Chapter 7
Honey loaded up the rest of the room service dishes onto the cart and pushed it out of her hotel room. She walked toward Laszlo and sat down on the side of the bed. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine.”
Since she’d arranged the food last night for him, then left him to sleep, and had checked on him this morning, he’d gotten more morose and even more curt than ever. She got that he probably didn’t like to appear to be wounded or in need of a little loving care, but it was hard for someone like her not to hand it out. He was obviously hurt. He’d been on his phone texting steadily, but he hadn’t offered her any information. He seemed like a nice guy but all business, whereas Erick’s demeanor with her had been part joking, part flirting, yet still all business. The difference was all in the delivery as she was coming to understand. “Are you staying inside this morning?”
“I’ll probably lie down for a little bit while I wait to hear back on all the messages I sent out.” He looked around her room. “What time are you done today?”
“I think about four. There might be dinner plans this afternoon. I’m not sure. I don’t know how many people might be flying out today versus tomorrow morning.”
He nodded. “Come back up here and check with me before you go for dinner.” He frowned and shook his head. “No, I’ll come down with you.”
“Are you sure you want to with that face?” she joked.
He turned his gaze on her. “Do you think I’ll scare all the women away?”
She laughed. “You’re still way too handsome by far, even when your face is all punched in. I was thinking about the fact that three men attacked you. For all you know, they’re in the lobby waiting for you.”
“I know they aren’t in the lobby waiting for me.”
Something in that cold voice made her freeze. She slowly turned to look at him. “Did you kill them?”
He raised his eyebrows. “Would you care?”
She crossed her arms over her chest and nodded. “Absolutely I care. I didn’t call the police because I wasn’t sure what kind of reception I’d get as a woman here.”
He nodded. “Smart. Because I don’t know how they’d react either.”
“Therefore, I also don’t want anyone to pin their murders on me,” she said in exasperation. “And, yes, I’m worried about the men. Nobody deserves to die in violence in this world.”
“We’re all going to die,” he said, his voice harsh. “It’s up to each of us how we want to punch out. They attacked me. I didn’t attack them.”
She stopped and thought about that for a long moment. “That’s fine. But that doesn’t mean they won’t come after you again.”
Laszlo sat back down on the bed abruptly. “If it makes you feel better, I don’t think any of them died.”
“And, if they aren’t dead, then there’s a good chance they are downstairs waiting for you.” She frowned. “Did you recognize any of them?”
He gave her a flat stare. She thought she might have asked him that when she first found him, but, at the time, she didn’t think he gave her much of an answer if she had asked.
This time, however, he shook his head. “No. I took their pictures and sent them off to see if we can identify who they are. Other than that, no.”
She nodded. “Okay, well, let’s get out of my room. You can go to your room. I’ll go downstairs and attend my seminar. Who knows? Maybe by the time I get out, Erick will be here.” She said that last line without really thinking about it.
He snickered. “Missing him already, are you?”
She glared at him. “I hardly know the man.”
“Yes, you do. Inside you know him. That’s what counts. The fact that the two of you are constantly on about each other all the time is also good. Lots of sparks there,” he said calmly.
She snorted. “Sparks, right. I thought he was going to kill me when he first saw me.” She laughed. “I don’t think he felt much different when he first saw me here either.”
“Still, that’s good. Anger is the flipside of passion.”
She’d thought something similar herself earlier, but she just kept her mouth shut.
At her door she opened it, looked out into the hall and stepped over the threshold. She motioned for him. “Come on. Let’s get you to your room. You can crash for an hour or two. You’ve got to be tired after staying up half the night, looking over me.”
He shrugged. “I’m used to it.” But he walked out of her room, stepped to his door, unlocked it and pushed it open. He stayed in the hallway, waiting for her to lock up her room.
She motioned to his room. “You want me to go in and check to ensure it’s safe?” she teased.
He rolled his eyes at her. “Get downstairs.”
