Letting go of Audrey, he pocketed Cam’s phone off the desk, took one stride toward him, and raised the shotgun.
“No!” Audrey screamed, before he felt a sharp pain, and then darkness.
…
“You didn’t have to hit him so hard. I’m going with you.” Audrey dragged on her wrists as Brett pulled her down the hallway, peeking into rooms until he found the one he was looking for: hers. He shoved her toward the bed.
“Ha! I knew you’d bring it.” Ignoring her words, he marched to her open duffel bag on the floor, riffling through it until he reached the bottom. As he felt around inside it, he winked at her. She held her face stiff, expressionless, while inside she wondered what the hell he thought he’d find in there.
Even more confusing, what had happened to him? Winking? Playing Rambo? Brett didn’t do those things. Brett was all business. Had becoming a traitor changed him this much? Or did it go deeper, a fatal flaw that finally rose to the surface?
Her attention came back to him. He’d stopped pawing through her things. The concentrated frown on his face gave way to a smile as he pulled his hand from the bag, brandishing a…flash drive?
Had she had the evidence of his terrorism with her all this time? Seriously? Cam had been right all this time, and she hadn’t listened to him. Her heart sank. She never was thorough with her unpacking, just grabbed the main stuff out and zipped up the bag after each use. He had to have remembered that about her and used it against her. Damn.
“I wouldn’t have had to follow you out here and interrupt your romantic getaway if Cameron hadn’t caught my…friend the other night. He can’t seem to stay gone. But now I’ve got it. I knew you didn’t go anywhere without this piece of shit bag. Thank you for keeping my list of…chores…safe. I had to hide it in a hurry when you turned on me.” He frowned and leaned forward.
She reared back, thinking he might smack her, asking a question to derail his anger. “What’s on it?”
His thundercloud dark face cleared. He waved it before pocketing it. “Our plans. Everything for the future is on this baby. When my coworker failed the other night, it pissed me off, I’m not gonna lie.”
“That’s when you burned my shop!” She spat the words.
He crowded her personal space, caressing her face with his index finger. She made herself sit still, rather than back away in distaste.
“You were entertaining Harris. Once again, he was in my way.”
“But he was your friend. You and I were planning a future together. At least, I thought we were. How could you do all this? How could you betray the very job you’ve been trained to do?”
“Don’t judge me, Audrey. This has been a long time coming. You knew I wasn’t happy.”
“How could I know? You didn’t talk to me. You got distant. For hell’s sake, Brett, I thought you were having an affair!” What else had she been supposed to think, that he was becoming a terrorist? She never would have guessed that.
He stared at her like she’d grown two heads. “That’s why you were eavesdropping?”
“Of course. How could I have known you’d become a terrorist?”
His face purpled with anger. A stab of fear shot through her. If he could kill four soldiers, he wouldn’t hesitate to take her out. She needed to keep her mouth shut. No need to bait the bear when she was in his clutches.
The thought that he was suffering from some belated form of PTSD crossed her mind. Cam had certainly thought it possible. That, or greed. Whatever the cause, she refused to call him a victim of terrorist indoctrination. He’d made a conscious move to contact these terrorists, whoever they were, and it was up to her, and Cam, to take him, and his cronies, out, with whatever means necessary.
“It’s not terrorism. It’s fighting for what’s right. Soldiers should know what they’re dying for. Can’t you see that, Audrey? Instead, we’re sent out to police areas that don’t want us, to fight for countries that resent us. Our comrades die for nothing, in faraway places in undignified ways. It all makes me sick.”
“And killing soldiers on a training base here at home is better? I’m sorry, Brett. I don’t believe in terrorism, not even if the end justifies the means. Especially because of the means.”
“I knew you wouldn’t understand. You never could. That’s why we couldn’t make a go of it. Of us. You’ve got blinders on to anything but what you’ve been spoon fed for years. I can’t save you if you’re unwilling to see the truth. It’s probably better this way. Lay down on the bed.”
