Island of Secrets and Scars

Some of the excitement around the clinic had died down as Brodie’s neighbors realized that, although he was awake, he wasn’t completely out of the woods. The air around the island was still lighter, but no longer as celebratory.

Cameron and Wes had decided to only allow family in to see the man. Esme still kept vigil, running herself ragged, being both mother to her children and nurse to her husband. No matter how many times Cameron begged her to rest, the other woman insisted Brodie needed her. Ian was pretty sure Esme needed him just as much.

Seeing Esme sitting outside with the baby, Ian took the opportunity to check on Brodie alone. Sometimes in those quiet moments of solitude, patients revealed the most.

But Brodie wasn’t alone. Keso Lawrence stood by his friend’s bed. In his mind, Ian still saw the other man’s mouth pressed against Cameron’s lips. Lips Ian had kissed only hours before. The few times he’d spoken with her since then, she hadn’t mentioned Keso’s kiss or the night she’d spent with Ian. Part of him was afraid to bring it up himself. What if she told him she hadn’t meant the things she’d said in the dark, quiet confines of her office? What if she said she still wanted Keso? Somehow living in limbo was favorable to knowing for certain he couldn’t have her.

Keso spoke softly to his friend, then squeezed his arm and turned to leave. He paused when he spotted Ian in the hallway. A moment of indecision passed over a face much like Arabella’s, before the man continued forward. Waiting, Ian held his ground as Cameron’s former lover approached.

“How was he?” he asked as Keso joined him in the hall.

The other man studied his friend over his shoulder. “A little slow to respond. A little sadder than normal.” With a shrug, he turned to face Ian. “But he’s alive. He has a new child. He’ll make it.”

Ian nodded. Unfortunately in life, the bad often accompanied the good.

With his green eyes, Keso studied Ian. “I guess you’ll be sticking around until he’s better.”

“I’ll be here to help with anything Brodie or Cameron need.”

Keso smirked. “Yeah, I bet you will.”

Anger tightened Ian’s muscles, but he didn’t react.

Keso glared at him. “Did you know she was on this island when you got the call? Did you plan to come in and play hero and win her back?”

Ian tried to put himself in Keso’s shoes, but hell, he’d had Cameron first. As far as Ian was concerned, Keso, not him, was the intruder. “If I’d known she was here, I would’ve been here years ago.” After she left, he’d searched everywhere for her. Everywhere but a damn island.

Still eyeing him, Keso nodded. “Well, I guess you win then. After everything, you get her back.”

Like she was a damn prize to be passed back and forth instead of a woman with her own mind.

“Of course,” Keso continued, “you always had her. Even when she was in my bed, you were there between us.”

Ian’s stomach churned with the thought of Cameron in Keso’s bed. Even the idea that Cameron had thought of him, that he’d somehow kept her from completely giving herself to the other man, wasn’t enough to erase the sick feeling conjured by his words.

Keso snickered. “You know, she told me she couldn’t give me her heart, because she’d given it to you and never got it back?”

Ian felt the same way. From the day he’d first laid eyes on Cameron Crawford, she held every piece of him. Although he didn’t want problems with Keso, he couldn’t be upset Cameron’s love for him had kept her from committing to the father of her child.

Trying for a level of civility, he simply nodded. “I wouldn’t say she didn’t give you at least part of her heart. She had your child. She stayed here to be with you, to keep your family together. That’s no small victory, Keso.”

Even after she had Ara, she could’ve come back to him. Although Ian didn’t relish the idea of raising another man’s child, he would’ve welcomed both Cameron and Arabella with open arms.

“She may love me,” Ian told the other man, “but she gave me up for you and Ara.”

Some of the fight melted from Keso’s eyes. His face softened. Ian figured this was as good a time as any to let the other man know where he stood.

“I don’t want to fight with you. I don’t want us to dislike each other. I love Cameron. Now that I found her, I plan to be part of her life. That means I’m going to be a part of Ara’s life . . . and yours. I adore that little girl and it’s clear she loves you with all her heart. I never want our feelings about each other to affect her.”

Keso pushed forward, close enough for Ian to smell a familiar scent on the other man. Cameron’s shampoo. Ian’s stomach knotted.

