Stealth

by Janie Crouch

  A thought occurred to Sophia. “Why did you tell them your real name? Isn’t that dangerous?”

  “They only know my first name. I discovered a while ago that it was better to use my first name for covers. Less confusion, less possible mistakes.”

  Sophia wasn’t sure she understood. “Mistakes?”

  “Well, if bad guys think your name is Tom but some complete stranger happens to say the name Cameron and you react…”

  “Game over.”

  Cameron nodded. “Game definitely over. It’s easier to keep the lies as close to the truth as possible.”

  “But no Branson, right?”

  “Nope. Cam Cameron, at your service.”

  Sophia rolled her eyes. “Cam Cameron?”

  Cameron shrugged. “Hey, it works.”

  “All right, Cam Cameron, what do we do now?”

  “Now we climb in bed and wait a few hours, so I can get you out of here as soon as everyone’s asleep. You need to be long gone before tomorrow morning.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  Lying in bed with Cameron for the few hours before they were going to sneak her out, Sophia never would’ve thought she would sleep. But evidently her traumatized mind had other plans.

  Cameron had lain down with her on the small bed and tucked her into his side.

  “Try to rest, if you can,” he had whispered.

  The last thing Sophia remembered was snorting, “Yeah, right.” The next thing she knew, Cameron was waking her up…

  With a kiss.

  It took her a moment to figure out what was happening. Even longer to remember where she was. But she shut that all out for a few moments and melted into Cameron.

  Sophia twisted in the tiny bed so she could get closer to him. She wrapped her fingers in his hair and pulled him against her. Cameron’s hand slid from her neck all the way down her back and splayed out over her hip. He pulled her closer and deepened the kiss.

  Sophia could barely keep from moaning. She had missed this passion between them that erupted without either of them being able to do anything about it.

  Cameron’s lips trailed from her mouth, over her jaw and down to her neck. Sophia shivered, her breath quickening. She gave herself over to the sensation.

  But after a few moments Cameron pulled away.

  “I’m sorry, Soph. I shouldn’t have done that.”

  Suddenly, all the reasons why this wasn’t a good idea came crashing back to her. Sophia jerked away from him.

  “You’re right. You shouldn’t have done that.”

  Cameron sighed and got up from the bed.

  “I think everyone is asleep. It’s time for us to get you out of here.”

  Sophia decided to let go of her annoyance about the kiss. Kisses. Complete make-out session. Whatever. There were more important things to concentrate on here.

  She got up from the bed. “What time is it?”

  “About 4:00 a.m. It’s late enough that nobody should be awake, but still dark enough for you not to be seen.”

  Sophia nodded. “Okay. What do I need to do?”

  “I’m going to walk you out and show you where the side door is. We’ll go ahead and unlock it.”

  Sounded easy enough. “Okay.”

  “Once you get out, I want you to run, as fast as you can. When you get to the main road, there’s a gas station about half a mile down. Call the Bureau and have somebody pick you up.”

  “No 911?”

  “No. That would wreak havoc on what I’m doing here. I want them to think you’ve called 911, but I don’t want to have to deal with any uniforms poking around.”

  Sophia nodded.

  “After I show you the door,” Cameron continued, “we have to come back in here. I can’t hit myself hard enough for it to be realistic.”

  Sophia cringed. She didn’t know if she’d be able to hit him hard enough, either.

  Cameron opened the door and ushered Sophia out. Everything in the house was quiet. Cameron led her silently down the hall to the side door, past the garage. She watched as he unlocked the door, and cracked it just the slightest bit, so it wouldn’t make any noise when she came out here in a few minutes.

  Cameron turned and looked at Sophia. Sophia nodded. She knew what to do when she came back. They silently headed back toward Cameron’s room. With every step, Sophia was terrified someone would wake up and catch them.

  Would that mean death for both of them? Would Cameron be able to cover for them again? Sophia didn’t know.

  She was also concerned that he wouldn’t be able to convince DS-13 that her escape was an accident. That he wouldn’t be able to talk his way out of it and that all his time working undercover would go to waste.

  Or worse.

  Back in his room, Sophia turned to Cameron. “What if they don’t believe I attacked you and got away? What if they think you let me go?”

  Cameron put his hands on her forearms. “Soph, it’s okay. I’ve been with them a long time. They’ll believe me.”

  “But how will I know you’re okay? How will I know something bad hasn’t happened to you?”

  Cameron’s hands slid up from her arms, over her shoulders until they were framing her face. “I’m good at what I do. I’ll make them believe me, don’t worry.”

  Sophia nodded. Her hands were a little shaky as she asked, “Is this the part where I get to knock you unconscious?”

  Cameron grimaced. “Yeah. You’re going to need to use the butt of my SIG to hit me with. There’s nothing else in here that will do.”

  Sophia didn’t like the thought of hitting him, and liked the thought of using a gun even less. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea. I don’t know anything about guns.”