He said it in such a mockingly threatening tone that she just laughed. With a small finger wave, she headed toward the elevator. She pressed the button, and, when it arrived, she stepped in, tossed a casual glance back his way before she entered, but there was no sign of him. Obviously he’d gone in and closed the door.
Down in the lobby, the elevator opened to a large group of people waiting to get on. She smiled, sidled out of the way and carried on to the workshop. She was almost sorry she’d booked an extra night here. She’d be more than happy to leave early. To think Laszlo had ended up in such trouble here gave credence to Erick’s worry. And hers.
The other problem was, and now that she thought about it, she wished she’d asked earlier, but she hadn’t asked to see the photographs of Laszlo’s attackers, so how was she supposed to identify them if they came up to her? Laszlo had said they wouldn’t be in the lobby. But how could he be sure? With that new worry on her shoulders, she also realized once again that she hadn’t asked him for his phone number, so she couldn’t text him.
The workshop doors were open, and people were already moving inside. She headed in and found David with an empty chair beside him. She leaned down and said, “Can you save me a seat? I want to grab a coffee.”
He smiled, nodded, patted the seat beside him. She headed over to the little coffee shop in the lobby and poured herself a cup of coffee, added some cream and walked up to the cash register. When she was done, she returned to the workshop.
But two men stood in her way. She faced them. “Excuse me. I need to get by.”
Neither man moved. They stared down at her. She swallowed hard. Both their faces showed signs of a recent fight. They weren’t handsome but more distinctive. One had massive ears, and the other was just plain big. She could only guess from the size of their bruises that they might have been two of the three men who had attacked Laszlo.
In a louder voice she said, “Excuse me.”
Neither man moved. Instead they both crossed their arms over their chests.
She turned to look at the clerk and said, “Maybe they don’t speak English?”
The clerk looked at the two men and frowned. He spoke in another language. The men shook their heads as a response.
She glanced back at him. “What’s the problem? I paid for my coffee.”
The clerk looked nervous. He said, “They aren’t saying anything. I don’t know what the problem is.”
She nodded. “I don’t suppose you have another entrance out of here that I could take, do you?” She motioned toward the back of the coffee shop.
The men stepped inside. As the clerk tried to reason with them, she ducked down low and slithered behind one of the men, almost at knee level. Quickly she was out in the hall. One of the men turned and reached out an arm, but she managed to evade that too. She called out, “Security.”
One man in a security uniform standing against a pillar just inside the front entrance turned.
She pointed to the two men. “They wouldn’t let me out of the coffee shop.”
By now she felt more than a little anxious. She wanted to know what was going on. The two heavyweights weren’t officially dressed, neither did she want to cause a big commotion, but something was definitely not right. Why the hell were these two men looking for her? Of course the answer was obvious in her own mind, but she didn’t dare let anybody else know that. She pulled out her cell phone and took several photos of the men.
The security man approached them. “What’s the problem here?”
The two men looked at him insolently, then looked at her, shooting her a warning look, and said, “We’ll talk to her later. Don’t you worry.” And they turned their backs on her and walked out of the hotel.
The security man looked to her for an explanation.
She shrugged. “I have no idea.” She motioned at the clerk behind her. “He saw the whole thing.”
The three of them had a quick conversation, and then the security guard walked her to the workshop. It had already started. She slipped in and took her spot. But it was hard to pay attention. She was too unnerved by the whole incident.
Not being able to contact Laszlo, she sent Erick a text. With her phone muted, she might miss his response. But as she still held her phone in her hand, when it lit up with his reply, she caught it. He wanted more details. She gave him what she could and then texted I don’t have any way to contact Laszlo. I presume the men are looking for him.
We’re on our way back. Stay in the workshop. And don’t go get more coffee.
Love you too. Then she added quickly, in case he misread it, in all caps, NOT.
His response came right away. Back atcha.
