The Secrets that He kept (second book in the secrets that we keep series)

Chapter thirty six (Ava)

        Camille watched with....amusement? As Hunter took my bags from me and walked down the hallway. Camille gestures towards the chair in front of a full wall sized window. I sat in it happy to rest my feet. She turned off the tv most likely looking for conversation. I knew nothing about her.

"Thanks for letting us crash." I say gratefully. She kicks up her feet and nods. "Do you love him?" I look at her like she's crazy. "Hunter?" I ask stupidly. She nods her head and her crazy curly bun flops around. "With all my fucking heart, soul, and then some." She smiles and flips up so she was looking right at me.

"I'm glad he found you." I crinkle my forehead in concentration. Glad he found me so his father could murder me? She sees my confusion and clarified. "I'm glad he found you because he seems so much better off now, even on the run." I don't know how to respond so I just smiled and looked at the fancy vase on the table.

"I loved him once too." Camille's words shocked me and I instantly felt jealousy swirl around in my gut. It's instantly washed away when she says, "But then I found Jack." She kicks her feet up again and lays back on the couch. "Hunter and I never dated if that's what your thinking. We were so close, he was nearly my brother, husband and family all in one."

"And then he left me. Running after his father." She shook her head and I studied her dark eyes lost in the memory.  "I tried to go with him but he had knocked me out with a solid punch. And there's nothing more that I appreciate than that." She smiled faintly and stared at the high ceiling. "Jack found me crying in an ally way. It felt like I had lost everything. He carried me to his home and it took two days for me to speak."

I studied her again absorbed in her story. "The rest is history. Jack and I are strong even when he's out doing god knows what." I laugh along with her and I speak my fears allowed for the first time. "He's gonna leave me." Camille sat up and looked at me pity clear in her face. "He is gonna do the same thing."

Camille raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow. "No, he will come back for you. I see the at he looks at you." I smile faintly. "Yeah but if he dies....." I don't finish that sentence, let alone thought. Camille sighs and opens her mouth to say more but Hunter walks out and sits on the floor next to my feet. I ran my fingers through his hair. It could be the last time I touch him.