Page 44 of The Fix

Rex found Cami on the deck in the spot she’d apparently become attached to.

He didn’t blame her. He liked the spot next to her, not only because she was there, but because the view took his breath away.

The towering trees, the glittering sprays of ocean below, the endless black sky now blanketed in stars.

They finally had a few hours where they could enjoy this slice of heaven before heading home.

Cami would have challenges when it came to Cyrus.

He didn’t even know exactly what those would be, but he could predict that they’d exist. His emotions regarding Cami were both conflicted and clear, and there were still far more questions than answers relating to what they’d both become involved in.

But to sit out here in the fresh air tinged with pine and moonlight with no immediate danger and a round of hurdles overcome—well, he was going to soak it in.

And by her relaxed posture, head back on the chair, feet kicked up, he could see she’d embraced the serene moment too.

“I just checked on him again,” Rex said as he handed her a glass of red wine and sat down next to her, placing his own on the edge of the firepit. “He’s snoring.”

Cami smiled. She’d checked on him, too, but Rex was still shaking off the residual fear of watching Cyrus standing near the edge of the cliff while a man with a gun stood between them.

Even though he’d tried not to, he kept going over the whole scenario in his mind, saw it playing out in different ways, and kept evaluating where he could have done better.

They’d both survived, and yet Rex was having a hard time not reassessing anyway.

Stress was an unreasonable bitch. Looking in on Cyrus sleeping peacefully in the king-size bed felt healing and necessary.

“He asked what he should call me earlier,” she told Rex.

“What’d you say?”

“I told him he could call me whatever he felt comfortable with, but that I knew he had a mom who he still very much missed, and so if he wanted to call me Cami, I completely understood.”

“That sounds like the best answer.”

“I think so.” She smiled, and it was soft. “Maybe he’ll want to call me mom at some point, but frankly, we both probably need to get comfortable with that idea.” She paused. “And I don’t want to take anything away from the woman who loved and cared for him when I couldn’t.”

His heart swelled. She was thoughtful when she could have been ... jealous or, well, any number of things.

“I’ve been thinking,” Cami said. “About my own mother.”

He looked over at her, not sure what to say and deciding to remain quiet until she continued. He could only imagine that her PTSD still gripped her sometimes. How could it not? But at the moment, she didn’t look distressed, only thoughtful.

“My mother lived for a few minutes after she was shot. Long enough to ... say a few words.” She paused, swirled her wine. “They never made sense. I’ve wondered over the years where her words might have gone and never could come up with anything.”

God, his heart. He was tempted to reach up and rub his chest as if he could massage the pain away. To imagine such a thing—Cami kneeling over her dying mother as she tried to leave her daughter with a few final words. “What did she say?” he asked quietly.

“I thought she said ‘do of,’ and then ‘do of her.’ Like I said, they never made sense. Where was she going to go from there? I never came up with anything.”

His mind churned, something clicking into place. Something impossible, perhaps. “Do you think she was saying ...”

“ Do-over ,” she said softly as she turned and met his eyes. “She might have been saying do-over .”

He frowned, trying to make the connection between the crime Cami had lived through when she was only a teen and the one that had been committed against Cyrus. Her son. “If that was it,” he finally said, “then there’s a connection between your mother’s and sister’s murders, and Cyrus’s kidnapping.”

“Yes. But I have no idea what. The only connection between the two is ... me. But how does Cyrus come into something that happened so long ago? Even I didn’t know with certainty that I was pregnant when my mother and sister were murdered.”

Rex took a sip of wine as he looked out over the gently swaying trees. An owl hooted, and somewhere he heard the distant sound of coyotes baying at the moon. “Could your mother have been made the same offer you were? The offer of a do-over?”

“Of what, though?”

He thought about that. “I guess if it was similar to the offer made to you, it’d be to do something differently that happened in her past. Maybe to make some move that would stop the crime you experienced?”

She sipped at her wine and gave her head a small shake. “By all her accounts, though, my mother had a happy childhood. My grandparents were wonderful people who were a big part of our lives until they passed away of natural causes when I was in high school.”

“Unless something happened that she never told you about. People often try to put bad experiences out of their mind entirely. To pretend they didn’t occur at all.”

She was quiet as she appeared to think about that. “No. My mother, she wasn’t ... she wasn’t a secretive person. And she was happy and well adjusted. I don’t know. Her having this secret life doesn’t track.”

“Okay. What about your father?”

“It was my mother who said the words, though.”

“Could your dad have told her if he’d received such a call? Like the one you received?”

“Yes. It’s possible. Or she intercepted a message meant for him?”

“He was a judge. He had to have some enemies, right? Solely by what he did as a job.”

“I don’t know if enemies is the right word, but yes, of course.

