Zone of Action (In the Zone)

by Cathy Skendrovich

Eventually, he slid her down his body but didn’t let her go. She wrapped her arms around his waist, burrowed into him. Her equilibrium, knocked asunder by what had transpired between them, returned one slow degree at a time.

  The water turned cold before he roused enough to turn off the taps. But still they didn’t move. With a little kiss to his left pec, she raised her head to look at him through slumberous eyes. His satisfied expression had to be a mirror of hers. She smiled.

  “You’re a good detective, Special Agent. You figured out exactly what I wanted.” Her voice trembled slightly. She hadn’t completely recovered from what had just happened. She wasn’t sure she ever would.

  He gave an unsteady laugh and tightened his embrace. She held on tight, the smile never leaving her face.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Cam woke up the next morning at 0600 hours, blowing away that twenty hundred meeting he’d planned with Zack the night before. Well, hell, what had he expected after that encounter with Audrey? He was just surprised they hadn’t burned this place down, too. He didn’t think Zack would see the humor in that.

  Sitting up, he found the other side of the bed empty and cold. She was already awake and gone. Looking at the opaque shades covering the room’s windows, Cam thought about Audrey. The woman turned him inside out. He lost control at the first taste of her lips, with every touch of her fingers. She opened him up like a surgeon, saw what he was made of, and put him back together, but different. Not the most romantic analogy, but it was apt.

  He’d never met anyone like her. She was so damn strong, yet vulnerable. Prickly, but with a loyal streak a mile long. She resented Brett’s defection as much as he did, and that was saying a lot.

  And she was sexy as hell. His morning erection was never going to go away if he kept thinking about last night. And the night before. He’d wanted her to rest, but when she slipped into his shower bare-ass naked and touched him, it was flame on. He couldn’t get enough of her. They’d taken it to the bedroom, and what she’d done to him there had him checking out for ten solid hours. But he’d given as good as he’d gotten.

  He left the bed and went into the bathroom, rinsed his face, and stared at his reflection. He looked like he’d been kicked in the face by a mule. Bruises on top of bruises. His appearance hadn’t seemed to bother Audrey. He grinned at his image.

  If everything went back to her, what the hell did that tell him? Where was this relationship, if you could call their phenomenal sex that, going? Would he give her a slap on the ass at the end and say goodbye? Would he fly down here every Saturday night and get his brains blown out by the best sexual partner he’d ever had? Or was it more?

  That was a scary thought. Avoiding it for the moment, he searched for and found a package of disposable razors under the sink, complete with shaving cream. While shaving his face, he forced himself to confront that question head-on.

  The idea of never seeing Audrey after this debacle was unthinkable. So where did that leave him? Was he ready to settle down? Be a, gulp, family man? Was he ready to leave his military career?

  He nicked himself and swore. Sticking a tiny piece of tissue on it, he gave the questions more thought. He’d had doubts about being a career military man for a while now. Was it time to hang up his dog tags and go civilian? Lose that sense of family, of belonging, that he didn’t have in the outside world? Or gain another type of bond with Audrey?

  He hadn’t agonized over personal connections when he was younger. Relating to others on a personal level had been easy at one time.

  The difficulties all stemmed from his father’s suicide.

  While Cam’s mom had soldiered on like a good military wife and had even found happiness with a new man after Cam enlisted, he’d struggled to make close connections with people. And he sure as hell didn’t open up to his mom about it. They talked sporadically on the phone, and he went home every few Christmases, but the shadow of his dad always hovered between them.

  But now he needed to face his demons. Would his history make him a good spouse? Or, heaven forbid, would he become silent and depressed if he got injured, kill himself when the pain got too bad—like his father? He’d like to think not, that he was made of stronger stuff, but pain was a great hallucinogen. It could talk you into doing a lot of things you’d never think of otherwise.

  Rinsing his face off, he tossed aside his morbid thoughts. He didn’t have to make the decision today. He didn’t have time for any of this. He’d had great sex with a bombshell woman who dug him, and that’s all he had to deal with right now.

