Snakes Among Sweet Flowers (13 page)

Instead, Cam grabbed his phone and waved it at the kids where they were gathered in front of the sink, watching the wallet turn the water brown as Luanne scrubbed away. “What do you like on your pizza?”

All three stared at him with blank expressions. Finally, Tony said, “There are choices?”

Cam chuckled and pulled down a menu from the refrigerator. After pulling out a chair and having a seat at the kitchen table, he read off the usual choices and showed them pictures of the specialty pizzas. After a round of appreciative hums and gurgling stomachs, Cam decided they needed a variety for taste testing.

TOMMASINA HAD
followed the kids out the back door after lunch while Cam tossed the wallet in the washer on the gentle cycle, then returned to his work in the living room. The pizza had been good, and the kids had enjoyed eating all the different kinds. It had gotten loud as they’d talked about what they liked and didn’t. While Cam wasn’t used to kids or even a lot of noise in his house, he decided he kind of liked having these three around.

Before going back out, Luanne had tugged on Cam’s sleeve. “Do you think I might be able to take a piece or two home to my brothers and sisters to try?”

Cam planned to consolidate all the leftover pizza and send it home with them. He was pretty sure they had never had pizza from a restaurant before. As Cam sealed over a bright red streak of spray paint, he considered the kids, especially Galen’s reaction that morning. He was well aware of what caused a kid to flinch like that. He’d done it for years at any quick movement, and no one had ever stood up for him. He couldn’t let that happen to these three. They were good kids and deserved better than that.

About an hour later, the group came back in through the kitchen and Luanne poked her head into the living room. “Mr. Sanders?”

Cam glanced around to see her hair plastered to her head with sweat. The two boys stood behind her in the same condition.

“You think we could get another glass of that Coca-Cola before we go back to working?”

“You drink all you want, kids. And why don’t you stay inside for a while? I need a little help in here once you’ve had your break. Go on now.”

As he heard the refrigerator open and glasses filling with ice, Tommasina came strolling into the living room and stopped. She seemed displeased with how everything was covered in tarps. She wrinkled her nose, presumably at the sealant smell, and turned away, strolling off to find some other place to laze away the afternoon.

“Sorry, girl,” he apologized to her retreating form.

Cam spent most of the afternoon teaching the kids how to tape off the baseboards and crown molding, when to use a brush and when to use a roller, and even a few minutes on how not to get paint all over their siblings. He’d put each of them in one of his work shirts, which hung down to their knees, so it wasn’t such a big deal for their clothes, but he really wanted as much of the paint as possible to go on the walls.

When Rhodes came to pick them up, they were washed and sitting on the front porch, ready to go. Cam waved good-bye as they drove off, taking home two whole pizzas once the consolidation was complete, then closed the door and headed into the kitchen where he pulled the wallet out of the dryer and started putting all the cards and papers back in as neatly as possible.

He needed to do this before he talked himself out of it. He knew he would too. He had already been back and forth on it with himself all afternoon. At one point, he even tried to figure a way he could convince the kids that the billfold wasn’t really the one Mrs. Evans had lost.

The wallet wasn’t completely clean, and it looked faded where they’d scrubbed at it, but it sure looked a hell of a lot better than it had all dripping with mud. After it was all put together, Cam left it on the counter and headed down the hall to the back bedroom, where he pried the floorboard up and pulled his money jar out. He counted out fifteen hundred dollars and then kept counting.

AS JACKSON
drove through town and out toward Ruby Mae’s house, the three kids in the back kept the chatter going. He had to chuckle as they went on about how much fun it was to paint and what toppings they had gotten on their pizzas.

“One of them had pineapple on it!” Tony didn’t sound at all pleased with that.

“I thought it was good,” Luanne chimed in.

Jackson had to admit that Cam was doing well by the kids. Seeing the way he treated them was changing his opinion of the man, that was for sure.

“And guess what else happened today!” Galen cried out. “We found Mrs. Evans’s wallet out in the backyard!”

Jackson’s gaze shot up to look at the kids in the rearview mirror as they all started talking over each other again.

“Stop!” Jackson said. “One at a time, tell me what happened.”