She shook her head, pocketed her phone and hugged her coffee with both hands.
David leaned over and asked, “Are you okay? Your hands are trembling.”
She smiled, trying hard to firm up the shakiness inside. At least David was no longer pushing his personal agenda, if that’s what he’d been doing. Seeing his friendly yet not flirty face made her question if she’d misread him from the beginning. “I just got a really bad chill.”
He studied her. “Are you coming down with something?”
She winced. “No, that would not be a good thing.”
He laughed. “No, but my brother’s wife gets sick every time they travel, so it’s understandable if you do.”
Allowing that as her excuse, she hugged her coffee until her nerves calmed down, trying to focus on the last few words of wisdom she was likely to receive for the day from the speaker. For this entire conference.
During the lunch break she headed to her room and had lunch with Laszlo. She hated to admit that she was checking up on him, but she also wanted a break from the others.
It was hard to pay attention for the rest of the afternoon. Every time she checked her phone, there was no message. And the couple times she looked to the door, she saw no one there. It remained closed the whole time. Nobody came in or went out.
When the workshop finally concluded, she clapped loudly and enthusiastically with all the others. Immediately panic hit. She would have to go back out and deal with whatever awaited her. She dragged out her exit as long as she could, standing with the crowd, saying her goodbyes, collecting contact information. A few people made plans for dinner, but everybody as a whole was trying to finish and leave. Lots of people had their luggage stacked along the back of the room. They had checked out already and were now heading to the airport. Damn, why hadn’t she thought of that?
Right now, she could be on her way to the airport, getting the hell out of here too, but, no, she’d figured she’d need the extra night. After she thanked the last guest speaker—and David quickly as he was in the center of a group—she turned, realizing just four other people remained in the room. As a group, they walked toward the open doors and stepped out.
Almost immediately she came to a halt. Erick leaned against the far side of the hallway, his arms crossed over his chest, seemingly asleep as he waited for somebody.
She glanced around and realized there was nobody else. She stepped closer to him. “Are you waiting for me?”
He gave her a lazy smile. “Of course I am. You love me, remember?” When she shot him a chiding look, it just made him laugh. He tucked her arm into his. “Let’s just wander the lobby, so people can see you’re with me.”
“What good will that do? Besides, I should be walking with Laszlo instead. He’s way bigger and meaner looking than you are.”
He laughed out loud. “He might be way bigger, but he sure as hell isn’t meaner.”
There was such a coldness, almost a dead space, an emptiness, to his tone, that she believed him. She shivered. “I had understood that he beat them bad, as in they might not be getting up anytime soon. I thought at first he meant he had killed them.”
“Sounds like he should have,” Erick said. “If they beat him up, that’s exactly what he should have done.”
“At the time I was relieved he hadn’t. I was afraid it would all fall back on me if anybody could track him to my hotel room. But now, after those two men in the coffee shop, I don’t know what to think. Nobody should be killed for no reason, but they scared me.” Her voice dropped in volume.
Erick squeezed her arm up against his ribs. “I agree. At least you responded correctly, though you were scared. But you got away, and we’re here now.”
She glanced up at him. “How did the day go?”
He frowned. “I’m not exactly sure. We definitely got some information, and we definitely moved the investigation forward, but was it of any value? The jury’s still out on that.”
“So nobody saw who planted the land mine?”
“No. But I did get a description of two soldiers for hire who had been in the village the week before. The villagers didn’t like them. They were arrogant, crass, generally not the kind of people they appreciated, and they were acting suspiciously.”
“As if they were up to something?”
“Easy to assume that, yes. But we don’t know for sure, so who’s to say what they were actually doing there. Can you describe the two men you saw today?”
She nodded. “But I can do one better.” She pulled out her phone.
Without letting her go, Erick twisted slightly. “You took pictures of them?”
“I’m not very good with my cell phone, like you guys are,” she said, “but I did grab several.” She went through her gallery, found the image she was looking for and held it up.
