by Dale Mayer
ERICK
SEALs of Steel, Book 2
Dale Mayer
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
About This Book
Complimentary Download
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Epilogue
About Cade
Author’s Note
Complimentary Download
About the Author
Copyright Page
About This Book
When an eight-man unit hit a landmine, all were injured but one died. The remaining seven aim to see his death avenged.
Erick heads to the site of the explosion and his discovery blows him away…
Invited to a conference, Honey runs into Erick, owner of the car she’d smashed into a year ago. She’s blindsided by the realization that the man who invited her may not be who she thinks he is.
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KILL OR BE KILLED
Part of an elite SEAL team, Mason takes on the dangerous jobs no one else wants to do – or can do. When he’s on a mission, he’s focused and dedicated. When he’s not, he plays as hard as he fights.
Until he meets a woman he can’t have but can’t forget. Software developer, Tesla lost her brother in combat and has no intention of getting close to someone else in the military. Determined to save other US soldiers from a similar fate, she’s created a program that could save lives. But other countries know about the program, and they won’t stop until they get it – and get her.
Time is running out … For her … For him … For them …
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Prologue
Erick Fuller hefted his bag in his good arm and walked toward customs. Cade was only a few seconds behind him. They were traveling together but separate. They’d sat in different areas on the plane so nobody could tag them as being together. As soon as Erick cleared customs and headed out toward the front entrance, he took a moment to adjust to the heat. Being in Afghanistan brought back a lot of memories. It had been one of the reasons for the fast decision to come over here. The longer he stayed home and knew this trip was happening, the worse the nightmares would get. He hated to even let anybody know he was having them.
But his shrink knew. PTSD was a real issue. And nothing seemed to be working for him.
He was hoping answers would help. While he waited for Cade to join him, he texted Badger that they had landed safely. Confirmation came immediately. Badger would be at the end of his phone at all times, to run control in case they needed anything. This could be a twenty-four-hour trip, or it could be much longer. They were renting a rig and driving out to the area where the incident occurred, would talk with the local villagers and then come home. Okay, so maybe two or three days tops.
But he didn’t expect it to be any longer than that. Longer would mean they either ran into big trouble or found a big lead. After two years he doubted there were big leads to find, and there was way too much trouble in this part of the world already. He’d like to avoid that if he could.
They were meeting up with an old connection. Somebody who would supply them with the weapons for the trip. He didn’t want to take the chance of crossing borders and getting stopped. He could have, but it was risky. He traveled under his own passport too. He hadn’t been flagged in England; that had been Badger who had popped up. But then he’d had a few issues, and MI6 always seemed to keep tabs on him. Erick chose to travel under his real name and see what came of it. If anybody asked, he’d tell him this was a nostalgia trip.
And that was the truth, in part.
The hot sun beat down on him. Then what the hell did he expect? There was just such a different smell to the air here. He preferred traveling through places like Canada and Siberia. There was a freshness to the coldness there. It brought its own chill but killed off any of the old heavy air that seemed to settle in hot places. And when the wind did come through the hotter climates to clean out the old air, it brought with it sand and dust that choked your throat and filled your lungs and made your nostrils snort futilely for weeks. He couldn’t believe he was back here. It was so not where he wanted to be.
A hard hand landed on his shoulder. He turned to see Cade. He nodded. “Ready?”
“Almost. I know you said you wanted to run this with just the two of us. But, before leaving, I got a text from Talon.”
Erick raised his eyebrows. “I guess we should have expected that after England.”
Cade nodded. “He wants in.”
“Not sure that’s a good idea. You heard the audio file yourself.”
“I know. But I can’t believe Talon, or any of us, had anything to do with the incident.”
“I’m with you there. I just wish the audio was clear enough to be sure it wasn’t one of us who made the call that gave away our location.”
“I hear you.”
Just then a shout sounded from behind them, and Erick turned to see Talon walking toward him. “Wow, he’s fast.”
“He was already here. Well, close to here anyway. He got in a few hours ago. He’s been waiting for us to land.”
The men exchanged greetings. Talon smiled at Erick. “I hope this isn’t a problem. I know Cade didn’t get a chance to talk to you before he okayed it for me.”
Erick shrugged. “We’re always glad to have you around. We do need to get answers. It just sucks the audio file appeared to come from inside our truck.”
“I was wondering about that.” Talon motioned toward the parking lot. “I picked up your rental early. I hope that’s okay.”
“If they gave it to you, that’s fine. But we still have to go meet Shadowbox.”
Talon chuckled. “Is he still around?”
“He is indeed. And his prices went up too.”
“Of course they did.” Talon’s voice turned grim. “I hear you on that audio recording. There’s a part of me that wants to think it’s a fake. Did you even consider that?”
