Infiltration

“Listen, I don’t want to hurt you,” the voice said again in little more than a whisper in her ear. “But I need you to calm down.”

Sophia didn’t believe his assurances for her safety for a second, but her only thought was to get the hand from around her mouth. It took all of her mental energy, but she forced herself to stop struggling.

“Good.” The hand over her mouth eased just the slightest bit. “I’m going to let you go, but if you scream we’re going to be right back in this position. Got it?”

Sophia nodded. The hand moved very slowly from her mouth, as if he was gauging whether she would keep her word not to scream. It hovered there, ready to reclamp over her mouth at the slightest noise from her. Sophia gulped air and struggled to get a hold of herself.

She wasn’t going to scream. She knew there wasn’t anybody around the warehouse close enough to hear it. Plus, she definitely didn’t want that hand—or worse, a gag—over her mouth, cutting off her supply of oxygen. Well, not cutting off the actual supply of oxygen, but making her brain think she wasn’t getting enough oxygen.

Damn claustrophobia. The last thing she needed was to become a sobbing nutcase on the floor because some creep gagged her. She needed to keep her wits about her and figure out how to get away from the big chest still standing right behind her.

Whatever trouble she was in here, she was going to have to get herself out. Because screaming wasn’t going to help.

“Are you okay?” the voice asked, the mystery man still standing directly behind her, hand still hovering near her mouth.

“Yes. Look, I was just here to take some pictures of the door and ceiling.” She was breathing so hard she could barely get the words out, so Sophia lifted her camera to the side so he could see it. “Whatever you’re doing here, I don’t know anything about it and I don’t care.”

There was no response from the man behind her. Sophia didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing.

“I haven’t seen you. I have no idea what you look like. I’ll just leave. There’s no cell phone coverage out here, so it’s not like I can call anyone or anything.” Sophia didn’t know if that was true or not. She had forgotten to charge her phone again last night, so it was sitting dead out in her car. But she wasn’t about to tell him that.

She realized she was rambling, but the longer he was silent, the more she was afraid he was going to do something terrible to her, like kill her.

Or cover her mouth with his hand again.

“I’m just going to go, okay?” Sophia took a small step away from him. “I’m not going to look at you and I’m just going to go.”

The arm in front of her dropped. When he didn’t stop her, Sophia took another step. Then another.

“Just get in your car and leave immediately. Don’t let anybody else see you or believe me, the trouble will be much worse.”

Now that the voice wasn’t whispering, it sounded vaguely familiar. As Sophia took another step away she turned to look at the man behind her before she could stop herself.

But before she could get a good look at him she tripped over one of the boxes lining the stairs. She grasped for the railing but couldn’t reach it.

Just as she began to plummet down the stairs an arm reached out and grabbed her around her hips, sweeping her easily off her feet and yanking her back against him.

“Are you trying to get us both killed?” the voice hissed.

Now there was no doubt in Sophia’s mind that the voice was familiar. She shook loose from the arm that held her and turned to face the voice. When she saw him clearly she almost stumbled again.

Just as tall, dark and handsome as ever—a walking cliché. The man who had walked out of her life five years ago. Without one single word.

“Cameron?”

Sophia watched as shock stole over Cameron’s face. He was obviously as surprised to see her as she was to see him.

“Sophia? What are you doing here?”

“I’m taking pictures for a friend, for an arson investigation.”

“An arson investigation? Are you law enforcement?”

Sophia shook her head. “No. Not really. I mean kind of, but no.”

Cameron stared back at her in confusion and Sophia realized she wasn’t making any sense.

“I work for the FBI, but I’m not an agent. I’m a graphic artist.”

“You work for the Bureau? You’re here for them?”

Cameron seemed overly shocked at her mention of the FBI. Sophia shook her head again. “Well, yes and no. I wasn’t supposed to be here at all, but I’m helping a friend out by getting some pictures he wasn’t able to get.”

“Is anybody else from the Bureau coming?”

Sophia didn’t understand why Cameron was asking her this, but the only thing she could think of—the only thing that really made sense about any of his behavior here—was that he was some sort of criminal now and she had walked in on something illegal.

