Intrusion (28 page)

The grief in Peterson’s voice, threw Cam off balance. He studied the man’s face in the flickering halogen lamp. His gaunt cheeks and taut jaw were rigid with a sorrow that crept into Cam’s gut. No one should have to live through the horrific tragedy of losing his family.

Save the compassion, Scott.
This anguished man would execute him in a blink if he thought it would further Serbia. He couldn’t underestimate the power of that kind of loyalty.

“Would your family be proud of you now? Would they applaud the way you used Audra?” Cam grit his teeth. “She trusted you.”

Peterson stopped circling the pit, signaling an end to their discussion. “I can’t think about any of that now. The armor. Where is it?”

Cam halted his own path around the sand crater. “Sorry, pal, but you’ll never get it.”

Peterson clucked. “We’ll see about that.”

His words were almost completely drowned out by a sudden high-pitched whine. Cam shot a glance over his shoulder and his heart seized. A golf cart barreled toward him, its electric engine screaming in protest at the breakneck speed.

Oh, shit.

Before he could lunge out of the way, the cart caught him in the backs of the knees. He didn’t have a chance to go for his gun. Fiery pain raced up his legs. He slid across the cart’s short hood, his head striking the edge of the roof. Momentum catapulted his body forward and he tumbled toward the pit.

He hit the ground with his shoulder. His cheek scraped across the sand. Oh, hell, yeah, that hurt. He throbbed from head to toe, the unbearable ache radiating around his knees.

Numbness seeped into his legs. He couldn’t feel them. Couldn’t regain his feet. He collapsed in the dirt, his body writhing as he rolled back and forth trying to shake off the pain. A violent twinge speared across his temple and he touched the back of his head, finding a vicious, bleeding gash.

Nausea flooded his throat. Shadows wavered in front of his eyes. Peterson’s voice mingled with another, eerily similar in tone. Cam’s brain couldn’t process what they were saying, but he didn’t need to hear their words to know their intent.

They would go after Audra. She was the last link to the armor. They would hunt her. Pursue her. Trap her. Whatever it took.

Someone yanked his hands behind his back and bound them. He could do nothing to stop them; the pain saturating his body was too intense. Sharp metal bit into his wrists, but it felt like nothing more than a pinprick against the existing aches.

Peterson’s brother knelt down and yanked the gun out of Cam’s waistband before patting him down. He scowled when he plucked the digital recorder out of Cam’s left pocket.

“You think you’re such a clever bastard.” Miloje tossed the recorder to Peterson and then resumed his search. His mouth twisted into a smile. “What have we here?”

He yanked a key out of Cam’s pocket and held it up for Peterson’s inspection. Cam blinked the object into focus. His blood ran cold.

His motel room key.

What the hell had he been thinking to leave something that important on him?

Damn it, he hadn’t been thinking, that was the problem. He’d been so focused on taking Peterson and his brother down before they could get another shot at Audra that he’d led them right to her. His heart seized and hot moisture stung his eyes.

What had he done?

Miloje kicked Cam in the head, and searing white spots flashed across his burning vision.

He sucked in a breath. “Fuck you.”

Instead of the venom he’d hoped to convey, the curse bubbled awkwardly from his lips. The message came across loud and clear, but just who was the intended target—Peterson or himself?

***

Audra rolled over and stretched out her arm, searching for Cam. Instead of encountering his warm body, her palm slid across the cool sheet. Her eyes popped open.

“Cam?” She sat up and rubbed the sleep from her lids.

Daylight speared through a crack in the curtains. She blinked at the glowing digital clock.

“Ca—?” Her gaze clashed with the empty nightstand where all of his computer equipment had been set up last night.

She threw off the blanket and dashed to the bathroom. Empty. The only reminder of him was his neoprene suit that still hung over the back of the chair. She went to it and crushed it to her aching chest.

He’d gone and done it. He’d left her.

Tears stung her eyes, but for once she could not keep them in check. They slid past her lashes and coursed down her cheeks. How long had he been gone? Had he been planning to go off on his own the entire time he’d made love to her?

She waited for righteous anger to swell, but only a pitiful wave of profound sadness swamped her.
Damn you, Cam.
The curse swirled across her brain yet even the force of those petty words came out weaker than she wanted.

