Page 67 of The Fix
His eyes softened. “My fighter.” He paused as he looked at her. “Just promise me you’ll keep yourself safe from here on out. No more going out on your own and putting yourself in danger. I can’t lose another daughter, Cam.”
Her heart twisted at the raw pain on her dad’s face. She reached out and squeezed his hand. “I’ll be safe, Dad. I’m just researching now, okay? I’ll let you—and the authorities—know if I find anything.” He nodded, and she let go of his hand. “Just one more thing. How can I look at the cases you worked on?”
“My cases? Which ones?”
“All of them. Or, no, let’s say going back five years from the date of the crime.”
“The digital files are with the courts. But I kept personal notes on most of them. Those are up in the attic in boxes. But Cam ... what would you even begin looking for?”
“I don’t know. But it’s a place to start. Maybe something will jump out at me.” She had no idea what that might even be, if anything. But what else did she have?
Her father helped her bring down the six boxes of files and put them in her trunk. She wasn’t hopeful she’d find anything—after all, the police had already looked at that angle, but they hadn’t read through every detail of every case. And she didn’t think they’d gone back that far either. While Cyrus was sleeping, she’d begin that monumental task.
An hour later, after sitting on the patio in the sun and sharing a glass of lemonade with her father and Gigi, she and Cyrus packed it up and got back in the car. Cyrus looked happy and tired, his nose slightly sunburned. He looked like a little boy who’d spent a few hours simply being a kid.I’m going to give you more of that. I’m going to make up for all the hardships you’ve survived.
“Ready to go home?” she asked him.
He nodded. “Can we come back?”
“Of course. My ... I mean, your pops said anytime.” Her phone rang, and she glanced at it in the console. It was a call from California. “Give me one second to answer this,” she told Cyrus.
“Hello, Camille?”
“Yes, Detective Mauro. Is everything okay?”
She listened for a moment, tears welling in her eyes. She thanked him and hung up and then met Cyrus’s eyes in the rearview mirror with a smile that felt a little wobbly. “Our blood matches,” she told him. “I’m your mom.”
“I already knew that,” he said very seriously.
She laughed and swiped at a tear. She supposed she did too. “We need to celebrate,” she told him. “And I have a really important question for you now.”
He scrunched his forehead down as he looked at her with at least a small amount of concern. “What?”
She paused for effect. “Pizza or burgers?”
His face blossomed in a smile, full of childish pleasure.
“Sushi.”
She laughed. Gosh, she loved this beautiful, unique little boy. “Sushi it is.”
Chapter Forty
They’d done it. Rex still found himself turning his head randomly to find the computer screen where he could check on the well-being of the little boy for whom they had desperately searched. And he had to continue to remind himself that Cyrus was fine. He was with Cami—his mother—and Rex’s role, such as it’d been, was done. He was no longer needed.
Which was good. It meant success. But it also meant saying goodbye to the partnership he’d formed with Cami, and damn, he missed having her by his side, even if he didn’t miss the circumstances under which she’d been there.
He was used to being debriefed after a mission. But this time, he supposed, he’d either have to forgo one, or give himself time to filter through all the emotions he’d held at bay while emotions had been impractical.
He’d gone to text her a hundred times that day but held himself back. She needed time with Cyrus. Time to get him settled, and time to get to know one another. That would be a long process, but these first days were important as far as establishing trust. He didn’t want to get in the way of that.
He’d called his mom and let her know he was back. She hadn’t asked many questions and seemed distracted by something—probably one drama or another going on in her own life. He was partly annoyed and partly grateful that he didn’t have to explain what had happenedwith Cami and Cyrus. It would do him well to start thinking of the whole experience as another one of his jobs, one that he was proud of, but one that he’d eventually leave behind.
But not quite yet.
He sat at the kitchen table, where Cami had first asked for his help. He knew Cami was planning to visit Hollis in the coming days if possible. Maybe she’d already reached out to him via his campaign. Maybe they’d already spoken. He hated the way that idea caused his stomach to cramp.
He typed Hollis’s name in the browser, punching the keys more harshly than need be, and then clicked on what looked like his campaign website. A close-up of Hollis’s face wasn’t exactly what he needed at that moment, but there it was all the same. Rex already knew that if he had hoped that Hollis Barclay had peaked in high school, he’d be sorely disappointed. Because he’d seen him on TV and a few billboards, too, in recent months. Maybe the guy had even become a better version of himself. He’d like to think so, especially considering he was seeking power by way of a political office, and because Cami was counting on it as she spoke of their son to him.