He took the phone out of her hand. “Well, well, well.”
“What?”
“Bingo. Tall, long neck, big ears.”
“And how do you know him?”
“He’s one of the two men at the village the week before our vehicle blew up.”
“Is that possible?” she asked, studying the image. “That was a long time ago. Do you really think he was one of those who planted the land mine?”
“It’s possible but no way to know for sure.” He studied the photo. “Nice.” And very helpful. Erick hugged her arm almost like a pat of approval.
“I’m not sure there’s anything nice about it,” she exclaimed softly. “Just think about what you said. Two men who were willing to plant an antitank land mine to blow up military personnel vehicles accosted me in a coffee shop. Where is anything in that good?”
What she didn’t realize was he had led her around the lobby, almost parading her in front of everyone, and then directed her back toward the elevators.
She glanced around. “You know? If we were on a date, and you were really proud of having me on your arm, I could almost understand what you just did, but …”
“Same idea. Letting everybody know you’re mine, and they’ll have to go through me to get to you.”
He hadn’t exactly meant to state that quite so possessively, but it was the truth. And he wasn’t about to let that go. These assholes had overstepped their limits already. It was one thing to go after Laszlo. But it was also a mistake on their part because both Honey and Laszlo had gotten a picture of their faces. He didn’t know if they had an ID yet because he hadn’t taken the time to go up to the room.
As soon as he’d arrived at the hotel, he realized the workshop would close any moment. And that meant he needed to grab her and stay at her side until she was ready to leave. But now that he realized who they were dealing with, he wanted those men, and he wanted them now. And, if that meant staying an extra day in order to track them down, then he was fine with that because, when he got those three men in his hands, he would make sure they wouldn’t come after her again.
He opened the elevator and nudged her inside. As she went in, she said in a troubled voice, “So are these the men Laszlo fought?”
“You said that these men showed obvious bruising of their faces.”
“Yeah, they looked like they had been beaten up. So does that mean the third man didn’t get up?”
“That would be my take on it. In the interim, you will be with somebody at all times.”
She rolled her eyes. “Is that not a little overboard?”
But inside he could tell she was smiling. He leaned over and dropped a kiss on her cheek. “Don’t worry. I won’t leave you to fend for yourself.”
She glared at him over the kiss.
And just because he felt like being perverse, he bent and dropped a kiss on her lips. Just then the elevator doors opened, and Cade and Talon waited for them.
Cade laughed. “Glad to see you two making up.”
“Like hell,” she snapped. She stepped out of the elevator, glaring at Cade.
Erick couldn’t help but grin. He led the way to Laszlo’s room, pushing open the door, and nudged her inside ahead of him. He wondered about the common sense of moving down to his own room. But they could make that decision now that they were all inside.
She walked in, took one look at Laszlo and frowned. “Did you rest at all?” she scolded. She brushed back Laszlo’s hair, checking her stitches. “At least you didn’t take those out.”
He gave her an affronted look. “I’d hardly do that.”
The other men gathered around and studied his injuries.
“It’s pretty minor,” Cade offered.
Laszlo glared at him. “I told her that too.”
“I wouldn’t listen,” Honey snapped. “His body has enough to deal with right now and doesn’t need to fill in that gap with extra skin. Stitches will make it a faster and easier job.”
“Let’s get away from Laszlo’s injuries and back on target here,” Erick said, watching the group. Something about adding a woman to the mix switched things up. He hadn’t planned on it. “Honey, I don’t want you leaving the hotel for any reason tonight.”
He watched as she placed her fists on her hips and glared at him.
He grinned. “No, I’m not trying to be difficult. But, if those two men caught you inside the hotel, what do you think they will do if they found you outside the hotel?”
Instantly her aggressiveness dropped away. She sagged onto the second bed and stared up at him. “Well, I guess room service it is?”
He laughed. “We can definitely do something about food. But to keep you quiet and low profile is the priority at the moment.”