He towered over her. His momentary chattiness disappeared. And she was still just as confused. Her pulse tripled. Her stomach tightened. Sweat beaded on her skin. Was he going to rape her, since she hadn’t agreed with his reasoning?
He pulled some more zip ties out of his pants’ pocket. All her muscles clenched. She started yanking on her bound hands, forming her fingers into claws. Like hell she’d give in without a fight. Near the end of their relationship, he hadn’t taken what she’d freely offered, so why now? To get back at Cam? Or her?
He must have sensed her agitation, for he looked at her over the ties he held. “Don’t flatter yourself. Cam may take my seconds, but I won’t do the same.”
Relief flooded through her, but still she hesitated. Only when he pulled the knife from his leg scabbard did she conform, and even then, reluctantly. Before she was completely prone, he dropped the knife on the bed and grabbed her right hand, secured it to the bed post with one of the ties. He started around the bed to the other side.
Audrey began struggling, clawing at the binding with her now released left hand, stretching to reach the knife he’d dropped. She arched her back, trying to flip to her side, but her fight was short-lived. Brett grabbed her free hand and strapped it to the post.
“What the hell are you doing, Brett? I don’t even recognize you anymore!” Her raised voice trembled slightly. He moved to her feet in silence, binding them in the same way. At last he looked at her, fisting his hands on his hips.
“I’m making sure you can’t escape.” He leaned a shoulder on the spiral four-poster, as if this was a casual conversation instead of talk between captor and captive. He picked up the knife, concentrated on its blade, turning it back and forth in intense fascination. “Did you really think I wouldn’t pay you back for what you did to me, Audrey? You ruined my life. You could’ve turned a blind eye, but no, you ratted on me. Now my timeline is rushed. You and Harris have created one shit-show after another for me. Since you’re both secured, so to speak, I can get on with my plans. Maybe it’s not too late after all.”
Rousing from his comfortable perch, he holstered the knife and tugged on the ties around her feet experimentally, and then touched the bandage on her arm from the attempted home invasion. She expected him to ask about it, but he remained silent. At least she knew why her place had been broken into. Too bad she hadn’t figured out where the item had been hidden. She could kick herself.
Seemingly pleased with the lack of give in her bindings, he moved to the doorway. He turned around, saluted.
“Every soldier deserves a proper send-off. Don’t worry. I’m giving you a break. You’ll die from smoke inhalation long before the fire gets to you. Cam won’t be so lucky.”
“Why do you hate him so much, Brett? You saved his life once.”
A pained look crossed his face. “That was a different me. He was different, too. We had a cause we believed in back then. A common goal. And then Jimenez was killed, and Ross might as well be dead. I realized after that deployment that war doesn’t bring peace. It just brings more war. Heartache.
“I got enlightened. Cam didn’t. He isn’t the type to lose a few people for the greater good.” He met her gaze. His eyes became hardened chips of glass. “He’s a grandstander, always doing something better than the other guy to get noticed. Always receiving the accolades that should go to someone else. He’s
an eclipse, keeping everyone around him in his shadow.
“He wanted me to adhere to the old ways. Take my punishment. I can’t. Now I’m the one receiving all the notice. I’ll be the one whose actions will be remembered. Cam didn’t see the bigger picture.” He shrugged. “Plus, he hooked up with you.”
“But you’re killing us! How can you do that?”
One more lift of a shoulder. “You had the same opportunities to change sides as I did. Lots of them. Since you haven’t, I have to neutralize the two of you. My job must be finished in order for the roll out of the next phase,” he finished cryptically. Without another word, he disappeared down the hall the way they’d come.
Audrey began screaming. “Come back, Brett! Don’t do this! Set us free! We won’t stop you. We’ll say we couldn’t find you. Please!” The lies tumbled from her mouth, anything to halt this nightmare. But all she heard was his dying footsteps, followed by the slam of the front door. She screamed obscenities after him, letting loose with a barrage of words she hadn’t known she knew.
