Erick

by Dale Mayer

  Something dimmed in her expression. He searched his words to find the cause, but nothing came up. Finally he decided it was his imagination.

  And then she said in a low voice, “Is that the only reason you’re looking after me?”

  He studied her face, hearing her words over and over again. “Are you hoping there’s another reason?” he asked. He remembered their light banter while texting, and, at the time, he’d been feeling young and foolish. Now he felt a whole lot older and wiser.

  But she didn’t need to bear the brunt of that. Her lip curled. “Deflecting a question with another question?”

  He shrugged. “No, it’s not the only reason I’m looking after you. I like you.”

  Her eyebrows raised. “So can I crunch your car again?”

  And he laughed, the sound startling even him. He shook his head. “No, you can stay the hell away from my car.”

  She chuckled. “It really was an accident, you know.”

  “Good thing. If I thought you’d done that on purpose …” He let his voice trail off. He leaned over a little closer. “You said you shouldn’t have been driving at the time.”

  She nodded. “I’d just miscarried. I was going home to deal with my grief. Probably should have taken a cab.”

  Shocked, he gazed at her. “I’m sorry.”

  “Me too. I shouldn’t have been driving. Like I told Laszlo earlier, my boyfriend should have driven me, but he’d taken off with my best friend.”

  Erick winced, now finally understanding a little more of what could have brought about their car accident. He hadn’t been very nice to her at the time. As a matter of fact, he’d been extremely volatile. “I probably shouldn’t have been so harsh on you.”

  She gave him a long look. “What is that, forgiveness?”

  He snorted. “No. But it was my first time leaving the hospital by myself, heading home after a year of surgeries and physio, so I wasn’t in the best of shape either.”

  “Well, I’m glad your Mustang is fixed.”

  “Almost fixed,” he emphasized. “It’s not a hundred percent yet. But I have hopes.”

  “How come it’s not all done?”

  “Original parts,” he said. “That car was all original, and I’ve been scouting the junkyards across the country to get more original parts.” He shrugged. “The insurance company has fixed the vehicle. But they weren’t original parts, and I want it back to all original. I’ve done most of it, just waiting on the last couple pieces to show up somewhere.”

  She nodded. “Well then, at least I can say I’m glad you got this far.”

  He nodded. “What brought you to this workshop?”

  “I want to do more. The US is very behind in stem cell research.”

  He stared at her in surprise. “Really?”

  She laughed. “Americans always think that Americans are at the cutting edge of everything. But we’re not. I came over here to learn more. I’d been trying to attend for years. Then, out of the blue, there was a cancellation, and here I am. Unfortunately it’ll still be decades before I can use a bunch of these techniques in my practice.”

  “That’s sad.”

  “It is indeed,” she said cheerfully. “But what I can see coming down the road will be huge. I’ll work toward the future, so, when the time is right, I’m there.”

  He admired that. Forward thinking, progressive. “Glad to see you can think big picture.”

  “Always,” she said with a laugh. “Not something that’s appreciated when you work for other people.”

  “No, in my line of work, it makes it difficult too. Big picture is when we have a world of peace. Small picture is, I have to deal with the current conflicts.”

  Just then their steaks arrived. She smiled when she cut through the center and saw the reddish-pink medium rare on the inside. She looked up at the waitress and smiled. “It’s perfect, thank you.”

  After that there was very little talking as everyone dug into their food.

  Erick watched as she took each bite and savored it. It was rare to see anybody enjoy a meal quite so much. He leaned over and said, “Has it been that long since you had steak?”

  “Prior to being here, I tried three months as a vegetarian,” she explained. “It’s just so not me.”

  He laughed, and the others stared. “Are you serious?”

  “Yes.” She shrugged. “I was trying it out for stress relief more than a position of belief. It’s not that I like how our animal husbandry industry works in the US, but I found it very difficult to be a vegetarian.” She cut into her meat again and said, “There’s nothing quite like a good steak. I’m really enjoying it. So this was an awesome idea, thank you.” And she went back to her food.

  Erick continued to eat and study the restaurant. It all appeared calm. He caught Laszlo’s glance and asked, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

  Laszlo nodded as he popped the last bite of steak in. “Yeah. It’s too quiet.”

  Honey froze beside him. “Too quiet? When are you supposed to switch out men?”

  Erick checked his watch. “Five minutes.”

  Laszlo pushed away his plate and said, “I’ll go switch with Talon.” He stood, and the waitress hurried over to him. He ordered another steak, baked potato and salad, explaining someone else was joining them. He gave a thumbs-up sign to those at the table, turned and walked out. The waitress cleared off his plate and brought back a new place setting. And then, with a smile at everyone, she left.

  They waited for Talon to show up, but nothing changed. Just when Erick started to get concerned, about to follow Laszlo out, Talon showed up just as his steak was placed on the table in front of him. He sat down with a famished look. “Thank God for this.”

  Erick waited until he had eaten a couple bites, then asked, “Is everything okay?”

  Talon shook his head. “No, it’s not.” But he wouldn’t say any more. Finally he finished his plate and stood.

  The others rose as a whole.

