Chapter Thirty

Cameron

“Want to talk about it?” my mom asked, sitting at the dining table with her morning cup of coffee.

“About?” I asked, pouring myself a cup with jerky movements.

She raised an eyebrow. “You stomped around last night when you got here. You’ve said about ten words total. Clearly, you’re mad. I’m assuming since you’re here and not at Scarlett’s house, it has something to do with her. So, I ask again: Would you like to talk about it?”

I looked around the house. Dad was out in his shop and Ella was still in bed. I flopped down in a chair across from her and let out a long sigh. It felt as though I were releasing the demon that had been twisted inside me all night.

“I don’t know what I’m doing.”

She smiled. “Oh, hon, we all feel that way most of our lives. Every day is new. It’s a new day to figure out what it is we want and to do it right.”

I ran my hand through my hair. “I think I screwed up. Again.”

“With Scarlett?” she asked softly.

I nodded. “Yes. I mean, I like her, I really do. We get along so well, and I know she cares about Ella, but she isn’t a mother. She isn’t a parent. She doesn’t understand how precious a child’s life is,” I said, knowing I wasn’t making a lot of sense.

“No one is a parent until they are. You figure it out as you go. Are you saying you don’t want to be with Ella because she doesn’t have her own children and wouldn’t know how to be a mother to Ella?” Her voice was filled with frustration.

“No. I mean yes, kind of.” I groaned. “It’s so complicated.”

She scoffed. “I think you’re being ridiculous. You weren’t a parent until Ella was born. I wasn’t a parent until I had you, and look, you’re still alive. We all learn as we go. Scarlett is a smart girl—I think she can figure out how to feed the child and keep her alive. It isn’t total rocket science. There is a little something called instinct.”

I rubbed a hand over my face. “Being with Scarlett puts Ella in danger.”

“Oh, Scarlett is a criminal? Member of the mob?” Mom asked, full of sarcasm.

“No,” I said, deciding to come clean about the whole thing. I felt like I was betraying Scarlett in a way, but my mom needed to understand the whole story. “She has an ex who is violent and unstable. That’s why she moved here. She was running away from him, but he found her.”

“Oh,” she said, her face filled with concern. “How terrible. Is Ella in danger?”

I took a deep breath. “He’s seen me with Scarlett. We had a brief run-in at a bar. She had him served with a restraining order the day my house was burned to the ground.”

My mom’s face went ashen. “You think he burned your house down?”

I nodded. “I do.”

“Oh my,” she said, nervously smoothing her hair with one hand. “What about Scarlett? Is she safe?”

I shrugged a shoulder. “I don’t know.”

“Cameron!”

“She can take care of herself, Mom. She can call the police if he shows up—someone besides me. I have to be worried about Ella and her safety. What if we had been home when that fire was started? He used an accelerant. What if I hadn’t woken up in time to get her out of the house?” My voice was a harsh whisper as I thought about all the things that could have happened.

She shook her head. “I don’t know. I honestly don’t know what to say. What a horrible situation. Are you working to find out if it was him? Do you have any leads or evidence to say it was?”

“Not yet. The investigator did find a gas can we’re hoping will have a DNA match. The fingerprints weren’t a match, but that isn’t conclusive. The heat could have distorted them.”

“DNA? That’s fancy. When will you know?”

I shrugged. “It can take weeks or longer. They’re making this a priority. Thankfully, when you try to kill a cop, you get some special treatment in the lab.”

“Poor Scarlett. I feel terrible for her. I understand why you left, but what about her? She’s there all alone and will have to face this monster on her own? That doesn’t seem right.”

I knew exactly what she meant. I had felt like shit all night, like I had abandoned her and left her for the wolves. It wasn’t how I operated. I wasn’t that guy. At some point in the middle of my sleepless night, I had decided I needed to figure out how to protect her as well. I wasn’t sure how, but I had to do it.

“I better get Ella up,” I muttered and left my half-empty cup of coffee on the table.

“I’ll get her some breakfast. Do you want anything?”

“No. I’m good.”

I couldn’t eat if I wanted to. My stomach had been twisted in knots since I’d left Scarlett yesterday. I had done what I thought was right, but that didn’t mean I liked it or felt good about it.

When I got to work, Noah was waiting for me out front.

“How are you?” he asked.

“Fine. Homeless,” I said dryly.

“Any new leads?”

I shook my head. “Just waiting on that DNA. It pisses me off the fingerprints weren’t a match. I wanted to nail that little weasel.”

“We’ll get him.”

“I’m going to go check and see if the investigators have anything new,” I said as we walked toward the building.

“How’s Scarlett?” Noah asked.

I shrugged a shoulder. “Fine, I guess.”