“Well, it was really muddy and all that money she said was in it was gone,” Luanne said. “And at first, we thought Mr. Sanders was mad at us, but then he said he just wanted to clean it up some and took it. He said he’d give it back to her.”

“Did he now?” Jackson ground his teeth. So much for changing his opinion of the man.

He stayed quiet the rest of the way to drop off the three kids, and after he’d made sure they were in the house, he turned the cruiser back toward Ida and Charles’s house.

IDA AND
Charles sat side by side on the sofa. Ida handed the faded wallet to Jackson as he dropped into the chair opposite them.

“I heard a knock on the door, and by the time I got there, the wallet was all that was on the front porch. Well, and this note.” Charles handed the folded piece of paper to Jackson, who read it to himself.

The Watson kids found this on my property today. They might deserve a reward. They’re good kids. Anyway, sorry for what I done.

Camden Sanders

“So he admits to stealing it,” Jackson said. “I’ll take this as evidence.”

“And I disagree,” Ida spoke up. “I’m sure he means he’s sorry for spilling his tea at dinner. It made quite a mess, didn’t it, Charles?”

Charles nodded and smiled at his wife.

“So you are going to let him get away with stealing your money?” Jackson asked, shocked.

“Open it.” Ida gestured to the wallet.

Jackson unsnapped the faded fabric purse and opened it to see bills bulging from the compartment behind her driver’s license and other cards. He pulled out the stack and started counting.

“There’s over three thousand dollars here.” Jackson stared at the bills.

Ida nodded. “Yes. I couldn’t have earned that in interest if I’d put that money in a bank.”

“But Ida,” Jackson began.

“Maybe,” Charles said in a wheezy voice, “we ought to let”—breath—“him steal your wallet”—breath—“every month.” Charles was gasping but smiling, and Ida laughed along with him.

Jackson shook his head. “How do you know he didn’t just give it back because he got caught?”

“Because he didn’t get caught, Jackson. He could have explained away why it was in his yard. We could have suspected, but we couldn’t have ever known for sure. Now here is where we allow him to change.”

Jackson wasn’t as sure as Ida and Charles. In fact, he was pretty damn pissed that Camden Sanders had taken these people’s hard-earned money, and he planned to tell the asshole about it.

CAM SAT
in his truck down the block from the Evans residence until Ida had answered her door, and then he drove himself back home and started working in the garage. It was cooler now, and with the bay doors open and the fan on, it was almost pleasant.

He had most of the cabinets cleaned out and washed up. He’d found tools of all kinds and salvaged as many as possible, only trashing the ones that were without any hope of being useful. The part he needed for the lift in the second bay had been ordered and should be in sometime the middle of the next week. He still had a long way to go, but it felt good to make some headway with his list of chores and see his business and house coming together.

He leaned back against the counter with a contented sigh. As much as it might stick in his craw, it also felt right nice to have finally returned that money to Ida and Charles.

Cam heard a car drive up and wandered up to the bay door to find Jackson Rhodes climbing out of his Mustang. “Howdy, Sheriff. You changed clothes to come back here? Is something wrong with your car?”

“I told you I’m not a sheriff,” Rhodes said through gritted teeth, coming straight toward Cam at a fair clip with no apparent plans to slow down.

Cam took a step back and then another as Rhodes pushed up into his face, grabbing a handful of Cam’s shirt for good measure.

“You stole that wallet.”

“I did,” Cam said just as aggressively, pushing his face forward until his nose touched Rhodes’s.

“How could you steal from a little old lady?” Rhodes growled, still pushing Cam backward.

“I don’t know. Sometimes I do things I regret later,” Cam said in the same growl, attempting to get a similar hold on Rhodes.

“She might forgive you, but I know you are a slimy, no-good—” Rhodes lost his train of thought as Cam shoved back and the heel of Rhodes’s foot caught on the edge of the ramp for the hydraulic lift.

Cam tightened his grip on the neck of Rhodes’s T-shirt in an effort to catch him, but that didn’t stop the big man from falling back, just added a resounding rip as the material gave way under the strain.

Rhodes landed with a thud and Cam followed him down. The landing pushed Cam’s fisted hand up into Rhodes’s chin, causing Rhodes’s teeth to clack around his
oomph
when Cam’s weight dropped on him.

