Sophia couldn’t believe that was true.
“Yeah, evidently how I’ve been treating you has been helping solidify my bad-guy reputation.”
“How long have you been...working with them?” Sophia turned toward him slightly.
“This group is called DS-13. They’re basically into everything—weapons, drugs, money laundering. And now it looks like they’re expanding into full-on terrorism.” Cameron gestured toward the rest of the house with his thumb. “I’ve been in this house for about three weeks, but first made contact eight months ago.”
“What do you do? I mean, what do they think you do?”
“They think I’m a midlevel weapons dealer. What you walked in on today was a sale I had set up.”
Sophia shook her head. Just sheer bad luck. If Bruce had gotten the pictures when he was supposed to have... “If they did a sale, can’t you make arrests?”
Cameron shifted a little closer to her, but this time Sophia didn’t feel the need to move away.
“I could’ve arrested everybody there, and would’ve tried if things had gotten much more out of hand.”
“Tried?”
Cameron reached over and pulled up her ripped sleeve, as if he could reattach it to the rest of her shirt by sheer will. “There were four of them, all armed, against just you and me. And only I had a weapon.”
“Not very good odds, I guess.” Sophia shuddered thinking about it.
“No, I doubt if either of us would’ve made it out alive.” Cameron shrugged and smiled crookedly at her. “But I would’ve tried.”
“Don’t you have a wire or something? Backup?”
“Sometimes. But not in deep cover like this. It’s too complicated and dangerous to have surveillance all the time. DS-13 is smart—that’s why they chose this house. Surveillance vehicles would be pretty easy to spot around here.”
“But what if you need help?” Sophia couldn’t believe they would just send Cameron in by himself.
He smiled at her again and she found herself shifting a little more toward him.
That cocky smile. Lord, how she’d missed it.
“Honey, I can take care of myself. But I do have ways to bring in backup, if I need it.”
“Like today?”
“Believe it or not, today was mostly for show. The buyers were picked up not long after they left the warehouse. The whole thing was just supposed to show DS-13 how helpful and well-organized my buys could be for them.”
Cameron stretched his long legs out in front of him. “The agency was supposed to have blocked everything off so nobody would be around those warehouses.”
Sophia rolled her eyes. “Yeah, well, I got way lost and ended up coming through some farmer’s back field to get to the warehouses. If the FBI was watching the roads, that’s why they didn’t see me.”
Cameron nodded as if she had just solved some puzzle for him. “I didn’t want to make any arrests because these are just lower-level bad guys. I’m trying to get their boss.”
Sophia watched, a little frightened, as Cameron’s face and posture hardened right before her eyes. Whoever this “boss” was, Cameron wanted to take him down. Badly.
“No luck yet?”
“Haven’t even met him. This sort of work is tricky—you can’t push too hard or it backfires on you.”
Sophia nodded. She couldn’t imagine the sort of pressure being undercover would put on someone. Never knowing if you were making the right choices, or when you may be discovered.
It had definitely made Cameron Branson into a harder man than when she had known him five years ago. Then, he had still been strong—physically, mentally, in all possible ways. But now there was an edge to him that hadn’t been there before. One that scared her a little.
One that had probably saved her life earlier.
Almost as if her body was moving of its own accord she turned toward him. He did look exhausted. His black hair, grown out from how short it used to be, was touching his collar. Before she could stop herself, Sophia reached out and tucked a stray curl back from where it had fallen onto his forehead, nearly to his eyes.
For a moment they looked at each other. Sophia forgot where they were, the danger they were in, the fear she had felt. She only saw Cameron.
Something slid under the door before a fist beat loudly on it. Sophia jumped back at the sound, the moment—whatever it was—shattered.
“Cam, man, you alive in there? I need to talk to you.”
Cameron stood up and walked over to pick up whatever had been slid under the door. “Yeah, Fin. I’ll be right out.”
Cameron walked back over to her, and reached his hand out to help her up. Sophia hesitated for just a moment before taking it. “What is it he put under the door?”
Cameron walked with her over to the edge of the bed then sat down with a sigh. He held up what was in his hands: plastic zip ties—used everywhere to secure and fasten all sorts of things.
Sophia shook her head, confused. What were the ties for? Whatever it was, Cameron wasn’t too happy about it.
“Poor man’s handcuffs,” he finally said. “I guess Fin wants to make sure you don’t try to escape or anything while he and I are talking.”
Oh. “Okay, I guess.” Sophia was determined to keep it together. Now that she knew Cameron was undercover, she needed to help him if she could. Not being hysterical was the most help she could offer right now.
“Just don’t try to struggle against them. They’ll cut into your wrists if you do.”
Sophia swallowed hard and nodded.
“I’m going to run one set around your wrists and one around your ankles since there’s nothing in this room to secure you to. It will look more authentic that way if someone checks.”
Sophia’s panicked glaze flew up to his. Someone checking?
A fist pounded on the door again. “Damn it, Cam. Hurry up. You can finish doing whatever you want to her after we talk.”
Cameron spoke to her quickly as he pulled the plastic fasteners around her ankles. “I’ll be as fast as I can, but sometimes Fin likes to hear himself talk.”
Cameron tightened the ties so they were tight but not painful. “If anybody comes through that door that isn’t me, start screaming your head off. Immediately. Don’t wait to see what they want.”
Sophia nodded. That wasn’t a problem. She knew her screaming voice was definitely in working condition.
Cameron
