Page 25 of My One and Only (Blackhawk Security #10)

T he next morning, Cam was in the kitchen before Jo, cooking bacon that sizzled and crackled, folding omelets in a second pan. The salty scent of the bacon and the sweetness of the omelets filled the room. Fiona came into the room, dressed for school, and sniffed. “Bacon, Daddy? On a school day?”

“Why not, baby?” he said, grinning at her like a fool. “Is there a law against bacon for breakfast on a school day?”

Fiona frowned. “You always say we don’t have time for bacon. We have to get out the door in time so I’m not late.”

“You’re right,” Cam said, flipping a piece of bacon in the crackling fat. “That’s exactly what I say. But I got up early.” Because he couldn’t wait to see Jo. “So I decided to make bacon.” He touched his daughter’s hair. “But if it doesn’t feel right, you don’t have to eat any of it.”

“No, Daddy,” she squealed, jumping up and down. “I want bacon for breakfast.” She stared at him with hopeful eyes. “Are you making eggs to go with the bacon?”

“Of course I am,” Cam said, biting his lip to hold back his smile. “Gotta have eggs with bacon.”

Fiona hurried to the table, where Cam had set out three glasses of orange juice. Then she frowned. “Where’s Jo?”

“I’m sure she’s coming,” he said, swallowing hard at the unintended innuendo. “In fact, I think I just heard her bedroom door open.”

Fiona immediately slid off her chair and ran down the hall. “Ms. Jo! Ms. Jo! Daddy’s making bacon and eggs for breakfast.”

Cam couldn’t hear Jo’s reply, but she appeared in the kitchen a few moments later, holding Fiona’s hand. “Good morning, Cam,” she said, and her voice didn’t sound any different from any other morning. “Fiona tells me we’re having a feast for breakfast.”

“I woke up early,” he said easily. “So I thought we’d get the day off to a good start.”

As Fiona scampered back to the table, Jo moved closer to Cam. “I’d say it’s already off to a good start,” she murmured, quietly enough that Fiona wouldn’t hear her.

He stared at her for a long moment, his eyelids at half-mast. “Careful, Jo. We have an audience.”

“I can control myself,” she said in an equally low voice. “Can you?”

“Barely,” he said. He jerked his head toward the table. “You better sit down with Fiona. My control is hanging by a thread.”

They ate their breakfast, then Cam sent Fiona off to wash her hands and brush her teeth. As soon as he heard the water running in her bathroom, he yanked Jo against him and covered her mouth with his.

As their tongues tangled and their hands roamed, Jo shuddered in his arms. Way too soon, she eased away from him. “You’re playing with fire,” she said, nodding toward the back of the house. “Here comes Fiona.”

By the time Fiona reached the kitchen, Jo was three feet away from him. He wanted to tug her back, but knew she was right. Until they had a chance to talk to Fiona, they needed to keep their distance from one another.

And maybe Jo wouldn’t want to explain to Fiona. It’s not like she would be a constant presence in their lives. She’d be leaving when they caught whoever was behind all the incidents that had happened.

No point in getting Fiona’s hopes up.

Or his .

His gut twisted, and he turned back to the sink. Wiped down the stove, trying not to think about life without Jo. In less than a week, she’d managed to turn him inside out.

Managed to make him crave things he’d sworn he’d never want again.

As Fiona stepped into the kitchen, dragging her huge purple backpack on the floor, he turned to the sink to wipe down the cast iron pan. “I’m ready to go, Daddy,” Fiona chirped.

“Great,” he managed to say. He nodded at the refrigerator. “Your lunch is in its usual place,” he said. “Stow it in your backpack while I get ready to go.”

“Yes, Daddy,” Fiona said happily, crouching on the floor to unzip the bag. As Cam hurried down the hall, he heard Fiona open the fridge and stuff her lunch box into her backpack. Zip it up again.

Just as he reached his bedroom door, Jo stepped out of the hall bathroom. She touched his arm. “While you’re getting Fiona out the door, I need to scan the truck. Whoever is targeting you didn’t succeed the other night. Your house or your truck might be the next target.” She tightened her fingers around his arm. His cock leapt to attention.

“Give me five minutes or so to examine the truck. Think you can stall Fiona that long?”

He huffed out a laugh. “The trick will be getting her out of the house in less than ten minutes,” he said.

“Great. I’ll meet you both outside.” She looked over his shoulder, presumably to make sure Fiona wasn’t there, then darted in and kissed him. He wanted to pull her close and deepen the kiss but knew he couldn’t. Not now, and not here. So he backed away before she could.

“See you outside,” he managed to say.

Jo nodded. “Five minutes.”

“You got it.”

When Cam finally led Fiona out of the house, Jo was leaning against the rental truck. When they appeared in the doorway, she pushed away and smiled at both of them. “Are my two favorite people ready to go?”

“I’m ready,” Fiona shouted as she raced to the truck and pulled open the door. She scrambled into her car seat and waited for Cam to buckle her in.

Jo smiled as she swung up into the driver’s seat and watched Cam and Fiona in the rearview mirror. As soon as Cam was finished checking the car seat straps, he closed the door and climbed into the front seat with her.

