Page 80 of My One and Only

He wanted Fiona away from the ugliness that had engulfed him. Away from whatever was brewing in Ogden. Tilting his head back, he closed his eyes and knew it would be best for Fiona if she was gone. Jo would only have to worry about one person instead of two. And Fee would be out of the line of fire.

Everyone who knew him knew Fiona was his vulnerable spot. They all knew he’d die for his daughter. And that made her a target.

“Yes,” he said without looking at Jo. “Call Mel. See if one of the Chicago agents could guard Fiona and my parents in the city.”

She nodded and grabbed her cell phone. Stood up and paced in front of the window. She spoke in a low voice, and Cam got nothing from her expression. Jo was an expert at hiding her thoughts.

Finally she ended the call and slid the phone into her pocket. “Both of our Chicago agents are on jobs right now,” she said, her voice tight. “Mel doesn’t have a sense of when they’ll be available -- sounds like both of the situations are complicated. All our other agents are on jobs, too. Even her husband Dev is on a job. They’re that slammed.

“Mel could send someone else as soon as another job is closed. But she had no idea how long that might take.” Jo’s jaw worked. “She should have hired more people by now,” Jo muttered.

“Maybe she has and they’re not ready. Or maybe no one suitable has applied.”

She turned to glare at him. “Stop sounding so reasonable. I’m really pissed about this. How can you run an agency without enough people to cover the demand?”

“You think I’m being reasonable? I’m dying here. We’re talking about my daughter, Jo.” Cam scowled at her. “Maybe we should send Fiona away with my parents. Keep them all safe.”

“No,” she said immediately. “Fiona isn’t going anywhere without protection. That’s not a risk I’m willing to take.”

“That doesn’t leave us with many options,” Cam said, his voice ragged. “Unless all three of us go somewhere.”

Jo nodded once. “That’s an option. But could you take a chunk of time off work?”

“I’m the owner. I can do what I want.” He sighed and shoved his fingers through his hair. “But leaving now would be irresponsible. Possibly dangerous for the company.”

“We could hire a bodyguard from another company,” Jo said. “That would solve the protection problem, but it wouldn’t be a good look for Blackhawk Security. The personal bodyguard business is tough and competitive, and whoever we hired would have a field day advertising that Blackhawk had to hire one of their guards.”

She flopped back in her chair. “This has been working so far, so I vote to keep doing what we’re doing. And maybe after we drop Fiona off at school tomorrow, we’ll go to the police station and I’ll try to talk some sense into Gwynn.”

“Think it’ll work?”Cam asked.

Fiona drew a deep breath. Shook her head. “No. If he didn’t cave to Detective Miller, he’s not going to cave to me. It’s worth a try, but I’m not hopeful.”

“Then don’t bother,” Cam said. “We’ll do our best and hope we catch a break. And hope that someone at Blackhawk Security is finished earlier than they thought they’d be.”

“Yeah.” Jo sighed. “I’m going to go crazy, sitting around waiting for something to happen. There’s only so much ‘make work’ I can do.”

“Then let’s put this time to good use,” Cam said, scooting his chair closer to Jo.

She held up her hands. “I know what that means, and the answer is no. We arenotfooling around in your office, no matter how tempting that sounds.”

One side of Cam’s mouth curled up. “I’m thrilled that you’re tempted, but that’s not what I had in mind. You wanted to talk about our exes. I’m too distracted to get much work done, and I’m guessing you are, too. So why don’t we talk.”

“I thought you had a lot of work to do?”Jo asked, narrowing her eyes at Cam.

He shrugged. “I do. But it’ll keep for a while.” He sighed. “You deserve to know what happened with Ashley. And I think it’ll help you understand why I’m so protective of Fiona.”

“Okay,” she said quietly. “And I want to tell you about Mike. About what happened. But you go first.”

Cam drew a deep breath and moved closer to her. Took her hand and twined their fingers together. “Ashley and I… we had to get married. She got pregnant. I’ve always thought she did it on purpose, but I have no proof. And there never will be.” He circled his thumb over the back of Jo’s hand. “Bottom line? It doesn’t matter. Fiona is everything to me, so it’s hard to regret it.

“Everything was good until Fiona was born. She was a colicky baby -- really fussy. And Ashley couldn’t handle it -- the constant crying, the lack of sleep, walking the floor with a screaming infant. By the time Fiona was about five months old, the colic had disappeared. But the damage was done.

“Ashley began drinking heavily. She’d always been a drinker, and thank God she quit while she was pregnant, but I wasn’t shocked when she began drinking again. She’d go out at night, leaving me with Fiona. Come home late, usually drunk. I knew the marriage was over, but I tried to keep it together for Fiona’s sake. A baby needs her mom.”

He sighed. “Ashley died when Fiona was three. She’d gone out drinking again, and several hours later I got a call from the Ogden police department. She’d driven off the road and into the river. It looked as if she’d tried to get out of the car, but her blood alcohol was three times the legal limit. And the police told me that car doors are very hard to open once the car is in the water.”

“She drowned?”Jo asked.

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