Had she ever really left the nightmare? Weren’t James and Noah simply a dream?
She could still see the look on James’s handsome face when Cam had said the word “husband.”
She was a liar, a coward, an addict. She didn’t deserve either one of them.
“You want to tell me what’s going on?” Cam asked.
“What did he say his name was?” He probably wasn’t using Christian Grady anymore.
“He said his name is Christopher Greene. He has a marriage certificate.”
Hope laughed a bit. “It’s a fake. I married a man named Christian Grady, though who knows what his real name is.”
“I bet I can find out.” Cam’s steely gaze remained on the road ahead of him.
“You should stay out of it, Cam.” It would be safer for him.
Cam’s eyes narrowed as he turned his head slightly. “Not on your life, sister. You might have known Logan longer, but I care about you, too. And Nate would damn straight have my hide if I kept my nose out of it. Now, this man is obviously dangerous.”
“Really? He’s usually quite charming.” Cam wasn’t responding the way she’d thought. Everyone who met Christian liked him. It was one of the ways he’d managed to do what he did. He charmed people out of their life savings and stole their identities while they were far too busy listening to his lines of bullshit to realize he was robbing them blind.
And when someone found out, he simply slit a throat and no one talked.
Not even Hope.
“I was BAU for a long time,” Cam reminded her. “Rafe and Laura were better profilers than me, but I know a dangerous asshole when I see one. Did he hit you?”
“Never.” Christian had been the perfect husband. Gentle. Kind. Never uttering a foul word in her presence. Unfortunately, he was also completely insane and a master criminal. “He never hurt me.”
“Who then? Because I don’t believe a word he’s saying. He says you escaped from a private mental institution.”
She wondered how Christian intended to get her out of here without causing too much of a fuss. It was a nice play. If the local authorities thought she was insane, they wouldn’t listen to a word she said about Christian. And she was sure he could produce the paperwork to prove it. If he’d survived the fire, then he would have built his network back up. He would have had some cash at his disposal. “No. I was insane when I married him. I was perfectly sane when I tried to kill him. I just wasn’t very good at it.”
How was he alive? How had he survived? She’d been so sure when she’d walked away from the house they had shared that he was gone. She’d felt the heat, heard the sirens, and she’d walked away with a suitcase full of clothes and some cash. She’d gotten into the small car her husband had bought her and driven away. Years had passed, and she’d waited for the police to catch up to her. No one had ever come after her. She’d waited, and when she’d realized no one was going to storm in to take her to jail, she’d begun punishing herself. After she’d found Bliss, Nate had run a check and discovered no one was looking for her at all.
Cam turned brilliant blue eyes on her. “The report from the Atlanta police department shows no sign of foul play. The police explained it as a fire started by a faulty heater.”
She turned in the seat. She’d made damn sure the heater got kicked over on to a pile of rags. “How do you know about that?”
Cam sighed. “See, all anyone ever sees is this body. Really, I have a brain, too. The minute that man walked in, I rifled through Nate’s files. The boss wouldn’t leave anything to chance. He has a file on you. You married Christian Grady at the age of seventeen. You lied on your marriage license. It’s not a valid marriage. You lived with him for two years and helped him build his conservancy business.”
She felt herself flush, but she wasn’t going to sugarcoat this. “Call it what it is, Cam. No pussyfooting around.”
Cam shrugged, but gave her what she wanted. “You helped him build his cult. Did you know he was a con artist?”
She snorted a little. “No, Cam. I didn’t. I was very stupid, and I bought into everything he said. He brought people in with his talk about god or the universe dwelling in nature. He went after anyone with a love for the environment and a slightly liberal bent. He knew where to hit. He knew what to say.”
“He’s a con artist, Hope. That’s what they do. But I think he’s something more.”
“Are you going to go? The light turned green a while back.” Hope stared at the light. It was a luminous green, but the Bronco sat there.
Cam’s fingers drummed on the steering wheel. “We have some time. I would rather go back knowing what I’m getting into. Don’t worry. Laura and Rafe have everything under control.”
“Did they see what you saw?” She felt a certain peace and vindication that Cam hadn’t fallen under Christian’s spell. She’d been dumb, but that didn’t mean everyone was. When she’d fled Georgia, she’d believed the law was after her. Having someone on her side meant the world.
A vision of James and Noah assailed her. She’d had both of them on her side—until they knew the truth. She couldn’t get the look on James’s face out of her head. He’d gone hot, like a fever had taken him, and then so, so cold. She would never be able to look him in the face again. Never. But she would feel his hands on her body for the rest of her life.
She loved Noah and James, and she’d lost them over mistakes she’d made at seventeen. The past never went away. It merely hid until the time was right to pounce.
“What does he look like?” Hope asked, ignoring the fact that the light had changed and Cam still hadn’t moved.
Maybe it was one of his followers. She’d left with money. Oh, she’d run through it. There wasn’t a dime left of the fifty thousand she’d taken. Seven years had handily taken care of that. She’d spent the last several years dirt poor, but they might think she knew where more was.
“Blond. He had really light blond hair. It’s past his shoulders.”
Her vision narrowed. Christian. Her heart raced. How had he survived? She felt her whole body start to tremble.
“Thank god. They took long enough.” Cam breathed a huge sigh of relief as he looked in the rearview mirror. A big Chevy was barreling up the road. James’s truck.
Oh, god, what was he doing?
“You should move, Cam.” The last thing she needed was a scene with her ex-lovers. Could she even call them that? She’d had one moment with each, but she feared she would never forget them. “We should get to the station.”
Cam still wasn’t moving. “Not on your life, sweetheart. See, I’ve been in this position before. If someone had been smart enough and kind enough to delay Laura, then I wouldn’t have lost five goddamn years of my life. I knew they would come around. I just needed to give them time.”
Them. The Chevy stopped behind the Bronco. She could hear the brakes slam into place. Two doors opened as James and Noah jumped out. James had a shotgun in his hand. He looked like the hero of an old Western, charging in to save his woman. Noah had a shotgun, too, but he also had a dog. It did soften him a bit.
“Cam, I’m going to have to ask that you let Hope go.” James held the shotgun at his side, but there was no question he was willing to use it. Caveman.
Cam rolled his eyes. “Well, I gave you the damn out before, but you were too dumb to use it.”
“I’m slow,” James admitted. “Damn, man, how did we catch up to you?”
“I drove really fucking slow.” Cam put the Bronco in park. “I’m not stupid, but she needs to see this guy. We need to know what we’re up against.”
“Maybe she just needs to run,” Noah said.
She couldn’t. Not now. If Christian was alive, then she needed to figure out what he was really after.