She paused in her struggles, listened to the silence within the cabin, and pondered the fact that she’d carried the proof they needed in the bottom of her duffel, not just now, but whenever she had traveled since he’d planted it. Packing, unpacking, and she’d never seen it.
Hidden in plain sight. Cam had been right. She’d fought his suggestion, endangered them both because she couldn’t imagine she’d be that clueless. But she had been, and now she and Cam were going to die. Her arrogance had cost them. Big time.
Tears leaked out from the corners of her eyes. For once, she didn’t fight them. What was the point? Cam was the first guy who understood her, treated her like an equal, and melted her with a look, a touch. She was going to die here, just steps from the man who had changed her outlook on everything. She deserved a last, good, pity party.
He’d come to her for help, shared his information with her, and showed nothing but respect for her knowledge and training. What had she done in return? Fought him every step of the way. Stupid, stupid, stupid. That’s what she was. She’d let down herself and her country because of her indecision. She couldn’t read the suicide bomber in Kandahar, and she sure as shit hadn’t seen Brett as a terror cell operative. She was worthless and had been right to retire when she did.
The one bright side to all of this was at least she hadn’t fought the attraction she’d begun to feel for Cam. She didn’t have to count herself as a total idiot. Except, now that she’d fallen under his spell, she was about to lose him. It all came back to her lack of initiative.
She tugged on her bindings with more force, the ties tearing her flesh. Like hell if she was going to go down without a fight. Exploring their new relationship, if she could call it that, was worthy of an escape. Cam was worth her finding the decisive person she’d been before that last tour of duty.
Last night in his arms had shown her she could be strong and feminine, tough and alluring, to the right man, and not be intimidating. Perhaps her problems with men had never been with her, but with the men themselves. It warranted exploring. With Cam.
Before her thoughts could travel further down that road of enlightenment, the smell of smoke reached her.
Chapter Sixteen
Cam woke up coughing, his head pounding like it was squeezed in a vise. He tried to touch his forehead, found his hands were bound behind his back. It took a minute to remember why. Oh yeah. Brett. How long had he been out? Where was Audrey? He hoped like hell she hadn’t been shot and left to die, although that fear didn’t wash. If he’d wanted to, Brett could have shot them while they were sleeping. No, it was more likely he’d taken her as leverage.
Cam coughed again. Smoke. That meant fire. He didn’t see any flames. Yet. It smelled fresh. He had no time to waste.
Rising to his feet, he got dizzy, swayed, and sat down, realizing that his ankles were also fettered. He couldn’t be positive that whatever was smoldering wouldn’t explode any minute. He should get the hell out of Dodge. But running around in the redwoods in his boxers wasn’t an option. No way. Besides, he wasn’t even sure he could run.
When he was confident he wouldn’t land face first on the floor, he rose more slowly, then wiggled his hands at his back. Audrey had pulled the zip ties tight. Good. If they were tight, he could break them easier. He spared another few seconds on Audrey and the night they’d had, how amazing she’d been. How perfect she was. And how screwed she’d be, unless he quit mooning over her and got his ass in gear.
He bent at the waist, wobbled, steadied, then held his breath before raising his bound hands behind him as far as they could extend before bringing them down on to his ass while pulling his fists apart. The tie snapped in two. His wrists stung momentarily.
He checked his face wound. His fingers came away sticky with blood. He’d been out long enough for it to coagulate. A shotgun butt to the head. Not a bullet hole, at least. It was a wonder he could still think from all the pummeling his skull had gotten recently.
He hobbled over to the desk, pulled out a pair of scissors, and cut the tie at his feet before investigating the smoke. The striped kitchen rug and the corner of the wood island were on fire. The cause was a poor man’s grenade, a Molotov cocktail. Just as he reached for the couch blanket to smother the flames, they jumped from the rug to the cabinet that housed the gas stove. Time to go.
He grabbed his clothes from the floor, stepping into them while swaying on first one foot, and then the other. He jammed his bare feet into his shoes, pocketing the socks for when he was out of harm’s way. The flames were dancing up the kitchen walls now, the smoke billowing, clogging his nostrils as the fire gained strength. He looked around the front room. Brett had snagged his M17, but there was no time to search Zack’s cabin for the weapon Cam was sure the paranoid bastard had hidden.