  He turned on the shower taps and forced himself under the cold spray. They had an assassin to locate.

  When he entered Zack’s great room, his gaze zeroed in on Audrey, who stood looking out at the swirling fog with a cup of coffee in her hand. She wore a green T-shirt and jeans, with her dark hair pulled into another ponytail. His mind flashed back to last night, when she leaned over him on the bed, her loose hair tickling his abdomen. His groin tightened in response to the memory.

  She turned even though he hadn’t made a sound and smiled. His heart flip-flopped in his chest, and just like that, his life decision got a whole lot more complicated.

  …

  “I know who our target is.” She smiled at Cam, noting how rested he looked. His face still looked like hell, but she could tell he felt better. Lord knew, she did, too. She’d slept so soundly, straight through the night, and wakened refreshed at 0530 hours. She’d come out here and watched the sun rise over the skyscrapers, burning the fog off little by little. And then she’d settled down to business.

  She looked dreamily at her lover, wondering if she could claim to be a newly crafted virgin, because she’d never felt what she had in Cam’s arms before. He’d reawakened her. She’d lost all confidence in herself after Brett when it came to men. She couldn’t judge a good one to save her life. So she’d taken herself out of the dating pool.

  But Cam had worked on her resistance, chipping away at it with his charm, intelligence, and yes, his sexual prowess, until here she was, gazing at him like a lovesick teenybopper. And he looked damn good from where she stood.

  “How long have you been up?”

  She ambled toward him, setting her coffee mug on the desk. She stopped right in front of him and smiled again. “Couple of hours. You needed more sleep. You worked hard last night.” She walked two fingers up his T-shirt-clad chest until he grabbed them in one warm hand, lifting them to his lips and kissing them.

  “My, my. Mr. Darcy doesn’t have anything over you.”

  He smiled, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. What did it mean? She cocked her head, her heart skipping a beat. Was he regretting last night? God, she hoped not. She wasn’t.

  “Audrey—”

  She couldn’t let him say anything that would burst her bubble. Not when she was riding high on her self-discovery, not after the night they’d spent in each other’s arms. Call her selfish, but she wanted to prolong this warm, fuzzy feeling she had about him a while longer. She interrupted him.

  “Come here. There are several possibilities, but I know who our target is. And why. Here, sit.” She grabbed his hand and pulled him to the desk chair, pushing him into it. Then she dragged a table chair over beside him.

  He frowned, opening his mouth to say something. She didn’t want to hear whatever it was, so she grabbed her mug closer. When she turned around, he was fingering the earbuds she’d been using while she was internet searching. Had she lowered the volume of the heavy metal she’d been listening to? Too late to warn him. He had the plugs up to his ear. The next second, he’d tossed them down. That odd expression on his face turned to horror.

  “You listen to that shit?”

  She giggled. She never giggled, but his face looked like he’d eaten a jarful of pickles. At least she had diverted him from whatever he had planned on saying.

  “Yes,
I do. It gets my creative juices going.”

  He leaned over, kissed the sensitive skin below her ear, and whispered, “I bet I can, too.”

  Her face went hot. She was blushing, and that was another thing she didn’t do. But at least she knew he wasn’t pulling away.

  He sat back in his desk chair with a Cheshire Cat smile, hands stacked behind his head. Oh, he was gloating.

  “Don’t be so smug, Harris. If I remember right, I had you begging last night.”

  “That was a weak moment, that’s all.”

  She dropped a hand to his thigh, and the muscle jumped. She grinned, then leaned in and stole a kiss. Immediately one of his large hands came up, cupped the back of her head, then held it steady while he kissed her slowly, thoroughly.

  It was happening again. Her muscles liquefied. She was afraid she’d slump right to the floor in a puddle of need. He had control of her body with just his mouth, kissing, scraping her lips with his teeth, swirling his tongue reminiscent of last night, until she was ready to jump his bones right in that chair.

