Page 49 of Healing Love

Not sure what was expected, she glanced back at the three men at the table and then back up to Cam. Before she could speak, he scooted her chair back and leaned down to take her hand. He was moving away, giving her no choice but to follow.

As she allowed him to lead her away, he called over his shoulder, “We’re heading to Virginia in an hour. Ya’ll are going to be on the plane with us, so I reckon that gives you another crack at her for about four hours. Then she’s going to have a reunion with her family, and you’d better be finished ‘cause she’ll get back to her life.”

“Does he speak for you, Ms. Delaro?” one of the DEA agents growled.

She turned her head back to stare at the man and then up to Cam. Smiling wide, she nodded. “I can always speak for myself, gentlemen. And have been for a couple of hours. But in this case? Yeah, he speaks for me.”

With that, she threw her arm around his waist as he tossed his arm over her shoulders and pulled her in tight, grinning down on her.

As the couple walked out into the main room the other Saints watched them, smiles on their faces. Having heard and watched their friend carefully, they nodded approval.

“Looks like another one of us has found something good,” Blaise said, as the men moved over to stand with the couple.

Cam chuckled as he watched Miriam bouncing in her seat. The DEA plane had just touched down and taxied to another undisclosed hangar.

“Will they be here? I can’t see anyone,” she said, leaning over Cam’s lap to look out of the window.

He smiled, knowing that her family was just inside one of the offices waiting for her. Marc had talked to Jobe, and he had gathered her parents and sisters to meet them.

Once again, he held her hand as they alighted from the much larger aircraft, his eyes carefully scanning the area, unable to shake the feeling that she might be in danger. His mind trailed back to the conversation they had before the flight had taken off.

Blaise had spoken to the DEA agents and then talked to Cam afterwards, when Miriam was not with him. “She’s given them a lot of information and while most of it they knew, it helped getting both your descriptions of the compound, location, and inner-sanctum hierarchy. While none of it was really new, you two solidified some of their intel.”

“So, what do they think of her safety?” Cam asked, concern in his voice.

Blaise watched his friend struggle, understanding what Cam felt for Miriam went way beyond rescuer. Placing his hand on Cam’s shoulder, he answered, “They don’t think that she needs protecting. She was never in a position to gather more intel than what they had, she had no dealings with anyone who was here in the US, so they think she’s good.”

“What about the media?” Monty asked, walking up and catching the end of Blaise’s explanation.

“They’re keeping her name out of it and advised her to do the same, which as you can imagine, she has no intention of blabbing to anyone about her ordeal,” Blaise continued.

Bart looked at his friend and asked, “Cam? What’s the deal with her? You involved more than a mission? Were the looks I saw pass between the two of you just looks between a rescuer and victim? Or is there something else brewing?”

Cam looked away, running his hand through his hair, seeing Miriam standing to the side talking to one of the nurses who had examined her. “Fuck if I know,” he admitted. “She’s amazing, strong, smart, and I’ll admit only to you all, I’m falling hard for that girl and think she feels the same. But…”

The silence hung between the Saints for a moment and then Monty prodded, “But what, man?”

Cam turned back and looked at them. “What if that’s all this was? She may have just been reacting to an intense situation when you don’t know if you’re going to live or die. I want to explore it. See if it’s real. Hope like hell she does too, but…now that we’re back and she’ll have her own life, then I don’t know.”

Bart clapped him on the shoulder, saying, “Tell you the same thing we told Jack months ago. You find something like that, you just don’t let it slip through your fingers. Work at it, man. Work to see if what you discovered back there in the wilds of Mexico is something that you can build on here.”

Now they were back in Virginia, off the plane, and walking toward the office where she would be reunited with her family. He was glad…this was what the mission had been all about.So why do I feel so fuckin’ afraid?

18

The door from the hangar’s office flew open as Jobe threw it against the wall, his eyes on his sister. Miriam jumped at the sound then immediately saw him, followed closely by the rest of her family.

Screaming, she left Cam’s side, running to meet Jobe, jumping into his arms at the last minute. She hit him so hard that as large as he was, he had to take a step back when her body crashed into his.

She could barely catch a breath as he twirled her around, before becoming aware of the crying of their mother, Rachel. Jobe set her down only to have her engulfed by her mother and father. Joseph Delaro had thought seeing each of his children as they were born was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen…but nothing matched holding his daughter once more after they had feared the worst. Miriam’s sisters, Rebecca, and Hannah, crowded in as well, a group hug that made it impossible for the observers to tell whose arms belonged to whom.

Choking back tears, Miriam assured over and over, “I’m fine, I’m fine.”

As the family continued its reunion, Cam and the others stood back giving them privacy. He wanted to join…wanted to walk over, interrupt and say something stupid like,Here’s your daughter and by the way, I’m in love with her.Instead, he stood rock steady, the doubt of what they had in the wild and what they could have in the real world creeping in.

Jobe separated from the family and walked over to Cam, his arm stretched out. Cam took his hand, then found himself pulled into a man hug.

Jobe’s voice choked, “Gratitude man, you’ve got to know it.”

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