“Of course I do.” His smile looked a little forced, but Carmen appreciated that he was trying. “I want you both safe and happy.”
“We’re safe and happy here.”
Jake opened his mouth as if to argue but wisely thought better of it. Instead, he stood. “I’ll come back to see you as soon as I can,” he said.
“Promise?” Sophie’s eyes were shiny, as if she was holding back tears. “You won’t leave us again, will you?”
“No, I won’t leave.” He gave her a last, desperate look before leaving.
“Will you be all right here by yourself?” Carmen asked Sophie. “You can come stay with me if you like.” The tent she had brought with her wasn’t that big, but she would make room for the girl.
“Mom will be back soon.” Sophie smoothed her hand over the seat cushion. “She’s going to be all right, isn’t she?”
“We’ll make sure of it.” Carmen gave the girl’s shoulder another reassuring squeeze. She was so young and trying to be so strong. Carmen wanted to pull her into her arms and hold her tight, but she sensed Sophie would resist. After all, Carmen was a stranger to her, and the life she had led so far had probably taught her not to trust strangers. She wasn’t even sure she could trust her brother.
“Will you talk to Jake?” Sophie asked. “Convince him that Mom and I are fine here. We don’t want to go back to Grandma and Grandpa.”
“Why don’t you want to go back to them?” Carmen asked.
“Because Mom is happy here. Her old friends and the drugs and everything aren’t here. She’s safe here. I want her to be safe.”
“I’ll talk to him,” Carmen said. “But I doubt he’ll listen to me.” Jake struck her as a man who made up his own mind, without relying on the opinions of others.
“He likes you,” Sophie said. “That will make him listen.”
Carmen might have argued with that but let it pass. “You come to me if you need anything,” she said and left the little trailer.
Jake was waiting outside, frowning at a couple of men who were watching him from beneath a tree across the clearing. “More of Metwater’s goons?” he asked, as Carmen came up beside him.
Carmen studied the two shaggy-haired young men, boyfriends of a couple of the women she had met. “They’re not part of his bodyguards,” she said. “But they’ve probably heard you’re not supposed to be in camp.”
“Maybe I should hang around a little longer, to show Metwater what I think of his trying to order me around,” he said.
“Don’t.” She gripped his arm. “You’re not going to help your sister and mother by raising a stink like this. Let me handle this. I promise I’ll make sure Phoenix and Sophie are all right.”
His eyes met Carmen’s, and the intensity of his look burned into her. “Looking after them isn’t your job,” he said. “It’s mine. And it’s my fault they’re here right now. If I had stayed home, instead of leaving them to run off to the military, Sophie would be safe in Houston with our grandparents. She’d be enrolled in school and worrying about boys her own age, instead of living here in the wilderness with a phony prophet and his whacked-out followers.”
“Or maybe things would be worse, and your mother would still be an addict or dead of an overdose.” She faced him, toe to toe. “You won’t accomplish anything playing the blame game.”
He clenched his jaw. “You’re right. But I’m not going to let you or Metwater or anyone else keep me from looking after Sophie and my mom now.”
“Where is Sophie’s father?” Carmen asked.
“Who knows? He was another free spirit Mom hooked up with for a few months during one of the periods when I was living with my grandparents. He’s a musician out in California—a real flake. I think he’s seen Sophie twice in her whole life.”
“That must be hard on her.” Carmen saw her own father at least once a week.
“Probably, but you adjust.”
The tension in his voice tugged at her. “Who was your father?” she asked.
“Another guy who ran out on her when she needed him,” Jake said. “A high school classmate—apparently a senior who was headed to college. His plans didn’t include her and a kid.” He shrugged. “I never met him. Never wanted to.”
Was that true? Carmen wondered. Surely a boy would want to know his father. Her own dad was an anchor in her life, a source of love and guidance and so many qualities that made her who she was. Being rejected by a parent must have hurt Jake deeply, even though he didn’t show it. “None of you have had it easy, then,” she said.
His jaw tightened. “We did all right. Most of the time. And I’m going to take care of Mom and Sophie now.”
“There’s nothing more you can do today,” she said. “You should go before there’s trouble.”
“I’ll leave camp—for now. But I promise, I’ll be keeping an eye on this place—and on you.”
He turned and stalked away, leaving her breathless in the wake of this pronouncement, a feeling curling up from her stomach that was part fear and part attraction she really, really didn’t want to feel.
Jake hiked back to his camp in a secluded copse, just off a dirt road. The sun beat down, hot on the top of his head. A soft breeze brought in the smells of sage and pinion, and the trill of birds. Such a peaceful, idyllic scene. Some of Metwater’s followers probably saw it as a kind of Eden. The Prophet no doubt painted it that way. But Jake sensed something rotten underneath all that beauty.
Carmen must have sensed it, too. He wasn’t sure if he bought her story about being undercover in the camp to check on the conditions for the women and children. Why carry concealed if you were only doing a welfare check?
He hadn’t made her as a cop when he’d first seen her, walking with the women. Did that make him sexist? Or was it only because his attraction to her had sidetracked his thinking? Her cool, reserved attitude intrigued him. He liked that she didn’t rattle easily, and he’d be a liar if he didn’t admit that her slightly exotic beauty added to her appeal. She was the type of woman he’d want guarding his back in a fight—and by his side in bed.
The odds weren’t good either of those things would happen. Officer Redhorse didn’t trust him—not even to look after his own mom and sister. Maybe her instincts were better than his, and she sensed he wasn’t entirely leveling with her. But he had plenty of good reasons for keeping secrets just now.
In any case, he didn’t have room in his life for a relationship right now—he hadn’t had that kind of room for a long time. Before the army, family drama had stolen all opportunity to get close to anyone else. He’d been caught between his concern for his mom and sister, and his anger that they were always so needy. His mother was over forty, and she seemed incapable of looking after herself. She was always in trouble—trouble with creditors, trouble with the law, trouble with drugs.
Four years ago, he had told himself things weren’t that bad. His leaving might even be the kick in the pants she needed to accept her responsibilities and get clean. When he had finally gotten over his anger enough to touch base with her, six months after he’d enlisted, he had been more annoyed than worried when he discovered she had left town. He told himself she would turn up again. She always did.
Then he had been deployed, and time had gotten away