Page 32 of My One and Only (Blackhawk Security #10)

A fter the quickest shower on record, Jo and Cam threw on their clothes and rushed out the door, hurrying to Cam’s parents’ house. Jo grabbed Cam’s hand as he rang the doorbell.

Would seeing Jo bring back scary memories for Fiona? Make her relive the terrifying moments from the playground yesterday afternoon? Would she throw herself at Cam and not want to face Jo?

She had no idea. She hadn’t spent much time around kids and wasn’t sure how Fiona would react to the scary events.

Jo squeezed his hand. Hugged it against her chest, then let go of Cam. Forced a smile on her face as the door began to open.

Carole smiled at them through the storm door. “Cam. Jo. Come on in. Fiona’s been watching out the window since I called you this morning.”

Jo stepped aside to let Cam go in first. He was the one Fiona wanted to see. As he walked into his parents’ house, Jo heard the sound of running feet. “Daddy! Daddy!” Fiona yelled.

From her vantage point behind Cam, Jo watched Fiona throw herself at her father and bury her face in his neck. Her arms twined around his neck, and Jo could tell that she was squeezing very tightly.

“Baby,” he said into her hair, his knuckles white where he gripped her. “Are you all right?”

“I was scared, Daddy,” Fiona said, clinging to him. “Uncle Don was mean and I was afraid he’d hurt Jo. But after Grandma told me you and Jo were safe, it was better. But I’m glad you came over early this morning. I waited a long time to see you. I looked out the window, but you were never there.”

“I needed to see you, too,” Cam murmured against her hair. “To know that you were okay. Jo was worried about you, too.” He angled his body so Fiona could see Jo. “She came with me to make sure you’re okay.”

Fiona peeked over his shoulder, and her face lit up. “Jo!” she said, still holding her father tightly. “I saw Uncle Don take you away.” She frowned, and her lower lip trembled. “He was so mean to you.” She blinked rapidly, as if trying to banish tears. “I was afraid of him,” she whispered.”

“I’m so sorry you were frightened,” Jo said, smoothing her hand over Fiona’s hair. “May I give you a hug?” she murmured.

Fiona studied her for a moment, then nodded as she squirmed away from Cam. She threw her arms around Jo’s waist and squeezed hard. Jo squeezed right back. Holding Fiona, inhaling her little-girl smell felt… good. Right. She’d needed to touch Fiona. To know she was all right. “But you know your daddy and I would do whatever we needed to do to keep you safe, right?”

Fiona nodded slowly. “Daddy tells me that all the time. That he’ll keep me safe.” She swallowed, and a tear traveled down her cheek. “But Daddy wasn’t there when Uncle Don took you away.” She swallowed and looked at Jo. “Daddy said you knew what to do.”

“Your daddy was right,” she said. “I knew exactly what to do. And you saved yourself,” Jo said. “By doing exactly what I told you to do. You ran into the school and found him.”

“I looked over my shoulder and saw you trip Uncle Don,” she said. She bit her lip. “I was glad. And I felt bad about being glad that he was hurt.”

“I know you love Uncle Don,” Jo said. “It’s really hard when someone we love does bad things. But Uncle Don can’t hurt you or me or your Daddy now. He’s in the hospital and he’ll have a hard time walking for a while.”

Fiona frowned. “Why is he in the hospital?” she asked.

Jo glanced at Cam, and he put his hand on Fiona’s back. “Uncle Don got hurt when he was trying to hurt Jo. That’s why he’s in the hospital.”

“So he can’t hurt you or Jo or me?”

“That’s right, baby. He won’t be able to hurt any of us. You don’t have to see Uncle Don ever again if you don’t want to.”

“Really? He won’t come over to our house again?”

“Never again,” Cam promised her.

Fiona stared at Cam for a long moment. Then she touched Jo’s hand, then Cam’s. “He’s not going to hurt you or Jo or me?”

“No,” Cam said. “We’ll make sure of that.”

“So I won’t see him again?” Fiona asked in a quiet, shaky voice.

“Absolutely not,” Cam said immediately. “You never have to see him again.”

Fiona stared at the floor. “I don’t want to see him anymore,” she said, her voice barely audible.

“Good. Because I don’t want to see him, either,” Cam said. “I’m sad for Uncle Don that we won’t be part of his life anymore. But it’s his fault.”

Thank God Fiona had managed to escape from Don. Jo squatted on the floor in front of Fiona. “Your Uncle Don won’t be able to hurt anyone else,” she said.

Jo looked over at Cam. Help me out here , she pleaded silently. And fortunately, Cam got the message.

He scooped Fiona into his arms again. “Jo had to shoot Uncle Don to stop him from hurting her, or you, or me. Once he’s better, he’ll have to go to jail because of the bad things he tried to do.”

Fiona frowned. “What kinds of bad things, Daddy?”

“He tried to hurt Jo. But she was able to stop him.” Cam’s throat worked, and Jo knew he was reluctant to tell Fiona that Don had killed her mother. She touched Cam’s arm, and when he looked at her, she shook her head.