“I don’t know how they would have done it, but Tesla’s hoping the same thing. She’s doing an analysis of the tape. Chances are, we won’t find anything for a while. She said it didn’t look good. As far as she could tell, it was authentic, at least at this point.”
“Shit.” Talon shook his head. “Well, I sure as hell didn’t do anything to get our asses kicked.”
“Neither did we.”
“And I can swear there’s no way Laszlo would have anything to do with it. He was as loyal as anyone.”
“Was?” Erick turned to look at him. “Do you know something I don’t know?” he asked in alarm.
Talon shook his head. “No, Laszlo is fine. I shouldn’t have been speaking in past tense, but I was thinking of back then. I know Laszlo is loyal. He’s gone home to his family in Norway for a while. But, if we need him, he’s there.”
“He doesn’t know anything about this though, does he?” Cade asked.
“No, but honestly he approached me over a year ago because he felt somebody had betrayed us too.”
“What?” Erick stopped and turned to look at Talon. “You never mentioned that.”
“You were just heading under the knife for another major surgery. Cade here had his back half split open and was lying with traction on both legs at the time. Badger was a huge mess. He’s had how many surgeries, lost his spleen, his leg… No way I could do that to you guys. Now that you’re
all back on your feet, and every one of you has the same idea, hell yeah, we need to know. It’s all I could do to hold Laszlo back. If he knew we were here, he’d be here.”
“Damn.”
“It would be nice to see him,” Cade said. “Laszlo is a hell of a guy.”
Talon led the way to the vehicle. It was an open military jeep. They dropped their gear in the back, and Talon hopped into the driver’s side. “Hotel first?”
“Yeah. Let’s give the impression we’re here on a holiday.”
Cade snorted. “It is a holiday. At least as far as the world is concerned.”
“The fewer people who know what we’re doing here, the better,” Talon said. “Just make sure Badger is keeping track because, if we run into trouble, we will need a fast hand getting out.”
“We got that taken care of,” Erick said, his voice hard. “Let’s go. I want to get this dealt with and get home again.”
Both men jumped in and said, “Amen to that.”
A few minutes later they pulled up to the hotel. Talon parked in one of the visitor spots. The three men got out and walked into the reception area. Air-conditioning and huge fans blasted them with cool air.
In the waiting area Erick saw a woman on her phone, laptop on her knees, clicking away as she spoke. Obviously Western, she looked impatient and angry.
Cade nudged him with his elbow and motioned toward her. “Don’t you know her?”
Talon twisted to look in the same direction as Erick, who stopped and studied her and shook his head. “No, I don’t think so.”
“Look again,” Cade said. “I’m pretty sure she smacked into your ’69 Mustang.”
At that Erick froze. “She better not have.”
“I think it’s her.”
Erick turned to study her.
She had her hair up, big sunglasses, almost a generic blonde, good looking, slim. Too attractive for over here—it was a dangerous part of the world for white women, particularly if she was traveling alone.
He twisted to look back at his friend. “Why the hell would you think she’s the one who did that?”
“Look at her name tag.”
His gaze slipped to her chest and caught the name tag he hadn’t noticed before. Honey Lewis. He froze. “Son of a bitch.” His voice was louder than he meant it to be.
Honey glanced at him, and her lips pinched together as she lifted her glasses and stared up at him. Out of her mouth came “What the hell?”
He walked toward her. “Isn’t that my line?”
She tapped her foot impatiently on the floor. “I was hoping to never see you again.”
“You’re the one who smacked into my car.”
“It was an accident, remember?”
He nodded. “I remember. I also remember how, at the time, you blamed me.”
She raised her hands, palms up. “Sorry, I was upset.”
He snorted. “I don’t doubt it. At least I got my ’69 Mustang fixed. What about you? Are you still driving, or did they yank your license?”
She glared at him. “I still drive, thank you very much.” She snapped her laptop closed, stuffed it in a bag, pocketed her cell phone in her khakis and stood. “I shouldn’t have been driving that day. You’re right. And I apologized. And I shouldn’t have blamed you. I wasn’t in a very good state of mind.”
He punched his hands on his hips. “A year is kinda late for an apology, but I’ll accept it.”
She gave him a supersweet smile. “Good. It’s the only one you’ll get.” And she spun on her heels and stepped forward to the reception desk, slipping in front of them, taking their place.
He snorted. “Why the hell is she staying here?”
“I don’t know, but I like this turn of events,” Cade said. “Should make the next few days interesting.”
Erick shot him a look. “Like hell.” And he stalked forward to speak to a different agent at the counter.
Chapter 1
As soon as Erick walked into their assigned hotel room, he dumped his bags on the nearest bed and pulled out his phone. It had buzzed just moments before, but he’d waited until he was inside the room to see what was happening. Reading the message, he turned to Cade and Talon. “Meeting is set for two this afternoon.”