Why did the people she loved the most always leave her in seedy little places that made her stomach churn? Maybe if she’d been dumped at an elegant resort with room service and concierges at her beck and call she wouldn’t feel so let down.

No, the location wouldn’t matter. Mansion or slum, it still sucked to love someone who didn’t stick around—even when they were under the misguided impression that they were doing it for her. Her throat squeezed, heart twisting into knots. She wiped her damp palm on the sheet.

Love.

What had she told Cam? That she wasn’t capable of more than surface love. Denial served its purposes, but she was a scientist who thrived on seeking the truth—and the data never lied. This intense emotion coursing through her sliced deep into her core.

She’d fallen for Cam in a big bang kind of way. And he’d betrayed her by putting his own need to win the fight above her trust. Her fingers grazed her wet cheeks. God, she wasn’t cut out for breaking into high tech facilities, running for her life or falling in love.

Especially the falling in love part.

Someone pounded on the flimsy motel room door, making her heart tumble into her stomach. She took a step toward the sound, but the door splintered near the knob with a crack loud enough to ring her ears.

She screamed, the thermal suit slipping out of her grip and falling onto the floor. The door burst open and the same man who’d tried to kill her and Cam at Coburn Industries stormed inside the room.

His large body seemed to suck the air right out of the room. He grabbed her by the throat and pulled her outside.

“What…do…you want?” She gasped for breath, his fingers digging deeper into her windpipe.

He bared his teeth and shoved her through the driver’s side of an idling black SUV and onto the passenger seat. The locks engaged and he threw the car into drive, tires squealing as he pulled out of the nearly deserted motel parking lot.

She pumped the door handle and hit the power lock, but nothing happened. “Let me go!”

He cracked her across the cheek with his large hand. “Soon enough.”

She shrieked and covered the throbbing side of her face with her palm, shrinking against the passenger door. “Where are you taking me?”

He jerked the steering wheel, turning the SUV down a remote highway deeper into the desert. The sleeve of his black shirt rode up his left forearm as he adjusted his grip on the wheel, revealing a dark tattoo of a two-headed eagle.

Two-headed eagle.

Audra gasped and snapped her gaze to the man’s face. Narrowed brown eyes, scar against his temple, thin lips drawn into a grimace—God, it couldn’t be a coincidence that the man bore not only the same tattoo as Jonathan but a striking resemblance to him as well.

“No.” The denial fell from her lips, but her stomach churned with the truth. “Jonathan set this up, didn’t he? Oh, my God. He…he’s been using me this whole time. Had he planned all this from the very beginning?”

“My brother was fulfilling a duty to his country.”

Fulfilling a duty to his country while he’d betrayed her and the United States Military? It had all been a lie. Everything she’d worked so hard for—the armor hadn’t been designed to save lives, it had been designed to take them.

“Who are you people?”

The man slammed on his brakes and she had to slap her palms against the dashboard to keep from pitching forward.

He drew a Blackberry from his breast pocket. “I am but the messenger with a message. From Cameron.”

From Cam? Her pulse sped, and though she knew it wasn’t wise, she leaned in closer. “What have you done with him? Where is he? Is he okay?”

Jonathan’s brother punched a number into the keypad and brought the phone to his ear. “Run it.”

He tipped the LCD screen in her direction and a poor quality video filled the screen.

Oh, God, no. Cam.

Acid seared her throat. They’d bound him and tied him behind a—a golf cart? His eyes were closed, his cheek marred with a deep purple bruise, a slash of blood was smeared across his forehead. His limp body lay on a concrete floor in what looked like a garage.

“What have you done to him?” she repeated, her voice trembling.

He wasn’t dead. He couldn’t be dead. They must have knocked him out. But any minute now he’d spring up and take them out. Each and every one of them.

Come on, Cam. Don’t let them win.

“He’s very much alive. I assure you. But he won’t stay that way if we don’t get the armor.”

She stiffened. “Impossible. I can’t give you something I don’t have.”

He brought the phone to his ear. “Then I guess there’s no reason to keep him alive.”

“No.” She lunged for the phone. “I—I don’t have it, but I can get it.”

