After the Storm (KGI #8)(83)

Warmth seeped into her heart, assuaging the ache that had settled in at the thought of losing him. That it was all too good to be true.

“I don’t know what I did to deserve you,” she whispered. “But I thank God every day that you found me—us.”

He chuckled. “And here I was wondering what I’d done to deserve you and Travis and Cammie. Guess we’ll just both be grateful together.”

Cammie got up from where she was lying on the floor next to Travis and crawled onto the couch, inserting herself between Donovan and Eve. She emitted a sleepy yawn and then promptly cuddled into Donovan’s side.

Eve watched as his face softened and transformed as he stared down at the little girl in his arms. He stroked her curls and Eve doubted he even realized how he looked right now. His gaze so full of love. It astonished her that this man could so readily open his heart to children that weren’t his own. But then he’d made it clear he did consider them his already.

She glanced over to see Travis’s head propped in the palm of his hand, and he was no longer watching the movie. He was watching Eve, Cammie and Donovan. There was such hope—and contentment—in her brother’s eyes that Eve knew she’d made the right decision for them all.

“How are you feeling, Travis?” Donovan asked, seeing the teenager watching them.

There was a note of fatherly concern in his tone that formed a knot in Eve’s throat. Travis wasn’t unaffected either.

“I’m good, sir. I appreciate your concern. What you’ve done for me—us. I’ll never forget it.”

Donovan smiled at the teenager. “You can stop calling me sir. We’re family. You can call me Donovan or Van.”

“Can I call you Daddy?” Cammie piped up.

Eve glanced down, surprised to see her awake. She’d been well on her way to sleeping, snuggled firmly against Donovan’s side. Now she looked up at Donovan with shyness—and longing.

Donovan brushed a kiss over the top of her head. “I’d like that, pumpkin.”

Cammie wrinkled her nose. “You call me lots of different names. How come?”

Donovan laughed. “That’s because you’re cute as a button. And they’re pet names. You’ll find that in my family, we call all the women we love by special pet names. You’ll get used to it. It just means we love you.”

“Oh,” Cammie said, looking delighted.

Eve took in Cammie’s obvious pleasure, and a hint of foreboding took hold. It would devastate Cammie—and Travis—if this didn’t work out. She’d been right to hold off, not to get swept away and say things carelessly. She had more than herself to think about in this situation. She had Travis and Cammie and there was still the very real threat of her stepfather.

No matter Donovan’s assurances that he would take care of the matter, no one was above the law, and Eve had certainly broken the law. She’d kidnapped her siblings. Oh, it wasn’t kidnapping. She’d saved them. But without proof, with the solid evidence that Walt possessed detailing her mental instability, she’d committed a crime, and crime didn’t go unpunished.

And if she was punished, Travis and Cammie would be punished even more. For they would go back to their father and the evil he planned to unleash on them both.

A cold chill overtook her just thinking of that sweet, innocent baby in the grasp of a sick, twisted monster.

“Eve?”

Donovan’s concerned voice broke through her dark thoughts, and she turned to see him looking at her intently, worry reflected in his green eyes.

“What’s wrong, honey?”

She shook her head. “I was just thinking. About . . . him. About what I’ve done. I’m a criminal in the eyes of the law. You and I may know—think—differently, but there it is. I could go to jail. Or to a mental institution and they’d be left at his mercy.”

She trailed off, not wanting to give voice to her many fears. She didn’t want Cammie and Travis to share those fears. She wanted for them the absolute knowledge that they were safe and protected from all evil in the world.

“Come here,” Donovan said in a tender voice, pulling her to rest against Cammie so that Cammie was firmly sandwiched between them.

He put his arm around her, giving her a reassuring squeeze. Then he leaned over to kiss her temple, leaving his lips there a long moment.

“I don’t want you to even think about him. The only thing I want you thinking about is me. Our life together. How many kids you want. Leave everything else to me. I’m not going to let him hurt you again, Eve. And I’m never going to allow Cammie within a mile of him.”

“I want you to promise me something, Donovan,” she said, looking earnestly up at him. She wanted him to know how utterly serious she was about this.

“What is it, honey?”

His tone was concerned, but he kept his voice low so that they were unheard over the movie Travis and Cammie were focused on once more.

“If something happens to me.”

She shook her head when Donovan immediately began to protest. She brought her finger up to place over his lips, instilling firmness in her gaze.

His lips tightened underneath her fingertip, but he remained silent as he waited to hear the rest.

“If the police arrest me. If somehow he finds me and takes us, takes us all. No matter what happens to me, I want you to swear to me that you’ll fight for Cammie and Travis. That you’ll do whatever you have to in order to wrest them from his grasp again. If I’m not jailed and he doesn’t ensure they throw away the key, he’ll likely have me institutionalized. He has so much evidence supporting my so-called mental illness. It’s possible. Anything is possible in his world. But swear to me that you’ll protect them. They’ll need you, Donovan. If they don’t have me, they’ll need you—and your family’s protection.”