Chapter Six
Cam watched Bren stride out of the cave without even the slightest limp. Obviously, her injured ankle wasn’t giving her any trouble this morning. She glanced back at him just before she stepped out, but he dropped his gaze and made like he was busy finding the freeze-dried coffee.
Pretending he wasn’t watching her had pretty much become the theme of this mission. At first, it’d been all about the risk—making sure she wasn’t about to go rogue or make some stupid decision that would get the rest of the team killed, just like it’d gone down with Jordie.
But at some point— Hell, who was he kidding? He knew exactly what point. After he’d pulled her out of that hunter’s snare, got an armful of her and then some, his reasons for watching her had started becoming blurred. And, he’d also started paying closer attention.
The woman was tightly wound, no doubt about it. But she was a confusing concoction of strength and vulnerability. Stubbornness and flexibility. Distance and temptation. She’d gotten under his skin in a way he had no reference for, and no idea what the hell to do with.
He hadn’t really changed his opinion of her—she was still Jordie’s sister and still every chance that she was exactly what he assumed. But from what he’d seen of her in the last day and a half, she no longer fit in the neat confines of his mind like she should.
He liked to be able to read people. To understand them. To know how to relate to get the best out of that person. But Lieutenant Theresa Brenner had put him in a head spin. He’d figure her out eventually, but for now, she was the unknown element. He didn’t like that one bit.
So, he’d made no secret of the fact he was watching her last night, wondering how she’d react under scrutiny. But she’d managed to distract him when she’d pulled the scarf off her head and shook those golden curls free.
Christ help him, he’d never wanted to touch anything in his life as much as he’d wanted to run his hand through her hair, to see if it felt as cool and silky as it looked. Fist a handful while he—
The direction of those thoughts shocked him like a boot up the ass. Not only was it wildly inappropriate to be having those kinds of fantasies about someone on his team in the middle of this kind of mission, but this was a Brenner. The sister of the guy who’d nearly gotten him killed and almost destroyed his career before it had started. Sure, he felt bad for what happened to Jordie. But the guy had brought it on himself. Made every wrong, selfish choice a man could possibly make. Who knew if that selfishness ran in the family? He didn’t want to find out.
Everyone had bunked down, and while he’d given Brenner first watch, he hadn’t been able to sleep. Not because he didn’t trust her to do something as simple as keep a look out and warn them if anyone approached, but because his mind was sorting the events of the day.
More than half those thoughts had centered around Bren, and when he’d finally given up on keeping his eyes closed and looked over at her, the sight of her had been a knife rammed into his chest.
Silent tears had been escaping her eyes. She’d used the sleeve of her uniform to wipe them away, but they were coming faster than she could swipe them. His whole body had clenched on a reactive wave, almost getting him up and over to her before he could stop himself. Luckily, logic had won out, and though it had been the hardest thing he’d ever done in his life, he’d laid still and quiet.
He knew she wouldn’t welcome anyone in that moment, least of all him. The sight of her tears and his inability to do anything about them singed him. However, if she actually started crying, it would turn into a blaze he wouldn’t be able to handle. Sure, he hated to see a woman cry as much as the next guy, but Bren’s tears gouged him more than he would have expected.
She couldn’t have simply been upset about the day’s events. Sure, the hike had been grueling, and she’d had that frightening brush with the trap, but he didn’t think that would be enough to make an experienced soldier like Bren give into tears.
No, in his guts, he knew this had to be about Jordie. Maybe he wasn’t the only one feeling those old scars throb again. The thought that she found it just as hard to be around him had been startling, and though he hadn’t wanted it to, it had slightly adjusted the way he’d viewed her.
Still didn’t mean he was going to cut her any breaks. Because the second he let his guard down would be the most likely time things turned to shit.
He’d finally fallen asleep and had a fitful night. When Harlow had woken him for his turn at watch, he’d pretty much felt like crap. Then, he’d gone and put himself into an even better mood by returning to his new favorite pastime: watching Brenner.
Seriously, it was starting to get to disturbing, stalker-like levels. He probably needed to intervention himself or something.
But the mind screw hadn’t finished there. Because as the first hint of dawn had begun lighting the mouth of the cave, she’d turned restless, seeming caught in some kind of bad dream.
He’d sat there debating whether to wake her up, but the argument had become invalid when she’d sat up with a sharp gasp. Before he’d even realized he was going to move, he’d been at her side, only just stopping himself short of pulling her into his arms like he had the afternoon before.
Dammit. Things were so messed up. He should have recognized this was going to happen. Should have predicted bringing Jordie Brenner’s little sister along on this mission was going to do nothing but complicate the fuck out of it. Should have fought harder against having her here.
Well, nothing to do now but accept what he had to deal with and make the best of it. The best being that he keep his distance, don’t lay hands on her again, and stop damn well thinking about her every other minute. That included worrying if she was going to screw up the mission.
Bren returned with an armful of wood, but her actions were harried as she set it down and rushed over to him.