I’m sure there were those who were bitter toward him for his judgment in their case.

I can’t imagine any judge who doesn’t have at least a few of those.

But the police investigated that. They looked into any threats or accusations or recent cases where the convicted made statements denigrating him, or even the system at large.

I was ... sort of disengaged mentally at the time.

But it seemed like they did their due diligence looking at that angle. ”

“So the police never came up with any possible motive beyond evil and opportunity?”

“That’s what it looked like. It seemed like those men randomly chose us.

They were seen on camera following my mom and sister in a public place.

They obviously tried to avoid cameras, but they were clearly discussing them.

” She paused, obviously recalling what she knew.

“But then the things they said in the midst of ... the crime. They mentioned that the point was that my dad saw us being tortured.” She turned and looked at him.

His heart felt hollow whenever she spoke of what she’d experienced.

He almost didn’t want to hear about it because he hurt for her.

But she had survived it. If she could do that, he could certainly withstand her memories.

“ What point, though? If it was random, if they simply spotted my mom and sister out shopping and decided they wanted to rob and abuse them, there wouldn’t be a point other than that.

Also, they used my name. I mean, there could have been other ways they’d learned that.

They went through our safe, and there were things on the calendar on the fridge that referenced my name, but .

.. I don’t know. It jarred me at the time. ”

“What did the police say about those things?”

“That I misremembered what was said. I wasn’t considered a good witness. I was traumatized. Maybe I—”

“Don’t doubt yourself, Cami. You were there.”

She met his gaze, and for a moment he thought he saw tears shimmer. But then he realized it was just the stars, mirrored in her eyes. “You’re the first person who’s ever said that to me.”

He felt sad about that, but glad as well that he’d said it and it’d meant something to her. And he wondered if she had anyone in her life who she felt comfortable discussing her memories with when they came up. And if not, how painful must that be?

They were both quiet for a moment as he moved his mind back to what they’d been discussing. “The man who died ...”

“The one I killed?”

“Yes. Who was he? His identity didn’t provide any information?

” He could’ve looked up the case over the years.

He’d thought about it on occasion and rejected the idea.

There were so many shows and specials about the crime, but he ignored them and felt guilt about that for some inexplicable reason.

But he told himself he deserved to leave that all behind because, initially, it had derailed his life trajectory.

He could see now that the army had been the best place for him.

He’d grown personally and cognitively far beyond what he might have had he just gone to college.

“If anything, his identity added credence to the theory that it was random. He was a lowlife named Collin Smith, but he went by Trig for reasons that were never made clear to me. The other man he called AJ, who got away, was never identified. But Collin Smith dabbled in drugs and all kinds of petty crime. He had an arrest record dating back to when he was Cyrus’s age.

The police searched his home, and looked at his phone logs, but nothing came of it.

There was simply no evidence it was premeditated in any way. ”

“Hmm.” He thought again for a moment. Her memory suggesting the point was that her dad was tortured seemed very important. “What about situations similar to yours?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, if your dad seeing his wife and daughters tormented was the goal, it might point to revenge. Something happened to someone else because of him, and so those men were hired to give him a taste of his own medicine.”

“My mind went similar places at first, too, but again, the cops looked into all that and came up with zilch.”

Rex didn’t doubt they’d done their best. But even the finest departments only had a certain number of resources, and if he had to guess, he’d say they’d put the majority of those into hunting down the man who’d evaded capture.

“Maybe if you spoke with your dad now, he might remember something he didn’t then?

Especially if you bring up the words your mother said that now seem clearer. Perhaps those will spark a memory.”

She nodded, her brow still furrowed. “Yes, I want to tell him about Cyrus, too, of course. He’ll want to meet him.

” She sounded slightly unsure of that, but maybe that was only because it would be a shock for her father to learn what she’d just been through over the past handful of days.

It blew his mind that it hadn’t even been a week since she’d shown up at his door, harried and afraid.

And asking for his help.

“The other thing I’ve been thinking about is what Cyrus said about attempting to contact Hollis.”

Yeah, he’d been thinking about that too. According to Cyrus, Hollis hadn’t messaged him back, but Rex still had this itch under his skin every time he thought about it. The timing felt very suspicious. “Are you wondering if Hollis had something to do with Cyrus’s kidnapping?”

“I don’t know. I’d like to hope to God not.

But ... I need to speak with him. I think he should know what his son has been through and that he’s with me now.

He didn’t want anything to do with a child when he was eighteen, and I can’t imagine he would now either.

But I’d still like to see his face when I tell him about the kidnapping. ”

“Do you want me to go with you?”

“No. Thank you, Rex, but I have to do this alone. I thought Hollis Barclay was only a piece of my past.” She paused, her face somber. “But it seems we have unfinished business after all.”