Sophia would never have thought Cameron Branson capable of a criminal lifestyle when she had known him before. He’d just gotten out of the military and had more of a love for his family than anyone she’d ever known. He definitely had not been any sort of delinquent then. Trying to figure out where he belonged, sure. But not a criminal.

But she guessed a lot of stuff could happen in five years that changed a person. Case in point, the man standing in front of her whom she both recognized and didn’t recognize.

Sophia took a step back from him. His hand, which had still been at her waist, dropped to his side.

“No, I’m not officially here for the Bureau. Nobody else is coming,” Sophia told him.

Cameron seemed to relax a little at that admission, which just confirmed Sophia’s suspicion about his criminal activities. Who else relaxed at the thought of the FBI not coming?

Sophia looked more closely at Cameron. His hair was much longer than the nearly crew-cut length he used to keep—it curled now at the top of his black T-shirt. His posture was less erect, more casual. His eyes...

Well, his eyes were still the most gorgeous shade of brown she had ever seen.

She’d nearly fallen in love with those eyes once, back when she was too young and stupid to know better. Back when she thought he was a stand-up guy who was interested in her and perhaps wanted a future together.

But she had grown up and left those dreams behind. He hadn’t given her much choice, when he’d left without a goodbye and without a single word in the five years since.

So whoever this man standing in front of her was—despite his gorgeous eyes—she needed to get away from him.

For more reasons than one.

* * *

CAMERON FELT AS IF he was having an out-of-body experience as the tiny brunette who had been clawing at his face moments before transformed from a stranger into Sophia Reardon.

This was not possible.

Seriously? Of all the warehouses in all the world, she had to be in this one? And moreover, somebody from Omega should’ve had the roads leading down to this area blocked so nobody who wasn’t supposed to be here—for example, a cute brunette with a camera—got through. Somebody was going to catch a load of trouble for this, Cameron would make sure.

But right now he had to get Sophia out of here before somebody from DS-13 saw her.

But man, she looked good. Cameron gave himself just a second to really look at her. He hadn’t seen her in five years. She’d been twenty-two years old then, but she didn’t seem to have changed much. Her straight brown hair was a little longer, now past her shoulders, but the natural blond highlights were still there. Through the dimness of the warehouse’s lights he could barely make out the freckles that still scattered across her cheeks and nose. And her stunning green eyes.

Eyes that were glaring up at him right now. He took a step toward her but she backed up. “I’m not going to hurt you, Soph.”

She stopped moving. “I know. I just... I’m pretty claustrophobic. I don’t want you to cover my mouth again.”

Cameron nodded. “Okay, no problem.”

“Why are you here, Cameron?” she asked with a great deal of suspicion in her tone.

Cameron couldn’t blame her for the unease, given the current situation. “It’s a long story and I don’t have time to explain.”

She jerked away from him. “Yeah. Explanations aren’t your strong suit. I remember.”

Cameron winced. He reached for her again, but then let his hand fall to the side. Sophia had every right to be angry at him about how things had ended between them five years ago, even though he had never meant to hurt her. Cutting casual ties had just been part of the life he’d chosen when he took the job with Omega Sector.

Of course, the fact that he had thought about her every day since he’d walked away from her had proven to Cameron that Sophia had been more than a casual tie. Now, with quite a bit more perspective, he realized he should’ve given her more information and a proper goodbye.

Unfortunately, it looked as if he was about to make the same mistakes all over again: no information and no proper goodbye.

“I’m sorry, Sophia. But you have to leave. Quickly.”

“And what? You’ll explain later? We both know that’s not true.”

Cameron knew there was no real response he could give. They both did know it was true.

“Besides, I’m not sure I want to know,” Sophia continued softly.

Cameron wished he could explain, at least about what was happening right now—about being undercover—but time was running out. He needed to get Sophia out of here immediately. Every moment she stayed there was more of a risk of her being seen by a member of DS-13.

“Sophia...”

She shook her head and continued before he could say anything further, reaching a hand out toward him. “Don’t worry, I’m going. Whatever you’re doing here, Cameron, I don’t want to know. But you be careful.” She drew her hand back to her side without actually touching him.