“You didn’t see her this morning?”

“No. I’m not there anymore.”

“Why?” he asked, the tone of his voice stopping me from going inside.

“Because it’s too dangerous. I can’t have Ella around her—or piss off that psycho and have him try to go after me or Ella.” I gritted my teeth. I was getting tired of explaining myself.

It was nobody’s business but mine regarding what I did to protect my daughter. I wasn’t the one breaking any laws.

Noah held up his hands, surrendering. “All right, all right. I’m thinking you may be jumping the gun a bit here. You’re a cop. You’ve pissed off a lot of bad guys. You hand your card out more than any other cop I know. You’re always telling domestic violence victims, street kids, and anyone else down on their luck to call you if they need something. You’re a real-life Mother Teresa. Maybe your card fell into the wrong hands.”

I shook my head. “I’ve been giving my card out for years. You don’t find it a little coincidental that a couple weeks after I hook up with my neighbor, my house is burned down?” I said, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m saying give it some time. Let the evidence and the investigation decide who you’re going to throw under the bus,” he retorted.

“I’m not throwing anyone under the bus!”

He shrugged. “Aren’t you?”

“No! Dammit, Noah!” I grumbled.

He grinned. “I know you love me, and I know you like Scarlett a lot. Don’t be so quick to toss her to the side until you know for sure she is too hot for you to handle.”

I yanked open the door and turned back to glare at him. “She is not too hot to handle. I handle her just fine.”

He laughed and followed me inside.

We checked with the special team handling the investigation. Our chief didn’t want to take the risk of this being a retaliation against me as a cop or the department. They were busting their assed to try to find out who had done it just in case the person went after any more cops.

“This sucks,” I mumbled as we walked back down the stairs to the bottom floor. “How, in this modern age, does it take that long for DNA to come back?”

“They’re doing everything they can,” Noah assured me. “In the meantime, let’s focus on busting bad drivers and helping out those who need us. Let the guys upstairs do their thing.”

“I’m trying to.”

“Uh-oh. I see the DEA guys are back. I wonder if that means we’ll be pulled off patrol again?”

I shrugged. “I think we’re about to find out.”

We headed in for the morning briefing. The DEA gave their latest update on the Cooker. They had nothing new. No new leads. They asked us all to keep our eyes and ears open while we were out on the streets. If we made any drug busts, we were supposed to ask if the perps had heard of the man behind the scenes.

I was about sick of talking and thinking about this Cooker. The guy was not going to outsmart the DEA and the entire Nashville PD. It was time to take him down. It gave me something to focus my anger on.

“Hello?” Noah said, waving his hand in front of me.

I blinked. “What?”

“You ready, or do you want to sit here and space off a while longer?”

“Shut up,” I growled.

“I think I’ll be doing the driving today,” he said in a too-cheerful voice.

“Whatever.”

As we headed toward the seedy part of town in the hopes of finding some low-level street dealers, I could feel the tension between Noah and me. It made for an uncomfortable ride.

“Spill it,” I ordered when I couldn’t take it any longer.

“You need to give her a chance.”

“It’s not her who is doing this. I know that. I don’t hold her responsible.”

“You’re treating her like she is,” he pointed out.

“No. I’m making sure there’s some distance between us until I can get that Isaac fucker locked away,” I said, anger making my voice harsh.

“Assuming it is him, but you don’t know. You’re ruining something good based on a suspicion. What if it wasn’t him? What if you kicked Scarlett out of your life over a pissed-off suspect that has nothing to do with her?”

I groaned. “I have a hunch. That’s all I can say. Trust me, man, I feel like shit. I don’t want to cut her out of my life, but I have to do what’s best for my family.”

“I understand. I really do. I know you have to protect your daughter, and I admire you for your commitment to doing that. However, I’m saying, I know how you can be. I know you are a stubborn son of a bitch, and you get your mind set and there’s no changing it. Scarlett is an innocent victim. I get you two can’t be together, but I hope you don’t make her feel like she’s somehow responsible for all this,” he said softly.

“I’m not saying she is. I told her that,” I defended.

He scoffed. “Oh, I bet you did. I don’t suppose you’ve called to see how she’s doing or whether she’s heard from her crazy ex at all?”

I shook my head. Guilty as charged.

“That’s what I thought.”

My head popped up when I saw a familiar face hanging out in front of an old, rundown house. “Pull over. I questioned that guy a few nights ago. He was in one of the houses we served a warrant on. Let’s see if he has anything he’d like to share with us.”

I jumped out of the car, and the moment the young guy saw me, I saw him consider running. I shook my head, warning him not to try. All thoughts of Scarlett disappeared. I put my sole focus on the kid and getting information.