“Cameron, what’s going on? What are we going to do?” Vanessa whispered.
He glanced down at her. She didn’t deserve to be involved in this. The person on the other side of that door had a beef with him and not her. He needed to get them to the part of the house that he knew was safe. The storm cellar his grandfather had built right after Hurricane Gilbert.
He glanced down at her. “I need you to trust me, Vanessa,” he said meeting her gaze and gently rubbing her cheek. “I’m going to get us out of here.”
She nodded. “I do trust you, Cameron, and I love you. That’s why I came all the way to Texas. I couldn’t wait to tell you.”
Her words touched him and he wanted to kiss her, but time was not on their side. He needed to get them out of there. They made it to the kitchen and he pushed open the cellar door. It had been years since he’d been down there but this would be their refuge until help arrived. Someone had to have alerted the authorities by now that his ranch had become a war zone.
He led Vanessa down the stairs and except for a little dust and a few spiderwebs here and there, the place was okay. He took them as far back into the cellar as he could and then pulled her into his arms. This was a waiting game and he only hoped whoever was out there would eventually assume he had succeeded in what he came to do and haul ass.
In the meantime…
He turned Vanessa to him and leaned down and kissed her, needing the taste of her, the assurance she was all right and they were together. She wrapped her arms around him and held him tight.
Cameron wasn’t sure how long they huddled down there before he heard someone call his name. He placed his fingers to Vanessa’s lips, not yet certain whether the person beyond the cellar door was friend or foe.
A smile touched his lips when his name was called out again and he recognized Xavier’s voice. “Stay put for a second while I let him know we’re down here.”
Vanessa watched as Cameron raced up the wooden stairs and responded to his friend’s call through the door.
“Stand back, Cam!”
He did and then she saw the head of a huge ax slice through the door frame before it was kicked in. And then those two men stood there, the ones who had let her into Cameron’s house earlier. The expressions on their faces showed they were relieved to see he was okay, but they were mad as hell.
Cameron turned, opened his arms to her and she raced across the cement floor and up the stairs to him. And when he gathered her into his arms, she knew that everything would be all right.
Later that night, back in her hotel room, Vanessa cuddled close to Cameron in bed. “I’m sorry about your home, Cameron.”
When Xavier and Kurt had pulled them out of the cellar and they’d had a chance to see the damage, her heart had ached for him. But then that same heart had filled with anger that someone had wanted to do that much harm to the man she loved. He was not intended to survive the attack.
“I was thinking of rebuilding anyway. I’ve received a number of offers to sell but couldn’t bring myself to part with it. That land is where I spent some of the happiest days with my grandfather and I needed that link.”
Vanessa nodded, then frowned. “Well, at least they caught those guys.”
“Yes, and they’re spilling their guts. I can’t believe John McMurray would go that far. The man is truly demented.” McMurray’s arrest had made national news. The shame that had been brought on his family had come from his hands and not Cameron’s.
“And how on earth were they able to get those types of weapons? Something like that could probably shoot a plane out the sky.”
“It can, which is why in most states they’re outlawed. I’m just glad that Kurt brought Xavier back here to get his car and saw what was happening.”
Vanessa nodded. She was, too.
Cameron glanced down at her. “Did you mean what you said earlier, just before we made it to the cellar? That part about loving me?”
She smiled. “Yes, I meant every word. You’re not only my sex mate, you’re my soul mate, as well. I do love you, Cameron.”
“And I love you. Does this mean you’d consider marrying me?”