Dead Fall
By A.L. Masters
Copyright © 2020 A.L. Masters
All rights reserved.
Content Warning:
This book contains sexual situations and innuendo, language, violence, and dark themes.
Chapter One
Mission Planning
Cam
It was the beginning of August by the time Cam had finished getting ready for his mission to locate Ed. He hoped the delay hadn’t hurt his chances of finding him alive.
Cam wiped the 3-in-1 oil from his hands on an old rag. He had just finished prepping his weapons and combat gear for tomorrow.
The plan was to go in quietly and recon the situation at the prison. There would be no dramatic entrances, no shooting up the building, no rappelling in from the rooftop.
That shit only worked in the movies.
Instead, he was going to go in and watch. Hopefully, he would be able to locate Ed from outside the prison. He didn’t really want to have to go in at the beginning. That would throw a serious wrench in his plans.
He stood, stretching his lower back. He had been sitting for hours, hunched over maps and gear and weapons.
“All done, babe?” Angie said from her blanket nearby.
“Just about. I want to go over a few more things before I’m finished for the day though.”
They were over near the ramshackle lodge. Cam was using one of the old group tents to get his gear in order. Angie was laying out in the sun close by.
He knew she had been worried about him lately.
He had been a little distant ever since he came back from the last supply mission, when they found out Ed had disappeared. It wasn’t her though, it was him. He needed to keep his head in the game. The amount of time this mission planning had taken frustrated him. He didn’t have the intel or the resources that he was used to having at his disposal. He wanted to hurry and rush out there. He wanted to take out the bastard that ran the place.
This operation called for more than that though. It called for careful planning and stealth.
He wasn’t planning to battle it out in the Hindu Kush mountains, slinging lead at the obvious enemy with RPGs. He wasn’t sitting down with some shady village leaders to discuss Taliban supply routes and offer medical services.
This was a rescue mission, at a prison.
He had never broken into a prison before, so he wanted to make sure he covered every eventuality.
“Okay, I’m done for now,” he said, getting up from the chair.
He set his rifle on the folding table inside the tent. He had decided to take the M107. He was familiar with the weapon, and he knew the damage it could do. Not only to people, but to vehicles and buildings as well.
For what he had planned, he would need it.
The M107 came into service while he was still in the military. He had some training on its use and had extensive firsthand experience on how easily it could even the odds in an unequal firefight.
It came with a ten-round magazine capacity that fired fifty-caliber ammo, though it was imperative to only load up to nine rounds. Any more than nine and it could damage the weapon.
It was a heavy son of a bitch, but that was no problem. He could lug it for miles if he needed to. He didn’t plan on needing to though.
His plan was to hole up at a farm near the prison and gather some intel before making a move. If he didn’t know what the situation was then he couldn’t plan effectively.
He planned to go alone this time. He couldn’t risk bringing anyone along, possibly getting them caught, or killed.
He was also making preparations here in case he didn’t come back.
He pulled his hair back from his face. It was getting a little long. He supposed it was time for a trim. He crouched down near Angie’s blanket and ran a hand down her back.
“You want to come eat lunch with me?” he asked her, trying to make up for his lack of engagement recently. He’d been busy, but he’d also taken some space to mull over an idea.
It was an idea that sent pain straight to his heart at first and made him shake with rage just thinking about it— but it stayed in his head, and as the weeks passed it had mellowed into something manageable.
He had found a way to possibly double Angie’s chances of survival, and that was worth any amount of emotional pain it would cause him— if she would go for it.
“I don’t know. Is that what you want?” she asked, not looking at him.
Shit. He knew he hurt her feelings. He didn’t know how to make her understand. He didn’t know if he fully understood it himself.
“I always want you, baby,” he said.
She sighed and sat up, lowering her sunglasses.
“Cam, I can understand how you feel. I can understand you feeling guilty, upset, sad, angry, and impatient, but I can’t understand why you are shutting me out.”
He stood, hands on his hips, and thought a moment.
What was the right answer?
“Ang, I’ve been in a lot of situations like this. Situations where I had a difficult job to do, under less than stellar circumstances, and with minimal resources. However, I have never been in a situation like this while in a relationship.”
He didn’t know if he was going about this correctly, but he committed to it anyway.
“Baby, you have to understand. I’ve never had to justify my actions. When I needed time alone to plan out an Op, or when I needed to really focus on a task to make sure I didn’t fuck it up, I never had to consider how that would make someone else feel.”
He ran his tongue over his teeth and tried to think how to word it so that she wouldn’t take offense.
“It’s not personal. My feelings for you are as strong as they ever were, don’t ever doubt that,” he said, pulling her close.
He still didn’t know if she understood completely. He just didn’t have the words to explain it. His team would have understood perfectly. Jim maybe even understood. People with highly dangerous jobs tended to withdraw sometimes. It was normal.
