Chapter 3
As the men finished eating, a soldier walked over and handed one of them a note. It was passed to all of them before they stood, nodded to her and walked away.
Easton called back, “We have to go.”
She was still eating her dessert and sipping her coffee as she watched them. She was sad to see them go, although she often didn’t mind being alone. They were friendly faces in a sea of strangers. Especially Easton, although he was more cranky than friendly.
Just as she decided to head to her quarters, two men came to her table and sat down across from her. They wore military fatigues. She glanced at their faces but didn’t know them. “Hello,” she said carefully.
The men nodded at her; one of them pointed at her bags and said, “You’ve been taking pictures all day.”
She smiled. “Yes, I’m the photographer, doing a bunch of brochures and social media stuff on this camp. All goodwill.”
“But you’ve been taking pictures of things other than just the activities, correct?”
She frowned. “Only scenery. Everything else has been about the men here.”
Silence followed.
“The photographs need to be only what you’re allowed to take pictures of,” the younger man said warily. “The superiors don’t like to have any others taken.”
“Oh, all the photos will be okayed before they are used,” she assured them. “I’ve been doing this for a long time.”
If she thought that would reassure them, she was wrong. They just stared at her with that bland, hard look. She didn’t quite understand what the problem was, but something had obviously struck a nerve. Then again these men might have a darn good reason to be wary of a stranger, even if she had the right to be here. As she thought about the types of missions these men did, she understood their need to stay under the radar.
With a small smile, she excused herself. “I’ll head back to my place now, thanks.”
She got up and grabbed her bag, then slipped the straps over her shoulders. For some reason the conversation with Easton earlier, and now these men, made her a little more uneasy than she’d ever been on a base. It was unfortunate because she really loved being in Canada. She didn’t want a negative overtone to her visit here.
From the mess tent, she found her way to hers without any trouble. It was spacious and empty. Inside, she sat on her bed and started her laptop. She had a lot of images to download. With her laptop beside her, she opened the first camera and looked at the screen on the back, quickly clicking through each picture, deleting the obviously bad shots. She’d make the decisions on the rest when she got home where she had a much bigger setup. But, for now, no point in transferring hundreds of images that were no good.
It took her a while, but it was work she loved. By the time she’d gotten to the second SD card, she realized she’d had quite a day. She kept looking, making instant decisions from long years of practice as to whether a shot was good or not worth keeping. She flicked, decided to keep, swiped again to the left. That next one was a keeper, followed by several that belonged in the garbage.
Dozens had the light completely wrong. She sent all those into the trash, wondering if everything from those hours of work would end up useless. She found several photographs of the uniformed men in the distance where she’d switched her lens. Those were okay but had zero value. Still, the background in the photos wouldn’t be bad. She kept going until she came to the pictures of Easton and stopped, a smile on her face. Wow, those cheekbones sure came up nice. Not to mention that jaw.
He had a small dimple barely noticeable in his chin. Next came a shot with his arms crossed, glaring at her. He probably thought he was being scary, but, to her, he looked like a big protective teddy bear. He rocked that look. The shots were excellent. She took her time sorting through Easton’s pictures and sent the next set of thirty to the garbage. She knew she had to get rid of them all but hoped to have a chance to talk with him about it.
By the time she finally reached the end, had them downloaded and filed away in the cloud storage, it was almost bedtime. She would be up early to do more and wanted to catch the teams as they headed out on their morning run. She answered a few emails, got ready for bed and turned out the lights. She’d assumed she’d be sharing a tent, as she often did in the past.
But this time she was alone. It didn’t bother her, but it was a little unusual.
Just as she closed her eyes, she heard voices outside. Men would move through the camp all night. She had no idea what this training week would encompass. But surrounded by this many capable defenders of two nations, she was safe. Surely? Then she remembered the murdered woman Devlin had mentioned at another base. Summer closed her eyes again and tried to sleep, but the side of the tent rustled as if somebody gave it a small shake.
She rolled over to check it out, but it was so dark she could hardly see. It would be foolish for anybody to attack her here. Not that they would. She was in the middle of hundreds of military men. Still it took her a long time to fall sleep.
When she finally dropped off, it was an uneasy surface sleep. She could hear voices and movements all around her. She woke several times, rolling over, checking out the time on her cell phone. Each time she’d only sleep for another hour. “It’s going to be a damn long night at this rate.”
She rolled over, pulled the blanket against her cheek and closed her eyes, and that’s when she heard…breathing. She froze, her eyes half open as she tried to identify where the person was. She was up against one side of the tent, so it was possible the breather was outside. She sure hoped so; otherwise it meant the person was inside.
When did he come in? Did he—she?—have a right to be here? Her tent had lots of empty beds, so maybe someone had been assigned to sleep here, yet no one had mentioned it to her? If it was a man she didn’t know, she didn’t care when he’d arrived. She wanted him to go the hell away.
She was here to work because she had a simple love of photography. In this case she was the right person for the job. Now she should probably get it done and leave.
As she lay there, she waited for the breather to leave. Instead it slowed down as if somebody had settled in for a long wait. Or had fallen asleep?
She rolled over casually, as if asleep herself. Then peered under her lashes, shifting just enough to look around. All the beds were empty.
She squeezed her eyes shut. Then, with a burst of energy, bounced to her feet and was outside the tent in seconds.
Only to run into a huge chest, then arms wrapped around her and lifted her off her feet.
She opened her mouth and screamed.
*
Easton barely had time to react when he was body-slammed by someone small, moving at a very fast rate. He put his arms around her when she opened her mouth.
“Summer. Easy, Summer. It’s me, Easton.”
But he couldn’t get through to her. She was shaking and screaming like crazy. People were yelling—coming to see what all the commotion was about. He couldn’t calm her down. Finally he grabbed a handful of hair, gently pulled her head back and slammed his mouth over hers.
