Erick

by Dale Mayer

“I had taken a lot of pictures of the eight of us,” Erick said quietly. “Whenever I have nightmares, a phone flying around inside the cabin is always one of those images. I can’t help but think that, whoever the killer was, or whoever betrayed us, maybe his phone was left inside too—if it was someone from our unit.”

  They stared at him before sinking back into their seats.

  “Shit.” Cade gripped the cup in his hand almost hard enough for his fingers to turn white.

  Erick was sorry, or almost sorry, that he had had to bring it up. But it needed to be said.

  Talon said, “I guess potentially there could be other personal gear there as well.”

  “I suspect, after all this time, the truck has been completely stripped by scavengers of the human and animal varieties, and what’s left is just a broken heap of mangled metal,” Erick said calmly. “But, since I do have PTSD because of the accident, I think it would do my head good if I saw what was left.”

  “In that case, we’ll track it down and see what we can find,” Cade said with a nod.

  Talon agreed. “Anything that helps reduce those symptoms, I’m all for it. But, if anything has been left out in the desert, you know the desert has worked hard to reclaim it.”

  “It’s not so much the desert temperatures but that sand which is pretty unforgiving. But I understand what you’re saying.” Thinking of which, Erick added shovels to his list. “I wouldn’t mind being ready and prepared, just in case.”

  Their meals were served soon afterward. That also brought silence to the table as the men worked at getting their lunches down.

  Erick’s mind spun and played with both hope and questions. He knew the outcome of this trip could bring them closure or leave them asking more questions. The seemingly never-ending problem was when one question led to another that led to another. When the answers came in baby steps, it took forever to find the big picture, and often a baby step wasn’t enough information to take them anywhere decent. What he didn’t want was to walk away without answers. England had been an interesting trip. And that had led to the audio file that had come from inside the truck bringing them here. “I should text Badger and see if he can find out what happened to the vehicle.”

  “Call him instead,” Cade urged.

  After finishing his burger, Erick picked up his phone, rinsed his mouth with a big drink of water and then called Badger. When his buddy answered the phone, he asked, “Can you track down what happened to our vehicle? See if it was hauled back to one of the camps?”

  “It wasn’t hauled anywhere. There wasn’t enough left to bother.”

  Silence. “Right.”

  “If there’s nothing else …”

  Erick stopped him from hanging up. “Badger? How are you doing?”

  There was silence on the other end, and then Badger said, “Surgery is scheduled in two weeks, but I’m supposed to stay off it until then for the swelling to go down.”

  Erick wanted to whistle in surprise. For surgery to be scheduled that fast, it meant the leg was bad. In a calm, confident voice, he said, “Good. You know it needs to happen.”

  “I know what needs to happen. But there’s no guarantee the outcome will be any better than what I’ve got. In fact, it could be a whole lot worse.”

  Erick winced. “They’ll do the best they can for you, man.”

  “And I hope it’s enough.” With that, Badger ended the call.

  Erick pocketed his phone again and ate the salad on the side of his plate. The others gazed at him with raised eyebrows. “He’s going under the knife again in two weeks.”

  Both men winced. They’d undergone plenty of surgeries themselves to get where they were.

  They knew Badger wasn’t looking forward to such an event again; none of them would be. Some things you tried to avoid. Surgery was one of them.

  Honey picked up her cup of coffee and took a sip. She couldn’t believe it when the men had chosen to come out onto the veranda, close to where she sat. Only they hadn’t seen her initially, based on the guy’s startled glance. Tough. She had as much right to be here as he did. Sure, she had crashed into his vehicle a year ago. But people had car accidents all the time. Yes, she’d been at fault. Yes, insurance had covered it for both of them. She’d apologized. What else could she do?

  She shouldn’t have been driving that day. But live and learn. When life blew up, it was much better to stay in the office instead of running away. But sometimes even she forgot the basic tenets of safety.

  As she ate her meat and rice, she could hear parts of the men’s conversation. Something about a vehicle that could be in a lot of pieces. She didn’t know what they did, but they had a military look to them. When she’d accidentally hit him, he’d already been injured and in a state of recovery. Missing a lower leg.

  And he had looked to be in extreme pain. At the time she’d been horrified, thinking she’d caused all this, but quickly realized they were old injuries, and he was likely recovering from one of many surgeries. As a dentist, Honey had seen many patients in her office, and, on the whole, she saw healthy patients. But she often had traumatic mandible injuries to deal with.

  Honey’s first interaction with him at the accident had been ugly. It hadn’t lasted long, but it had a lasting effect. It was also the only car accident she’d ever had. She wasn’t sure why he was driving, but the vehicle had obviously been modified for him. What was the chance of meeting him over here? It was a big coincidence. She was here for her first special workshop on advanced upper-mandible surgeries, stem cell advances to the pulp of the tooth. An unusual location but the surgeon was from here and traveled little, so those who wanted to learn from him came here.

  She’d met him years ago when he’d been a guest speaker at a conference in New York. He’d been wonderful, and so had his business partner and manager at the time, David. She’d kept up communications with him over the years. David was the organizer behind this special conference in Kabul and a dentist as well.