“You remember how to get to Fiona’s school?” he asked.

Jo nodded as she backed out of the driveway. “I do.” She wasn’t using her navigation app. Absorbing information quickly had to be essential for a bodyguard.

Once at the school, Cam jumped out to unbuckle Fiona, then gave her a hug and a kiss. “We’ll see you after school, sweetheart,” he said.

Fiona nodded. “See you then.” She leaned into Cam’s open door. “Bye, Ms. Jo,” she called.

“Bye, Fiona,” Jo responded with a smile. “Have fun in school today!”

They watched Fiona hurry over to two girls, and the three of them disappeared into the school together, chatting away. As soon as Fiona was out of sight, Jo asked, “Is it okay to leave now?”

“Of course,” Cam said, swiveling on the seat to study her. “Clearly, there was no tampering with the truck.”

“Didn’t see a thing, but I’ll check every time we use that truck. I’ve been checking before you and Fiona were awake.” She grinned at him. “I have no idea why I slept later than usual today.”

“I’ll try to make sure you sleep later than usual every day from now on,” Cam murmured, cupping her cheek in his palm.].

She leaned into him for a moment, then straightened. Swallowed. “We going to the office today?”

“Yeah, lots of work to do.” He reached over and brushed the back of his fingers over her cheek. Just that one small touch made him want her to pull the truck over so he could kiss her. But he drew a deep breath. Gave himself a minute to settle.

Finally Cam said, “I hope you know I’m not trying to protect Fiona from you. But I am concerned. If she gets too attached to you, she’s going to be really sad when you leave.” He slid his hand down to her arm, lingered for a moment, then let his hand drop away.

“I wish like hell you didn’t have to leave, but I know you do. And Fiona wouldn’t understand that.”

“I get it, Cam,” she said, glancing over at him, resignation and sadness filling her expression. “I don’t want to hurt Fiona, and the more attached to me she gets, the harder it’ll be when I leave. So don’t apologize. I understand.”

“I wish…” he began, then closed his mouth. Wishing wouldn’t fix anything.

“I do, too, Cam,” Jo said softly.

Neither of them spoke as she drove to his office. She parked the truck in Cam’s usual spot, and they both climbed out. He realized Jo had parked where she could watch the truck. She’d done the same thing yesterday, he remembered. “You expecting someone to mess with that truck?” he asked her.

“I hope not,” she said. “But I want to cover all the bases.” She smiled at him. “I’m gonna turn my desk around so I’m looking out the window. Then I can watch it all day.”

He tilted his head and studied her. “Are you really expecting another attack?”

She shrugged. “The first two didn’t work. They’ll try something else.”

“You have any ideas?”

“A few,” she said. “But we’re not talking about them until I check your office for bugs.”

“What the hell?” He stared at her, stunned. “You think someone would bug my office?”

“That’s what I’d do if I was targeting you. Which is why we’re going to keep our mouths shut until after I sweep it.”

Five minutes later, they walked into his office. Five minutes after that, Jo had swept the walls, furniture and ceiling and found no evidence of any bugs.

“Okay,” she said. “Good for another day.”

Cam studied her. “You gonna have to do that again if we leave for lunch?”

“Absolutely,” she said. “You’ll lock your door, but God knows how many keys are floating around the building.” She shrugged. “But it only takes a few minutes, and if we find anything? That’s more information.”

“Okay,” he said, dropping into his chair. “What are you thinking?”

Jo sat in her own chair, then motioned him over after glancing out the window. “Have you dug into the guy who broke into your house the other night? You didn’t recognize him but you saw his driver’s license. Said his name sounded familiar.”

Cam closed his eyes. Took a deep breath. Everything that had been happening was shocking. Intimidating. He had no idea who could be targeting him. Or why.

Finally, he looked over at Jo. When he met her gaze, she reached over and took his hand. “I know this feels really overwhelming,” she said quietly. “Someone’s targeted you, and you have no idea why. Or who.” She studied him for a moment. “Do you know all of your employees? At least to recognize them?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Don always introduces me to new hires, and I talk to them for a few minutes. To get a sense of who they are.” He swallowed the lump in his throat that threatened to choke him. “That guy wasn’t one of my employees. I’d never seen him before.”

“Okay,” Jo said slowly. “Any ideas where we should start looking?”

Cam shook his head slowly. “Suppliers, maybe? But, again, I know most of them, because we negotiate prices. It’s not anyone from the Ogden building inspection team, because all of their pictures are on the Ogden city website. I looked at it a couple days ago, and the guy wasn’t there.”

“What was his name again?” Jo asked.

“Phil Gwynn. It rings a bell, but I have no idea why.”

“Do you have copies of all the job applications you get?”

“I have a lot of them,” he said slowly. “Hiring the staff is Don’s job, but he usually gives me copies of their applications. In case I know them, and so I can look for any reasons not to hire them.”

“Okay. Let’s start with those job applications. Pull them out and give me half of them,” she said. “It’ll go more quickly.”

