Infiltration Page 19

  “Cops are coming, Cam,” Smith called out from behind Cameron’s car. “Time for both of us to go.”

  “I don’t think so, Smith,” Cameron responded. Now that he knew where Smith was, Cameron began to make his way across the warehouse, silently. No more talking from him.

  “The only way we get out of this is together, Cam. If we both get caught, I’ve got connections, but you don’t. I’ll make sure all this gets pinned on you and Sophia. You don’t want Sophia to go to jail, do you, Cam?”

  Just keep talking, jerk. Cameron was almost to him.

  “Give me Ghost Shell, we’ll all get out of here and let bygones be bygones. You can see the lights, Cam. They’re almost here. No need for us to get arrested.”

  Cameron stepped around the end of his car and brought his SIG up against Smith’s head, since Smith was still looking the other way, thinking Cameron was with Sophia. Keeping his gun firmly against Smith’s skull, he reached over and grabbed the man’s weapon out of his hand before he could turn it on Cameron.

  “Actually, you’re right, Smith. There’s no need for us to get arrested. Just you. You’re under arrest, you son of a bitch, for the murder of a federal agent, kidnapping, assault and a whole slew of things too long to even mention here.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “All I’m saying is that watching you come flying out of that trunk, tire iron swinging, was the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.” Cameron sat in a reclining hospital chair, one arm wrapped around Sophia with her snuggled up against his uninjured side. His other arm was in a sling from the bullet he’d taken at the warehouse, which fortunately hadn’t done any permanent damage.

  Sophia wanted to get up to make sure she wasn’t hurting Cameron or making him feel uncomfortable, but every time she made any sort of movement away from him he would tuck her more thoroughly back to his side.

  Not that she wanted to be anywhere else.

  “True story,” Sawyer called from his seat across the room.

  “There’s no way you could’ve seen it from where you were,” Cameron scoffed at Sawyer.

  “I don’t have to have seen it.” Sawyer winked at Sophia. “A woman like Sophia, jumping out swinging? Hell yes, that’s sexy.”

  Sophia felt her cheeks burning.

  “Don’t let them embarrass you, Sophia.” That much softer sentence came from Dylan in his hospital bed. He seemed to be out of the woods, but still recovering from the beating he had taken at the hands of Smith’s men, two of whom were now dead while two, Smith included, were in custody. Ghost Shell was safely back at Omega Sector, although Sophia understood there was some sort of incident where Sawyer had tripped and accidentally punched his boss.

  Sophia had been told about the incident earlier today by Juliet, Cameron’s sister. She also worked at Omega, although not as a field agent. At least not anymore. She had stopped by earlier to check on her brothers and promised to be back later that day after she tried to smooth things over with their boss for her brothers as best she could.

  “So, are you guys going to get fired?” Sophia asked, desperate to turn the topic of the conversation to anything but her and the tire iron.

  “Nah.” Sawyer’s confidence was reassuring. “Like I put in my initial report, I am just such a clumsy bastard. I tripped over my own size twelves and just happened to catch Burgamy in the jaw on the way down. Bad luck all around. Then everything just happened so fast. We were trying to call a medic and Dylan here came stumbling in and we just made a judgment call.”

  Sophia looked up at Cameron from her nook in his shoulder. “Really?”

  Cameron just shrugged.

  “Besides,” Sawyer continued, “we had it all under control from the beginning at the warehouse. Perfect plan, perfectly executed.”

  Sophia saw Cameron roll his eyes. Whatever the plan had been, it definitely hadn’t been perfect. But she didn’t push it any further. She just didn’t want Cameron or Sawyer to get in trouble because of her.

  “All right, kiddos, I’m out for a few hours if you’re going to be staying here for a while, Cam.” Sawyer stood up. “I better go help Juliet keep Burgamy from torching my desk. I’ll be back in a bit. Try to stay out of trouble while I’m gone.”

  Cameron nodded. “No problem. Let me know if you need me to come help put out fires.”

  Sawyer walked over to the chair Cameron and Sophia were lying in. “Sophia...” He held his hand out to her. Sophia tried to get up from Cameron’s side, but Cameron wouldn’t let her. Sawyer saw it all and chuckled. “No, don’t fight him. I’m glad to see Cameron’s finally got the good enough sense not to let someone like you go. Better late than never. Welcome to the family.” He winked at her then turned and headed out the door.

  Sophia was mortified at what Sawyer had said. Would Cameron think Sophia meant that as a clue about where she wanted their relationship to go? “Um, I’m sorry Sawyer said that. I don’t know what he meant.”

  “I do,” Cameron told her, head laid back peacefully against the chair, eyes closed.

  “You do? Oh, good.” Sophia was all but stammering so she stopped talking. But then couldn’t help herself. “What? What did he mean?”

