Stealth

by Janie Crouch

  In his training and work for both the US Army Rangers and then Omega Sector, Cameron had been taught how to use perps’ weaknesses against them. It was one of the reasons Cameron had excelled at undercover work—his ability to pinpoint fears of the enemy. And use those fears without mercy.

  He never thought he’d be using that training and skill to manipulate the one woman he once thought he might spend the rest of his life with.

  Cameron spun Sophia around and put his hand over her mouth as he had at the warehouse. She immediately tensed up and started struggling. When he didn’t release her after a few moments she began fighting in earnest.

  Cameron, protecting his face as best he could from her clawing hands, dragged her over to where the lone dresser stood in the sparse room. She kicked at it, causing it to hit up against the wall.

  He could hear laughter from the other rooms.

  Cameron removed his hand from her mouth.

  “Let me go!” Sophia yelled as soon as his hand was gone. Cameron released her for just a moment and she flung herself around to face him, breaths sawing in and out of her chest.

  This wasn’t going to work. They couldn’t hear her if his hand was over her mouth, but she didn’t scream if it wasn’t. Cameron looked around. The room had a tiny walk-in closet. Maybe that would be small enough to terrify her.

  Cameron steeled himself against the thought of Sophia’s terror. He stepped toward her and this time she did scream as he reached for her.

  “No!”

  His hand covered her mouth again. He could hear whistles and catcalls from outside the door.

  “Just a couple more minutes, baby. Hang in there,” he whispered into Sophia’s ear as he dragged her toward the closet.

  When Sophia realized where they were headed, she fought him harder than before. Panic took over. She got a good punch to his cheek before he could catch her arm. That was going to leave a mark. But he didn’t let it stop him.

  He caught the door with his foot and pushed it open. The closet was practically empty, just a couple of his shirts hanging in it. It wasn’t big by any means, with barely enough room for two people, but it wasn’t tiny. Only someone who really struggled with tight spaces would have a problem being in it for a short amount of time.

  Cameron dragged the struggling Sophia into the enclosed space, keeping her back to his chest. He pulled the door closed with one hand and released her mouth with his other.

  Sophia screamed as if she was terrified out of her mind. Which she was.

  Cameron had no idea what obnoxious comments or noises the members of DS-13 were making about this. He couldn’t hear anything over Sophia’s screams.

  Sophia fought in a violent frenzy—kicking, clawing, throwing wild punches. Cameron just tried to keep her from hurting him or herself. He kept her as close as he could to his body. After what seemed like the longest period of time in the history of the world—and probably even longer to her—but was really only a few seconds, Cameron opened the door and let go of Sophia. She immediately pushed away from Cameron and all but dived out of the closet, landing heavily on the floor.

  She pushed herself across the floor, as far away from him and the closet as she could get, sucking in deep gulps of air the entire time. When she reached the far corner of the room she dragged her knees up to her chest and rocked back and forth. Cameron stood just outside the closet, watching her, unsure what to do. He had no idea why she was so claustrophobic, but it was definitely not something she had any control over.

  In that moment Cameron hated every single thing about his life in law enforcement. He was here to catch bad guys. But right now the good guys were the ones who were paying the price.

  Cameron took a step toward Sophia and she cringed away from him, whimpering. “No, please…” She stretched out her arms as if to ward him off.

  “No,” Cameron whispered. “I won’t do that again. Never again.”

  Sophia nodded her head, but still shied away from him. Cameron didn’t want to move any closer to her. She’d been through enough. Down the hall, Cameron could hear the TV blaring. Evidently the guys thought the show in Cameron’s room was over.

  He hoped it had been worth it. Because looking at Sophia right now, Cameron didn’t think there was any way it could possibly have been.

  Cameron took a few steps toward her then sat down on the floor so he could be eye to eye with Sophia. Her breathing was still labored, and every last ounce of color was missing from her face.

  “Sophia, I’m so sorry.” Cameron spoke softly. He knew this room wasn’t bugged, but couldn’t take any chances on any member of DS-13 overhearing them.

  Cameron moved a little closer to Sophia but she shied away again. Cameron rubbed the back of his neck, where permanent tension seemed to have lodged, at least since he had first seen Sophia again this afternoon.

  He wanted to give Sophia the physical space she needed, but the things he needed to say couldn’t be said from across the room. Moving slowly, he scooted over until he was next to her against the wall.

  Sophia just huddled into her corner and didn’t look at him. But at least her breathing was slowing down a bit, wasn’t quite so labored.

  “Sophia, I’m so sorry,” he said again. As if saying it again would make everything okay. “I had to make them think that something bad was happening in here.”

  Sophia gave a quiet bark of acerbic laughter.

  Cameron shook his head. “I mean, something they would think is bad. You know what they expected.”

  Sophia nodded her head slightly, but didn’t say anything. They sat there in silence for long moments. Cameron tried to figure out what possible words could make this better.

  “Things have changed since I saw you last, five years ago,” Cameron said softly, close to her ear.