  “Well, just don’t point it at me and pull the trigger and we’ll be fine.” Cameron’s smile didn’t reassure Sophia much. “I’ll make sure it’s not loaded,” he added at her worried look. “Once you’ve hit me, take the gun with you and go. You probably won’t even knock me unconscious. All that matters is that it looks like you did. In about an hour, I’ll stumble out and wake everybody up, pretending like you just got away a few minutes ago.”

  Sophia had to admit, it was a pretty well-thought-out plan. She prayed it would work. For both their sakes.

  “Okay, where do I hit you?” she whispered.

  “On the back of the head, toward the base of my skull. Contrary to what you might think, it’s the sudden, jerking motion of the skull that causes blackouts from an injury like this. Not necessarily the actual force.”

  “You mean I could hit you as hard as I can and it wouldn’t matter?”

  Cameron quickly corrected her. “No, that would definitely cause brain damage or possibly death. You don’t want to rabbit-punch me.”

  “Rabbit punch is bad?”

  Cameron nodded. “Very. I just mean that you don’t necessarily need tremendous force to knock someone unconscious. It’s the motion that causes it.”

  Sophia wasn’t sure if she could do it. Cameron could see her obvious hesitation. “Soph, I’ll be fine. But we’re out of time. I need you to do this and get going.”

  Sophia nodded.

  “I have a hard head, sweetheart. I’ve been swearing that was true every day for five years.”

  Sophia couldn’t help but laugh softly. “You and me both.”

  Cameron sat on the bed, facing away from her. Sophia ran her fingers through his thick black hair, then let it go. She raised her arm with the gun in her hand.

  “Ready?” Cameron asked. “Remember, hit me hard. Having to do it twice would really hurt. And once you’ve hit me, go. Don’t wait around. I promise I will be fine. One, two, three.”

  Sophia brought the gun’s handle down—hard—against the base
of his skull. Cameron made a sickening groan and fell forward onto the bed. Sophia could see that he was still breathing. Blood was slowly seeping from a giant knot where she’d hit him. Tears slid down her cheeks as she glanced at Cameron once more before easing out the door of his room.

  Sophia’s breath seemed unimaginably loud to her as she made her way down the hallway as Cameron had shown her. Every step was full of terror, as she was afraid someone might wake up and catch her. As she walked through the kitchen, her shoes sounded so loud she slipped them off and carried them. Finally she made it to the side door that led outside from the kitchen.

  It was closed.

  Sophia knew Cameron had left that door open. She spun around in a panic, expecting to see someone behind her. But no one was there.

  Maybe it had closed on its own. Sophia tried the knob. It was still unlocked. It must have just caught some wind or something. Regardless, she couldn’t let it stop her now.

  Sophia eased the door open as quietly as she could, grimacing with every little sound the door made. When the door was open the barest amount for her to fit, she slipped through, and pulled it gently and slowly closed behind her.

  Sophia breathed a silent sigh of relief. At least she was out of the house. She bent down to put her flats back on her feet and took a deep breath to get her bearings and get ready to run. That’s when she smelled it: cigarette smoke.

  From right around the corner of the house.

  Sophia quickly moved behind a large trash can that sat against the house, in case whoever was there came around the corner. Now she wouldn’t be able to run the way Cameron had directed without being seen. She’d have to go the opposite way and then double back to the gas station when she was farther away from the house.

  “I don’t understand why we have to stay up all night.” It sounded like Rick, the mean one with cold eyes.

  “Well, you know Fin’s not going to stay up if we’re going to see Mr. Smith tomorrow.”

  Sophia didn’t really care about who had to stay up or why Fin needed his beauty rest to see Mr. Smith. She needed to get out of here, now.

  “But I don’t understand why Fin doesn’t trust Cam. Cam’s one of us.” That sounded like the big guy, Marco.

  Sophia was starting to ease her way around to the back of the house when she heard Marco’s statement. Fin didn’t trust Cameron? She stopped and eased her way back so she could hear the conversation better.

  “Yeah, well, if the woman is still here in the morning, then we’ll know Cam is on the up-and-up. But like Fin said, if Cam let the woman get away…” Rick’s voice trailed off.

  “That doesn’t mean he’s a cop.”

  “He’s either a cop or someone who lets a hundred-pound woman get the jump on him. Either way, DS-13 doesn’t want him. Fin will take care of that.” Rick laughed and Marco joined in after a moment.

  Damn it. Sophia realized she was, in essence, signing Cameron’s death warrant if she left now. She couldn’t do it. She would have to sneak back inside and they’d figure out something else. She needed to hurry back into Cameron’s room before he came out and told everyone she was missing.

  And got himself killed.

  Sophia peeked around the side of the trash can and jerked herself back as the two men walked around the corner. She held her breath, praying they hadn’t seen her.

  Marco was talking about a football game coming on that night as they walked in the kitchen door. Sophia felt her heart drop as she heard the click of the lock once they were inside.

  She had to find a way back into the house. Sophia ran around to the back, having to make her way over a low wooden fence when she found the fence gate locked. From the back of the house in the dark, it was hard to tell which room was Cameron’s.

  Sophia knew she had to figure it out quickly. Cameron was running out of time and he had no idea about it.

