Regrets - Chapter Thirty Five
Cam comes clean to AJ about the past in "Half The Truth", and Nicole gets a shock in "Unfinished Business"
Thursday - Week 3
(part 2 of 4)
Half The Truth - Cam
The bar AJ picked was dark wood and shadows, a low hum of conversation under the glow of neon beer signs. Not polished, not pretty; just the kind of place where no one cared who you were if you paid your tab. Cam liked it immediately.
They slid into a cracked-leather booth at the back. AJ went to the bar, came back with a whiskey for himself and a shot with a beer back for her. She didn’t ask, but he knew. Cam tossed the tequila back in one go, felt the burn rip down her throat, and pushed to her feet before the glass hit the table. Another shot, this time she carried it back herself, set it down hard, and didn’t touch it yet.
Silence sat between them until Cam broke it.
“Nicole Templeton. Kabul.”
Her voice was low, stripped clean.
“She was mine. I was hers.”
AJ’s glass paused halfway to his mouth, but he didn’t speak. Cam didn’t give him the chance.
“Army. Deployment. It wasn’t supposed to be a forever thing, but then she was. We were good. Not easy, but good. Until it all went to hell.” She rubbed the back of her neck, the scrape of callus grounding her. “Someone saw something. Or thought they did. The CO, Devereaux, filed a misconduct report. Said Nicole was fraternizing. Claimed she saw something inappropriate. I was supposed to be the fallback story. The scapegoat.”
Her throat tightened, but she kept going. “There was an escort mission. I went out. Shadow lost her leg. I caught a bullet. And while I was in the hospital, Nicole got pulled…transferred stateside before I could say goodbye. By the time I was cleared, she was gone.”
AJ’s brows pulled in. “You think Devereaux forced her out?”
“I think Devereaux used the chaos to erase her. Nicole disappeared from my world like she’d never existed. And I let it happen. Let anger calcify into silence. Let pride pretend it didn’t hurt like hell.”
AJ leaned forward, voice tight. “And you didn’t think to mention that before Burke walked in and cut me out?”
Cam met his eyes. Steady. “Not in that room. Not when half the precinct’s wired for gossip. She’s your client, AJ. Not mine. And Burke was looking for a read. She got one. On me…not you. Now you’ve got one on me too.”
He exhaled hard, but he didn’t argue. Just let her keep talking.
“I thought Nicole would wait. Or reach out. But she didn’t. And I let that harden me.” She finally reached for the second shot, swallowed it down, and hissed at the burn. “So yeah, when I realized she was the client this morning at Sorelle, it hit like a live round. She looked almost the same. Softer maybe. But it wasn’t the years that hit me…it was the ache of unfinished things. My body recognized her before my brain did.”
Cam leaned back, jaw tight. “And the truth is, AJ, I don’t fade easily. Not from war. Not from her. Ten years gone, and one look across a courtyard dragged it all back like it was yesterday.”
Silence settled again, thick this time. AJ swirled the whiskey in his glass, finally muttering, “Damn.”
Cam half-laughed, but it came out flat. “Yeah. Damn.”
He shook his head. “You should’ve told me.”
“You know now.”
He downed the rest of his drink. “So what’s the play?”
Cam steadied her hands against the table. “We move on this today. No delays, no doubts. Get the meet done, get her briefed, and then I need out. Desert, range, anything to burn this off before it eats me alive.”
AJ studied her but didn’t push. He got up for another round instead.
Cam sat in the booth alone, the tequila still burning a line down her chest. She wasn’t calm, and she wasn’t detached. She was a fuse. And the match had Nicole’s name on it.
AJ returned with two shots and another beer. He slid them across the table, then pulled out his phone and tapped out a quick text. The reply came fast, just a few words.
“4:30. Her suite at the spa.”
Cam glanced at the screen. More than four hours. Too much and not nearly enough. Her jaw clenched. She flexed her hand once, then stilled it against the table.