He stared at her for a long moment, then nodded. “We both loved Uncle Don,” Cam said. “But we won’t be seeing him again.”

Fiona frowned. “Good. I don’t want to see him again. Uncle Don scared me.”

“He won’t be around to scare you again, baby.”

“Good,” Fiona said. She studied her father for a moment. “Will you have to see Uncle Don again, Daddy?”

“I hope not,” Cam said.

Jo watched, knowing that the last thing Cam wanted right now was to have any interactions with Don. She pressed her hand to Cam’s back, and he relaxed into her touch.

“Why don’t we go home so you can drop off your backpack,” he said. “Then we’ll all go out to breakfast. Would you like to do that?”

“Can I get pancakes? And bacon?” Fiona asked eagerly.

“You can get whatever you want,” Cam promised.

Fiona turned and threw herself into her grandmother’s arms. “We have to go have breakfast,” she said. “Thank you for picking me up from school and letting me stay here last night. I like staying overnight with you and Grandpa.”

“And we love having you here, Fee. Now go have breakfast with your dad and Jo.”

When they reached Fiona’s favorite breakfast restaurant, she positioned herself between Cam and Jo and took their hands. Jo swallowed the lump that formed in her throat and blinked away the tears that threatened as she tightened her fingers around Fiona’s.

After they’d been seated and ordered, Fiona looked over at Jo. She fidgeted in her chair, as if trying to figure out how to ask something. “When Uncle Don came to the school, I couldn’t play with my friends,” she said in a small voice.

Jo reached for her hand. “I know. But you can play with them again this week. Maybe next week, too. Would that make up for not playing yesterday?”

Fiona nodded. “Yeah. Will you be there with me, Jo?”

“Whenever I can, Fee,” she said. Even if it was only a handful of days.

“Okay,” she said.

The waitress brought over a cup of crayons and a placemat with pictures on it, and Fiona grabbed a purple crayon and began coloring.

Jo looked at Cam and reached for his hand. He twined their fingers together and brought her hand to his mouth. Kissed her palm.

Fiona was watching. “Why did you kiss Jo’s hand, Daddy?”

“Because I like Jo very, very much.” He took a deep breath and glanced at Jo. She nodded. Tell her now .

“Jo’s my girlfriend,” he told his daughter.

Fiona stared at Cam, then at Jo. Then looked back at Cam. “Is she going to stay with us?” she asked.

“I’d like her to stay, and she wants to stay. But she has a job. She’ll have to go away for her job, but she’ll come back.”

Fiona transferred her gaze to Jo. “You promise, Jo?”

Jo made a cross over her heart. “I do.” She studied Fiona for a moment. “You want me to make a pinkie promise with you?”

“Yes!” Fiona’s face lit up. “Those are the best promises.”

Jo linked her pinkie with Fiona’s and said, “I pinkie promise that even though I might have to go away, I’ll always come back.”

Fiona grinned at her. “I’m glad you’ll always come back, Jo.”

“So am I,” Jo said. She looked at Cam. Had she overstepped? They hadn’t talked about Jo staying with them.

But his smile at her words lit up his face. “When Jo is in Ogden, she’ll live with us,” Cam said. “Would you like that, Fee?”

“Yes,” she said, and her smile made Jo’s heart clench in her chest. “I want Jo to live with us forever.”

“So do I, honey,” Cam said. “So do I.”

And so did she. Jo smiled at Fiona. Took her hand, and Cam’s. “My two favorite people in the world,” she said.

* * *

Fiona beamed as the waitress delivered their food, and Cam smiled at her and Fiona. So much better to focus on the future, with Jo staying with them, than think about Don. He didn’t want to think about Don ever again.

After they finished breakfast, Cam asked Fiona, “How would you feel about going back to Grandma’s for a little bit. Jo and I have some work to do at my office, but we’ll pick you up after we’re done and we can do whatever you’d like to do.”

“Anything?” Fiona asked, her eyes lighting up.

“Your choice.”

She opened her mouth, and Cam put his fingers over it. “Give it a lot of thought, baby. Make sure you think of all the choices.”

Fiona furled her forehead. “I’ll think hard, Daddy.”

“Good job.” He took his credit card from their server, signed the receipt, slid his wallet into his pocket. “Let’s go so Jo and I can get our work done and have some fun with you.”

* * *

Fiona chattered all the way back to his mother’s house, and Cam paid close attention. Answered all her questions. But once Fiona had run into her grandparents’ house, Cam took a deep breath. Grabbed Jo’s hand and tugged her toward the car.

“As much as I adore Fiona, I need to get some answers from the police. And the doctors at Delnor. I want to know how Don is doing. When he’ll be transferred from the hospital to the jail. Whether the police have any more information about who built that bomb. And I don’t want to discuss any of that in front of Fiona.”

“Of course you don’t.” Jo slowed and stopped at a red light and reached for Cam’s hand. Squeezed it hard. “You were great with Fiona. I’m sure she doesn’t have a clue about how upset you are about Don. How betrayed you must feel.”

