“And I’ll shoot you, Linder,” she said. “Sucks for him, but as you said, there are always casualties. I’ll be the one left standing when the dust settles.”
The sirens of approaching law enforcement had ceased, but faint raised voices could be heard in the distance. There were boots on the ground. Linder seemed to recognize this, too. He stiffened, gripping Cam’s arm tighter. Cam squeezed his eyes shut, called on the combat calm that had served him in the past. Breathe in, breathe out. In, out. When he opened them again, he found Audrey staring, almost glaring at him. What? he mouthed.
Her eyes held the glint of battle in them. She had a plan. Hot damn, she had a plan. She’d better execute it soon, because Linder was unwinding fast. He needed to escape to keep his role in this coup, and Audrey and Cam stood in his way. Cam tried one more plea to his former CWO’s sanity.
“Let us go, Hal. You’re running out of time. They’ll capture you and you won’t be able to do your work for the GUWP. Killing us has no purpose.”
“Shut up, Harris! If I don’t kill you, someone else will. Do you really think you’re safe if I let you live? You were Brett’s objective, and now you’re mine. If I go down, you’ll become someone else’s. We have soldiers everywhere, ready to fight for our cause. Put the gun down, bitch!”
Audrey extended her arm, shifted position. Linder swung around until Cam completely hid him. He backed up, dragging Cam with him, the Sig now pointing at Audrey, powerfully silent. They were at a standoff. Cam met Audrey’s gaze again. She shook her head, mouthed the unbelievable words I’m sorry, and, just as Cam realized what she was doing, she pulled the trigger.
WTF. Had she just shot him? And then the pain hit. Oh God, it burned through him, the impact of the round spinning him sideways. It was as he fell that he realized Linder was no longer holding him. The bullet was a through-and-through. Mission accomplished, but damn, his wound hurt like a mother.
The ground met him halfway, slamming into his face like a toilet tank, exactly like the one Brett had bashed him with. Blood poured from his wound. Cold seeped into him as he rolled to his back on the grass. Colder. He was so cold. Was he dying? Two kills, one shot? That would suck. But he wasn’t dead. Yet.
He heard a scuffle, grunts, thuds. He swiveled his neck, tried to see what was going on. Through slit eyes he could make out Linder, the traitorous bastard, in hand-to-hand with Audrey. The guy wouldn’t die. And that was his girl, beating the stuffing out of his former CWO. His girl, the love of his life…
…
Linder dropped Cam as soon as the round blew through the two of them. He spun around, his weapon flying free, and Audrey lowered her gun, afraid to shoot until Cam was completely clear.
My God, I just shot the best thing that ever happened to me. The thought haunted her as soon as she’d done the deed. She’d had no choice. Linder wanted to be the only one who walked away. She couldn’t let that happen. Faced with a lose-lose situation, she’d taken a page from Cam’s playbook and done the unthinkable. She’d shot the hostage to put down an unhinged criminal. She wanted to run to Cam, make sure he was alive, maybe whisper an apology. She took a step toward him. A fist came out of nowhere and slammed into the side of her face.
The force of the punch lifted her off her feet. Pain exploded from her cheekbone and into her eye sockets. She stumbled, fighting to remain upright while clutching her face. Her vision went spotty. The next second, she was rocked by an uppercut that snapped her head back. Where there was blackness, now there was a burst of stars. Her entire head throbbed. She lost her balance and landed on her ass.
She had to fight through the haze of agony. Cam’s life, her life, depended on her ability to stop Linder, who’d somehow managed to survive her shot. An errant thought floated through her mind. If he hadn’t died, perhaps Cam wasn’t mortally wounded, either. Hope bloomed. And then she returned to reality. She couldn’t let Linder escape. If he did so, the GUWP would grow in strength. It would attack with even more power. And they would be dead. Guaranteed.
Her vision cleared, though her head still vibrated like it had been slammed between a pair of cymbals. Cam lay where he’d fallen. She hoped like hell he was alive. She couldn’t live with herself if he bled out from her foolhardy move.
