Radclyffe - Price of Honor

Brow creased, Cam obeyed, pulling her shirt the rest of the way off. “Let’s get back in—”

“Hush.” Blair gently brushed her fingers over a bruise roughly the shape and size of Texas on Cam’s side. “Cam, look at this. Don’t tell me you can’t feel that.”

Cam glanced down. “Huh. Must’ve gotten that when Brock and I got tangled up this morning. I didn’t feel it.”

“Take a deep breath. Does it hurt?”

“Hey.” Cam grasped Blair’s shoulders, pulling Blair’s attention to her face. “It’s nothing. It’s a bruise. I’m fine.”

“Take off your pants. I want to see your leg.”

“Blair, we can do all that later.”

Blair poked a finger at Cam’s chest. “No. We’ll do it now. If you’re hurt, I want you to see Wes.”

Cam laughed. “I’m not going to have the first doctor take a look at me because I’ve got a little black-and-blue mark.”

“You will if I say you will.”

“Actually, you’re right, so promise you won’t overreact.”

“Overreact?” Blair took a slow breath. “Am I the sort of person that overreacts? Next you’re going to say I’m a hysterical female.”

Cam shook her head, unbuttoned her pants, and slid them off. Below her briefs, the bandage on her injured calf was tinged with red. Thankfully, it wasn’t soaked, and the rest of her leg looked fine.

“It’s really all right?” Blair said quietly.

“I swear to you, I would tell you if it wasn’t.” Cam slid her arm around Blair’s waist and led her back to the bunk. “Can we lie down? It’s a little chilly in here, in case you hadn’t noticed.”

“I had other things taking up my attention.”

Cam grinned. “Oh yes, I remember that now.”

Cam pulled back the covers and when Blair slid in, she got in beside her and covered them both. She settled Blair into the crook of her arm with Blair’s head against her shoulder and stroked her hair. “I know it’s been a bad week. I’m sorry I put you through that whole business out in Idaho. This morning was another unhappy surprise. But it’s done now, and your father’s okay and I’m okay and you’re okay. We’re likely to get some verbal sticks and stones tossed at us this week, if not something more. But that will be okay because we’ll handle it. You and me, together.”

“I don’t know why I’m so edgy.” Blair kissed Cam’s throat and settled her cheek back against Cam’s chest. “I just get the feeling it’s not over. I don’t mean the bigots on the rope line—I mean with my dad. We don’t know who else was part of Jennifer’s plan, but for anyone to get that close to my father, they’re likely someone we know. That makes me so angry, and it makes me afraid. I hate that feeling.”

Cam just nodded. Now was not the time for reassurance, and she couldn’t give any when Blair was right. All she could do was listen.

“Do you know anything more yet?” Blair leaned back to search Cam’s face.

“A little.” And then, because Blair deserved the truth, she added, “But not enough. I’ve got some pieces but I can’t quite get them lined up to fit together yet. I know Jennifer is related to this group out in Idaho, but we can’t track any of them back far enough to know who else might be a part of this. The woman who took Skylar and me prisoner is almost certainly related to Jennifer—I’m guessing part of the larger plan.”

“And she’s loose somewhere,” Blair said, her tone hollow.

“We’ve got a task force looking for her—people I trust.” Cam wished she didn’t have to tell her how little she knew and how little she could do. She wished she didn’t have to tell her the worst of it. “I killed the militia commander. I don’t think our Jane Doe is going to forget that.”

“You think she’ll come after you?” Blair asked in a surprisingly calm voice.

“I don’t know.” Cam rubbed Blair’s back. “She’s hundreds of miles away, and I’m not an easy target to get to, so I think the odds are against it. But I can’t know for sure.”

“You’ll be careful,” Blair said sharply.

Cam cupped her jaw and kissed her. “I swear.”

Blair slipped above her and settled a thigh between Cam’s legs. “When this train trip is done, we’re going away somewhere, just the two of us.”

“On my honor,” Cam murmured.

“Yes.” Blair kissed her, ending the soft slide of her mouth with a tiny tug of her teeth. Cam arched beneath her and groaned.

“Don’t move.” Blair kissed her way down Cam’s torso.

Cam let her fingers trail over the tight muscles in Blair’s shoulders as Blair moved lower. Her hips rose of their own accord.

“I said don’t move,” Blair whispered in the semi-dark.

“Not my doing.” Cam gasped. “It’s all you, baby.”

“Just remember that,” Blair murmured as she took Cam slowly into her mouth.

*

“Are you sure you’re all right with this?” Dusty asked as she keyed in the code to the door of the K9 kennel car. “We could eat first, and—”

“No, I want to see Atlas. And I don’t want him missing you.” Viv took in the row of crates and the watchful dogs, all of whom seemed perfectly content. The car was warm and smelled like fur and coffee. An agent sat in a booth at the rear of the car with his feet up, reading a magazine. He put it down when they came in, his eyes lighting with interest. She recognized him from the crew car. Joe Aiello. Thirty, dark and handsome, and he knew it.

“Hey,” Joe said, rising. “What’s happening?”

“Nothing.” Dusty crouched in front of Atlas’s crate. “Just came to get the boy.”

“You on shift?” Joe joined them, talking to Dusty but focused on Viv. “I don’t have you on the duty roster for tonight.”

“Nope.” Dusty attached Atlas’s short walking lead and stood up. Atlas bounded out and nosed her hand. “Just taking him to my cabin for the night.”

Joe glanced at Viv. “How’s the article coming?”

She smiled. He was a nice guy, not exactly pushy, but he’d let his interest be known earlier. “It’s great. You’ve all been super helpful.”

“I’m off in a few hours,” he said in what she was sure he thought was a casual tone.

“Maybe I’ll catch up to you and the other guys tomorrow,” Viv said. “I still want to hear about how you ended up in this division.”

Disappointment flickered across his face for a second and then he grinned. “Sure. Why don’t I give you my number, you can text me?”

“I think I’ll know where to find you.” Viv laughed and gestured to the car. “We’re kind of in our own little world here.”

Dusty thought about that as she walked Viv back to her cabin. They were in their own little world, on a train speeding through the dark in the middle of one of the least populated per capita areas in the country. If she was permanently transported from her life in DC to this train, nothing much would change for her. Other than her parents missing her weekly call, no one would even know she was gone. Her friends, more colleagues really, were mostly here on the train. Atlas was here. And now Viv. When she thought of Viv, though, she didn’t think of her the way she thought about friends. Friends were people you greeted, had casual words with, maybe even a beer. Friends weren’t people you told about growing up in a small town, where everyone knew you, and everyone formed expectations based on who your parents were and things like whether you stuttered or not. She’d already told Viv more about herself than she’d ever told a single person in her life. She’d never told her parents about the misery and humiliation at school, before she mastered the shyness that led to the stuttering, or maybe it was the other way around. Maybe when she’d gotten to the point where she didn’t care if other people liked her, the stuttering had started to go away. It didn’t matter now, at least not so much.