She quieted.
He cuddled her in his arms, slid his mouth to her ear and said, “It’s okay now. I got you.”
She buried her face against his chest, clinging to him for dear life. Taking a quick view of the area, seeing all the curious eyes, he stepped into her tent, carrying her. Devlin came in behind him. Ryder and Corey followed. They closed the flap as he sat down on the bed that looked to be where she’d been sleeping. He settled her into his arms. “Calm down, and tell me what’s wrong.”
She took several gasping sobs, scrubbed her face like a child and stared up at him, her eyes huge. Just when he thought she would speak, she threw her arms around his neck and held him tight. He rubbed her back gently and waited. The men spread out and checked to see if anything was wrong. Snakes weren’t unheard of in Canada, and it was well-known for black widows but not this far north. Surely that wouldn’t have been enough to have a photographer lose her cool like that, not one who’d spent months in the wilderness.
The other men stood together at one corner. He wanted to call out and ask what they’d found but didn’t want to disturb Summer or set her off again.
Finally, she let go of a big shuddering breath and sank against him. “Thank you for coming,” she said in such a formal voice that his lips quirked.
He didn’t dare tell her it was an accident he was outside her tent at that time of night. He’d been part of a competition scouting out the opposite team hiding on the base. A no weapon game of skill for fun – and challenge. He hadn’t even been aware which tent was hers. Still, he was glad it was him, not somebody else. He shifted her position ever-so-slightly, then tilted her chin so he could look in her eyes. “Are you ready to tell me what’s going on?”
She glanced at the men behind him. “Somebody was inside my tent.”
He straightened and studied her. She looked calm and rational, not still caught in the grips of a nightmare. “What do you mean, inside the tent?” He glanced at the other three. “Do you have a roommate?”
She shook her head. “Not that I know of. I haven’t met anybody. And the person wasn’t in bed nor did he say anything.” She pointed to the far corner. “He was over there.”
“It was a man? Did you see him?”
Again she shook her head.
“Are you sure you actually heard somebody in here?”
She grabbed his face, tilted it down so she could look him right in the eye. “Yes, because I could hear him breathing. I woke up when I heard a sound. While I lay here, figuring it out, I could hear heavy breathing—heavy male breathing—somewhere over there.” She flung her arm up and toward that direction. “I rolled over and searched the beds, but no one was in them. Then the breathing got louder, as if he came closer.” She took a deep inhale, shutting her eyes briefly, and continued. “I grabbed my courage, and I bolted, screaming for help.”
The other three men walked toward Easton. He saw their frowns. “What did you find?”
“The corner of the tent at the floor level is cut. We can’t prove it happened just now,” Ryder cautioned, “but it is damaged. The opening is potentially big enough for someone to slide under without being easily seen. We can’t be sure if someone was coming in or going out, but footsteps are on the outside at that corner, plus, we found a scuffed area as if someone slipped underneath.”
“No footprints are inside though,” Corey said with a gentle smile at Summer.
She shook her head. “I know somebody was here. I presume, as I ran out, he either came out behind me, or slipped back out the way he came in.”
Easton shrugged. “It’s possible.”
“I was afraid you all thought I was crazy,” she confessed. “I hate feeling this way, but I do need you to validate that my fear was logical and reasonable and wasn’t acting like an idiot.”
“Even if you ran from a nightmare,” Easton said quietly, “it’s valid for you. That’s all anybody needs to know. No such thing as being foolish when you’re as terrified as you were when racing out of your tent.”
She took a heavy gulping sigh and nodded, then muttered, “Thank you.”
In a surprise movement, she collapsed against his chest once more and snuggled in tight.
She yawned and said, “I should be able to sleep now.”
Just like that, her breathing calmed down as if she were already asleep. He stared down at her, his eyebrows raised, and glanced at the others. They grinned. He frowned at them. Their grins widened. He shuffled her to lay her down on her bed, but she wrapped her arms around his neck and held him tight.
“You need to sleep.”
“I do.” She kept her grip around his neck.
He tried again. “I need to sleep.”
“Got it” was her mumbled murmur.
He waited another few minutes for her to fall back asleep, hoping maybe he could disentangle her arms, get her to lie down again. But, every time he tried, she tightened her grip. Even in sleep she clung to him.
Corey said with a straight face, “You may as well lie down, Easton. You both need sleep.”
Ryder chuckled softly.
“If I’m standing guard, then you guys are too,” Easton snapped. “There are lots of spare beds—go for it.”
They stared at him to see if he was serious, and, when they realized he was, groaned and said in unison, “Fine.”
Each grabbed a bed, stretched out and closed his eyes. Easton shifted Summer in his arms, laying down sideways, then pulled her arms loose and tucked her against him. When she murmured and tried to twist around again, he whispered, “You’re fine. Go to sleep. I’m here.”
As if not quite believing him, she lay still for a long moment, then relaxed into sleep. Now that he was free, he wondered if he could leave, but, at the same time, he had promised to stay. Easton leaned back slightly to put some distance between them and closed his eyes. Almost instantly her body slammed against his. So that was how they slept. Spoon-fashion for the rest of the night.
“Easton?”
His gaze flew to Devlin, standing in the middle of the tent, his hands on his hips as he studied Easton. Ryder and Corey sat on the beds they had spent the night on, rubbing their faces, yawning.
“What happened?”
He was going to tell Devlin to keep his voice down, when he realized, while he had slept, Summer had disappeared. “What the hell?”
The other two men looked at him, and Ryder asked, “Where did she go?”
“I have no idea. I fell asleep,” he admitted.
The three men looked at each other, then back at him. “The real question is, did she leave on her own, or was she kidnapped?”
They raced from the tent to find out.