She tried to get up. Nausea hovered. Her stomach heaved. Out of the corner of her eye she saw movement, a booted foot swinging toward her. At the last second, she reached out, grabbing it before it made contact. And twisted his ankle. Linder swayed like a skyscraper in an earthquake but didn’t come down. He yanked himself free, bent, grabbed the bun on the back of her head, and pulled.
“Ow,” she cried, scraping her nails along his forearm.
He batted her hand away and resumed pulling her hair. “Don’t make this harder than it has to be,” he growled through clenched teeth.
As if she’d take his advice.
Her eyes watered. It hurt so damn bad. Her entire body ached like she’d been tortured by Al Qaeda experts. He dragged her by her hair, flinging her to the ground and giving her a kick in the ribs. She curled on her side like a roly-poly bug, cradling her stomach and rocking to stay conscious. OMG, he fought dirty. She wanted to give in to oblivion, escape her whole-body pain, but there was something she needed to do.
Her mind drifted back to the cabin, when she’d made love with Cam. He’d taken her to heights she’d never been, then brought her down gently, comforting, safe. Feelings she’d never searched for yet realized she needed. With him. Cam. He was worth fighting for. She needed to explore what they’d experienced together, and she couldn’t do it if this SOB persevered.
She rolled to her hands and knees. Cam remained motionless, dead or unconscious was anyone’s guess. Where the hell was Linder? She cast about frantically and saw him raking through the hedge. Looking for his gun. She couldn’t let him find it, so she charged at him. Just as he bent and reached for something, she leaped and pounced on his back, wrapping one arm around his neck. She fisted her free hand and tried to punch him in the temple. Wrong angle. She grabbed at his ear, anything to inflict pain.
“Get off me, bitch,” he ground out on a grunt of pain. He staggered from side to side, attempting to shake her off, but she clung like a monkey to his back. He mustn’t get the gun. He’d blow Cam to bits. She couldn’t let that happen. He was too important to her. She needed to be able to tell him so.
Suddenly Linder reached back, pulled her off him by force. He grunted as he threw her to the ground. Her head bounced off the grassy earth. She moaned, saw double. She tried to focus as her surroundings swirled like a blurry snow globe. Her eyelids drooped. She fought to keep them open and watch Linder as the throbbing in her head continued. He turned from her, touching his arm where blood flowed like a waterfall from his wound. Tossing her off him had cost him dearly.
He bent, reached for the gun again, his wounded arm hanging limp at his side. She tried to rise, to swing her leg to knock him down, but dizziness swamped her. She. Couldn’t. Reach. Him. He was going to shoot her and Cam and escape. She’d failed Cam. Failed herself. And failed America.
Fighting the vertigo, she pushed up onto her elbows. More nausea engulfed her. She paused, swallowed bile, and watched helplessly as he found and palmed the Sig before pivoting toward her.
“You fight pretty well, for a bitch. But you’re not what the commander needs in our army. No offense.” He shrugged his good shoulder conversationally and lifted his gun hand, pointing it at her. She stared straight into his eyes over the barrel. Like hell if she’d look away. She hoped he’d see her face when he closed his eyes every night before he went to sleep.
I’m so sorry, Cam. I wasn’t strong enough.
A sense of calm stole over her. Every time she’d gone out in the field, interrogated a civilian in a hostile land, she’d had to accept that she might not return. This was no different. She’d done her best to help her lifetime band of bro
thers and sisters, and she’d die with her boots on, as the saying went. She had no regrets, except that she hadn’t told Cam how much he meant to her. There wasn’t any more time left for them. A bittersweet pill to swallow.
“You should have backed off.” Linder’s voice brought her attention back to him. He gave her a smile, and she saw his finger move on the trigger. Her body jerked as the gun went off.
Long seconds ticked by as she braced for the blow, for the burn of a round ripping through her flesh, tearing her insides, as well as the ice-cold sensation that would envelop her.