  Erick tucked an arm around Honey’s shoulders and led her toward the cashier. There he paid for the entire group and walked her to the elevator. She went quietly. She’d heard Talon’s words at the same time as he had. They went up the elevator, stopped at Laszlo’s door and went in.

  She glanced at Erick. “Why this room?” She turned and studied him and Cade behind him. “Where is Talon?”

  “He is in your room.” Erick turned to look at Cade. “You okay?”

  Cade nodded. “I’ll check back in five.” And he left.

  Erick looked at Honey. “I want you to stay here.”

  “Why? Are you staying?”

  “I’ll check the other rooms. Then I’ll be right back.

  “Wait, why?”

  “Talon saw the man who was in your room.”

  “How can you be sure it was him?”

  He gave her a lopsided grin. “We can’t. So we’d love to have a second chance to meet him and ask him in person.” And he left.

  Chapter 9

  Honey stared at the closed door, wishing they would spend a few extra minutes and explain things to her. Not that she needed the details. How many were involved with this mess?

  And then she laughed. What was she thinking? Just two men? That was two too many as far as she was concerned. For some reason she’d assumed the man in her room was the one who had been taken out. But there was no way to know that for sure.

  She used the bathroom, then came out and made herself comfortable on Laszlo’s bed and picked up the remote. What she’d like was her laptop. She could check her emails and do a bit of work, check in with her office. She was supposed to fly out tomorrow afternoon, so she was stuck here for the night. But the sooner she was gone, the better.

  Frowning, she thought maybe she could slip across to her room. She got up, walked to the door and opened it. And then realized that, if it closed behind her, she’d have no way to get back in again. She used a chair to prop open the door and walked the few feet
to her door, using her key to open it. She stepped inside, grabbed her laptop and charger, and left. She made sure the door was locked behind her, then crossed the hall to Laszlo’s room.

  She stepped in, pulled the chair out of the way and let the door close. She walked farther inside, putting the chair back in its place, dropped her laptop on the bed and scrambled up so she could sit against the headboard, … but an arm grabbed her around the neck and pulled her back against a hard chest. She froze. Gasping for air, she choked out, “What do you want?”

  “Your friends.”

  “I don’t know where they are.” There was no point saying she didn’t know who he was talking about because, of course, she did, and, if he was here, he knew it too.

  “Maybe not. But one guarantee is, they will come back here.”

  His arm left her neck, and she bent over, gasping for air. She turned slightly to look up at him. The man appeared to be the same one from her room, again with a black mask over his face leaving only his eyes gleaming. “You again?”

  He smiled. “Yeah, me again. You got a problem with that?”

  His tone was insolent, as if he didn’t give a shit, and, if she opened her mouth, she presumed he would backhand her. She shook her head, grabbed her laptop and sat at the top of the bed where she had intended in the first place. “No, but while you guys play your war games, you don’t mind if I check my email, do you?”

  He stared at her in surprise, then grabbed her laptop and pulled it from her hands. “I’m not such an idiot as to let you do that. You could be sending out a call for help to anyone.”

  She stared in dismay as he dropped her laptop onto the floor. “Hey, don’t do that. I need the programs on there.”

  He sneered and jumped up and down on the laptop.

  Her heart sinking, she thought about all her notes and the programs she had specially loaded onto her laptop for the work she did. It would be a ton of work to clean up, reload and worry about all the things she might have forgotten to do whenever she got a new laptop. He just set her back a week. And pissed her right off. She glared at him. “You didn’t have to do that.”

  “No, I didn’t. But then you didn’t have to be here with these guys either.”

  “What do you want them for anyway?”

  “They need to stop asking questions.”

  “Why? Are they getting too close to the damn truth?” She sneered. At the look in his eyes, she fell silent.

  He nodded slowly. “Smart. I suggest you watch your mouth. I’m just as likely to smack you into tomorrow because I really don’t give a shit who you are, what you are, or who you’re screwing around on. Because you’re not important. You’re just a pawn.”

  Stated like that, it was too obvious he’d kill her without a thought. And this wasn’t her room. She didn’t know if she could use anything here to get back at this guy. She didn’t think she was in any danger if she stayed submissive, but she doubted he’d hesitate to kill her if she stepped out of line. Chances were, pressure would be applied on the guys by torturing her. If it ever got that far. She sure as hell hoped it didn’t. She settled back down and just waited. She crossed her arms over her chest, closed her eyes and tried to relax. Yet she was aware of every move the intruder made.

  “Aren’t you a cool one?”

  “There’s nothing I can do,” she said wearily, “but wait for whatever war games you guys are playing.”

  He snickered. “And the guys don’t mind you mocking their work in such a derogatory tone? That you make light of the work they do?”

  She shrugged and wondered. But then she’d never said anything like that to Erick. She hardly knew him. All she could hope for was that soon she’d be back in New Mexico and this would be a nightmare that might keep her up at night for a few weeks, but then it would take its place in her history. The history she hoped to never reopen.

  “Do you know what they’re after?”

  She looked up at him in surprise. “No. I don’t.” She shrugged. “Like you, they don’t talk much.”