“Alright. Let’s go eat then. I wonder what Jean made,” Angie said, dismissing the subject for now. She turned to leave.
Cam caught her by the arm and pulled her back, into his chest. He squeezed her to him tightly and put his forehead against hers.
“I love you, with all my heart and soul,” he said seriously.
He saw tears form in her eyes. She blinked them away and hugged him tighter.
“I love you too, Cam. You’re my other half,” she said.
He kissed her tenderly, then pulled back.
“What about Jim?” he teased. “You know he considers himself to be involved in our relationship for some strange and disturbing reason.”
“I guess he’s my other half too, of course,” she said. “You know he just does that to get under your skin.”
“Yeah. Can he be the back half?” Cam teased.
He was partly serious though, because Jim was an ass.
◆◆◆
They sat down to a late lunch at the bar inside the houseboat’s kitchen. The others had already eaten and left. Cam’s training plans were startlingly efficient, and they were showing signs of needed more advanced training. Jim had handling that the last few days while Cam had been immersed in the all the details.
He really needed to go find him and bring him up to speed on everything.
“Hey guys,” Jess said, coming from the hallway.
She looked like death.
Cam didn’t know how Jack was still clueless about the whole pregnancy thing. She had been sick almost constantly for three weeks now. Jack was sure to be questioning her about it so
on— if he wasn’t a complete moron, anyway.
“Hey Jess, how are you?” Angie said.
Cam nodded his head at her.
She sat nearby on the sofa and leaned her head back. “I’m okay. Just tired. I don’t know why people ever did this having babies thing voluntarily,” she said, putting her hand over her forehead.
“Ah well, you’ll feel better soon. Then you’ll forget all about it. At least, that’s what they say.”
Angie’s attempt at comfort fell a bit flat when Jess suddenly lurched upright, covering her mouth. She ran to the small bathroom and shut the door.
Cam sighed.
“Maybe we can see if there’s a medicine she can have. Something to help her stop throwing up so much,” Cam said.
“Why didn’t we think of that before?!” Angie said, getting up to look through their stock of medicine.
Monica walked in from the top deck, chugged a bottle of water, and walking toward the bathroom. She stopped as she heard retching from within.
“Ugh, again?!” she said in disgust. “Why is she always in there throwing up when I need to use the bathroom?!”
“I think she always in there, period,” Cam said, chewing.
Monica sighed and went outside, snatching a half sandwich from the plate as she went.
Cam finished his soup and sandwich while he waited for Angie. She came back soon with a reference manual.
“I found something that she can take, but we only have a small supply of it,” Angie told Cam, frowning at the bottle.
Cam took the bottle and studied the label. This would last a few days, maybe more if she made them last. He handed it back over.
“Better give her one then,” he said, motioning to Jessica’s retreating form.
She was heading back to her room. Probably for another nap, he guessed. Poor girl really was having a rough time. He didn’t have much experience with pregnant women. This could be completely normal for all of them.
He thought about what he would do if Angie got pregnant.
Hell no!
That scared the shit out of him. He couldn’t imagine the massive responsibility of protecting not only his woman, but his baby as well? He didn’t want to think about how dangerous it would be.
He commiserated with Jack one hundred percent, even if he didn’t know it yet.
Angie
Angie followed Jessica to her room.
She really didn’t look well at all. She was too thin and had dark circles under her eyes. Jack must be an idiot. Though he had been pretty busy lately…maybe he could be forgiven for not noticing anything was wrong. They probably barely saw each other, seeing as how Jack’s work was mostly outside, and Jess rarely left the bed these days.
“Here, sweetie. I found something you can take. It should help.” Angie shook out one of the pills and passed it to Jessica.
Jessica looked at it, then up to Angie. “Is it safe?”
“The book says so. It was recently updated. I think it would be safer for you to take the medication, than lie here and die of dehydration because you can’t keep anything down.”
Jessica uncapped a bottle of water and took the pill. “Thanks. I’m going to take a nap. Hopefully, this will work, and I can get up later.”
Angie left her there, hopefully to rest. She wanted to go find Jim and see if he was almost finished with his workout.
◆◆◆
She found him swimming laps on the far side of the island.
His body was gliding through the water, almost effortlessly. The sun shone on his wet skin, highlighting the muscles in his arms and shoulders. He really was a good-looking man. It was a shame there was nobody here that he was interested in…besides her. She pushed away the tiniest twinge of jealousy that thought caused.
He finished and saw her waiting on the shore.
She watched him walked out of the water, water dripping down his perfect six-pack. He wiped his eyes and ran his hands through his hair. It was getting pretty long now, but he hadn’t asked her for a trim.
He smiled when he saw her checking him out.
“See something you want?” he asked, grabbing a towel.
“Stop,” Angie teased.
Jim tossed his towel down and walked up to Angie. He stopped directly in front of her and stared into her eyes. Water trailed slowly down his neck, falling onto his chest, and sparkling in the sun.