He sighed. “She loves her Uncle Don. Sooner or later, she’ll need to know exactly what he did, including trying to take her in the car with you. But not now. She’s too young. I don’t want to destroy her illusions of a happy family.”

“I think that’s smart,” Jo said, taking her hand away from Cam’s and putting the car in motion again. “The longer you can protect her from the evil in the world, the better.”

“Yeah,” he said gruffly. “I don’t want my little girl growing up too fast.”

“You and your parents have done a wonderful job with her,” Jo said, and Cam watched the ripple in her throat. “She’s open and loving, kind and thoughtful. Not a lot more you could ask from a six-year-old.”

“I know,” he said as she pulled into his parking spot at work. “C’mon, let’s see what Don was working on so I can figure out who to hand it off to.”

“You have anyone in mind?” Jo asked.

“His assistant, maybe. But I have no idea if Will was involved in Don’s schemes. And I’m not sure how to find out.”

“The police might have some ideas about that. Under the circumstances, you could probably get a warrant to look into Don’s finances. And maybe his assistant’s, too.”

“I don’t mind looking at Don’s after what he did. But I hate to intrude into Will’s business. He’s a good guy.” Cam sighed. “Or at least I think he is. Hard to trust my judgment after I never questioned anything Don did.”

“You thought of Don as your brother,” Jo said, laying her hand on his arm. “We don’t suspect our families when bad things happen. But now you know, so get the warrant,” Jo said, laying her hand on his arm. “Then you’ll know for sure. You need to know.”

The taste of betrayal was bitter in Cam’s mouth, but he nodded once. He knew he’d have to be sure Will wasn’t involved in Don’s mess before he could trust him. But he hated the idea of poking into the young man’s private business.

“Yeah,” he said.

* * *

Later that night, after Fiona was in bed, Jo sat on the couch with Cam, their fingers entwined. She wanted to be in his bed with him, but that wasn’t going to happen tonight. They’d agreed they’d give Fiona a day to get over what had happened with Don, a day to digest the fact that Jo was her father’s girlfriend, then they’d talk to her about sleeping in the same bed.

Cam cleared his throat, and Jo glanced over at him. “I, ah, have a thought,” he said. “About your job situation.”

“Yeah?” she asked, shifting closer to him.

“You’re gonna come back here after every job. For your ten days off, right?”

“Absolutely. Try to keep me away.”

Cam swallowed, and Jo realized he was nervous. “I have a better idea. What if you didn’t leave?”

Jo frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I’d like to hire you as our head of security for the company.” He shook his head. “I should have had someone in charge of security all along. If I’d had a person in place, maybe all this stuff with Don wouldn’t have happened. He wouldn’t have been able to switch out the crappy studs and pipes for the ones our specs call for. If we’d had a head of security, maybe Don wouldn’t have started gambling again.”

Jo put her hand over his. “First of all, that’s not true. If you’d had a security chief, he or she might have uncovered Don’s materials scheme and stopped it. But you don’t know that. And the gambling? I’m not sure anyone could have stopped Don from gambling.”

She sighed. “And secondly, as much as I’d like to accept your offer, I can’t leave my job at Blackhawk right now. Mel and Dev are already short of agents, and I can’t walk away. But maybe, in a year or so, they’ll have hired enough people that I’ll be comfortable leaving.”

“I understand that, and I admire your loyalty. But you’re not responsible for correcting Mel and Dev’s errors. They should have been recruiting more bodyguards.”

Jo sighed. “Yeah, I know, and I think they know that, too. But they’re working on an idea to expand the business, and they’re recruiting people for that, too. Spec Ops guys like Dev -- members of the SEALs, Delta Force, and Ranger teams. FBI agents. CIA agents.”

“Again, Jo, not your problem.”

She swiveled to face him. “I know, Cam, but I can’t leave now, as much as I’d like to quit tomorrow and take your security job. Mel and Dev took me on and trained me before they were sure I could do the job. I wasn’t a hot-shot spec ops member with a lot of training already. I was just a former Army grunt, but they gave me a chance. So I need to stay until they stabilize things with Blackhawk Security.”

Cam sighed and closed his eyes. “I know you’re doing the right thing, and the hell of it is, I agree with you. I’m just selfish. I want you with me and Fiona all the time.”

“I want that, too, Cam. And I’m not staying at Blackhawk Security forever. Just until Mel and Dev get the kinks ironed out.” She slid onto his lap. “And it’s not as if I won’t see you at all. I’ll be back for ten days after each of my jobs.”

Cam pressed his mouth to hers. “Not nearly enough,” he said roughly. “But I’ll take as much of you as I can get.”

“This won’t be easy for me, either, Cam,” she said.

She leaned over and kissed him, and he held her in place for a long moment. When she finally pulled away, she said, “You need to talk to Fiona tomorrow. Sleeping across the hall from you is going to be torture, when I want to be beside you.”

“Yeah, me too. I’ll talk to her tomorrow.”