Feeling stronger by the second, which was probably the adrenaline talking, he ran to the front door, snatching one of Zack’s caps hanging on the wall hooks. Just as he twisted the knob, there was a whoosh from the kitchen as the flames gathered strength from all the wood cabinetry. He crossed the threshold to fresh air, could have sworn he heard a faint shout over the rush of burning wood. He paused on the porch, cocked his head, ignoring the heat at his back.
He thought he heard the sound again. Ice cubes of fear trickled through his body. It wasn’t possible. He’d been left to die in the burning cabin, while Brett dragged Audrey with him as his get-out-of-jail-free card. Hadn’t he? Unless…he hadn’t.
His eyes rounded at the realization that Brett had left Audrey in the back of the cabin so that if Cam did get loose, he wouldn’t know about Audrey and would, in a sense, be her murderer by leaving her behind. What a sick bastard.
He reentered the cabin. The fire had engulfed the island. Any second now the stove was going to blow, and them with it. Flames licked along the floor, a burning obstacle he’d have to jump over in order to get to the back bedrooms. He paused and coughed, swiping at the tears running from his eyes. The smoke was thickening.
He heard her voice again, the underlying hysteria in it. He grabbed the scissors from the desk, covered his nose and mouth with his forearm, and exploded into action. Leaping over the flames, shoulders bouncing off the hallway walls, he scanned all open doorways on the fly.
He found her, spread-eagled on the bed in her designated room, blood oozing from her bound wrists. She’d been tugging on her bindings for a while. She coughed, head canted toward the closed window. Her body sagged with defeat. His heart broke. She was defenseless, believing she would burn alive in this wooden tomb, unable to free herself but continuing to try.
“Audrey!”
She turned at his voice. The smoke tears gave way to relief tears as she cried out his name. “Cam! Oh my God, you heard me! I was afraid that if you woke up, you’d chase after Brett and leave me here to die!” She was a blubbering mess, and he couldn’t ge
t over how close he had come to leaving her behind.
He bent and kissed her soundly. “I’ll always have your six.” He reached for her hands and cut the ties, did the same at her feet. She crawled off the bed and wrapped her arms around him, pulling him tight. Needing to get out of this growing inferno, he still took time to enfold her in his embrace, kiss the top of her head.
A popping noise came from the kitchen. It was time. As much as he loved the feel of her in his arms, burning to a crisp in that position wasn’t romantic. Brushing his lips once more in her hair, he whispered, “We gotta go. This place is going to blow any second.” As if to emphasize his words, the shadow of dancing flames crept down the hall toward them.
She pulled out of his embrace slowly. He dropped his arms to his sides, feeling oddly cold. Their gazes met. She lifted a hand, cupped one side of his battered face. “I’m so sorry, Cam.” A long second stretched out before she turned to the window. Her words were sincere and that puzzled him, but he didn’t have the time to dissect them now. She was struggling to raise the window. He added his strength and they got it up. She pushed at the screen.
“Get out of the way,” he said, backing up. She frowned but did as he said. He kicked the screen out, just as the flames reached the doorway. Their roar intensified from all the new fuel they’d devoured.
“Let’s go,” he shouted, but she was already scrambling over the sill. He dove through after her, grabbing her elbow and pulling her forcibly toward his truck. He skidded to a stop, getting more pissed off by the second as he stared at it. Of course his truck tires had been slashed. Why had he ever thought they wouldn’t be? He wanted to catch up with Brett and pound the hell out of him. All-Terrains were expensive, damn it.
“This way.” He motioned for Audrey to follow him. She’d been looking back at the cabin. He took off up the donkey track they’d traveled the evening before at a punishing pace. Had it been just last night? The same night he’d spent in Audrey’s arms, making love until they’d fallen asleep, deliciously exhausted? It seemed like days ago.
Zone of Action (In the Zone) Page 16