The other man.
Cameo gazed up at Lowe as he carried her, a thought forming in her mind, one she tried to push out of her head but one that insisted on remaining, lingering, demanding she hear it. He had told her he would help her. If she asked him to help her with her problem, would he do it?
She wanted to believe that he would and that he could handle her trouble for her, but then she remembered that Karl was coming. What if Karl knew about her last location and came here? He wouldn’t come alone. He would come with a few of his men at the very least. The thought of Lowe facing off against one man was worrying enough. The thought of him facing half a dozen turned her stomach.
So, no, as much as she wanted to ask him to help her, she couldn’t. She didn’t want to get him into trouble, feared that she would only end up getting him killed. Her initial plan was the one she would stick with.
She would deal with this alone.
She turned her cheek to Lowe and leaned her head against his broad shoulder, her thoughts weighing her down, pulling a startling reaction from her. She didn’t want to leave Lowe, and she wasn’t sure it was just fear or pain talking. She had the terrible feeling she was starting to like him.
So she was going to do the right thing.
As soon as she was able, she was going to leave.
And she would probably never see him again.
Chapter 6
“You’re awful quiet. You fallen asleep?”
Cameo heard the ‘again’ in that question and roused herself from her heavy thoughts. She tilted her head back. Her gaze collided with Lowe’s as he looked down at her, his head angled towards her.
“I’m awake.” She felt a little silly saying that when he could see it, was staring down into her eyes, his blue ones warm with concern. “Just a little hungry.”
Blaming hunger for her silence was better than admitting that she had spent the last mile or so worrying about what came next, worrying about Karl finding her while she was with Lowe, and worrying about how things might go if that did happen.
“Not far now.” Lowe’s deep voice rolled over her, calming her turbulent mind.
She wanted to rest her cheek against his shoulder and tell him to keep talking to her, to take her mind off the thoughts that plagued her, and the visions of terrible things playing out in her head. She fell silent again instead and just stared up at him as he walked with her, turning his profile to her as he picked his way through the woods.
“You’re not very talkative either,” she murmured, hoping to get him to speak to her.
He shrugged, shifting her in his arms. “Worried about Knox.”
“The storm cleared up. Maybe he’s already back at the cabin.” She smiled when Lowe glanced at her, wanting to reassure him and lift his spirits, hoping that if she could brighten his mood it might be infectious and hers might brighten too.
“Maybe.” He huffed, smiled that killer smile that caused dimples in his cheeks, and slightly shook his head. “He’ll tear me a new one if he is. Suppose I should be prepared for that.”
“Because you came to rescue me.” She didn’t mean those words to come out sullen, but they did. Not only was she being a burden on Lowe, she had separated him from his brother in the middle of a dangerous storm. She almost cursed. If anything had happened to Knox, well, she wasn’t sure what she would do, but she knew she would feel responsible.
“Hey, don’t give me that look. Knox is tough as nails. He’s stronger than a storm, stubborn too. He probably made it back home in the thick of it last night.”
She gave a little shrug, trying to shift the weight from her shoulders. “You’re the older of the two of you.”
“What makes you say that?” He glanced at her, a curious edge to his gaze.
She looked down at her lap as she thought about Nate. “I know the tone. My younger brother was the wild one, and I’m the responsible one. I think I used that tone when talking about him more times than I can count. I always talked about him like he was strong, invincible.”
Lowe flexed his fingers against her knee and ribs, was quiet for a moment before he said, “You’re talking about him in past tense… You lost him?”
She nodded, sniffed to hold back the tears, and picked at the scuffed knee of her trousers.
“A long time ago?”
She shook her head this time. Lowe held her a little closer and lifted her higher, and her head fell against his shoulder. She sighed, couldn’t hold it back as she thought about Nate, as she tried to remember the better days when they had been growing up, when everything had been laughter and the occasional falling out with each other.
When the days had felt as if they wouldn’t end and they would always be together.
“There were a few years between us, and it showed at times. Nate always pushed his luck. He was reckless. Crazy at times. He made a lot of mistakes.” She smiled slightly as she remembered the funnier ones, the ones that had made her mad but had really been harmless. She had overreacted a lot of the time, but she had always had a deeply protective streak where her kid brother had been concerned.
“You strike me as the cautious, always have a plan type.” When Lowe said that, she angled her head back and frowned up at him. He glanced at her, and then his eyes darted back to her and held an apology. “I don’t mean it like it’s a bad thing. Hell, out of me and Knox, I think I’m the one who prefers to be in control of any situation. Knox is… Well, at times he’s the sort to light a fire just to watch shit burn.”
She chuckled at that. “He sounds like a handful. Is the age gap between you big?”
“It’s huge.” He gave her a deadly serious look. “A whole… fourteen minutes.”
Her eyes widened. “You’re twins?”
He nodded and shrugged again. “Knox likes to act like the big brother at times, but I’m older than him. He says I muscled him out of the way and he was meant to come out first.”
She smiled, her mood lightening as she tried to imagine another Lowe, a reckless and wild one. She just couldn’t picture it. Lowe had proven himself capable and caring, didn’t strike her as the sort who would start a fire of any sort without it being very controlled and unlikely to spread.
“Are you identical twins?” She studied his face—a face made for Hollywood. She could only imagine how devastating Lowe and Knox were on the local women whenever they rolled into town together.
He slid her a teasing look. “I can hear those cogs whirring in that pretty head of yours.”
Pretty?
He continued before she could pick him up on the fact he had called her pretty. “We’re identical on the outside, but it’s a different matter on the inside. He’s like our father, and I turned out more like Mom. Knox’s hair is darker too, more like Dad’s.”
Cameo settled against his chest again. Twins. She had never met twins before. Just how different was Knox to Lowe? She bet they were more alike than either wanted to admit.
“Your parents must have had fun raising you.” She thought about her own parents. “Mom always said I was the easiest kid anyone had ever had to raise. Whenever Nate did something dangerous, she always used to tell him that she had thought he was going to come out like me, and if she had known she’d have a hellion for a second child, she would have made Dad get the snip. It was just her protective side coming out as anger, but he’d sulk for days and swear he’d change and be better.”