She nodded and looked at the bed. “Laszlo, do you mind?”
He shrugged. “Find a spot and make use of it.”
She kicked off her shoes, scrambled to the head of the bed and curled up, leaning against the wall. “Okay, so what’s the plan?”
Erick stared at her. Not too many women who found themselves in the middle of a group like he had gathered here would be as comfortable as she was. He knew several exactly like her in their own circles. But, when he looked out at the great big world, their numbers were pretty small.
He walked closer. “We’ll send men out, two at a time, to see if anyone’s hanging around. We want to keep an eye on the lobby and outside the front door of the hotel.”
She shook her head. “Why would you want somebody else to end up looking like Laszlo?”
The men snorted. “Just because Laszlo got caught doesn’t mean we will,” Talon said, insulted.
She straightened. “Don’t you insult Laszlo like that.”
Laszlo straightened and grinned at the men. “Yeah, don’t insult me like that.”
Talon rolled his eyes. “I wasn’t insulting him. But just because he had three men attack him doesn’t mean they’ll have enough men to keep coming around and attacking the rest of us.”
“What are we down to, just a pair? Because those are the ones who attacked me at the coffee shop.” She stopped. “Well, okay, so they didn’t attack me. But they were trying to stop me from leaving the coffee shop.” She collapsed against the wall with her arms crossed over her chest and pretended to close her eyes, as if she was out of the conversation.
But Erick knew she was listening. “Somewhere along the line we’ll get food. But we don’t want you sleeping alone tonight.”
She opened her eyes. “And which one of you has been designated as my gigolo for the night?”
There was just enough humor to counteract the caustic tone of her voice. Everyone laughed.
Laszlo said, “Doesn’t matter who has been designated, only one is getting that job, and we know that’s Erick. If any of the rest of us would volunteer, we’d get chopped into little pieces.”
Erick sighed. “Hardly.”
“Good then. I’ll sleep with her,” Talon offered.
Erick just glared at him.
Talon shrugged. “See? You don’t even have to say it. You were ready to cut me into little pieces without provocation.”
Honey sighed. “It doesn’t matter who it is. I appreciate the fact you guys are looking after me.”
“Good. So don’t be difficult. Let us look after you, and we’ll get you to the airport on time to go home.”
“Oh, all right. I could phone the airline and see if I could catch a flight out early tonight,” she suggested.
“I already did that,” Laszlo said. “No space on any flights leaving tonight.”
“Of course not,” she grumbled. “That would be way too easy, wouldn’t it? It’s got to be what, four-thirty, maybe even five by now? Are we going for dinner soon?”
That brought up a more detailed discussion about food. “Do you think we should pick up food and bring it back or order room service, or is it safe to go out?” Cade asked.
“Definitely safest to stay in. That doesn’t mean somebody can’t do a pickup. But I don’t know any of the nearby restaurants. So room service or the hotel restaurant are the best bets.”
“We would be safe enough in the restaurant downstairs. Even if they could see us, it’ll be a public place.”
“They appear to be stealthy in their attacks. They don’t want to draw any attention to themselves. It’s a short hop from the restaurant to the lobby elevators and stairs.”
Honey bounded to her feet. “Good. I’m starved.” And she walked to the door.
Erick stepped in front of her. “That doesn’t mean we’ve made a decision yet,” he snapped.
She drew herself up to her full height, which was still a head shorter than him, and glared at him. “You can make a decision about what you’re doing. But you just decided the restaurant was safe. So that’s what I’m doing. I’m heading down there. You can either come with me or not.” She tried to step around him.
He moved ever-so-slightly, blocking her direction. “You know I can go over the bed and around,” she complained. “So why are you being difficult?”
“Because you’re not walking out that door alone.”
She gave him a sweet smile. “So are you dressed for dinner, honey?”
He leaned forward and whispered, “Isn’t that my line?”