“Hey Cam,” he called before she disappeared.
She stopped, turning to glance at where he still stood in the doorway, backlit by the sun. “We’re not finished. Not with our conversation. Not with each other.”
Arguing would only prove to be a waste of her breath. Instead, she nodded. “Let me just get through the day?”
“The day, but soon.”
Yeah, soon. She just hoped she’d managed to wrap her mind around all he’d said before he decided her time ran out.