All three men synced their watches.
“That’s good timing,” Cade said. “The sooner we get geared up, the sooner we can head out.”
Talon agreed. “Is there anything else to pick up? What’s the plan? Are we sightseeing today or tomorrow?”
“Considering we can’t get weapons until this afternoon, it’ll be tomorrow morning, I’d say. We also need to get a route mapped out,” Erick said.
“Already done,” Cade said. “I worked on it during the flight.”
“Good. How long a trip is it? How is the route looking?”
“Forty-five minutes. Depends on the weather and the road conditions.”
They all understood. Sometimes storms came up, and all they could do was hide inside the vehicle and wait until it was over. And sometimes the heat was so intense that the radiators couldn’t handle it. They would stop and refill them with water. Erick stared out the window. “Weatherwise we’re not too bad.”
“Sure, but we also know that can change in a heartbeat. We don’t know if anybody is even at the village anymore to talk to.”
“No, but I have to see for myself. After we’ve talked to everybody, if nothing comes up, I don’t know where we go next. This is definitely a one-foot-in-front-of-the-other type of job.” Erick stopped, looked around the room and asked, “How about a bite to eat? We’ve just about got time for that, and we need to pick up some water before we head out to our appointment.”
They locked up the hotel room, returned to the lobby and went to the restaurant. Erick didn’t want to check if Honey was still here, but his gaze went automatically in that direction. Thankfully she wasn’t. He caught up with Cade and Talon as they spoke to the waitress for seating. She took them to the far side of the room where it was cool and where they had a big window.
Part of the reason for joining the navy was to experience traveling in various cultures, but he’d been here enough times that he knew what he was up against, and he’d seen a lot of the tourist attractions already. He also knew it took his body time to acclimate to the temperature. “Do you think we should sit outside?” he asked.
Cade pursed his lips and nodded. “You’re right. We should probably start adjusting. I don’t know how hot it’s supposed to be this afternoon, but it’ll be a hell of a lot hotter than where we were.”
“Depends if you’re talking England or New Mexico,” Talon said. “England was damp. Not hot, just kind of steamy as all the moisture came back to you.”
Erick grinned. When the waitress returned, he asked if they could relocate to the big veranda. She nodded and shuffled them to a new table. As he sat down, he realized there was a negative to this location too. But he wasn’t about to make a big deal out of it. The woman who had crashed into his car sat here too, laptop open. She hid under the big sun umbrella, trying to read her computer screen. She was the one who should have been inside. Laptop monitors were deadly outside.
He motioned to the woman so the other two men would see her. They just grinned, shrugged and sat down. They ordered their lunch, all of them planning a meal heavy in carbs and protein to get them through the afternoon ahead. They also ordered water, large glasses of it. Erick brought out a small notepad and a pen, and jotted down things they needed.
“Shopping list?” Talon asked.
“Yes. Somewhat. We also have questions we should note. They’ve been circling around in my head, but I haven’t really had a chance to get them down.” He took a moment to do it now.
“Do you really think we’ll find something?” Talon asked Erick.
“I’m really hoping we do. I suspect it will be a clue that leads us to another clue though.”
“So, like old times.”
In spite of
himself, Erick laughed. “Isn’t that the truth? That was one of the most frustrating things about intel missions. We were just looking for anything that would lead us to something valuable. We didn’t always know what that would be until we heard it.”
“I don’t think that’s changed. Doesn’t matter what country or job we’re on.” Cade nodded toward the notepad. “Do you really need to ask the questions? All we need is to find somebody who was here at the time we had our accident,” he said with emphasis. “And who might have known who planted the land mine and why it was planted.”
“And if there were any strangers in the village at the time,” Talon added in a low voice. “If I was the one who set that up, I’d want to make sure I was around to see it.”
“True enough.” Erick hadn’t considered that. He jotted down more notes. “Between the three of us, hopefully we’ll cover all the ground we need.”
“Well, it’s not like there’ll be markers on the side of the road saying, Find the truth here.”
Erick glanced at Talon. “No, I know that. I wonder what happened to our vehicle after the explosion.”
“Why?”
Erick looked to Cade before speaking. “Because nobody, or at least none of us, had a chance to check it over. Who’s to say what we might find?”
The men contemplated that concept.
“It would take a lot of equipment to haul everything back to base,” Cade offered. “And why? It was an accident. One of many.”
“It’s quite possible it’s still there,” Talon said.
“There wasn’t a whole lot left to it. Does the military clean up their messes, or do they just leave them to be filled in by the sand?” Cade asked.
“I don’t know,” Erick said, “but I assume my cell phone blew up in the accident. I wouldn’t mind getting that back if it didn’t.”
“Why?” Talon asked, a frown creasing his forehead. “It’ll be ruined after all this time. Sand is brutal for electronics.”