  Finally he pulled back a fraction, allowing her to gulp in much-needed air. His chest rose and fell rapidly, and his gaze shot daggers of desire. At least she wasn’t aroused all alone. The hand at the back of her head dropped to her neck and caressed it with seductive fingers. Her eyes drifted shut.

  “That’s what you missed by getting up early. Now, tell me about this target.”

  Say what? She glared at him, wanted to wipe that arrogant grin off his face, and decided to make him beg for mercy later. She looked at the screen, where the weekend events in San Francisco was listed. It had been simple to deduce, actually, after she’d guessed Brett’s and his assassin’s motive. It would be much harder to convince Cam.

  “There’s a three-star general speaking at a military school this weekend. I think he’s the target.”

  As predicted, Cam’s brows lowered while he tried to put two-and-two together without any more knowledge than what she’d given him. “Okay. Why him?”

  “Hear me out—”

  “Good morning. Everybody sleep well, I presume?” Zack’s voice, dripping with innuendo, brought both their heads around. He strode toward the coffee machine in the kitchen, a satisfied smile plastered on his face.

  “Probably better than you,” quipped Cam.

  “Anyway.” Audrey pulled them both back from the back-and-forth banter they were about to sink into. “I think it’s this general because he’s a military man speaking to students with military aspirations. An assassination of him would give a lot of bang for the GUWP’s buck.”

  “Please tell me you didn’t try to get on the underworld web here, did you?” Zack clutched his coffee mug like he was ready to crush it, knuckles all tight and white.

  “Of course not. I know what I’m doing. I did regular research. Without Brett’s USB, I had to guess.” Both men’s eyes lasered on to her face. Oops. She hadn’t meant to bring that up now. Explaining that Cam had been right, and she’d been wrong, was supposed to be done alone together, preferably in bed and naked. Not here with an audience.

  “I was meaning to ask you, where did that flash drive come from that Brett had?”

  Since she had their undivided attention, she sighed. “He hid it in my duffel the night I turned him in. I never knew it was there.”

  Silence.

  She met Cam’s gaze, which, surprisingly, wasn’t angry but bemused. After several beats of no talking, he reached out and took her mug, downed a swig, and placed it carefully back on the desk. Likewise, Zack went into the kitchen and picked up and peeled a banana while leaning back on the counter beside the cooktop. Both men remained silent.

  She refused to speak first, to chatter like a magpie to cover up her nervousness. How could she have missed it when she’d done her search? How did she miss it when she emptied the duffel initially? She didn’t have an answer. She should have seen it coming, but no, she wasn’t going to grovel, though she could throw out the olive branch.

  “You were right, Cam. Brett was looking for something he’d left with me. He was probably the one who got that kid to break in, told him to give us that bullshit story of looking for a place to crash. When you foiled that plan, Brett got pissed and set my shop on fire. Everything you deduced earlier.”

  “I didn’t know any of that.” Nobody paid attention to Zack’s comment. Instead, Cam surprised Audrey by leaning in and kissing her on the lips. He tasted like coffee and forgiveness.

  At last he shrugged. “What’s done is done. It would’ve been nice to have that piece of evidence, but it sounds like you have a lead. Hit us with it.”

  Zack moseyed over, pulling out a dining room chair and straddling it. Sunlight broke through the fog, bathing the room with light. It reflected off the mirrored buildings in downtown San Francisco like a beacon pointing to her discovery. It was her moment to shine, especially now that Cam didn’t seem angry about her major gaffe with the USB drive. Just another way he was different than the past men she’d known. She sat back.

  “I do. He totally believes the American government is on the wrong track. It wastes its people and its money on wars in places we shouldn’t be in. He looks at it as an attempt to make other places in our image. At least that’s what I got out of what he said when he was tying me to that bed.”

