BLACK CRIMSON (Fairy Tale Quartet #4)

5. Camille-2

Yet he didn’t seem out of place in such a neat and tidy, white-collar setting either. With the comfortable, nonchalant way he dominated that stool, he also belonged exactly where he was.

It was quite a dichotomy of characteristics I was picking up from him. Which intrigued the heck out of me.

“Who’s that?” I found myself asking, hoping either Kaitlynn or Isobel would know.

Both women turned.

“Oh, no one,” Kaitlynn said distractedly and almost immediately turned back to the table of food as she tried to draw me around with her. “Did you try these little brownie muffins?”

“Yep.” And I had no interest in brownie muffins. I wasn’t done looking my fill at the masterpiece of masculinity across the room. I nudged Isobel’s arm. “Iz?”

She tipped her head thoughtfully. “Isn’t that Brick?” she asked before blinking at Kaitlynn for confirmation.

“Brick?” I wrinkled my nose and shook my head. “No. Sweetie, I know the wall’s made of brick. I asked who the guy was, as in that beefy hunk talking to Gabby’s husband.”

“I know.” Isobel sent me a funny glance. “And his name is Brick. Short for Broderick. Brick Carmichael. He’s Hayden’s brother.” She turned to Kaitlynn again. “Isn’t he?”

“Hayden’s…? Oh!” I blinked in surprise and then tipped my face into a frown when I decided the two men didn’t really look like brothers. They both had dark hair, and then, yeah, that was pretty much it. Broderick had a wider nose and broader facial features, while Hayden—

Wait a second.

I zipped my attention accusingly to Kaitlynn just as Isobel explained, “I met him when Kaitlynn and Ezra had him and Hayden over for dinner one evening at my dad’s place.”

“That’s your stepbrother,” I realized, talking past Isobel and gaping at Kaitlynn. “The one with the sexy name that you told me was a womanizing charmer.”

She winced out a guilty cringe before grudgingly admitting, “Yeah... That’s Brick.”

“Then why…?” Confusion reigned in my head until I started to put the pieces together. Her guilty expression, his rugged good looks. And suddenly, my mouth fell open as I focused on Kaitlynn again. “He’s who you’ve been trying to keep me from, isn’t he?”

Wow. Guess I wasn’t that good of a friend to her after all, since she wanted me nowhere near her brother. That news didn’t sting at all. Nope.

A shamed flush coated Kaitlynn’s face as she bit her lip and confessed, “I’m so sorry, Camille. It’s just that you seem to like all those happily-ever-after, romance-type books, and—and—”

“Yeah,” I said slowly, not comprehending. “I do. So what?”

“Yeah,” she repeated, beginning to look desperate and worried. “And well, Brick’s great and all. I love him to pieces. He’s fun and personable and pleasant, and I think you’d really like him. And he’d definitely like you…” As her words trailed off, she cringed. “I’m sure you guys would hit it off. But then he’d crush you when he moved on because he would move on. In all the years I’ve known him, since I was seven, I’ve never seen him focus on just one girl before. He’s always been too busy paying attention to all of them. He’s just a free spirit that way, you know. And I didn’t want you to get hurt because of it. You’ve become way too important of a friend for me to be able to handle him hurting you. I mean, I’d have to get mad at him for just being him, and it’d turn into a big, sloppy mess. And…you know.” She sighed out an exhausted breath before sending me apologetic puppy eyes. “But if you want to meet him...”

She winced, leaving the decision up to me.

And that’s when all my hurt feelings melted into a gooey ball of love for my blond friend. It wasn’t that she thought I wasn’t good enough for her brother, like I had first assumed, it was because she cared about me. And just holy wow. That was incredibly sweet.

“You know what,” I said on a slow nod as I glanced back at Kaitlynn’s stepbrother. She was right. Everything about him did appeal to me. I could already see my entire future in fast-forward. I’d fall way too fast and way too hard, and then he’d think I was clingy and gross. Until finally, bam, I’d be abandoned in no time flat, once again completely alone, but a little more damaged and broken afterward.

So, yeah, I could probably do without that.

“I think I’m good,” I told Kaitlynn, glad I had a friend like her who actually worried about my happiness enough to go out of her way to keep me from harm. “He sounds like he’d make a great book hero,” I added. “But in real life...meh. I don’t need to meet him.”

“Really?” Kaitlynn looked pleased and relieved all-in-one as she nodded slowly and smiled at me. “Okay, then,” she announced as Gabby neared us to join the group. “We’ll just steer clear of him, then.”

“Hey, are you guys having a good time over here without me?” Gabby accused with a frown as she crowded in between me and Isobel, only to steal a spinach-artichoke roll-up from Isobel’s plate and wolf it down. “How dare you? I didn’t want this stupid party in the first place, and now you all are just abandoning me out there with all those people and laughing together without me? What the hell kind of friends are you? And what in God’s name did I just put into my mouth?”

She pressed a hand to her lips as she chewed. Then she closed her eyes and moaned.

“Good, isn’t it?” Kaitlynn bragged.

“Mmph. Give me another,” Gabby muffled out from a full mouth, making Isobel lift her plate in offering. “Yes. That hit the spot. I’ve been too nervous to eat anything all night long. God bless you guys. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“Here, you can take the whole plate,” Isobel told her. “I haven’t eaten anything from it yet.”

“I knew you were my favorite.” Gabby grabbed the plate greedily and began to stuff her face.

