“Cami,” he said warningly when he realized I was right behind him.
I held my hands up, palm out, like I was showing him I wasn’t going to touch anything. Then a title on his bookshelf caught my attention, and I reached for it.
Landon caught my wrist before I could pull it out. I turned, surprised. He’d been so careful to avoid touching me, and now I found him only inches away. I was eye level with his throat, and I could see his pulse jumping in it. I raised my eyes to his face and found his pale green eyes boring down into mine.
We’d been in this position before. Dozens of times. Face to face, lips only inches apart. He’d held himself back like this before, too. Back then it had been because he thought I was too young for him. I’d worn down his resistance. I still remembered the thrill of victory that had coursed through me the first time he’d given in and pulled me closer. I wondered if he was remembering it too.
I swayed closer, habit making my heart speed up. Landon was staring at my mouth, and his grip had loosened on my wrist, holding it gently, his thumb pressed against the pulse.
“Landon,” I whispered, unsure of what I wanted to say.Kiss meorlet me go. Both were equally plausible. My voice broke the spell though, and the trap of his fingers sprung open as though my wrist had burned him.
“I said to wait in the living room,” he said harshly. The words scraped across my vulnerable, exposed nerves, and forgetting the book, I fled the room.
It was only when I got back to the couch that I remembered the title.
What to Expect: The Toddler Years.
My heart swelled and broke.Don’t fall in love with him, Casey had warned, but God, how could I not? Landon had always been my weakness. Even when I was lying to everyone about how it wasn’t that serious, I always knew I was in danger of falling in love with him. I’d managed to forget what it felt like to be with him, but I’d never really fallen out of love with him. Now I was in danger of getting hurt all over again.
There were so many things to worry about.Lavigne Beauty. The threats. But all I could think was even with all the security my parents could hire, how was I going to keep my heart safe?
11
LANDON
My contacts at the LAPD had nothing to give me. Either Elyna and Robert’s report about the threats had gone to a trusted source of their own who hadn’t put it in the shared system, or they hadn’t filed a report at all. Either was plausible. If it leaked that theLavigne Beautyfamily was getting harassed, the media would use it to revive the wilting story of their trial. It would breathe fresh life into the scandal, and that was the last thing they wanted.
I drummed my fingers on my desk for a minute, staring out the window at the LA skyline, considering my options. I had a few, but the quickest was the most direct. I called Robert.
“It’s Landon,” I said.
“Of course, we’ve been expecting your call,” he said after only the slightest hesitation. He covered the receiver and whispered to someone in the room, “It’s Leon. I’ll take it in the bedroom.”
I didn’t think for a second he’d misheard me. He just didn’t want Elyna to know I was calling. I heard a door click shut behind him, and after another moment, he said, “I suppose Cami has filled you in on our little family drama.”
“She’s told me what she knows, which frankly isn’t much. I need you to fill in the details.”
“I’m surprised your contacts didn’t do that for you.”
I didn’t respond. I didn’t know what Robert was digging for, but I wasn’t going to give it to him.
After a moment he went on. “There’s not much to tell, I’m afraid. Elyna made a mountain out of a molehill. A threat came in – hard to say how credible it is – and she panicked. She’s been under a lot of stress since the trial. I’m sure–”
I was paying attention to what he was saying, but more importantly, I was paying attention tohow muchhe was saying. Robert was a succinct man under normal circumstances. The extraneous information he was padding his response with tripped my internal bullshit detector.
“You’re lying,” I cut him off. “You have damn good reason to think it’s a credible threat, or you wouldn’t risk drawing the media’s attention by hiring personal security.”
Robert sighed heavily, knowing that there was no use denying it. “It’s not ideal, but out of an abundance of caution–”
“Out of an abundance of caution, I’m going to get a lawyer and go after full custody of my daughter if you don’t give me every fucking detail. If someone is threatening the Lavigne family, they’re threatening her.” I already had half a mind to do it anyway. There was no way Cami would take this as seriously as I was. At least, she hadn’t the last time. I didn’t want to take a chance of her being as flippant with Emma’s safety as she had been with her own.
“Unless they’re very, very close, they don’t even know Emma exists,” Robert objected. “We were very careful not to–” he broke off, probably realizing that it wasn’t smart to come right out and say that they’d been careful to hide Emma’s existence because they didn’t wantmeto find out about her.
“Even more reason for Emma to come live with me. We can keep it that way. She’s not in Hawaii anymore, Robert. If any more interest is stirred up around the family, someone is bound to ask who the little girl is and what she’s doing with Cami Lavigne.”
Robert was quiet for a moment. “Then perhaps the best option is for her and Cami to return to Hawaii in the meantime, or somewhere else out of the public eye.”
“Out of my eye, too, I bet.” I shook my head, though I knew he couldn’t see me. “That won’t work for me, Robert. It’s past fucking time I got to know my daughter, and I can’t do that with an ocean between us. Now tell me what’s going on.”