Nodding, Cam opened one of his file drawers and pulled out a thick manila folder. “They’re all in here,” he said.

“Organized in any particular way?” Jo asked.

“Chronologically. I put the new ones on the bottom of the file.”

“Okay. Let’s start with the newest ones and work our way backward.” Jo leaned over his desk, wiggling her fingers for some of the files, and he pulled an inch-thick stack of papers from the bottom of the folder. Handed Jo the top half and took the bottom half himself.

For a while, there was no sound in the office besides the regular flipping of pages. They reviewed each application briefly. He looked for a name, then kept going. Looked like Jo was doing the same thing.

Suddenly, there was a hard knock on the door. Cam looked up. “C’mon in,” he called.

The door opened and Don strolled in. His gaze swept over Jo, who’d turned around to see who it was, then settled on Cam. “Whatcha doing?” he asked.

“Looking through the applications,” Cam said easily. “To make sure we haven’t missed any possibilities.”

Don nodded. “Yeah, I’ve done that too. Which is why I’m here. You hear from any of Jo’s friends?” he asked.

Cam nodded at Jo, who’d turned around to study Don. Her mouth tightened for a moment, then she said, “We’ve had nine definite yeses. I’m waiting on four other people who haven’t responded yet.”

“Seven people?” Don said. “That’s great. We need ‘em badly.”

“They’ll be here next week some time,” Jo said. “They had to pack, cancel their leases -- all the stuff involved in a move. Then drive here.”

“Can’t wait,” Don said. He rested his ass on the corner of Don’s desk. “Haven’t seen much of you, partner,” he said, glancing at Jo. “What’s up?”

Cam stared at him for a long moment, then shrugged. Was Don really fishing for information about his relationship with Jo? “Same old, same old,” he said, managing to keep his voice light. Casual. “Doing the work. What’s new with you?”

“Not much,” Don said. “Combing through applications. Talking to people. I’ve lined up a couple of guys, but we need more than that.”

“Hopefully, more of Jo’s friends’ll come through.”

“Yeah.” Don glanced at Jo and his mouth thinned. “Fingers crossed.”

Instead of leaving, Don sat on the edge of Cam’s desk, studying him. Finally Cam said, “Was there something else you needed, Don?”

“Nah, just haven’t seen you in a while.”

“I go home to Fiona every night,” he said, an edge in his voice. “She takes up my evenings.”

Don’s gaze flicked to Jo, as if asking if Jo was taking up his evenings, too. When Cam didn’t say anything. Don stood up. “Let me know if you need help with anything, Partner.”

“Will do, Don. Same goes,” Cam added.

With one last look at Jo, Don walked out of the office. The door clicked closed behind him.

Neither he nor Jo spoke for a long time. In the distance, he heard the click of an office door. Probably Don returning to his own office.

He returned to his stack of applications, but heard Jo wheeling her chair over to his desk. She stopped close to him. “Did that visit from Don seem odd to you?” she whispered.

Cam tilted his head. Finally nodded slowly. “Yeah, it did. He never stops by to talk. Have no idea why he did today.”

“I think it’s because I’m always here,” Jo said in a low voice. “He can’t figure out what the deal is. I don’t know why he’d care, but I suspect that’s what it is.”

“You could be right,” Cam said slowly. “He spent a lot of time watching you.”

“Maybe he’s jealous. I’m taking all your time and attention.”

“I never thought Don was the jealous type.”

Jo shrugged. “I didn’t know him that well. But all of a sudden, it’s not just you and Don. Now it’s a triangle, with me included. He probably doesn’t like that.”

“I don’t give a damn what he likes.” Cam scowled. “I want you here. I need you here. Don can pout all he wants, but that’s not going to change.”

“Maybe we’re both reading too much into it,” she said. She smoothed her hand down his face. “And I don’t care what Don thinks. I need to be here.”

“And I need you here.” He pulled her down and kissed her, then let her go. “Let’s keep going through these applications.”

“Yeah,” she said, running a hand through his hair.

He was half-way through his stack when he spotted the name. Phil Gwynn, right there at the top of the page. Pulling out the application, he stared at it for a long moment. Carried it over to Jo’s desk. “This has to be the guy. Can’t be two Phil Gwynns involved in this mess. He applied here within the last two weeks.”

Jo scooped up the application and studied it. “Same name as on the driver’s license,” she said. “You have any pictures of him?”

“No. We don’t ask for a picture with our applications.”

“I’ll tackle that,” she said, taking the application and moving to the desk beside the window. “Everyone’s online now. I should be able to find a picture somewhere. And I’ll definitely recognize him if I see him.”

“Okay. What’s my next step?” he asked.

“Where did he work before he applied here?” Jo asked.

“I noticed that, too,” he said. “It was the company that I called about several job applications. The one that was having similar problems with substandard products used in their houses.”

Jo’s eyes gleamed with triumph. “Okay. Let me see what I can find.”

Jo’s fingers flew over her keyboard, and he noticed that she glanced down toward his truck every few minutes. Finally she stopped typing. Studied something on her screen. “Found him.”