Causing Havoc by Lori Foster Read Free Book Online Page B

reached for his hands and squeezed tight. "I'm sorry, Dean, but I was only
    two. Stil a baby. So much happened, our parents dying, the funeral, friends and neighbors coming
    and going. Everything was strange and different. You were just... gone, like Mom and Dad, and Lorna
    made a point of not talking about you."
    Watching Dean, Eve saw the tightening of his jaw and the tel ing way he eased his hands from
    Cam's grip, as if he couldn't quite bear to be touched while discussing this particular topic.
    They were both hurting so much, Eve wished for a way to help them.
    Cam drew a calming breath. "When I was sixteen I found some old albums in the attic." Her smile
    flickered and was gone. "There were photos of you holding Jacki and me, playing with us, spraying
    me with a garden hose and kissing Jacki's head...."
    "We were siblings. Things like that happened." Dean looked more remote than ever. "What's your point?"
    "I was curious about you, so I asked Lorna. It upset her that I found the album, and I realized then
    that I never saw photos of us before our parents died. There were pictures taken after that, mostly by
    friends or neighbors, but there weren't any of me as a baby and none of Jacki as a newborn. And ...
    none of you at al ."
    "I guess when she got rid of me, she got rid of every trace of me, too." He narrowed his eyes.
    "What about our parents? Have you seen photos of them?"
    Cam shook her head. "Not many. At least, not before I found that album."
    Dean smirked. "If Lorna had known that album existed, she'd have thrown it out, too."
    Cam stared at nothing in particular, lost in her confusion. When she looked at Dean, her need to
    understand was plain. "You're saying she never intended for Jacki or me to know about you. We'd
    have grown up as sisters, unaware that we had a big brother, too."
    "That's obvious, isn't it?"
    "But..." Cam frowned hard. "I don't understand why she'd do that."
    "She didn't want any reminders, I guess."
    And, Eve thought, Cam would have grown up sensing that something was missing from her life,
    without knowing what. For a certainty, Lorna never would have told her.
    Seeing the stark pain on Cam's face. Eve knew her friend had already realized it. too.
    As if trying to soften the blow. Dean told her, "I have pictures if you're curious about our parents."
    Cam stared at him. "I'm curious about you. I want to understand al this. I want to know you."
    Dean's jaw tightened. "If you want." he continued, ignoring Cam's plea, "I can get them sent here. Or I can make you copies."
    Confusion shone in Cam's expression. "How is it that you have photos when I don't have any?"
    "When Grover took me, he also took two albums and some of the framed pictures that were sitting
    around." Dean tugged at his ear. "He didn't steal them or anything. Lorna didn't want them."
    "She told him that?"
    He shrugged. "Grover said because it'd be a painful reminder to you and Jacki of what you'd lost."
    With an absent nod, Cam accepted that explanation. "I suppose that could have been her
    motivation."
    "Maybe."
    Straightening with new resolve, Cam again took his hands. "She didn't lie to me. Dean. When I
    asked her about you, she told me you were my brother. But she said you wanted to go with Grover.
    She said you wanted the adventure. . . ."
    "Then she did lie, didn't she?"
    At Dean's statement, Cam looked so lost, so wounded, that Eve put her arm around her. Dean
    made note of the gesture, and looked away from them both.
    "Do you real y think," he said, "that at eight years old, after just losing both my parents, I wanted to leave everything that was familiar to me? My friends, my belongings? You real y think I wanted to
    leave my life?" He turned back to Cam. "Lorna lied to you."
    Dean's voice never wavered; it didn't go higher or deeper.
    He'd careful y, and skil ful y, masked his expression— except that Eve read the truth and hurt in his
    eyes, even if Cam didn't.
    "Why would Lorna do that?" Eve asked. It didn't