“Well. What’s this all about? Is Cam lurking in the bushes to see if I’m going to ravish you?”
She grinned. “Nah. I just didn’t have anything else to do. Cam’s busy working on the maps or something.”
“He isn’t finished yet?” Jim asked. “He’s been isolating himself for weeks now. If I didn’t know better, I’d have said he left the island altogether.”
Yeah. She sighed inwardly. She knew that well.
She tore her thoughts away from Cam’s emotional distance.
Jim was looking at her, though she knew he tried to hide just how often he did. He looked like he wanted to say something, but he didn’t.
Lately, they had been spending more time together than she and Cam had. She wondered if it was doing harm to her friendship with Jim, or his friendship with Cam. She didn’t want to cause a wedge between any of them.
But she was also lonely, and a little scared.
She knew that relationships had their ups and downs, but this was a first for her and Cam. She didn’t want this distance between them. Maybe there was a way to reconnect.
Jim’s kiss brought her back to the present. His firm lips pressed against her forehead, eliciting a rush of tears. She didn’t think that had been his intention.
“Don’t be sad,” he said, seeing her expression. “Everything will be fine. Cam is just being Cam. You guys haven’t exactly been together long enough to know how to cope with each other’s faults and weaknesses yet. That takes time, especially for a woman,” he said with a grin.
She narrowed her eyes and shook her fist at it.
“So, what are your plans this evening?” she asked him, after he scoffed at her threat.
He had turned back to get his towel and dried himself off better. She looked down and spotted wet patches on the front of her shirt where he had leaned in. Great.
“Well, there is this girl I was going to take out to dinner. I don’t know if she’ll want to go though. I haven’t asked her yet…” he said.
She grinned. “I think she’ll say yes. You should definitely ask her.”
“You think? Alright, I will then.” He picked up his stuff and started walking back to the trail leading home.
“Where are you going?” she asked, running to catch up.
“I’m going home,” he said.
“I thought you were going to ask me to dinner!” she shouted indignantly.
“Ohhhhh…You thought…. Oh.” He stopped and looked at her seriously. “I’m sorry, I think you’re confused.”
He started walking again, whistling a cheerful little tune and swinging his towel around.
She grabbed his arm. “Wait!”
He turned around again. “What now? I need to hurry up and get back so I can ask her!” He looked at his watch. “It’s really getting late you know.”
Her mouth dropped open in confused shock.
“Hurry up and spit it out, Angel! Jean’s waiting on me.”
She busted out laughing and ran toward him.
She was so going to take him down!
She rushed forward and lowered herself into a crouch. She rammed her shoulder into his stomach and put her force behind it. He let out a grunt and grabbed her around the waist.
She tried to take him to the ground, but he used her momentum against her. When she put that last effort into pushing him off balance, he pivoted on his feet and tossed her over his hip. She went to the ground and would have fallen hard if he hadn’t caught her at the last second.
“You’re going to have to keep practicing to be able to take me on, babe.”
Then he leaned forward and whispered in her ear. “But I have no doubt you’ll get there one day.”
She hugged him and he braced himself as though she was attacking again.
It meant a lot to her that he believed in her. She was working hard to get up to Cam’s standards, and he had been so distracted lately, that he hadn’t really acknowledged her efforts. She wasn’t looking for attention or anything like that, and she felt a little bratty just for thinking about it. The fact was…she missed him.
She put her arm around Jim’s side as they continued walking home. It was hot and humid, but no matter what the weather, they were learning be thankful for every day they had. Each one could be their last.
“Jim?” she asked hesitantly.
“Yeah, Angel?”
“Do you think Cam will be…” She couldn’t think how to word it. “Back to his usual self soon? I mean, is there anything I should do to make him…come back to me?”
He was silent for several minutes.
Had she hurt him? He was trying his hardest to stay in a more platonic friendship with her, and even though they both shoved those stronger feelings down deep, they were still under the surface. When she thought of him maybe finding someone else, the selfish side of her wanted to offer him some kind of hope so he wouldn’t leave her.
Did that make her selfish?
Yes.
Jim finally squeezed her tight before speaking.
“Cam isn’t like us, babe. He is made differently. He thinks differently, and he approaches problems differently. How much of that is his personality and how much of that was based on his military experience, I don’t know…”
He stopped for a second, choosing his next words carefully.
“Cam loves you deeply. He is in love with you. He also loves me, though obviously not in the same way. He loves every one of us here…except maybe Monica. He’s not very fond of her in case you haven’t noticed. My point is this: Cam loves Ed like a father figure, or uncle. Right now, that man is missing. We think he is being held at the prison, but we don’t know for sure. This is killing Cam. It’s hurting all of us, but Cam especially.”
Refuge From The Dead | Book 3 | Dead Fall Page 1
