“Then my suggestion is this, we know Sharan has sent Ansari to plant a bomb, most likely in your helo or maybe around the hangar area, so you need to take the keys to the Chinook from your mech. You should be the only person with a set of them. That means one of us needs to be in your office at the hangar when your mechs finish maintenance. You or I will lock up the door to it.”
“Makes sense. Yeah, I can do that, no problem.”
“Can you talk to them about strange men lurking around your hangar?”
“I can, yes.”
“How far can you trust them, Dan?”
“I have to trust them because security is lax otherwise. I think I should show them a photo of Ansari and tell them what he’s up to.”
“Could that scare them off? If they know you’ve been targeted?”
Shrugging, Dan said, “We won’t know until I talk to them about it and bring them in on the situation.”
“No one said this was going to be easy,” Sloan said with a shake of her head.
“Not here. Not in this country. People are starving. They’re desperate. They’ll do just about anything for money.”
“No question. I need weapons. Wyatt said you had some? I’ve also gotten a license from the Sudanese government to carry a concealed weapon on me.”
“Yeah, I have a license to carry, also. I’ve got a Glock 18 with ammo ready for you. It’s in the nightstand next to your bed. You’ll find everything you need with it.”
She looked at her watch. Two hours had passed. “I’ll get unpacked.”
“You’ve probably got jet lag and could use some downtime today.”
“Yes, you’re right.”
“I made us a chicken and vegetable stew for tonight. Would you like to come over and eat with me later? I figured the first day, you’d be whipped and having a decent, somewhat American meal tonight might be nice.”
“I’d like that, Dan. Thanks.” Sloan wanted to say so much more but jammed all those words inside herself. He was his usual, thoughtful self. That was one of the reasons she’d fallen helplessly in love with him was he cared and was considerate of others outside himself.
He scooted the chair back and rose. “Come on over at 1800 tonight?”
“I like that we can fall back into military speak and time,” she said.
*
Dusk was upon Port Sudan, the sky over the Red Sea becoming darker in the east. A gossamer layer of wispy cirrus clouds was overhead, turning pink after the sun had set. The lights along the coast of the port glimmered like yellow jewels in the half-light. Dan was nervous. He looked at his watch. Sloan would show up shortly. His apartment hadn’t been cleaned up like this since he’d moved here. He’d gotten a cleaning lady to come over and rescue his sorry ass because he cared a lot about what Sloan thought of him even if he didn’t care about himself.
He stirred the stew in the pan with a wooden spoon, feeling anxious and looking forward to her company once again. His heart thumped once when he heard a knock at the door. He turned off the stove and opened the door. His heart flew open when he met Sloan’s sleep-ridden eyes. Her hair was down and mussed, a frame around her face. She gave him a soft, drowsy smile of welcome.
“I almost didn’t wake up,” she apologized, stepping inside. “My alarm went off, and I slept right through it.” She moved her fingers through her hair. “I’m late. Sorry.”
“No problem,” he murmured. “Come on in.” He gestured to his table which looked exactly like the one she had in her kitchen. “Have a seat. I’m sure you’re jet-lagged up to your eyeballs and back right about now.”
Making an unhappy sound of agreement, she took a quick look around. The apartment was immaculate and had the same old, worn furniture as hers. The air conditioner in the window chugged along, and it was mildly cool in the room. “I hate jet lag.”
“It’ll take you about a week to adjust,” Dan told her, pulling out a chair for her to sit.
Sloan was touched by his thoughtfulness. That hadn’t changed in Dan, either. “Thanks,” she murmured, as she sat down. In front of her were white ceramic plates, flatware, and a small vase that held a few bedraggled looking wildflowers.
“Where did you get these?” she asked, caressing the red petals of one flower.
“Oh, outside the building. Wildflowers,” he said, pulling down two soup bowls from the cabinet. “Kind of a ‘Welcome to Sudan’ for you.”
She smiled a little. “That was thoughtful of you, Dan.”
“I know how much you love flowers.”
Sloan closed her eyes for a moment. It hurt to remember their past because it had been so good. She thought that the years apart would have dulled her appetite for this man, but they hadn’t.
He brought over a steaming bowl of the stew and dark brown bread, cut into big chunks, setting it on the plate before her. Sloan had changed her clothes and looked hot as hell in a pale yellow capped tee and a pair of well-worn jeans. This time, she had her hiking boots on.
“Nice to know you can cook,” she teased, picking up her knife and a chunk of the warm, moist bread.
“Yeah, that was one thing you didn’t know about me, was it?” Dan came and sat down opposite her. He’d given her the chair that looked out the window over the coast. He saw sadness mirrored in her large, intelligent eyes—and yearning for him. Yeah, he sure as hell felt that invisible tug between them once again. They’d been so damned good in bed with one another, and he could feel his body reacting, remembering. Dan didn’t dare go there with Sloan. It wouldn’t be fair to her. He’d hurt her badly and wanted to say he was sorry for everything he’d done to her. Sloan had put her life on the line to help rescue him from that helo, and he repaid her by disappearing from her life forever three months after the crash.
He forced himself to butter his bread, stealing a glance at her. Dan had never been enraptured with a woman until she walked into his life. She had the capacity to make him hope, to make him honestly believe that she would never abandon him as his mother had.
“I meant to ask you,” Sloan said, dipping the bread into the stew, “how is your right arm holding up?”
“It’s okay.”
“It doesn’t bother you when you fly?”
“No.”
“I remember how worried you were after the surgery. That they might remove you from the Night Stalkers because of it. I know this is from our past, but I never found out what happened to you after you left me, Dan.”
Wincing inwardly, feeling the pain growing in his heart, he forced himself to look at her. There was no censure in her eyes, just that deep honesty of hers. His voice was roughened. “I was finally cleared by the flight surgeon to fly again. The Army investigation on the crash convened shortly after that.”
“What happened then?”
“They said it was a weather-related accident. And then, they sent me to a Black Hawk medevac squadron after the decision was rendered.”
Jolted by the news, she knew how important it was to someone who was seen as one of the best pilots in the Army to be demoted suddenly.
“I didn’t know…I’m sorry Dan. I know how much it meant to you to fly with the Night Stalkers.” Sloan saw the disappointment and loss of his status as a pilot in the Army. She wanted to reach out but stopped herself.
This was the first time she’d heard of his demotion. That one event had broken him. How badly she wanted to ask him if the reason he’d left her was because of the demotion. All along, Sloan heaped the reasons for him leaving on herself.
“Were you shipped out?” she asked, her voice low.
“I got transferred to a Medevac squadron out of a forward operating base, near Kandahar. I remained in the Army for another year after that and turned in my commission. I decided to seek a civilian job flying a helo. I flew one for a hospital in Los Angeles for a year. Got bored with that and that’s when I ran into Delos. They hired me two years ago, and I’ve been assigned to Port Sudan ever since.”
“I see.” She chewed the bread slowly, feeling the emotional energy around Dan.
“Do you like what you do here?”