She wasn’t the sort of woman to fall asleep on a man she knew, let alone someone who was practically a stranger to her. Although, Lowe didn’t feel like a stranger. Some ridiculous part of her felt as if she already knew him better than she did most of the people she had worked with over the years, and she put it down to shock. The trauma of the last few months had done a real number on her, throwing her into a tailspin where it no longer surprised her that she was acting differently to how she normally would.
“Storm cleared up about an hour ago,” Lowe drawled, his deep voice as smooth and sweet as honey to her ears, and holding a rumbling smoky note like whiskey.
He had a voice made for the bedroom.
Cameo showed that stray thought the door. Shock. It was the shock talking.
“How long was I asleep?” She dreaded pulling away from Lowe, and not only because he was warm against her, like a portable radiator that was keeping the chill off her hip and side. She really didn’t want to see if she had left a drool patch on his soft, black and green checked shirt.
“I reckon a good nine hours.”
“Nine hours?” She jerked away from him, startlingly awake now as her gaze whipped from him to the world outside.
How could she have slept for nine hours? God only knew how close the other man might be to finding her now. She began to wish the storm hadn’t cleared up, cursed that clear blue sky she glimpsed through the dark green canopy of the forest. The storm had been hiding their tracks, providing them with cover. Now, the man would be able to spot them from a long distance even through a forest as dense as this one.
“You look worried.” And Lowe looked curious, possibly suspicious. “Something I should know about, Cameo?”
She was quick to shake her head. “Nothing. I just… I didn’t think I would sleep an hour, let alone nine.”
She had honestly thought she had been too wired to sleep, too afraid of what might be out there, whether it was an animal or a human. She looked at Lowe, right into those stunning, rich baby blues, and it hit her that she had been too wired and too afraid to sleep, but then he had placed himself between her and any possible danger, and she had felt safe.
Safer than she had felt in a long time.
In too long.
She couldn’t remember the last time she had slept for more than a few hours, and she had the feeling that if Lowe was with her, she could sleep for a day or more, felt so at ease and safe around him that she could easily catch up on all the sleep she had missed since her brother had been killed.
Cameo glanced at the world beyond the mouth of the cave again, dreading going out there while at the same time feeling a pressing need to get moving.
“I’m sensing you want to get out of here.” Lowe took his arm from around her shoulders and pushed to his feet, and a strange feeling swept over her.
A chilling sort of coldness that made her want to ask him to hold her again.
This wasn’t like her. Capable Cameo, as her work colleagues teasingly called her, didn’t rely on others, trod her own path in this world with confidence and certainty. Capable Cameo had been struggling to keep her head above water the last few months though, had been slowly sinking into despair and had been starting to feel that she was going to have to run for the rest of her life or she would be caught.
Killed.
It had taken its toll on her and had worn her down more than she had noticed. Now that she had taken a moment to rest, had found someone she felt she could trust, someone who looked strong enough to help her, it had all rolled up on her and that strength she had thought she possessed was nowhere to be seen.
Lowe bent forwards and offered his hand to her and she stared at it, knew how bleak she looked as his blond eyebrows furrowed, disappearing beneath his black hat, and he gave her a soft look, one filled with understanding and a touch of concern.
He eased to his haunches before her, resting his elbows on his knees, and sighed. “Tough few days, huh?”
She nodded and tried to push it all down inside her, to bottle it up again, but it was all whirling around her head now, images of Nate swirling together with memories of those men when they had come to threaten her, and when she had pushed the one down the slope. She could still hear the sickening crack as he had hit that tree.
“I don’t know what you’ve been through or what you’re involved in, Cameo, but I do know you can trust me. Whatever is happening… I can help you. You get to set the rules here though. You want to keep it all to yourself, that’s fine. I won’t like it, but I’ll deal. You want to talk to me about it, you can do that too.” Lowe gently placed his hand over hers as she gripped her knees. “You need my help, you’ve got it.”
She stared at him, part of her sure he was an angel, one sent to protect her, because who else would be out here in the middle of nowhere? Who else would offer to help her when he didn’t even know the dangerous mess she was caught up in?
As she looked at him, she felt deep in her soul that her luck had changed yesterday. It really had. Some kind deity of fate had put him in her path, right when it had looked as if things were going to get ugly for her and she had reached the end of the line.
Could he really protect her from the destiny she felt awaited her?
She had seen enough movies to know what would happen if Karl got his hands on her, had seen what they had done to her brother. Torture. They would torture her to make her talk, even though she didn’t know anything and she certainly didn’t have their money. They wouldn’t care.
“Hey now.” Lowe lifted his hand and brushed his knuckles across her face, startling her.
She blinked and looked at him, shock rolling through her as she felt the cold kiss of tears on her cheeks.
Just great. Now she was crying in front of him. She didn’t want to imagine what he was probably thinking as he cleared her tears away, his touch gentle and concern warming his blue eyes. She hated the thought he might be thinking she was weak, another woman who couldn’t handle herself, who resorted to breaking down in tears when the going got tough. She wasn’t. She lifted her hand, knocking his away as she scrubbed at her face. She was strong. Capable Cameo.
He looked as if he wanted to say something. One half of her imagined it would be something along the lines of telling her that she was allowed to cry because she had been through a lot, and the other half of her imagined it would be some well-intentioned speech about how crying didn’t make her weak and that she was strong.
She didn’t want to hear either of those things, so she gripped the rough rock wall of the cave and hauled herself onto her feet, grimacing only a little as she dared to put the tiniest amount of weight on her left leg. Pain swept up it in response and she decided against attempting to walk on it.
She was beginning to fear the worst now—it was fractured.
Cameo removed Lowe’s black jacket from her shoulders and held it out to him. He looked as if he didn’t want to take it, might insist she kept wearing it like a blanket, but then he grabbed it and slipped his arms into it, and zipped it up.
Standing before him like this, she realised just how tall he was. He had a good nine inches on her, maybe more, had to stand at least six-six. He wasn’t a slim six-six either. He was a big six-six. Made her feel tiny in comparison. She had met a few men who lived in the wilderness, preferring to keep to themselves and lead a simple life out in the woods, but none of them had been as built as Lowe was. He looked as if he could haul logs without any machinery, could easily fell a tree and drag it to wherever he needed it.