As far as they were concerned, anybody employed by the Bureau was their enemy.
Cameron caught Sophia’s eye. He patted his pocket and gave her a slight nod. He had no idea if she understood what he was communicating, but she had done a good job.
Cameron walked over to Fin and leaned back against the SUV, knowing he had to play it casual. “So what do we do with her?”
Fin didn’t answer immediately. That wasn’t encouraging.
The hardest part of undercover work—especially in a situation like this—was figuring out how far you could take your bluff. Pull out of the game too soon and lose eight months of undercover work with only a couple of low-level arrests. But play the game too long and take a chance of somebody calling your bluff...
Which in this case would end in Sophia’s death before Cameron could stop it.
And this situation was all the more complicated due to this new damn Ghost Shell technology DS-13 had. If Cameron blew his cover now, Omega would be hard-pressed to acquire that technology before it went on the black market. That could result in the loss of thousands of lives.
But Cameron wasn’t going to let Sophia die. Not here. Not today. He was leaning very casually against the SUV, but he had slipped the safety off on his weapon, although it remained concealed under his shirt.
But just like Cameron, everyone here had a weapon. If this came down to a firefight, the odds were definitely not in his favor.
“Let’s just let her go, Fin,” Marco said. “Smash the camera, break her phone, slash her tires so she can’t get anywhere. By the time she walks to the nearest phone, we’ll be long gone.”
Cameron could’ve hugged the big lug. That was exactly the suggestion he had wanted to make, but couldn’t.
Fin looked over at Cameron, but Cameron just shrugged as if it didn’t matter to him a bit what happened to Sophia.
“No,” Fin finally said. “No loose ends. Kill her.”
Cameron heard Sophia’s indrawn breath and he looked over at her. Full-blown panic was visible in her eyes now. She looked as if she was about to make a run for it. Cameron hoped she wouldn’t. He didn’t think he could take out all four of the other men before someone got a shot off at her.
A quick plan came to Cameron. God, he hoped this would work. He pushed himself away from the car lazily. “Aw, come on, Fin, can’t I at least have a little fun with her first? Take her back to the house so there’s something for me to do instead of looking at your ugly mugs all the time?” Cameron used his most cajoling tone.
That got a couple chuckles from the men, but Fin wasn’t convinced.
“I thought you didn’t like her?”
Cameron smiled easily. “I don’t like cops.” Cameron walked over to Sophia and trailed a finger along her collarbone, just above her breasts. “But her, knowing she’s not a cop? Hmm.”
Cameron licked his lips and moved closer to Sophia. She shuddered and stepped as far away from him as she could. A tear fell from the corner of her eye.
The guys all laughed at her reaction to him. Cameron pushed her back against the warehouse wall angrily, as if she had embarrassed him. “Well, obviously I’m going to have to teach her some manners. But I’m up to the task. Maybe I’ll know some dirty jokes when I’m done.” That got more laughs.
Fin shook his head. “She’s too skinny for me. I prefer women with some meat on their bones.”
Cameron grinned and reached out to stroke some of Sophia’s hair. She wouldn’t even look at him. “Plenty of meat for me.”
The guys snickered. Fin looked down at his watch. “Whatever. Do what you want with her. I don’t care,” Fin told Cameron. “But she’s your responsibility. And you have to get rid of her when you’re done.”
Cameron felt marginally better now that the immediate threat to Sophia’s life seemed to have passed, and his undercover work was also relatively safe. But he was pretty sure the look in her eyes would haunt him the rest of his life.
One last finishing touch to the show. He grabbed Sophia by the nape of the neck and hauled her roughly against him. He brought his mouth down heavily on hers, and wrapped his other arm around her hips. For a moment Sophia did nothing, then without warning she exploded into furious action, pushing away from him and squirming in his grasp.
Cameron brought his lips up her jawline to her ear, holding her body firmly against his. Quietly, so no one could hear him but her, he whispered, “Whatever you do, don’t let anyone know you know me.”
Sophia was attempting so hard to get away from him, Cameron wasn’t sure if she heard him. He hoped she did. He brought his lips back to hers. This time she bit his lip.
The men howled in laughter when Cameron jerked back from her.
“Ow, you little hellion. You’re going to pay for that.”
He grabbed her arm and dragged her to the car. Someone opened the door for them and Cameron all but threw her in, then climbed in after her. It broke his heart to see how Sophia scrambled as far away from him as she could get in the confines of the SUV.
He had saved their lives for now, but the danger was far from finished. And he hoped the trauma he’d dealt Sophia wasn’t too much to repair.
* * *
SOPHIA WAS JUST trying to keep it together. She slid all the way over in the seat to try to get as far away from Cameron as possible. If she could’ve curled herself into a tiny ball, she would have.
Normally she didn’t like being in the backseat of a vehicle, especially when there were no windows she could roll down. But right now her claustrophobia would just have to get in line behind all the other things her brain had to freak out about.
Like the fact that she had just been kidnapped by some gang that her ex-boyfriend seemed to be part of.
Except she didn’t know if he was really part of it or not.
Undercover.
It would answer a lot of questions if Cameron was working undercover. Like why he had tried to get her out of the warehouse and hadn’t said anything about her FBI credentials.
Of course, it could also be that he was now a member of this organized crime group, or whatever it was, and just didn’t want his ex-girlfriend’s brains to get splattered all over the pavement.
So back to square one.
Sophia peeked over at Cameron to find him watching her with a decidedly malevolent look in his eyes. Sophia shuddered. That leering look was not something she had ever thought she would see from Cameron. Maybe he really was a criminal now. Sophia tried not to panic. If that look from Cameron was real, she was in big trouble.
But then Sophia glanced up and saw the leader guy, Fin, watching her and Cameron in the rearview mirror. Maybe Cameron suspected that they were being watched and was playing a role.
Undercover.
Please, please, please let him be working undercover.
After Cameron had told her to go, she had done exactly what he had asked: gone straight to her car. But when she had gotten to the door, her car wasn’t there. The big guy—Marco?—was driving it inside. Sophia cursed herself for leaving the keys in it, but she had thought there was no one around for miles.
Sophia had tried to sneak outside without Marco seeing her, but hadn’t managed it. The next thing she knew he’d grabbed her and had dragged her out the back exit of the warehouse.
Where Cameron had proceeded to scream at, strike and humiliate her.
And maybe save her life.
Sophia touched her lip—it still hurt, both from the slap and his mouth-grinding kiss. She had no such misconception that she was really