  “I know,” Sophia all but hissed, but just as softly. “The Cameron Branson I knew five years ago never would’ve done this.” She gestured toward her face with her hand, then pointed toward the closet with a shaky arm.

  “Sophia, I’m sorry I hit you earlier. I had to take action immediately. And the closet…” Cameron shrugged wearily. “It had to be done.”

  Sophia turned away from him again without saying anything.

  “It’s not like I planned any of this. Damn it, Soph, I’m just trying to keep you alive.”

  Sophia covered her face with her hands and began to cry. Looking over at the arm that was now exposed because her short-sleeved blue shirt was ripped at the shoulder, he could see some angry red marks on her arm. Those were from him, probably during the closet fiasco. They were definitely going to leave bruises on her pale skin, even though he had only been trying to help.

  Although it pained him, Cameron hardened himself against the ache he felt at the thought of marring her beautiful skin. The bruises would help sell their story to DS-13.

  “At least tell me you’re here, you know…working,” Sophia finally said to him.

  Cameron appreciated that she left out the word undercover. That word could get them both killed quicker than almost anything else they could say. “Yeah. I’m with the agency.”

  Cameron knew he was being vague, but didn’t think now was the time to go into Omega Sector and his life there. When they had known each other before, he had just been coming out of the Rangers. Sophia didn’t know anything about Omega—even most people who worked in the FBI knew nothing about it.

  Sophia let out a sigh and turned toward him slightly. “Well, that’s a relief. I wasn’t sure.”

  She wasn’t sure? “Seriously? What did you think, I had left the Rangers and joined some sort of crime syndicate since we last spoke?”

  “Stranger things have happened.”

  Cameron shook his head. “I guess.” He must really have been undercover too long if an old friend couldn’t
tell if he was pretending or not. Maybe he had been in the darkness too long.

  Cameron didn’t have time for metaphors about darkness and light in his life. He had a job to do: justice for his partner’s killer and retrieval of Ghost Shell. And now making sure Sophia got out of this alive and relatively unscathed.

  He definitely did not have time to think about how beautiful she was, or how much she had meant to him five years ago, or how often he had thought about her since.

  Keeping her alive. That was the most important thing.

  * * *

  WAS HE HONESTLY offended that she couldn’t tell if he was really working undercover or not when she was sitting here with bruises and a racing heartbeat from what he had done to her?

  Sophia looked at the closet again. From across the room, it looked so benign. Obviously there was plenty of air throughout both this room and the closet. She very clearly knew that now. But five minutes ago there had been no way to convince her mind of that.

  She pulled her knees closer to her body. She believed Cameron when he said he was undercover. She even believed he was doing what he thought was best when he had hit her earlier, and everything that had happened since. But that didn’t mean she wanted him to touch her again.

  But part of her desperately wanted him to touch her again. She had wanted that for five years. But not here in this house with those filthy men in the next room.

  Sophia glanced sideways at Cameron. He looked as exhausted as she felt. Sophia didn’t know much about undercover work, but she was sure that her entrance into the picture had to have thrown a wrench into whatever mission he was on.

  “Have I totally screwed things up for you? I tried to get out of the warehouse like you said, but that big guy was out there,” Sophia offered softly.

  Cameron looked surprised that she was talking to him at all. Now that she was calming down she was realizing that Cameron really had been working in her best interest.

  But she still wanted out of here as soon as possible.

  “Well, your presence was definitely unexpected. But so far it looks like there was no harm done to the case.”

  “Really?” Sophia couldn’t believe that was true.

  “Yeah, evidently how I’ve been treating you has been helping solidify my bad-guy reputation.”

  “How long have you been…working with them?” Sophia turned toward him slightly.

  “This group is called DS-13. They’re basically into everything—weapons, drugs, money laundering. And now it looks like they’re expanding into full-on terrorism.” Cameron gestured toward the rest of the house with his thumb. “I’ve been in this house for about three weeks, but first made contact eight months ago.”

  “What do you do? I mean, what do they think you do?”

  “They think I’m a midlevel weapons dealer. What you walked in on today was a sale I had set up.”

  Sophia shook her head. Just sheer bad luck. If Bruce had gotten the pictures when he was supposed to have… “If they did a sale, can’t you make arrests?”

  Cameron shifted a little closer to her, but this time Sophia didn’t feel the need to move away.

  “I could’ve arrested everybody there, and would’ve tried if things had gotten much more out of hand.”

  “Tried?”

  Cameron reached over and pulled up her ripped sleeve, as if he could reattach it to the rest of her shirt by sheer will. “There were four of them, all armed, against just you and me. And only I had a weapon.”

  “Not very good odds, I guess.” Sophia shuddered thinking about it.

  “No, I doubt if either of us would’ve made it out alive.” Cameron shrugged and smiled crookedly at her. “But I would’ve tried.”

  “Don’t you have a wire or something? Backup?”

  “Sometimes. But not in deep cover like this. It’s too complicated and dangerous to have surveillance all the time. DS-13 is smart—that’s why they chose this house. Surveillance vehicles would be pretty easy to spot around here.”