No pain. Nothing. Instead, a shocked expression crossed Linder’s face. His mouth opened in a silent scream. A bullet hole appeared in the middle of his forehead as he began to crumple, to cave in on himself like a character in The Matrix movie. The Sig dropped from his hand, taking forever to land in the grass. Everything happened in slow motion. He toppled over, a felled tree that had been rotten to the core. Blood began to soak the grass around him.
“Take that, asshole.”
Audrey’s gaze slew to Cam as he lay in the same place, arm extended, service weapon in his hand. He looked into her eyes. Pain reflected in his, yet he cracked a smile before bringing the gun barrel up and blowing at it like a gunfighter in the old west. Then he placed the Glock carefully in front of him and dropped his head on his other arm.
Her eyes watered. He’d shot Linder before that crazy bastard could shoot her. Deliberately wounded by her, Cam had still saved her life. She struggled to stand, rocking from side to side until she caught her balance. Probably a damn concussion was the cause of all this wooziness. It took her a few tries before she was able to stagger to where Cam lay. She dropped to her knees, rolling him over gently and pulling him into her lap.
“You saved my life. Even after I shot you, you saved me. I’m so sorry, Cam. It’s all I could think of doing. I shot high. That’s why he didn’t die.” She yanked her camo jacket off and pressed it to his wound. He groaned.
“I’m so, so sorry. Stay with me, sweetheart.” She slapped his cheeks, startling his eyes open. Her heart climbed into her throat. He was pale, cold to the touch.
“Don’t you dare bleed out, Cam Harris! Damn it, where are the EMTs?” She raised her head, shouted above him, “Over here! Man down!” She looked at him again. His eyes had closed. She shook him, needing to make sure he stayed alive. He moaned.
“Help’s on the way. I promise. Stay with me. I have lots of plans for you when you get better.”
He rolled his head in her lap, then licked his lips. He tried to speak, so she bent her ear closer. “So do I. Naked plans.”
She choked on a laugh. He had a bullet hole in him, and he was making a pass at her? He had to live. He was too damn cocky not to. She grinned, but his eyes were shut. He worked his mouth. He was trying to speak once more. She leaned closer. He swallowed hard and finally managed to croak, “You shot the damn hostage. That’s my move.”
She giggled. He always could make her do so. She cradled him, rocking gently back and forth while tears she never wanted to shed rained down on his face. He sagged against her, saying nothing more. Saving her life had taken all his reserve energy. She stroked his hair as voices, followed by footsteps descended on them, a crowd of law enforcement who secured the area and barked orders while she continued to cry and hold Cam’s limp body.
She wouldn’t release him until Zack appeared at her side, coaxing her to “let go of him, dammit.” She bent and kissed Cam’s cool lips before rising, accepting Zack’s comforting arm around her as they whisked Cam away on a gurney.
Epilogue
One Month Later
Audrey sat across the street from where her shop used to be, watching the cleanup crew she’d hired sift through the debris left behind after the fire. Her insurance company had been good to her, but the red tape and hoops she’d had to jump through had delayed the clear-out. That, and the required environmental impact investigation. She’d finally received the greenlight to move on, as well as the check to do so.
While she watched the workers do their jobs, her mind cast back, as it often did, to that last time she’d seen Cam in the hospital. He’d survived surgery; the wound hadn’t been life threatening, though his blood loss had been. She’d waited to hear if he’d made it, covering her face with her hands when the nurse came out to tell her his prognosis.
She’d sat through the night, making sure he was stable. His guards, MPs, took pity on her and let her peek at him through the window. He’d lain so still, with only the rhythmic beeping of the machines telling her he was alive. If only she could have sat by him, touched him, told him how sorry she was.
She’d stepped away from the window and into the arms of police, who’d wanted to question her and who were already interrogating Zack. She never got to say goodbye to Cam. She’d been questioned for hours. She knew the drill. Terrorist plots had to be vetted with excruciating care. Luckily her prior military record helped in verifying her innocence.
General McNamara must have vouched for their story, also, because she was eventually released. Whether Zack had been or not was anyone’s guess. She had no way of contacting him. It wasn’t like you could simply dial up a former spook.