  He gave a bark of laughter. “Well, at least there isn’t any pillow talk. That’s always the worst. Guys tend to open their mouths when they’re all cozy and feeling good after sex.”

  She kept her mouth shut. That wasn’t her experience, but then she wasn’t exactly sleeping with guys involved in shit like this. “If you don’t know what they’re after,” she asked, “why are you worried they’re asking questions?”

  “I’m not.”

  “You’re the one who just said they have to stop asking questions.”

  “But I didn’t say I was personally concerned.”

  “Oh.”

  He shook his head. “You see? That’s why women shouldn’t be in the military.”

  “Why? Because I just realized you were hired to do this? Because I don’t play well? I don’t have any training? So sorry if I didn’t exactly spot a mercenary at my first go-around.”

  Instantly he went from being an affable stranger to a steely glaring soldier right in front of her. “I’m not a mercenary. A mercenary is somebody who’s for hire by anyone. And that’s not me.”

  She studied him for a long moment and gave a clipped nod. Inside though she worried at the sharp edge of his temper. Was it normal for anybody to flip like that? Obviously she’d insulted him.

  He seemed to relax though. But she couldn’t stop her mind from racing, figuring out what she was supposed to do now. Because he was right, the guys would return. And that meant she had to find a way to warn them. But how was she supposed to do that? It wasn’t like Erick had showed her any tricks or tips. She still had her cell phone, but this guy was watching her every movement, and the last thing she wanted was to have her cell phone jumped on like her laptop.

  “Some men will do anything for a buck,” her kidnapper confided. “I’m not like that. I have ethics.”

  She nodded as if she understood. But she wondered what universe he was from. Because where the hell did kidnapping an innocent woman to get information out of her friends constitute as having ethics?

  “Your boyfriend and his buddies are looking to pin the blame on somebody else,” he said.

  Again she just nodded. It seemed to be the only thing he was willing to let her do. Or maybe he was one of those guys you just could never argue with. He couldn’t stand to be anything other than right. She really wanted to ask questions, but she couldn’t take a chance at him blowing up again.

  “See? It’s their mistake.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “What was?”

  “The accident.”

  It was all she could do to keep her shock of surprise to just a small facial expression as she said, “Oh. Was it?”

  He nodded, leaned ever-so-slightly forward. “They’re the ones who drove over the mine. If they hadn’t, it would never have happened.”

  Feigning innocence, she made her eyes go wide. “Is that what happened?”

  He nodded and stepped back, started to pace. “So I don’t know why they’re asking questions. Their vehicle blew up. Jesus, Talon was driving, so you’d think, if they would blame anybody, they’d blame him.”

  Inside she marveled. Yet she worried that he would kill her. If he was saying all this, maybe he didn’t expect her to tell anyone. “Talon was driving?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, he was. He’s the one who drove over the mine.”

  “Were there signs saying a mine was there?” She wasn’t exactly sure how this all worked, but she highly doubted Erick would blame Talon for driving if he had no way to know about a mine up ahead.

  The guy laughed. “You really don’t know anything, do you?”

  “Sorry. I’m not in the military.”

  “Yeah, I was surprised they were hooking up with somebody who’s got absolutely no experience. Maybe it’s better that way though. All women are just dumb blondes, no matter their hair color.”

  The dumb blonde comment had her screwing up her face.

  “Yeah, you don’t li
ke that, do you?”

  “I don’t think anyone likes to be called that.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” he said cheerfully. “That’s what you are.”

  “So explain it to me.”

  “There’s nothing to explain.”

  She waited.

  He shrugged, turned and paced a little faster. He walked to the glass doors, pulled the curtains back and stared out. “They were all in the rig. They all drove over a land mine. The land mine blew up. They all went boom.” He shrugged again. “Nothing else to it. That happens all the time.”

  “Do you really think there’s nothing to it? I mean, that they’re just looking for an excuse for shitty timing?” She hated to blame Talon for that, but if it got this guy to keep talking … She doubted he knew anything with the way he was acting. But she had to try. A man had died.

  “It’s hard to say. But there’s no way to know where the mines are. They are buried on purpose. To catch people like that. They shouldn’t have been where they were.”

  “Why were they there?”

  “I don’t know. I figured they were after the hidden weapons though.”

  Her heart froze. That was the first she’d heard anything about that. “What hidden weapons?” she asked cautiously.

  “The guy who’s paying me to get answers, it was his cache. He figured the guys were coming in after his stash and would report him to the military. He didn’t plant the mine. But, since he’d sent out several men to set up a barrier to stop anybody from coming, he figured somebody had planted the mine to keep people out. He hardly approved. Yet these guys didn’t belong where they were, so it was all good to him.”

  Oh, shit. She didn’t know what to say about that. Maybe this had nothing to do with what Erick thought had happened. That would really suck if he was chasing this asshole, only it was over something completely different.

  “So you can see how they shouldn’t be asking questions.”

  “Right, because, of course, your friend with the cache of weapons doesn’t want to get caught. Because chances are the weapons are still where they always were.”

  He snorted. “If you think I’ll share any real information, you’re wrong.”