  She’d applied several years in a row and had never made the cut. As a newbie practicing dentist, she’d understood but had continued to try. David said, when he could, he’d try to fit her in. However, since her qualifications and experience weren’t up to the level of the other applicants, he felt he needed to accept those people first and foremost. But, over the years, the friendly communication had warmed considerably. Then yesterday he’d called her.

  Her shock had quickly given way to delight when he explained he had a cancellation, and no one else on his waiting list could make the trip on such short notice, and did she want the spot?

  Of course there’d been more to it than that. Over the years she’d mentioned her love of cutting-edge research, her friend Kat Greenwald’s prosthetic design work, and Honey’s own need to move forward—and just do more. When he’d offered her the open spot, he’d asked if she’d be coming alone, and she’d made a joke about there being no time for anyone else to come, and he’d chuckled and said he’d take good care of her, and he was looking forward to seeing her again.

  She’d been worried about the higher cost now to attend the conference, since she had missed out on any early registration benefits, plus the flights were more expensive on such short notice, and the hotel no longer had rooms available at the cheaper rates most likely.

  But David had assured her that he’d figure it out. She should pay the deposit, and they could discuss it when she arrived.

  It was so David. Generous and friendly.

  She’d almost screamed for joy when she’d ended her call, but she had so much to do and no time for happy theatrics.

  Now why was he here? She racked her brain, trying to remember his name. Erick. She didn’t know the two men with him but recognized that one man, Cade, had an artificial hand. Maybe they were part of a group dealing with prosthetics, or they were kindred souls, dealing with life after major trauma and physical injury. Either way it wasn’t her business.

  Except the thought of prosthetics sent h
er mind in the direction of Kat. Her business was booming. It was all Kat could do to keep up with the needs of her clients. Did these men know her?

  Honey couldn’t stop her eyes from twisting in their direction to see what was going on. At the time of the car accident, she hadn’t recognized how good looking Erick was. She’d been an emotional mess, and he’d been a traumatized mass. But now his injuries had obviously healed to the extent of being able to travel the world. There was a sense of energy to him. To all three of them. Determination. Purpose. As if they’d been given a new lease on life. Hope in some direction. She envisioned they were here for a workshop or at least testing for new medical procedures that would make their lives easier.

  “Excuse me, would you like more coffee?”

  Honey looked up at the waitress and smiled. She had the coffeepot in her hand, waiting. “Thank you, I’ll take another cup.”

  The waitress filled her cup with a thick rich brew that was stronger than Honey was used to. The waitress left cream and sugar on her table. Normally not somebody who liked her coffee with either, Honey added cream, since it took a bit to get used to this Afghanistan version of her usual drink.

  She settled in her chair, pushing her laptop off to the side. She was going over the workshop notes, figuring out what questions she wanted to ask. She was still struggling to adjust to her shift in schedule. She’d missed the meet-and-greet from the night before. But was working to catch up.

  David had instantly attached himself to her side this morning when she arrived. She wondered how he’d recognized her after that long-ago New York conference, but her photo was on the Dental Clinic website where she worked—but it didn’t really look like her. Still, it made sense that he’d know the attendees by sight. If the greeting was slightly too friendly for her, she put it down to her personal walls and cultural differences. She hadn’t had a relationship in over a year. And wasn’t looking to start one anytime soon. Neither did she want to mar the few days she was here with that overtone. Besides, it was lovely to feel like she was welcome.

  So much information had already been presented that she felt out of her depth. The other attendees were more experienced with higher education. She was in preeminent company; it was a little overwhelming.

  That was the problem with doing workshops. She was so inundated with information that it all seemed to make sense while she was here, but the minute she stepped away and tried to follow some of the techniques she had supposedly learned, her mind filled with questions. She’d been recording several of the sessions with the lecturers’ permission, and she knew she would have to transcribe a lot of it herself into digital notes.

  Fascinating material had been discussed. The advances in stem cell applications for tooth decay gave her encouragement that, in ten or twenty years, there would no longer be such a thing because the dentist would have the tools to stimulate the pulp inside the tooth and regrow it.

  That sounded like something out of a science fiction movie. But it was the stuff that made dentists stay awake, grinning at night. She should be worried about her job, but she wasn’t. And neither should any dentist because it would still be ten, twenty, thirty or even forty years before this practice was in widespread use. The next generation of dentists would have to come up with something else to do as dentists rather than fill, pull or cap decaying or cavity-filled teeth. But teeth whitening and orthodontics remained, and, of course, surgeons were needed in the field.

  She closed her laptop and twisted slightly. She looked out of the corner of her eye at Erick, still in disbelief that she’d met him again—and here of all places.

  Their whispering caught her ear once more. Something was just odd about the way they were acting. An air of mystery surrounded them. She wondered what they were up to. She couldn’t help herself from pulling out her cell phone, making it look like she was taking a selfie, catching the man behind her in the photo.

  As she glanced down at it, one of the men got up and came toward her. She winced and slid the photo over. She closed her phone and put it beside her.

