Click.
She hesitated, her finger pressed lightly against the camera button as she studied her subject, rising from her bent knee to slowly get the shot. Major Cameron was side by side with his men, and she was intrigued by the way he clamped his hand to an injured soldier, taking over the fallen man’s position without seeming to think twice about it. She’d heard enough to know they were expecting to encounter not one but two German battalions, but the way the paratroopers had reacted was like watching a well-oiled machine.
She quickly opened the back of her camera and carefully took the roll out, wrapping it in parchment paper to protect it and putting it in her bag, before replacing it with another and closing the camera.
“Get down!” someone yelled, but Danni blanked them out, her eyes locked on Cameron as he continued to take charge. This was what she lived for, this was why she was here. She wanted everyone to be able to see the reality of war, and there was no way she was going to duck out of harm’s way now. She would capture the moment they secured the beachhead; she had to.
“Danni! Get the hell down!”
She realized that it was Andy yelling at her, his clipped British accent closer to her now. But she still didn’t turn away.
“Just one more shot,” she whispered to herself, adjusting the light meter and leaning forward, checking her footing before turning her attention to the fighting nearby and wishing for a longer lens. If she could just lean a little closer, if she could just . . .
“Danni!”
Fingers curled around her leg and she kicked, trying to dislodge the hand, but she soon realized she was going to fall if she resisted, and so she dropped to her knees of her own accord before that could happen.
“Dammit, let go of me!” she muttered. “I had it all set up!”
“You’re crazy,” Andy whispered. “Didn’t you hear them?”
She let out a breath she hadn’t even realized she was holding. “What? Those insects?”
“Insects? Danni, tell me you’re kidding?”
She blinked at Andy, trying not to laugh at the pained expression on his face. “What?” The incessant noise had started to drive her crazy, but it wasn’t exactly something for him to be that cross about.
“They weren’t insects buzzing, Danni, they were sniper bullets whizzing past your bloody head!”
She swallowed, keeping her hands busy on her camera as she digested Andy’s words. Sniper bullets? How could she have been doing this job for so long and mistaken bullets for insects buzzing around her head as she took shot after shot?
“Hey, you know me. I’ll do anything to get that last shot,” she said, trying to sound lighthearted and hoping she’d fooled him.
But she’d been working alongside Andy for long enough to know that she most likely hadn’t.
“Sometimes I wonder if you’ve got a death wish,” he muttered, his spare pencil tucked behind his ear as he lay on the dirt, tucking his notebook into his pocket. “You want to know why your editor insists you have a chaperone? This is why. Honestly, you can’t take photos if you’re dead, can you?”
Danni crawled on her stomach beside Andy as bullets ricocheted above them, and the reality of what she’d just been so close to hit her hard. Did she have a death wish? She grimaced at the stones piercing her elbows as she fought to cover ground, head tucked down low, bag bumping against her hip. Maybe there’s a fine line between being reckless and being married to a job.
They’d known there were still Germans in the area—or the beasts of Berlin, as the boys seemed to be fond of referring to them of late—but there had been little warning that such an explosive moment of gunfire was about to unfold before them. Danni rolled on to her side, panting slightly and sharing a quick smile with Andy as she looked around them. The side of the cliff was high, and small rocks kept breaking off and shuddering down as gunshots continued to fire.
She tucked one hand inside her shirt, tugging out the little gold cross on a fine chain from around her neck, quickly pressing her lips to it and sending up a silent prayer. She left a smudge of red lipstick on it, but she didn’t care.
“You still think that little cross keeps you safe?” Andy asked, dust and sand caking his face and making her wonder what she looked like if he looked that bad.
“Maybe,” she said. “Although I started doubting God a long time ago—the moment I started seeing all this with my own eyes.” She shrugged, wincing as she transferred her weight slightly and put more pressure on her elbow. “But my dad gave me this cross when I was a little girl, and aside from my cameras, it’s the one thing I treasure in this world.”
“Let’s move! And keep your goddamn heads down!”
Danni yelped as her foot was kicked hard by a large boot, followed by her shirt being scooped up at the back as someone hauled her to her feet.
“Get your hands off me!” she muttered.
“Next time keep your damn head down when I tell you to,” the voice barked back. “This is precisely why women aren’t supposed to be close to fighting!”
Danni stumbled forward and caught the fury in Major Cameron’s face as he glared at her, but it lasted barely a moment before he marched off, men scrambling behind him. She reached into her bag, checking her flashbulbs, cringing when one pierced her finger. Pulling her hand back she sucked on her skin, the metallic taste of blood making her feel sick; over the past few hours, it felt like she’d swallowed mouthfuls of sand, and her mouth was bone-dry. And to make matters worse, she was down at least one bulb, and she’d barely had enough as it was.
“You okay?” Andy asked.
Danni nodded, although once again, Andy knew her too well to believe her.
“Then let’s get moving before we both lose our heads,” he muttered.
She ran low, head down, her feet pounding the ground rhythmically alongside Andy’s, smiling at him briefly despite it all when he caught her hand and gave it a quick squeeze. This was what she thrived on, what she lived for, and if she were to take a bullet and die alongside the men she followed, then so be it.
“Down!”
Danni obeyed Cameron’s call this time, even though he himself kept running, sliding to the ground up ahead. She lay on her side, camera in position, capturing the pain etched on his face as he lifted his rifle as the onslaught continued. And suddenly she didn’t care about her bulbs, so long as she could keep her camera safe and keep her lens trained on the fascinating man in front of her. He might act like an ass to her, but she’d seen many officers in her time in North Africa, and she’d never encountered one like him there. Cameron never put anyone else between the danger and himself, taking command of his men and leading by example, showing a fearlessness for his own safety at the same time as being as protective as a bear over his den when it came to his men.
She had a feeling she was always going to hate him on a personal level, that they were going to butt heads every step of the way, but it wasn’t going to stop her from admiring him.
The shooting seemed to continue for hours, and Danni and Andy kept making ground together when they could, him scribbling frantically, usually tucked down low to stay out of sight as much as possible, and her literally putting her neck on the line to capture what she could. She knew that, come nightfall, he’d have a flashlight between his lips, trained on his typewriter as he furiously typed up his notes in the tent beside hers.