He gave her a curt nod. “Fair enough. You have until five o’clock tonight. Alone. No cops. No backup.” He shoved the phone under her nose. “At five oh one, he dies.”

Cam hadn’t moved. Why hadn’t he moved?

“How do I know you haven’t already killed him? How do I know this video isn’t footage you took before you—you killed him?”

He chuckled. “Very smart.” He lifted the phone to his mouth. “The lady wants proof of life.”

Audra heard someone on the other end say, “fair enough.” And then she watched on the screen as a man came into view and kicked Cam in the ribs. She cried out, her hand flying to her mouth. Cam tossed his head and moaned, a low guttural sound that sliced through her. His eyes flew open, his arms jerking against his bonds.

The movement tore her heart in two. “Let me talk to him.”

“No.”

“Please.” Tears flooded her eyes. She swiped at them, but they only rolled down her cheeks faster. “Just for a minute. I’ll get you your damn armor. Just…just let me hear his voice.”

He sighed then spoke into the phone. “Put him on.” His jaw tightened. “Just do it.” He handed her the phone. “Ten seconds.”

“That’s not enough time!” She grabbed the phone. The screen had gone dark. “Cam. Can you hear me?”

“A—Audra?”

The sound of his weak voice made her fingers clench tighter around the phone. “I’m coming. Do you hear me?” She could barely speak past the tears that clogged her throat. “Don’t let those bastards win. You hang on until I get there.”

“No!” The rusty word reverberated in her ear. “Don’t you dare…come here. My…fault. I’m sorry. Should’ve stayed. I w—wanted…I thought if I…could…save you…”

She shook her head. “You’ve done nothing wr—”

The man wrenched the phone from her grasp and clicked it off. He shoved it in his pocket.

“No! Give it back! I wasn’t done!” She lunged for him, curling her hands into fists and striking out at him, but he grabbed her shoulders with his big hands and held her off.

“Yes, you were. Five o’clock. 206 Orange Blossom Lane. Or that’s the last time you’ll hear his voice.”

He disengaged the locks, leaned over her to open the passenger door and shoved her out. She tumbled to the pavement. Her palms bore the brunt of her fall, scraping against the asphalt.

He gunned the engine and sped off. Gravel pelted her face and she cried out, shielding her head with her stinging palms. She knew she should get up, she didn’t have a minute to waste, but she couldn’t.

She licked her dry lips and tasted the salt from her tears. They burned a path down her esophagus—nothing less than she deserved for thinking the worst of Cam.

He hadn’t abandoned her. He’d been there for her from the start, and now he was still there, trying to protect her by sacrificing himself, loving her in the only way he knew how.

Just because it wasn’t the way she’d thought love should be didn’t make it any less true. Her stupid fears had kept her from engaging her heart. Why had she made Cam believe he had to prove his worth in order to win her love?

She crawled to her feet. Her hands and cheek still throbbed and she had to fight the urge to sit down and wait until the ache subsided. No time. She had to find a way back to Phoenix.

Sparse Saguaro and Cholla cacti lined both sides of the road. The desert stretched ahead of her, no buildings in sight. If she turned around and retraced the route back to the motel maybe she could at least find a phone.

But who could she call? Her acquaintances were few and far between. The only person who came to mind was Margaret and she had no way of knowing what had happened to the older woman. Had Coburn harmed her? Or was she safe, and back at the hospital with her daughter?

Audra started walking, her stomach twisting into severe knots of determination. Adrenaline kept her pace high and the heat began to find its way beneath her t-shirt where beads of sweat clung to her skin.

By the time she reached the Buckeye Motel it was nearing eleven o’clock. Her room with its splintered door had been cordoned off. She scanned the row of peeling red doors until her gaze lit on two open ones, a housekeeping cart between them.

The maid had the television blaring in one of the rooms and as Audra ducked into the unoccupied one, she caught snippets of the news.

“Russell Coburn, CEO of Coburn Industries was found dead at a local hotspot east of the Salt River. Police are investigating…”

Coburn was dead?

Audra rushed over to the phone and snatched it up, punching Margaret’s home number in on the worn keypad. She held her breath and then the phone rang once. Twice.