  “Did you just take a picture of us?”

  She looked up at Erick in surprise. “I took a picture of myself,” she corrected. She gave him a bland stare, but he wasn’t fooled.

  He grabbed a chair and sat down beside her. “Delete it please.”

  She frowned. “What?”

  “The image you just took.”

  She shot him a disgusted look, opened her phone and moved to the gallery of images. She showed him the one she had just taken.

  He reached over and hit Delete. It was gone. He stood. “Don’t take any pictures of us while we’re here.”

  “I get that you guys are private and all that,” she said, waving her hand, “but it’s really no big deal.”

  Erick’s glare, when it landed on her face again, was anything but gentle. “You don’t know anything about what we’re doing, why we’re here, what the consequences of your actions could be. It’s better for everyone, particularly for you, if you make sure you don’t have any contact with us.” He returned to his table.

  The confrontation was not violent but had an edge to it that had her putting away her phone with shaky hands and gathering up the rest of her conference material. Leaving her untouched coffee, she walked inside to pay for her lunch.

  She didn’t know what was going on, but something was. And maybe he was right. Maybe she’d be better off a long way away. But it was still an unnerving experience. And that was too damn bad. She really liked the look of that guy. And no doubt they had some chemistry. Anger was just the other side of the coin to passion.

  But she wasn’t into danger.

  Chapter 2

  Honey walked back into the restaurant, paid her bill and headed out to the lobby. The hotel was nicely designed with many small seating areas where she could sit while waiting for workshops to start or people to come and go. She chose a seat where she could keep an eye on the workshop doors, so she’d be ready when they opened again. She brought up her laptop to continue working on her notes.

  Maybe it was a fluke, maybe it was crappy timing, but, when she glanced up, she saw a man slide around the corner away from her. His movement was so sleek and practiced, and yet so very odd that it caught her attention.

  She hesitated, wondering if she should get up and follow him. See what he was up to. Or was it just her imagination? She frowned at her laptop again.

  The ladies’ room was just past the corner. And, curious in spite of herself, she packed up her laptop and walked toward the bathroom. There was no sign of the man she’d seen. Curiouser and curiouser.

  She walked into the ladies’ room, washed her hands and face, brushed her hair, and when she went back out, she took a moment to stand in the hallway, looking up and down.

  She saw several doors but didn’t know where they led. Probably smaller conference rooms. But why had the man been skulking around the corner? Why not just walk naturally? Even if he hadn’t wanted to be seen, a natural movement was less conspicuous.

  Frowning, she walked out to see Erick and his two buddies, standing in the lobby. They were going to disturb her peace more than she cared to admit. She was thrilled to be here but less so at knowing Erick was here too. Yet she couldn’t help but feel he was someone she could talk to about the man she’d just seen. Although why, she didn’t know. She needed her head examined to think he was friendly. Just then Erick turned around, saw her and frowned. She frowned right back.

  She walked up to him and in a low voice said, “It must be your presence that’s bringing this on. But I swear to God I just saw somebody skulking around that corner.” She motioned down the hall. “If I hadn’t seen you guys, I wouldn’t have thought anything about it. But, now that I have seen you, it’s like, every time I turn around, something suspicious is going on.”

  She was about to sit back down in her seat, but Erick gripped her arm gently. He pulled her toward him as the other two men disappeared. She twisted to see whe
re they were going, but he said, “Stop.”

  Startled, she turned to look up at him. “Stop what?”

  “Don’t look in that direction. Don’t look when somebody skulks. Just ignore them.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “There are enough horror stories in the world without more assholes coming into hotels and shooting them up, planting bombs, taking hostages,” she protested with a shake of her long hair. “Why the hell would I ignore anything that could lead to that?”

  “At the moment, you need to because we don’t want any attention brought to him.”

  Her jaw dropped. “You want this asshole here?”

  He gave her a hard glare. “I’m hoping it’s your imagination. But I’ve spent too many years in the military to ignore something like that.”

  “I was right. You were in the military.”

  He raised an eyebrow and stared down at her. “You were thinking about me?” And his voice turned silky. Too silky. “I think I like that.”

  She stepped back. She already had a tendency to be a little too susceptible to his charm. Not that she’d seen much of it. Besides, she had sworn off men at the moment. Especially dangerous ones who could woo a woman with their voice. “No. At least not with any good feelings.” She gave him a small, tight smile. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to sit down again. I have a workshop this afternoon. I’m trying to go over my notes.” Then she understood. She blamed her delayed reaction on his touch. The man was too attractive by half. She lowered her voice and stepped in closer. “Is something going on in the hotel right now?”

  He shook his head.

  She narrowed her gaze at him, wondering if it was safe to trust him. What did she really know about him? Nothing. She frowned and stepped back again. “I don’t believe you.”

  Just then she could hear the chimes deep inside the workshop room. She gave him a hard smile. “It’s your lucky day. I have to leave.”

  “If you hear anything unusual,” he said in a lowered voice, “stay inside that room. Stay out of sight. I’m not expecting trouble, but you and I both know where we are. Trouble happens without any expectation at all.”