Free Irish Eyes (Stolen Hearts Romance) by Annie Jones Page A

vehicle behind them. I saw it all.”
    Her hand closed over his. His eyes fixed on the spot but he still caught the flutter of movement as Julia reached over to give Fiona’s hand a squeeze as well. Julia did not hesitate to lend comfort, even to someone she had just met and both he and Fiona drew strength from her generosity of spirit.
    “Michael was gone. It had to be instantly. He didn’t suffer but my father…” Cameron dipped his gaze downward. “I did what I could while we waited for the ambulance but I knew… So I asked straight out where to find the gold. He smiled and I swear there was a light in his fading eyes like none I’d ever seen and he said, ‘Where would you be thinkin’ to find a pot o’ gold, man?”’
    “At the end of a rainbow,” Julia murmured then gasped softly, realizing she’d said it out loud.
    “Exactly.” He sat back, his head high. “I’ve devoted as much time as my work would allow to tracing the gold in order to return it and release my family from the burden.”
    He dragged a breath, filled with the swirling aromas of neighboring lunches, into his lungs. “I’ve followed any clues— many of them red herrings—one by one, always with Michael on my heels. Finding that billboard last night was a wild hunch. Something else had been advertised there for most of this year then that lottery sign came up and I remembered another version for that same game had been on that sign around the time of the accident. It was a fluke. Devin was with me and I stopped anyway because...”
    He exhaled, closing his eyes against the wave of obligation he felt for his nephew’s plight. His jaw clenched and his lips formed words he hardly realized he spoke aloud. “What was I thinking? It’s all my fault. All my fault.”
    “No, now none of that.” Fiona gave his shoulder a shake.
    If he hadn’t seen her hand on his arm he would not have known it was there. The stabbing pain tore at his heart. He could scarcely swallow.
    “You only intended the best, Cameron.” Fiona squeezed his arm. ‘You meant to provide a male role model for Devin. A better alternative to Michael. I don’t blame you.”
    “I never should have—”
    “That doesn’t change things, Cameron.” Fiona’s voice grew raspy with emotion. “Let’s just focus on what can be done to bring Devin back to me, where he belongs.”
    He nodded.
    “This gold has taken too heavy a toll on the O’Dea family” Fiona tossed her napkin onto the table like a warrior throwing down a gauntlet. “You’ve paid too dear a price already, Cameron. I won’t see your sorrow added to by letting you heap pointless guilt on yourself.”
    Julia gave him a veiled glance, a curious look in her eyes. But he couldn’t explain to her, not yet.
    Cameron waved his hand in the air, as if to physically wipe away the conversation. “It will all be done soon enough, with Miss Reed’s cooperation.”
    “I’ll help any way I can,” Julia said. “But first, you have to tell me what to do.”
    “Nothing.”
    “Nothing?” She blinked at him in disbelief.
    “Nothing yet. You see, Devin hasn’t let on that I have the gold. Michael thinks we’re still searching. We need a way to lure him out alone so I can catch him.”
    “Why not just tell him you know where the gold is, and when he comes to that place, just grab him?” Julia made it sound so simple.
    “Because he’s too smart and too suspicious to fall for that.” Cameron swept his hand back over his hair, the resilient curls springing against his palm. “Michael would never believe I would just let him have the gold. And if he did show up, that’s when we would find ourselves in the most danger.”
    Both women watched him, their eyes large with anxious anticipation.
    “We have to let Michael think that he is still tailing me, that through me he still has a chance of swooping down and taking the gold right out from under my nose.”
    “And how will you do that?” Julia asked.
    “We