Cameron couldn’t stand the look in her eyes. She thought he was a criminal. He wished he could explain. Before she could turn away, Cameron leaned down and put his forehead against hers. “I’m sorry, Soph. Again.” Cameron stepped back from her. “Go as fast and as quietly as you can. Don’t let anyone see you.”

Cameron watched as Sophia turned and carefully manipulated her way down the stairs through all the boxes. He didn’t stay to watch her go the rest of the way out. He turned and made his way back to the office.

“Get lost?” Fin snickered as Cameron walked back in.

Cam just snorted. Fin looked at him a little closer. “What happened to you? You look like you’ve been in a wrestling match.”

Damn it. He had practically been in a wrestling match.

“Stupid boxes everywhere. It’s like an obstacle course down there. I tripped.” Cameron brushed his hair back into place.

That got a few chuckles. Nobody seemed suspicious, which was good. “How’s it going here?” Cameron asked.

Fin was taking his time showing off to the buyers what he knew about the assault rifles being sold. Fin liked to show off whenever he knew anything about anything, and oftentimes even when he didn’t, but Cameron just let him ramble on. If the buyers didn’t know when and if Fin was full of crap then it was their own fault. They’d be sitting in a jail cell in a few hours anyway.

“Why don’t you start counting the money, Cam?” Fin told him. Cameron barely bit back a groan of frustration. What he really wanted to do was get over to the window and make sure Sophia’s car was gone. But the money was on the other side of the office.

“Sure.” Cameron met one of the buyers over at the desk and pulled out a small cash-counting machine from the bag they’d brought. The machine would make things a lot faster, but not fast enough. He wanted to know—needed to know—that Sophia had made it safely out of the building. He fed the cash into the machine as quickly as he could without making it obvious that he was in a hurry. The second buyer watched him carefully the entire time.

After double-checking, because he knew Fin would ask, Cameron put the counter away.

“All here, Fin.”

“Did you double-check?”

Cameron refrained from rolling his eyes. “Yes.” He walked over and placed the bag of money on the table by Fin, then strolled as casually as possible over to the window.

No car. Thank God.

Cameron felt himself relax for the first time since he realized that the tiny brunette who had just been trying to fight her way out of his arms was Sophia. The thought of sweet Sophia being caught in the middle of this made Cameron a little sick to his stomach.

Maybe seeing her today was some sort of sign to him. Further proof he needed to finish up this case and take a break. Maybe he would call Sophia, try to repair the damage from five years ago. Explain to her his reasons for leaving.

And tell her that he had never stopped thinking about her.

But right now he had to concentrate on the case at hand. Fin was finally winding down his spiel about the assault rifles, quite a bit of it incorrect information, the buyers had the weapons they wanted and DS-13 had the cash.

Cameron could tell Fin was pleased. As the buyers left, he walked over to Cameron and slapped him on his back.

“Good job, man. Very smooth transaction.”

“As always, Fin. That’s what I do.”

Cameron wanted to demand to meet Fin’s boss, but knew that any request on his part to meet the man would push him that much further away from a meeting. He had been patient up until now. He could be patient awhile longer. Although with the Ghost Shell encoding technology becoming Cameron’s prime mission objective, he couldn’t be patient much longer.

Fin nodded. “It is what you do, Cam. And Mr. Smith, my...um...boss, has become well aware of that.”

Cameron straightened, his interest piqued. He doubted Mr. Smith was the boss’s real name, but this was the first time Fin had ever openly talked about him directly to Cameron. Finally, the slightest progress.

“Well, I’d like to meet Mr. Smith someday.”

Fin slapped him on the back again. “And you will, buddy. Soon, in fact. Mr. Smith may need your help in setting up some meetings for some new stuff.”

Cameron hoped that by new stuff Fin meant the Ghost Shell technology. Fin didn’t have an expansive vocabulary, unless it came to dirty jokes.

“But now, let’s get back to the house so we can see that weight lifting you were talking so much trash about on the way here.”

Cameron followed Fin down the stairs. Two of the other three minions were already at the car. The third, Marco—the one sent to patrol the inside of the warehouse—wasn’t there.

Dread pooled in Cameron’s stomach.

“Where the hell is Marco?” Fin demanded of the other two. Neither knew.