“Those two are everything to me,” he explained. “Just because Doc trusts you, doesn’t mean I do. If you hurt her again, it will be your last time.”

Fisting his hands, Ian resisted the urge to push closer to challenge the other man. Instead, he stepped back. “I’ve never been anything but truthful with Cam. She can do with that what she wants.” Though he hoped to God, she gave him another chance.

Keso studied him for another minute. Then, as if reaching some conclusion, he nodded and walked away.

Ian waited as he left the clinic. He didn’t want to fight with the other man to be with Cameron, but if Keso wouldn’t let her go easily, fighting is what he’d do. Fear kept Ian from thinking too closely about whom Cameron would choose if given an ultimatum.

* * *

As Cameron lie in a hammock, with the sun setting over the water turning the sky orange and purple and her daughter playing quietly with her dog, she could almost believe the last week hadn’t happened. She could gaze at the watercolor hues and not think about how completely the plane crash had flipped her life and those of her friends upside down. While she didn’t need to think twice about whether she wished she could change the circumstances for Brodie and Esme, she couldn’t quite decide how she felt about her own situation. Now that Ian had reappeared in her life, now that he knew where to find her and why she left, she could no longer ignore her feelings for him. And she didn’t think she wanted to.

“Hey,” Ara protested when Creek stood, causing the bucket she’d stacked on his back to fall.

Cameron sat up, her body tense. Since she’d realized someone had been in her home, she’d been on high alert. Creek focused on the trees, where footsteps hurried down the path. She rolled out of the hammock to stand in front of her daughter, who still crouched in the sand with her toys. Heart galloping in her chest, Cameron waited as the footsteps neared.

Edmund burst through the trees, stumbling to a stop when Creek released a low growl. The man held his hands up in surrender. “It’s just me, Buddy,” he told the dog. Inching closer, he held his hand out for Creek to sniff.

“You startled us.” Cameron’s heart still thundered behind her breast.

“I’m sorry.” The man huffed. Clearly, he’d been in a hurry. “I went by your house but . . .”

Oh, she’d been so stupid. The clinic. Someone must be hurt. “Is everything okay? Does someone need me?”

Her friend’s gaze drifted to Ara who watched them through wide, curious eyes. “Can we maybe talk by the water?”

This couldn’t be good. If Edmund just needed to tell her someone wasn’t feeling well or maybe needed stitches, he could do that in front of her child. That he needed privacy scared her.

Nodding, she turned to Ara. “Stay here with Creek. I’m just going to the water. Call if you need me.”

The girl shrugged, then went back to stacking her buckets.

The sand shifted beneath Cameron’s feet, warming as she left the shade of the trees for the beach. When they were far enough away Ara couldn’t hear, she stopped. Keeping an eye on her daughter, she asked, “What’s wrong?”

Edmund released a heavy sigh. “I just got back from the big island.”

Nothing unusual about that. Although in the days since the explosion, the big island had canceled several excursions, Edmund had gone to the island to pick up any jobs he could. She waited to hear his reason for alarm.

“Keso’s been arrested.” The words blew through her. Keso. Arrested.

“For what?”

True, she’d accused him of having a hand in blowing up Victor Roberts’s plane, but she no longer believed that to be the case. If he lied to her, deceived her…

“I’m not sure. Something to do with Victor Roberts. Keso tried to get into his house, or he got in. I don’t know. But Roberts’s men got him and…” He dropped his troubled gaze to his fisted hands.

“And?” Images of Keira’s bloody and bruised body flashed through her mind. Roberts’s men had gotten her too. She’d already been weak and fragile. By the time they finished with her, she’d been destroyed. “Edmund.”

“They worked him over pretty good, then called the police to take him away.”

“The police? Not a doctor?”

Shaking his head, he lifted his hands. “Victor put out word that no doctor touch Keso.”

Oh God. Spinning away, she covered her face with her hands. He’d gone and done it now, the stubborn ass. She’d told him to leave that man alone. Now, Roberts wouldn’t rest until he ruined Keso. And her and Ara by association.

“He needs a doctor.” Edmund spoke behind her.

“You just said Roberts forbid any of them from—”

“That’s why I came to you.”

Slowly, she turned back to him.