“Alright,” she said. “Let’s make it count.”
Outside, early afternoon heat clung to the pavement, turning the parking lot into a shimmer of glare and dust. It was barely past one, but the sun felt closer than it should. Cam walked ahead, didn’t look back. The heat pressed in as she walked, the kind that clung to skin and made every breath taste like dust. She wasn’t sure if it was fear or discipline, but either way, it was the only thing holding her together.
Unfinished Business - Nicole
Nicole’s phone buzzed at 12:02 PM, right as she slipped out of the spa lunch Elizabeth had staged like a Vogue shoot.
AJ: Need a meeting. Now.
Her pulse jumped. She ducked into a side path between the citrus trees and texted quickly.
Can’t leave Sorelle. Elizabeth has me pinned for optics.
A second later, another thought pressed forward. She typed fast. Come here. Use the garden path near suite 139. 4:30 PM. No lobby.
AJ: Copy.
She stared at the screen a second too long, the edges of the glass hot against her hand. Then shut it off.
4:25pm
She’d spent four hours in performance mode, lunch with Elizabeth, smiling for stakeholders. Now, alone in the suite with Alexis, the mask was off, and she had no idea what came next. Nicole paced the suite, nerves flickering just beneath the surface. Alexis sat on the arm of the couch, phone in hand, but watching closely.
AJ had never insisted on an in-person drop before. Not like this. And now he was coming here. To her. To break cover.
If her PI was showing up in person, it meant something had shifted. Badly.
Nicole crossed to the bedroom, pulled out a cream blouse and tailored blazer. Nothing flashy. Clean lines. Hard edges. Control. Manufactured, but still armor. Her fingers trembled at the buttons, and she forced them steady.
At 4:30 PM on the dot: three knocks.
Nicole opened the door.
AJ stepped in first. Calm, direct, body angled just enough to block her view of the hallway.
And then, she stopped.
Cam.
No warning. No time to brace. Just her.
Her whole body froze. The air thinned, caught in her chest like smoke. Not because of what Cam had done. Because of what she had done. It all came back in a spike: the accusation, the fallout, the silence she’d wrapped herself in after that tribunal. Devereaux’s voice ringing in her ears. The file. The pressure. Her own betrayal.
She hadn’t just ended it. She’d run. Disappeared. Left Cam to carry the wreckage.
And now here she was.
Whole. Quiet.
Nicole’s heart cracked sideways, beating hard against her ribcage.
AJ crossed to the table like nothing had shifted. “This is Cam Spencer,” he said plainly. “She’s my associate. She is handling the digital trace and cleanup ops.”
Nicole swallowed hard. Her throat worked before her voice could. “This is Alexis Blackwell. She’s here for me.”
That was all she could manage. But the words held weight. Legal, emotional, both.
Alexis gave a small nod, her voice smooth. “Pleasure.”
Nicole felt the shift in her. Alexis sized Cam up…quick scan, fast math. Something in the bone structure. The edge. She saw it.
Nicole looked away first.
They sat, AJ at the table, Cam beside him, Alexis returning to the bar.
AJ opened a file folder and got straight to the point. “You asked me to keep digging after the first drop, into the other stuff we saw. Here’s what came with it: Aaron’s moving money. Shell accounts, coordinated transfer patterns. Cross-border connections, …some local contacts, primary ties in Sonora. His uncle’s there. It’s structured. Deliberate.”
Nicole’s stomach twisted, a hollow ache. “How certain?”
AJ tapped the folder. “Pattern’s clear. Financial flows match known operational structures. This isn’t amateur hour…it’s embedded.”
He slid the folder across. “That’s what turned up when I went deeper. The rest…” He glanced at Cam. “…came after.”
Cam leaned forward slightly. “The footage got cloned. We tracked who did it. Found him dead this morning.”
She let that land.