“He’s probably in there smoking or on the can. I’ll go find him,” Cameron offered. He had a bad feeling.

“Fine.” Fin shooed Cameron annoyingly with his hand again. But again Cameron didn’t care. “Hurry up.”

Cameron made it to the warehouse door, just as it opened. Through it came Marco, dragging a terrified Sophia behind him.

Chapter Three

Cameron knew he had to think fast. A single word from Sophia, any sort of gesture that she knew him, would mean both their lives. In a split second, Cameron made a decision.

But he knew it wasn’t going to be pretty.

He stormed up to Marco and grabbed Sophia out of his grasp. “What the hell, Marco? Is this a cop?”

Cameron pushed Sophia, probably a little rougher than necessary, face-first up against the warehouse wall. He heard her indrawn breath, but steeled himself against any thought of her pain or fear.

It was going to get much worse.

Cameron kept his hand pressed against Sophia’s back, keeping her forced against the wall. Behind him he heard Fin and the other guys draw their weapons.

He willed Sophia to keep quiet.

Marco, a little shocked by Cameron’s aggressive behavior, stuttered, “I just found her inside. She said she was an artist and was taking pictures of the warehouse.”

“Did you check to see if she was wearing a wire or anything?” Cameron demanded.

Marco looked sheepish and shook his head. Cameron made a big show of running his hands all over Sophia’s body, as if looking for surveillance equipment. Behind him the guys made a couple of catcalls. Sophia shuddered.

When his body search led to her hands, he could feel Sophia press some sort of card into his palm—he wasn’t sure what. He moved so he more clearly blocked her from Fin and the men’s view, and palmed whatever she had given him without looking at it. As he turned, he slipped it into the pocket of his jeans.

“She’s clean,” Cameron said as he spun her around. Sophia attempted to straighten the clothes Cameron had lifted and moved during his search, her face burning.

“Listen...” Sophia began.

Cameron backhanded her.

Oh, God. He pulled the slap as much as he could without making it obvious, but he knew it still had to hurt. Her head flew to the side. He watched as a bit of blood began to ooze from a split in her lip. Cameron thought he might vomit.

But if she had said his name, they would both be dead, or at the very least his undercover work would be blown. He couldn’t take the chance.

He stuck his finger in her face. “You shut the hell up unless I ask you a specific question, got it?”

Cameron prayed as he had never prayed before that Sophia would keep quiet. He felt a bit of relief when she nodded slowly, staring at the ground.

“Whoa, Cam. I didn’t think you had that in you.” Fin chuckled.

Cameron smiled a little bit and rolled his shoulders as if he was getting rid of tension. “Yeah. Well, I hate cops. But it doesn’t look like she is one.”

Cameron took Sophia’s digital camera and brought it over to Fin. Together they looked through the pictures. Cameron relaxed a little when they were all shots of the doorway of the warehouse.

“What are you, a photographer?” Cameron asked her. He hoped she wouldn’t bring up the Bureau.

“Yeah. A graphic artist.” The answer came out as little more than a whisper from Sophia. She was still looking at the ground.

“What were you doing here?” Fin asked.

“Taking pictures for a computer drawing I’m doing of old warehouses.”

Cameron breathed another sigh of relief when she didn’t mention law enforcement. Good girl; smart thinking.

Cameron walked back over to her. “Did you know we’d be here?”

Sophia shook her head, staring at the ground. Cameron grabbed her chin and forced her to look up at him—more theatrics for Fin and the guys’ benefit, but Sophia was paying the price. “You had no idea we were here?”

“No,” Sophia spat out. “I thought all these buildings were abandoned. I just needed some pictures.” She was glaring at him, but Cameron could see the terror lurking just behind the anger.

“Yeah, I’m all for woman’s lib, but I guess nobody would be stupid enough to send one tiny female with no backup or weapons to arrest all of us.” Cameron leered at her. “No offense, sweetheart.”

“Marco, did you find any ID on her?” Fin asked.

“Her purse was in her car, which was sitting out front. I moved the car inside the building just in case someone else drove by,” Marco informed them.

Well, that answered the question about why Sophia’s car hadn’t been out front when Cameron had looked the second time.