“You son of a—” Rhodes rolled and put Cam beneath him before Cam could say a word, then drew back his fist and let it fly. Cam only had time to screw his eyes shut before the meaty punch slammed into his jaw.

God, that hurt. It was like being hit by a freight train right in the mouth. He tasted copper and felt light-headed, but he sure as hell wasn’t going down so easy. Cam shoved against Rhodes’s chest, one hand meeting with bare skin through the rip in his T-shirt. Cam was so shocked by the contact he jerked his hand back.

Rhodes was rearing back for another punch, and Cam knew he had to stop that before it happened. He reached up, took hold of Rhodes’s head on each side, just at the ears, and pulled forward with as much force as he could muster, bringing Rhodes in for one mean head-butt.

The move did exactly as intended. Rhodes gasped, dropping his arm and rolling off Cam and onto his back on the cement garage floor. Cam rolled with him, hoping to hold down the insane officer.

“This is police brutality,” Cam screamed down at him.

Rhodes groaned. “I came here as a civilian, you asshole.” With that, Rhodes bucked up to push Cam off and swung again.

Cam dodged the wild punch, then grabbed Rhodes by the wrists and pushed them back over his head. “I swear to God, I will head-butt you again if you don’t stop.” From this close proximity, Cam noticed blood coming from Rhodes’s bottom lip and a goose egg coming up on his forehead. There were also bulging chest muscles displayed beneath the rip in Rhodes’s T-shirt. And wasn’t that a sight to see! Cam shook his head and refocused his attention on Rhodes’s face.

With very little struggle, Rhodes pulled his hands from Cam’s grasp, rolling at the same time to displace Cam’s seat of power. As Rhodes bucked beneath him, right before he was sent back to the floor, Cam felt the hardness of an obvious erection grinding against his own.
Interesting.

Cam tried to struggle out from under Rhodes but was caught by a tight grasp around his throat. Suddenly Cam couldn’t breathe and instinct took over. He writhed and kicked and bucked beneath Rhodes until the hand loosened and Rhodes’s expression changed from anger to something else entirely. Cam stared up into brown eyes the color of a fine whiskey and felt his heart skip a beat at the intensity he saw there. Then Rhodes’s mouth crashed down on top of his own. The kiss was as brutal as the fight and tasted of blood, but Cam couldn’t say that was a bad thing as he attempted to catch his breath around the tongue invading his mouth.

Cam pushed his hands up underneath Rhodes’s ripped T-shirt, fingertips brushing against a whole lot of hard muscles and silky fur, then took charge of the situation by pushing Rhodes onto his back again.

“Mmm…. Now this is much better,” Cam mumbled against Rhodes’s lips, pushing up the shirt so Cam could get a better look at Rhodes’s chest. He licked over golden brown nipples as Rhodes held on, rolling his head back and forth on the cement floor with a moan of pleasure. Cam sucked each in, one after the other, flicking them with his tongue and playing Rhodes like a violin. Then headed farther south.

Rhodes looked down in what appeared to be shock, but Cam wasn’t giving him time to come to his senses. Cam wanted some of the big man, even if he might live to regret it.

Rhodes rubbed over Cam’s shorn head, and for a moment, Cam wished his hair was long enough to hold on to. He unfastened Rhodes’s pants in a hurry, but had to pause long enough to admire the big, thick cock hidden beneath the white briefs. He’d known Rhodes would wear BVDs. And wasn’t that sexy as hell.

“I think that’s the prettiest cock I’ve ever seen,” Cam admitted before opening up and taking it as deep as he could. He hummed as he felt the big dick throb against his tongue and above him, Rhodes groaned with need.

Cam started moving, setting up a steady rhythm as he pumped and licked and sucked to his heart’s content. Rhodes was making mumbled encouraging sounds, which might have been words but were spoken too softly and interrupted too often by grunts and moans to tell for sure.

Cam caught Rhodes’s balls in one hand, then gently tugged and massaged in the same rhythm as the bobbing of his head. Jesus, Rhodes was beautiful, and this might be Cam’s only chance to worship at his altar. Rhodes’s narrow hips began to pump up in time with Cam’s strokes, and it wasn’t long before Rhodes tensed.