“I heard voices in the woods. At least three. And saw some torches.”
His pulse spiked as he pushed to his feet, but he didn’t want to jump to the worst conclusion. “Could be hunters finding food for the day.”
“Could be,” she repeated, but he could see she wasn’t ready to buy that without proof.
“Let’s do some recon. Think you can handle it?”
She nodded and went over to retrieve her other guns, having taken the sidearm when she first went out. With quick movements, she secured her hair into a tight bun and then wrapped the scarf around it, not completely covering her head as she had yesterday, but still disguising the mass of golden strands. While she did that, he woke Bartlet, told him what was going on, ordered him to take over watch, and go with plan B if the two of them didn’t return.
“Show me where,” he instructed as they stepped out of the cave into the dew-laden predawn air.
She led him toward the river, where it emerged in a crashing thunder from beneath the ground. A little downstream, they used slippery rocks to hop across the rushing water, and once they left the constant background rumble of the river, Bren stopped to hunker down behind some low rocks.
He scanned the patches of gray and darker shadows, the light getting stronger by the minute.
“There,” she whispered, just as he spotted a beam of light bouncing between the trees, followed by the faint echo of voices.
Another light joined the first, words calling back and forth. He took in the patterns of movement, which were slowly but steadily closing in on their position.
“They’re not hunters,” he said after maybe ten minutes. “They’re searching for someone or something.”
“CSS?” she murmured in return.
“I don’t want to stick around to find out. Let’s wake the others and keep moving.” He slid backward from the rocks and then got to his feet, keeping low until they’d passed a number of trees, Bren following his every cue like she’d done this before. He had to admit she was actually better at this than he’d assumed, being a fighter pilot with little ground experience. Given enough training, she would have likely made one heck of a special-ops soldier. But then, Jordie had proven the same thing, until he’d made that fatal error on their team’s first and last assignment.
When they returned to the cave, he was gratified to find Bartlet had woken everyone, and they were, for the most part, packed and ready to go.
“What’s the sit-rep?” Seb asked as Cam took over from Harlow, who’d been packing his gear for him.
“Unknowns in the woods on the other side of the river. We’re better off hoofing it than sticking around to find out what kind of reception we’d get.”
Seb nodded, as he shrugged into his own pack and then went over to help Bren with hers.
“Your ankle good?” Rayne asked once Bren had her rucksack secured.
“Good as it needs to be,” she replied confidently.
After that, they quickly and quietly exited the cave, setting a fast pace in the opposite direction from the men on the other side of the river. It meant they were going to have to take an even more circular route into the village, but he’d rather walk a few extra miles than risk running across any CS soldiers and possibly end up in one of those hell pits they called reeducation facilities.
He’d known a few soldiers who’d spent time in them before the UEF had negotiated their release, and it had sounded bad enough. But then Commander Yang had turned up on the bank of this same river, but about fifty miles north of here, after escaping one of the CSS facilities.
Everyone had spent the year and a half before that believing he was dead. That the CSS hadn’t admitted to having him prisoner had shaken the foundations of the way they’d dealt with the enemy up to that point.
What Yang had been through had been the stuff of true nightmares—beyond a nightmare into a hell most people couldn’t imagine, let alone survive. That he lived was a testament to the man’s strength, but he’d forever bear the scars, both physical and mental.
So nope. Visiting a CSS reeducation camp was not on his list of to-do’s.
They hadn’t gone more than a few hundred meters when the distant echo of voices reached him. He pulled to a stop and held up a fist so the team behind him would know to halt.
It was hard to tell which direction the voices were coming from. Were they the same ones from the river and they’d made their way to this bank?
No, the tenor of calls told him this was a different group. After a few more moments, he decided that they were coming from ahead of him. With a flick of his hand, he indicated for his people to move off to his left.
Keeping a tight grip on his weapon, he silently weaved through the trees, tasting the cold against the back of his throat, his breath creating a white puff of air with each steady exhale.
The distant voices echoing through the trees gave him the feeling of being surrounded. A number of torches loomed through what was left of the night shadows. But he kept pushing forward, making a direct line on the village. Maybe they could make it there and disappear into the town before the search party realized they were out here.
As the first golden rays of the sun started darting through the forest, he slowed to a stop again, reassessing their position against the unknown group.
“What are you thinking?” Seb asked in a low voice, coming up on his right side. “CSS? You think they know we’re out here?”
“Could be CSS, but it’s not possible they know we’re here,” he returned. “Besides, if that were the case, they would have taken the cave right away. They’re definitely searching for something, though. And the net is closing. We’re going to have to make the village if we want to get out of here unnoticed.”
“Let’s keep moving, then.” Seb firmed up his grip on his weapon and glanced back, presumably at Bren, before they all resumed sneaking through the woods.
The voices kept him on edge, but finally the village came into view beyond the trees.
Seb had gotten a few steps ahead of him, and they all picked up the pace now that the goal was in sight.