“Looks like Miguel and Oscar are having a good time, at least,” Kaitlynn said, tipping her head toward Gabby’s brother and father, who were talking to an older gentleman who looked a lot like Ezra. Oscar leaned heavily on a cane, doing very well with his new prosthetic leg, I thought, while Gabby’s ten-year-old brother laughed at something the older Ezra had just told him.

“Is that your dad?” I asked Isobel, making an educated guess.

She nodded, looking affectionately pleased as she glanced his way. “Yeah. Looks like he’s having a good time too.”

“I was kind of hoping you’d coax Mabel into coming tonight,” Gabby spoke up, nudging my arm, which made me sigh.

“I know. I just can’t seem to get her too far from the apartment these days. She loves getting company, but she likes to stay in most of the time, too. Sorry.”

“Meh, it’s all good.” Gabby shrugged. “I guess that means I’ll just have to go see her.”

I nodded, grinning in encouragement. “Definitely. She’d love that.”

Gran always liked to host guests.

“It’s a date, then,” Gabby announced as my stomach tightened with unease.

I was kind of beginning to worry about Gran’s growing reclusiveness. It made me wonder if something was wrong that she wasn’t telling me. She didn’t act in any way sick or not like herself, but you could never be too sure. She wasn’t exactly young and at the top of her game.

As the conversation continued around me, featuring Gabby, who was wondering what other kinds of delectable delights Kaitlynn had catered in, I decided that I should contact my grandmother’s doctor tomorrow and schedule an appointment for a simple check-up.

The location of her clinic was in a section of town I hadn’t searched yet in my Black Crimson hunt. This way, I could pull double duty whenever she was having her appointment and walk the streets while I waited for her to finish.

Because my mysterious hooded figure was being annoyingly elusive lately.

It’d been four days since he’d tagged the pharmacy near my apartment, and I’d gone out every evening since then, creeping on any man who looked as if he might be out for a jog.

I hadn’t found him yet.

After approaching multiple men, and then getting a funny look from all of them for interrupting their run—and nothing similar to the chatty, amiable way Black Crimson had interacted with me—I was beginning to lose hope. Which just made me want to look harder.

I’d actually felt a little antsy about coming to the party tonight because being here meant I couldn’t be out there, looking. But Gabby, and Kaitlynn, and Isobel were all worth the delay, so I forced myself to focus on them and enjoy our time together.

We spent the rest of the night talking. Their significant others even found their way to our group, until only the seven of us remained.

“I can’t believe it,” I told Gabby as I hugged her goodbye at the door. “This is the first party I actually closed down.”

I usually went home early from these kinds of events, way before the last person left.

“Thank God you did,” she congratulated, gripping my elbow as she pulled away. “I probably would’ve hidden in a corner, rocking the whole night, if you guys hadn’t been here for me. You three kept me sane, I swear.”

Aww. Don’t cry, Camy. Don’t cry!

Managing to shrug nonchalantly, I tossed her an affectionate grin. “Well, that’s what friends are for.” And because I was starting to feel a little misty-eyed, I turned to her husband. He was debonair gorgeous, but a very closed-off, hard-to-read person and not at all like someone who’d inspire a lot of happy, emotional tears. Focusing on his polished handsomeness, I nodded. “Hayden. It was so nice to meet you.”

“You too.” He nodded back politely. “I’ve been curious about the book-club organizer Gabby’s always mentioning.”

The book-club organizer, huh? Okay, I’d go with that name. Since it was true.

It was no Mayhem, though.

Sending Gabby an archly questioning glance, I repeated, “Always mentioning me, huh? Wow, Salazar,” I told her, calling her by her maiden name as I fluffed my hair and primped. “I didn’t know you were such a fan.”

“Oh, geez.” She rolled her eyes and nudged my arm. “I tell him about the crazy, insane ideas you have, maybe.”

“You mean, the crazy, awesome ideas you wish you’d come up with first,” I countered with a fluttering of my eyelashes.

She snorted sarcastically. “Yeah, those.”

I laughed. “Well, I need to get my crazy, awesome ass home before I turn into a pumpkin. It’s about three hours past my bedtime.”

“Okay, then. Be safe.”

“Always.” I waved the happy newlyweds off and opened the front door to a wide set of steps.

As I descended them, I realized I wasn’t all that tired; I felt strangely wired, as if I could go another three hours or more.

And you know what? Since I was up and my car was parked about five blocks away, anyway, it probably wouldn’t hurt to walk a little further, maybe get some Black Crimson searching in tonight after all. It might be late, but this was a super-nice neighborhood. I should be fine.

Hell, any thief around here probably had more money on them than I did.

As I hurried off the last step, excited about the prospect of getting in a little hunting time, I plunged my hand into my purse, searching for my keyring that had my pepper spray on it—just to be prepared.

And from behind me, a voice said, “How you can find anything in that monstrosity of a purse is beyond me.”

“It’s a pur—” I started irritably, ready to set the speaker straight, only to realize, hey, someone had actually gotten it right for once and called my basket a purse.

Shocked, I whirled around to find a familiar figure lounging on the short retaining wall which doubled as the railing for the stairs that went up to Gabby and Hayden’s front door.

“Oh! It’s you,” I blurted in surprise.

With his torso propped up by the building, his legs were stretched out before him, one knee bent so he could dangle his wrist over it and hold a tumbler full of ice and amber liquid between his fingers.

Damn, but he looked good sprawled up there like a gargoyle or more aptly the statue of David come to life.

He was as beautiful and perfect as fine art.

I blinked, attraction stirring inside me.

I guess I was going to meet Kaitlynn’s stepbrother tonight, whether I wanted to or not.