Marco brought the purse to Fin. Fin glanced inside the bag, evidently finding nothing of interest, pulled out her wallet and let the purse fall to the ground. Fin took her driver’s license out.

“Sophia Reardon. Twenty-seven years old. Alexandria address.” Fin looked through the rest of her wallet. Cameron held his breath, knowing Sophia must have some sort of FBI identification, even if she wasn’t an agent. But Fin didn’t say anything, just dropped her wallet into the purse on the ground.

Cameron thought of the card Sophia had slipped to him when he was searching her. Feigning as if he was looking around, Cameron slipped the card out of his pocket and glanced at it. Sure enough, Sophia’s FBI credentials.

A smart and gutsy move on her part—one that had just saved her life. If Fin had seen FBI anywhere on her or in her possessions, they wouldn’t have cared if she was just a graphic artist and not an agent. As far as they were concerned, anybody employed by the Bureau was their enemy.

Cameron caught Sophia’s eye. He patted his pocket and gave her a slight nod. He had no idea if she understood what he was communicating, but she had done a good job.

Cameron walked over to Fin and leaned back against the SUV, knowing he had to play it casual. “So what do we do with her?”

Fin didn’t answer immediately. That wasn’t encouraging.

The hardest part of undercover work—especially in a situation like this—was figuring out how far you could take your bluff. Pull out of the game too soon and lose eight months of undercover work with only a couple of low-level arrests. But play the game too long and take a chance of somebody calling your bluff...

Which in this case would end in Sophia’s death before Cameron could stop it.

And this situation was all the more complicated due to this new damn Ghost Shell technology DS-13 had. If Cameron blew his cover now, Omega would be hard-pressed to acquire that technology before it went on the black market. That could result in the loss of thousands of lives.

But Cameron wasn’t going to let Sophia die. Not here. Not today. He was leaning very casually against the SUV, but he had slipped the safety off on his weapon, although it remained concealed under his shirt.

But just like Cameron, everyone here had a weapon. If this came down to a firefight, the odds were definitely not in his favor.

“Let’s just let her go, Fin,” Marco said. “Smash the camera, break her phone, slash her tires so she can’t get anywhere. By the time she walks to the nearest phone, we’ll be long gone.”

Cameron could’ve hugged the big lug. That was exactly the suggestion he had wanted to make, but couldn’t.

Fin looked over at Cameron, but Cameron just shrugged as if it didn’t matter to him a bit what happened to Sophia.

“No,” Fin finally said. “No loose ends. Kill her.”

Cameron heard Sophia’s indrawn breath and he looked over at her. Full-blown panic was visible in her eyes now. She looked as if she was about to make a run for it. Cameron hoped she wouldn’t. He didn’t think he could take out all four of the other men before someone got a shot off at her.

A quick plan came to Cameron. God, he hoped this would work. He pushed himself away from the car lazily. “Aw, come on, Fin, can’t I at least have a little fun with her first? Take her back to the house so there’s something for me to do instead of looking at your ugly mugs all the time?” Cameron used his most cajoling tone.

That got a couple chuckles from the men, but Fin wasn’t convinced.

“I thought you didn’t like her?”

Cameron smiled easily. “I don’t like cops.” Cameron walked over to Sophia and trailed a finger along her collarbone, just above her breasts. “But her, knowing she’s not a cop? Hmm.”

Cameron licked his lips and moved closer to Sophia. She shuddered and stepped as far away from him as she could. A tear fell from the corner of her eye.

The guys all laughed at her reaction to him. Cameron pushed her back against the warehouse wall angrily, as if she had embarrassed him. “Well, obviously I’m going to have to teach her some manners. But I’m up to the task. Maybe I’ll know some dirty jokes when I’m done.” That got more laughs.

Fin shook his head. “She’s too skinny for me. I prefer women with some meat on their bones.”

Cameron grinned and reached out to stroke some of Sophia’s hair. She wouldn’t even look at him. “Plenty of meat for me.”

The guys snickered. Fin looked down at his watch. “Whatever. Do what you want with her. I don’t care,” Fin told Cameron. “But she’s your responsibility. And you have to get rid of her when you’re done.”