  Sophia definitely didn’t want to climb into the wrong room. But one window was a little higher than the others, and smaller. That must be the bathroom, which would make Cameron’s the window to the left.

  Sophia ran to Cameron’s window and began tapping on it. She had to get his attention before he went out and told them she was gone. She tapped as loud as she dared, not wanting to wake anyone else.

  “Cameron?” Sophia cupped her hands to the window in an attempt to make the sound go through it, rather than out. “Cameron!”

  Nothing. She rapped on the pane again but he didn’t come to the window. Sophia tried to open the window but it was locked from the inside.

  She had to get in the house. It might already be too late.

  Sophia climbed up onto the air-conditioning unit so she could reach the small window of the bathroom. Someone had left it cracked, just a little bit, but it was enough.

  Sophia got her hands under the frame and slid it up as high as it would go, cringing as it made a loud creaking sound. She hefted her body up and into the tiny opening. All the buttons of her blouse ripped off as she scooted through, but Sophia didn’t stop. When a nail caught her shoulder Sophia let out a cry, but still didn’t stop.

  She finally got herself through the opening and fell into the bathtub on the other side. She got up as quickly as she could, using a towel to wipe the blood from a pretty large gash on her shoulder. She rushed into Cameron’s room.

  But he wasn’t there.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  The crack Sophia gave him on the back of the head definitely wasn’t too soft. Although Cameron didn’t lose consciousness for more than a few seconds—at least he didn’t think so—his head hurt like the devil. Lying on his bed doing nothing, giving Sophia time to get away before he “discovered” her gone, was no problem.

  After a few minutes he decided to get out of the bed and make his way out into the main part of the house. Nobody should be awake yet, and being caught knocked senseless would look better out in the living room than lying in his bed.

  The room spun dizzyingly as Cameron got up. He couldn’t hold back a groan. He felt as if sirens were going off in his head, and on top of that he could swear he heard someone calling his name. Maybe Sophia hit him harder than he thought.

  Cameron ignored the pain and started out his door. After a few steps at least the building stopped spinning. He stumbled—mostly not acting—out into the living room.

  Where both Marco and Rick sat, wide-awake.

  This was not good. Why were they awake and dressed? How had Sophia gotten by them?

  Cameron tried to silently move back into his room, but Rick saw him.

  “What’s going on, Cameron?” Rick asked him.

  Cameron had no idea how to play this off. Did they already have Sophia? “My head. That bitch hit me on the head.”

  Cameron watched as Marco and Rick looked at one another pointedly. Another not-good sign. Something was going on here that Cameron didn’t know. He decided not to mention Sophia being gone yet. Give her as much time as possible.

  “What are you guys doing up?” Cameron plopped down on the couch and gritted his teeth as the back of his head throbbed. Better play off the head injury until he knew what was going on.

  “We’re just up. Getting everything ready to go to the other house,” Marco told him.

  “At like—what time is it?—five o’clock in the morning?” Cameron saw Marco and Rick make that weird eye contact again. Something was definitely not right.

  “Where is the woman?” The voice came from behind Cameron on the couch. Fin.

  Cameron racked his brain for what to say now. To say she had just hit him and run obviously wasn’t going to cut it. He had no idea how he was going to get out of this.

  “In my room. She hit me on the head with a bottle and I clocked her. I used one of the plastic ties on her hands and threw her in the closet.”

 
Cameron stood up and walked toward the kitchen. Maybe they wouldn’t look for her and wouldn’t notice she was gone for a while. It would give him a chance to get out or at least get to one of the other weapons in his room.

  “Marco, go get her,” Fin told the bigger man.

  Damn it. Cameron shrugged and kept walking toward the kitchen as casually as he could. He wondered if his partner, Jason, had faced some sort of situation like this. Feeling the walls closing in on you and knowing there was no way out.

  Knowing unless there was some sort of miracle, you were going to die.

  Marco came back into the kitchen. “She’s not in the closet, boss.”

  Rick and Marco both pulled out their guns and pointed them directly at Cameron.

  “Whoa, what the hell’s going on here?” Feigned shock was Cameron’s only option. “It’s too early in the morning for this. What are you pointing them at me for?”

  Fin pulled out a wicked-looking blade. Cameron knew how much pride the smaller man took in it. He suspected it was the same knife that had killed his partner.

  “Where’s the woman, Cam?” Fin asked, walking closer.

  “I told you, I threw her in the closet.”

  Fin looked over at Marco, who shook his head. “She’s not in the closet.”

  “Fine, she’s not in the closet. Maybe she’s under the bed or something. Everybody knows Marco can’t find his keys half the time. No surprise he can’t find a person, either.”

  Cameron got up and strolled purposely to his room, as if to prove Marco wrong about Sophia. He knew taking them by surprise in there would be his best option.

  The best of really, really bad options. Two guns and a knife against his bare hands and the very slight element of surprise?

  Cameron entered his room, thankful that at least Sophia had gotten away. He walked over to his closet and thrust open the door.

  “See? Told you,” Marco said.

  “Screw you, Marco.” Cameron still kept up the innocent act. “She’s in here somewhere.”