  Cameron turned so they could look face-to-face at each other. “He meant that I’m in love with you and I’m going to spend however long it takes to make you understand that and convince you to marry me.”

  “Uh...uh...” Sophia couldn’t seem to remember any words in the entire English language.

  “It doesn’t have to be right now,” Cameron continued, smiling at her and stroking her hair away from her face. “We can take as long as we need. As long as you understand that I’m not letting you out of this chair until you say yes.”

  There was a chuckle from the bed. Sophia had totally forgotten that Dylan was there trying to rest. But she didn’t care about Dylan being there, didn’t care if the entire hospital could hear them.

  “Do you really mean that? You didn’t suffer any sort of head injury last night, did you?”

  Another chuckle from the bed.

  “No.” Cameron chuckled a bit, too, but then his laughter faded. “I promise I am of very sound mind. Soph, when I found out Smith had you, it had never been more clear to me that you are the most important thing in my world.”

  Sophia started to speak, to assure Cameron of the same thing, but he put his finger over her lips to hush her. In his eyes were all the emotions she had always wanted to see. “I’ve lived without you for five years, and have cursed my own stupidity each day. I don’t want to live without you anymore, Sophia.”

  This was the man she had loved for years, whom she had given up on ever having a future with. Sophia scooted up so she could press her lips to Cameron’s. “Then don’t.”

  * * * * *

  Janie Crouch’s OMEGA SECTOR series

  continues next month with Sawyer’s story.

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  Chapter One

  Brit Garner woke to the irritating rattle of her cell phone vibrating against her bedside table. She pulled the pillow over her head and tried to ignore it. It finally stopped only to start again a few seconds later. If this was her partner, she was going to kill him.


  She checked the caller ID and then took the call. “This had better be of life-threatening importance, Rick Drummond.”

  “Not life threatening, but I think you better get down to the morgue.”

  “What part of ‘I’m on vacation with plans to sleep until noon every day’ do you not understand?”

  “I get it. You’ve worked your gorgeous butt off the past few months. But I think you’ll want to see this.”

  “I’ve seen dead bodies before.” Too many of them, which was why she needed a few well-deserved days off. A walk in a park or along the beach would do wonders for her state of mind. Time to read a book or visit friends would be heaven.

  Her dad had warned her it would be like this.

  “Just come down. No work involved. I really think you should see this.”

  “Why is it so urgent I see this particular body?”

  “Just get down here, Brit. I’ll buy you coffee and breakfast after.”

  “A real breakfast. No coffee and doughnut on the fly.”

  “Anything you want—under ten bucks, of course.”

  “Splurging and secrecy. You’re starting to freak me out. I’ll be there as soon as I can throw on some clothes. Not work clothes. I’m on vacation, remember?”

  “Hard to forget when you keep bringing it up every ten seconds. Come on up to Autopsy when you get here.”

  Brit kicked off the top sheet and stretched her legs over the side of the bed. She went to the bathroom, splashed her face with cold water and brushed her teeth. After that she shed her nightshirt and wiggled into a pair of faded jeans and a long-sleeved green T-shirt. A quick brush of her long hair and she was ready.

  She’d go to the morgue but, no matter how interesting the case, she wouldn’t let Rick sway her to jump in. She really needed the time off. And not only to rejuvenate, but also to try to figure out where she’d gone wrong on a very important case.

  The colder a case got the harder it was to solve. She’d been working on her father’s murder for three years without a decent lead. She had to be overlooking a key element. No murder was perfect.

  Less than a half hour later, she was walking into the autopsy section of the morgue. The facilities were state-of-the-art and as familiar as her neighborhood grocery store, though the odors were far more unpleasant.

  Her partner, Rick, was standing next to the gray examining table. Her favorite pathologist, Elise Laughton, was at the other side of the table and slipping out of her gloves.

  “Looks like she put up a hell of a fight,” Elise said. “Evidently she was just no match for the strength of her attacker.”

  “Cause of death?” Brit asked by way of greeting, determined to stick to the basics.

  “You made good time,” Elise said, looking up.

  “Traffic was light. And as you can see, I didn’t bother with makeup since I’m not sticking around long.”

  Elise shared a concerned look with Rick and then looked back to her. “To answer your original question, the evidence includes new bruising on the hands and arms and having her throat slashed.”

  Another morning in Houston. Not that all murders weren’t bad, but any detective in the department could handle this, including Rick. There had to be something more going on for him to call her in this morning.

  “So start talking, Rick, and this had better be good.”

  Rick frowned. “Take a look.”

  Brit stepped closer for an unobstructed view of the body. An icy chill seeped deep inside her as she studied the victim.

  She could have been staring into a mirror. The lifeless victim spread out on the cold metal slab looked exactly like her.

  Copyright © 2015 by Jo Ann Vest

  ISBN-13: 9781460344972

  Infiltration

  Copyright © 2015 by Janie Crouch

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  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

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