“We turned everything over this morning. AJ’s contact coordinated the handoff. Turns out the subject was already in the crosshairs. Eighteen-month observation window. Movement tracked back a year when he relocated here. Data syncs to known operational patterns. Financial inconsistencies, behavioral flags, escalating activity.”
She paused, letting Nicole process the message she was giving, in a language they both knew from memory.
“He’s not just exposed, he’s tagged. They’re building the picture, letting it develop. But he’s escalating, and if the subject gets spooked, he won’t extract clean. He’ll detonate everything on the way out.”
Cam held her gaze. “You’ve got enough now to validate what you already suspected. The rest? You draw your own conclusions.”
Nicole stilled. Twelve months. Her father had died nine months ago. She’d dropped Alexis after eight, right after the funeral. The math cut clean. Aaron had timed his return to the fracture.
Nicole tried to meet her eyes.
Cam didn’t give her the chance.
Her voice stayed level, clipped. “You stay clear. No joint accounts. No shared assets. No digital record of support. Stay off his grid, and you stay clean.”
Nicole glanced at Alexis, already jotting notes and then back at Cam. The tension in the room wasn’t just about financials. Cam was here. That meant more.
Her voice, when it came, was quieter. Measured. “You wouldn’t be here if this was just about money.”
A pause.
AJ looked at her. Then at Cam. His tone shifted, calmer, graver. “We found some things. I showed you a few of them already… and they led in a different direction. One that’s still unfolding.”
Nicole held his gaze. “So it’s bigger.”
AJ gave a single nod. “And it’s moving fast.”
The room felt both full and distant, voices low, the light outside beginning to shift.
But all she could feel was Cam.
Her posture. Her silence. The way she hadn’t once met her eyes. Not out of anger. Out of history.
Nicole felt her pulse at her wrist. It was slow and sharp, counting the space between them. This wasn’t just a briefing. This was a reckoning.
She breathed in, once. Then let it go.
AJ closed the folder. “Then we’re done here.”
Nicole’s voice caught as she stood. “Can you send the final invoice to my personal email?”
AJ nodded. “Will do.”
They moved toward the door. Nicole hesitated.
“Cam…wait.”
Cam stopped. Turned slightly. Still quiet.
“I…can we talk?”
A pause.
Then Cam said, flatly, “Not now.” She held a moment. Nicole watched her process, hold. It felt like a lifetime. Then, she spoke. “Later. After 8 PM.”
There was a break in the air. A hesitation. Nicole saw it. Felt it.
“There’s a small bar on the far side of the property,” she said quickly. “It’s quiet.”
Cam looked at her. Just long enough.
And for a second, one second, Nicole saw the old Cam. The one who waited near the commissary with a Jeep, a smile, and an energy bar. The one who held eye contact like it was a promise.
Cam gave a faint nod. Then she and AJ walked out.
The door clicked shut.
Nicole stayed frozen. The air felt split in two.
Cam didn’t look back. She never had to.
Behind her, Alexis downed the bourbon left in the glass. Then poured another, slower this time.
“She came first,” she said softly. Not bitter. Just observant.
Nicole turned. “You come first now.”
Alexis studied her face, searching for the truth in it. Then nodded, almost imperceptibly. She took the second drink but didn’t down it. Instead, she walked over and touched Nicole’s face, fingers brushing the edge of her jaw.
“You have unfinished business.”
Nicole’s throat tightened. “I thought I buried it,” she whispered.
Alexis just looked at her. “Some things don’t stay buried.”
She stepped back, eyes soft but sure.
“I’m going to go get smashed with your girls,” she said lightly. “They’ve got tequila and so many more reasons to hate this weekend.”
Nicole laughed, barely.
Alexis leaned in. Kissed her forehead. “I love you,” she said. Then paused. “Just… remember.”
And walked out.
Authors Note: We are finally here, the meeting of Cam and Nicole, 10 years of distance between them. What do you think will happen next?