After the Storm(121)

            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.