He caught the movement in his peripheral too late to warn Seb. A CS soldier came out of the woods, stumbling to a halt and obviously shocked to find them there.
Seb started to bring his gun up at the same time the CS soldier did, but someone in their group was faster and put the man down with a single shot before he’d even finished raising his gun.
There was nothing different he could have done, but shit, their position had been given away. No point in going for stealth now—they needed to lose themselves in the early bustle of people going about their business in the village.
“Make a break for it!”
He waited a beat to make sure every member of his team was ahead of him, especially Bren with her injured ankle, and then brought up the rear as they made a run on the village.
Just as they broke the tree line, more CS soldiers appeared, cutting them off mere seconds before they would have made the safety of the houses.
They closed ranks, weapons pointed outward as the eight soldiers surrounded them, aiming old-fashioned guns with bullets at them.
“What have we got here?” A man stepped forward, not carrying a gun, but a whip of all the damned things.
“Well, isn’t this my lucky day,” Seb announced as the man, who was clearly some kind of senior officer, stopped in front of them. “I don’t like owing a debt, and it looks like I’m about to settle up.”
The man’s brow creased in a condescending manner as he raked a dismissive gaze over Seb. “Do I know you?”
Seb gave a harsh laugh. “You don’t remember ordering your patrol to beat the shit out of a man minding his own business? In front of his pregnant wife, no less? Come on, buddy. It was only a few weeks ago. Just how many people have you gotten your men to beat up for you in that time?”
Cam risked cutting a glance at Seb, no idea what the hell he was talking about. He wasn’t married, let alone hitched with a baby on the way. Had that been part of his cover when he and Jenna had infiltrated enemy territory about a month ago? Sounded damn crazy.
The man’s nostril’s flared. “So you went out and joined the rebels? Seems you didn’t learn your lesson, boy.”
A small swell of relief flowed through Cam. If this guy thought they were rebels, that was marginally better than them realizing they were UEF.
“Oh, I learned a lesson, all right.” Seb spat on the ground at the man’s feet. “I learned how to spot a coward. Going to stand by while your men do your dirty work again for you today?”
Tension and unease rippled through the soldiers surrounding them, but his team remained still, calm like the eye at the center of the storm.
The leader started to raise his hand, clenching the whip. It was just a twitch, really, but it was enough. Seb lunged forward, slamming the butt of his gun down on the man’s arm, causing him to drop the whip.
Cam went for the soldier closest to him in a few short but effective moves, getting him in a headlock with his pistol pressed to the man’s temple.
Seb had put down their leader in the seconds of mayhem. He was lying either dead or unconscious, and most definitely bleeding from a head wound. Cam’s men had disarmed several others, leaving the remaining ones lowering their weapons with indecision.
“Anyone else want to throw down?” Cam asked, casting a hard look around the group.
No one said anything, but the soldiers who weren’t pinned scattered in all directions, fleeing into the woods. They let go of the ones they were holding, but didn’t give them back their weapons.
After the area was cleared, Seb turned and gave everything he had into hooking a boot into the prone leader. “Gutless piece of shit.”
Cam gave half a thought to intervening. It was one thing to beat down the enemy, but laying into him when he was already out crossed a line. Except Seb seemed done. He went over to Bren and clapped her on the shoulder.
“Nice shooting back there. You saved my ass.”
Bren had been the one to take out the first CS soldier? He’d assumed it’d been Harlow, who was a freakishly fast shot. But if she’d beat him to the line, then she had to be good. Damn good.
“Yeah, well, I didn’t want to have to explain to Jenna once I got back to the Knox how you ended up bleeding and full of holes,” Bren returned with a relieved smile. “Don’t think she would have taken it very well.”
“No, she sure as hell wouldn’t have.” Seb pulled her in for a quick hug. It wasn’t a buddy-buddy hug like guys or fellow soldiers usually shared. There was a little more to it.
And it made a heaviness land in his guts, though he had absolutely no idea why. Seb was head over heels in love with his tough CI agent girlfriend, but Cam couldn’t help wondering if Bren and Seb had history. The kind of history that usually made a mess out of friendships and working relationships. Not that it seemed either had that kind of baggage between them. And not that it was any of his damned business. But curiosity—an uncomfortable curiosity—was getting the better of him.
“We better get out of here before that dick wakes up, or they send reinforcements.”
He was going to ignore the way Bren and Seb were smiling at each other as his men collected the discarded guns, secured, and disarmed them, before they resumed their trek into the village.
They’d gotten lucky. If any of the CS soldiers who ran off blabbed—actually, no if about it—at least what had happened here would be blamed on the rebels, because the CSS had no idea the UEF had infiltrated so far into their territory. With everything that had happened in the last six months, all the moles and double agents they’d found in their own ranks, it was about time they gave the CSS some of their own medicine to choke on.
Now all they had to do was find and contact the actual rebels. At least they could come bearing a few gifts with the guns they’d taken off that CSS patrol.