When she was able to call the hospital and check on Cam, she was told he’d been transferred to the nearest base hospital. She’d broken down and cried. He was truly out of her reach. She scoured news articles, searching for information on him, but found nothing.
News reports about the attack on General McNamara only said that “officials were addressing the issue and restructuring,” whatever the hell that meant. Military doublespeak at its best. Same old, same old. The lack of information screamed cover-up to her, but she’d lost the will to fight. Cam was out of her life.
Only after he was gone did she admit she loved him. What had started as a suspicion burst into full-blown, can’t-live-without-you love. Unfortunately, she had to live without him, because he’d been returned to his former environment, and she had no idea if he was incarcerated, awaiting a court martial, or recuperating to return to CID. The silence was frustrating. Oh why, oh why, hadn’t she just said those three little words to him before he was whisked away? She beat herself up nightly with that question.
Those words came easily, now. The saying “absence makes the heart grow fonder” hit close to the mark. She wanted Cam with her. Forever. She argued with herself that perhaps the short time they’d been together had been intense and, now that it was over, she missed the adrenaline rush, but she knew that wasn’t it. She missed him.
He set all her systems to go. She loved how he included her in planning, treating her as an equal. The Army did that, as a whole, but it was better to feel that outside of an organization. To be asked an opinion and have her answer be considered.
She enjoyed Cam’s sense of humor. He didn’t use it too often—that was something he could improve on, because it was razor-sharp. She also appreciated the way he could figure out a problem and come up with a solution. She was good at that and admired other people with the same skill.
Lastly, she loved how he made her feel. Sexy. Fearless. Pretty. Just a few of the descriptions she’d always strove for but had never thought she’d accomplished. Until he came along. He’d admired her cooking, her fighting abilities, and her intuition when it came to terrorists. And he’d loved the way she looked.
Audrey was a realist. She wasn’t a drop-dead, gorgeous woman. She had the required curves, but she was lanky where most women were softly rounded. Her hair was long, but it was an average brown. Her eyes were her best feature, in her opinion, being an unusual jade green color. She was nothing to write poetry about, yet he’d feasted on her whenever they’d come together. Thoughts of his “feasting” brought a blush to her face even now. His reaction to her made her want to purr.
And now she hadn’t heard from him in a month. Was he in the stockade? Was
he court-martialed and stripped of his rank, too ashamed to look her up? A little early for that to have been decided, but when the Army was ready to roll, it rolled fast. And she wasn’t a part of that family anymore.
A shadow appeared to her right, and she looked up. Elena. A welcome distraction to her downward spiral.
“I come bearing gifts of caffeine,” she said, handing one to-go cup to Audrey before smoothing her skirt under her and sitting.
“How did you know where I was?” Audrey cautiously took a sip of the hot brew.
“You’ve been here every day, girl.” She crossed her legs. “When do they finally start doing something productive?” She indicated the shop with her chin.
“This is productive, Leni. They have to clean up before they can rebuild. If I want to rebuild.” There, the words were out. The thought that had been pestering her for days was finally out in the open. Should she rebuild, or move home to Boise, spend some time with her family?
Since Cam, she’d begun to realize that going it alone had lost its appeal. Maybe, just maybe, she was ready to rejoin her parents and brothers and accept help. Cam had shown her that doing so didn’t make her weak. If she never saw or heard from him again, at least he’d taught her that much. Her heart got heavier just thinking that thought.
“You have to rebuild! Are you crazy? You’re great at what you do. How would you keep busy if you don’t have the shop? You’re not going to reenlist, are you?” The horrified look on Elena’s face was priceless. She’d never felt the call to serve her country like Audrey had. Audrey smiled and shook her head.
“No, that phase of my life is over. I’m thinking about going home, at least for a while. You’ve found a new job—”
“Which I’d quit in a heartbeat for you.”
“I know that. But I haven’t been back in ages, and I’m getting tired of going it alone. I know, I know, I’m not alone, I have you, but you know what I mean.”
Zone of Action (In the Zone) Page 21