  Zack’s brows furrowed as he looked from her to Cam. She didn’t explain. It was still embarrassing. She continued. “Your Chief”—she nodded at Cam—“made it clear that he was taking on more than he was supposed to. They have a definite plan, and no one is to jeopardize it with their own agenda. That’s why Brett was killed.

  “So, thinking like a terrorist organization, wouldn’t killing a leading Army general in front of an entire military school give them a lot of exposure? Wouldn’t it send our military into a tailspin as they try to figure out how it happened to someone on their own turf? And what better way than from within? I’m betting this general, who is pretty far up in the Army food chain, has been instrumental in the fight on terror. Wouldn’t that be extra grand for the GUWP to take out someone so involved in wiping out terrorism?”

  Both men nodded.

  “And doing it tonight, in front of impressionable students and distraught parents, will reinforce the idea that the military can’t protect its own, let alone its citizens. That’s great PR for the GUWP.”

  “Clever, if not macabre.” Zack said with a frown. Audrey looked at Cam, who sat contemplatively, staring at the computer screen where she’d brought up the event. She valued his opinion the most. He cocked his head, continuing to remain silent.

  “Cam? Any thoughts?”

  At last he met her gaze. “But what will they gain, except more mayhem? I respect your hunches; that’s why I looked you up. But what’s their end game? How does shooting a general fit in with a larger terrorist plot?”

  Her heart plummeted to the bottom of her stomach. She didn’t have the answer to that question. She would have, if they’d had the flash drive. She swallowed her distaste for her failure there. But right now, they needed to shelve figuring out where the GUWP was going with this assassination attempt. This speech was happening in less than two hours, and they weren’t even sure the general was the target. She racked her brain, jumping up from her chair to pace the floor.

  “Does it really matter? I mean, they could be trying to destroy the Army in order to stop wars. This could be a red herring while they do something on a grander scale. Or they could be going for maximum chaos. I don’t know! I do know that this general is the best guess I have where an attack might happen. Please, let’s stop trying to figure out where they’re going with this and just save this person’s life. We’ll have to dissect the meaning of all this afterward. All our training tells us to secure the area before analyzing, so let’s do that.”

  “Just like they tell you not to shoot the hostage, Cam,�
�� Zack said.

  Audrey frowned as the men shared a look.

  “Are you still butt-hurt over Modern Warfare 3, Addison? That was ages ago. And the move works. Even in video games.”

  The sudden grin on Cam’s face threatened to sidetrack Audrey, just as their good-natured banter was derailing this discussion. A video game? Seriously? She was discussing a possible assassination of a United States Army general, and they were arguing over a game?

  “We don’t have time for this, boys.” She snapped her fingers like a grade-school teacher to get their attention. “If you don’t think my hunch is viable, pony up with your own. Take a look at the events there and find another that fits.” She leaned against the window glass and crossed her arms. They were wasting precious time.

  Zack didn’t move from his seat, and Cam barely glanced at the screen. “You’re right, we don’t have time, Audrey. You’re the best person for this job. We’ll go with what you say. It’s just hard to wrap my mind around. Who in their right mind takes on the U.S. Army?” But this time he studied the screen.

  “If you think about it, everything that has happened has been leading up to this point. Brett admitted he gave troop information as a show of his sincerity. His payment for that was the USB listing his other jobs. One was the slaughter of those soldiers at JBLM. When he escaped from you, he came after me for the USB initially but decided to get revenge while he was here. You foiled his plan by getting to me first.

  “Pissed that he couldn’t get the USB, he burned down my store.” Her eyes stung with unshed tears. She’d rebuild after all this was finished. Damn straight, she would. “He still needed that USB for the next assignment, although I’m betting his superiors found out about his attacks on me and were already grooming his replacement.”

  “Hal Linder.” She noticed Cam didn’t address him by his rank. Hell, she wouldn’t, either, the scumbag. She nodded.

  “Linder finds us, kills Brett, takes the USB, and fills his position. Maybe he was supposed to all along.”