  “But what if you need help?” Sophia couldn’t believe they would just send Cameron in by himself.

  He smiled at her again and she found herself shifting a little more toward him.

  That cocky smile. Lord, how she’d missed it.

  “Honey, I can take care of myself. But I do have ways to bring in backup, if I need it.”

  “Like today?”

  “Believe it or not, today was mostly for show. The buyers were picked up not long after they left the warehouse. The whole thing was just supposed to show DS-13 how helpful and well-organized my buys could be for them.”

  Cameron stretched his long legs out in front of him. “The agency was supposed to have blocked everything off so nobody would be around those warehouses.”

  Sophia rolled her eyes. “Yeah, well, I got way lost and ended up coming through some farmer’s back field to get to the warehouses. If the FBI was watching the roads, that’s why they didn’t see me.”

  Cameron nodded as if she had just solved some puzzle for him. “I didn’t want to make any arrests because these are just lower-level bad guys. I’m trying to get their boss.”

  Sophia watched, a little frightened, as Cameron’s face and posture hardened right before her eyes. Whoever this “boss” was, Cameron wanted to take him down. Badly.

  “No luck yet?”

  “Haven’t even met him. This sort of work is tricky—you can’t push too hard or it backfires on you.”

  Sophia nodded. She couldn’t imagine the sort of pressure being undercover would put on someone. Never knowing if you were making the right choices, or when you may be discovered.

  It had definitely made Cameron Branson into a harder man than when she had known him five years ago. Then, he had still been strong—physically, mentally, in all possible ways. But now there was an edge to him that hadn’t been there before. One that scared her a little.

  One that had probably saved her life earlier.

  Almost as if her body was moving of its own accord she turned toward him. He did look exhausted. His black hair, grown out from how short it used to be, was touching his collar. Before she could stop herself, Sophia reached out and tucked a stray curl back from where it had fallen onto his forehead, nearly to his eyes.

  For a moment they looked at each other. Sophia forgot where they were, the danger they were in, the fear she had felt. She only saw Cameron.

  Something slid under the door before a fist beat loudly on it. Sophia jumped back at the sound, the moment—whatever it was—shattered.

  “Cam, man, you alive in there? I need to talk to you.”

  Cameron stood up and walked over to pick up whatever had been slid under the door. “Yeah, Fin. I’ll be right out.”

  Cameron walked back over to her, and reached his hand out to help her up. Sophia hesitated for just a moment before taking it. “What is it he put under the door?”

  Cameron walked with her over to the edge of the bed then sat down with a sigh. He held up what was in his hands: plastic zip ties—used everywhere to secure and fasten all sorts of things.

  Sophia shook her head, confused. What were the ties for? Whatever it was, Cameron wasn’t too happy about it.

  “Poor man’s handcuffs,” he finally said. “I guess Fin wants to make sure you don’t try to escape or anything while he and I are talking.”

  Oh. “Okay, I guess.” Sophia was determined to keep it together. Now that she knew Cameron was undercover, she needed to help him if she could. Not being hysterical was the most help she could offer right now.

  “Just don’t try to struggle against them. They’ll cut into your wrists if you do.”

  Sophia swallowed hard and nodded.

  “I’m going to run one set around your wrists and one around your ankles since there�
�s nothing in this room to secure you to. It will look more authentic that way if someone checks.”

  Sophia’s panicked glaze flew up to his. Someone checking?

  A fist pounded on the door again. “Damn it, Cam. Hurry up. You can finish doing whatever you want to her after we talk.”

  Cameron spoke to her quickly as he pulled the plastic fasteners around her ankles. “I’ll be as fast as I can, but sometimes Fin likes to hear himself talk.”

  Cameron tightened the ties so they were tight but not painful. “If anybody comes through that door that isn’t me, start screaming your head off. Immediately. Don’t wait to see what they want.”

  Sophia nodded. That wasn’t a problem. She knew her screaming voice was definitely in working condition.

  Cameron slipped the other ties around her wrists, and pulled them tight. He helped her so she was sitting up against the wall the bed leaned against.

  Cameron leaned down and put his forehead against hers. “I’m going to get you out of this. I swear to God.” He lowered his lips and kissed her gently, then turned and strode out of the room without another word.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Obnoxious catcalls met Cameron as he walked down the hall and past the living room. He stopped and gave the guys a little smirk and bow—even though it made him sick to his stomach—before turning and heading into the kitchen to see Fin.

  Fin sat at the table, nursing a beer. Cameron made his way to the fridge to get a beer of his own as Fin looked him up and down.

  “Worth it?” the man asked.

  Cameron gave his most sly smile. “Absolutely.” He held his beer up in silent salute as he took the seat across from Fin.

  Fin gestured toward Cameron’s face. “Looks like she may have given you a bruise there on your cheek.”

  He thought of all the marks on Sophia’s arms. “She’ll have plenty of her own.”

  Fin cackled at that. “Well, I’m glad it was worth the trouble.” Cameron settled back in his chair, somehow managing to keep the smile on his face.