Chapter 6: Mark, Erin

FRIDAY, MOSUL, IRAQI KURDISTAN.

MARK FOREST CLIMBED THE stairs to the ramshackle building that served as Allied Security's headquarters. It was a far cry from the air conditioned, comfortable office he'd had with NexGen, that was for sure. He'd had it made, and that upstart bitch had cut him off at the knees. Now he was reduced to running his company out of a shack and doing what amounted to the armored Uber of the Middle East.

He peeled off his Kevlar vest and hung his helmet on a peg to dry. Though the city was undergoing a massive clean-up effort, and everyone wanted a piece of the pie of what was to be the biggest, organized city development in decades. He sat at his desk, the weariness weighing on his shoulders.

It wasn't supposed to be like this. He'd scraped his way to the top. That NexGen gig was supposed to be his. He'd put in the hours, recruited the men, did the jobs. The side work was what it took to keep business going. Everyone knew there was a cost, and they trusted Mark to take care of it.

Then she'd happened.

Erin-fucking-Lopez.

Mark picked up a pen from the desk.

Now that events were in motion, she would never be a problem again. Getting her out of the picture was top of his list, then the laptop, after that the leak was plugged and business could continue. He would rebuild and all would be well.

His phone vibrated.

Mark groaned.

What now?

He peered at the screen.

Fucking hell. It was one thing after another with these people.

"Hello?" Mark leaned back in his chair.

"She's gone," a breathless man said in Arabic.

"What?" Mark sat up.

"Five Americans came and took her."

"She was still alive?"

"We weren't ready yet."

"And you let them take her? You didn't kill her?" Mark pushed to his feet.

"They attacked us!"

"When? Who were they with? Where did they go?"

"I don't know."

"Fucking hell." Mark hung up.

There was no point in continuing the conversation. Mark's only use for outsourcing that part of the job was to keep his hands clean of eliminating Erin Lopez from the picture.

He had to fix this. The noose around his neck was tightening, and if he didn't stop her from uncovering more damning evidence, she'd eventually find it. He'd thought trimming a few loose ends would solve all his problems, but all he'd done was give the one person he hated most the tools to not just end his career but his life.

***

FRIDAY. AEGIS GROUP SAFE HOUSE, MASAD, IRAQ.

ERIN STRETCHED HER LEGS out on the cushioned bench toward Riley. It felt good to have showered and be in clean clothes. She was almost human again, a novel concept after being trapped in the dark with nothing but a bucket to keep her company.

She was glad the rest of his team had gone to bed or were on watch. They were a friendly group, but the noise put her on edge. Riley was different. He was easygoing, he didn't pry, he made her laugh and forget the present, but most of all, he seemed to pick up on when she wanted to change the topic before she did.

If she met him in a bar, he was the kind of guy she'd take home with her. He was also the type she'd pine over when he left.

Erin drew circles on the table top and tried to ignore the heat crawling up her neck. She'd had more than a few ideas during the course of the evening.

The reality of her life was that the men her age were either stationed in Erbil for a period of time, or they expected things from a wife she wasn't going to do.

Given the opportunity, at any other time, she'd flirt shamelessly with him. The way he blushed when he talked about his family was endearing, and those long lashes were mesmerizing. She could spend hours sitting here talking about nosey family.

"You ready for bed?" Riley patted her ankles, his touch leaving her skin tingling.

Panic twisted a tight hold around her chest, cooling the heat. The last thing Erin wanted was to be alone in the dark. The truth was until they crossed back into Kurdistan she wasn't going to breathe an easy breath. Even then, she wasn't sure who they could trust. This team was at risk. Hell, it was a wonder they hadn't been stopped at a check point on their way here.

"Actually..." She smiled to keep her nerves from showing. Riley wasn't a mind reader. He couldn't know everything going on in her head. "I was curious how you secured that village."

"Oh." He shrugged as if it was no big deal pulling off a rescue with only a handful of bullets shot. "Brenden speaks enough Arabic to get by. We recorded him saying a message about the rescue and asking everyone to go to the mosque at sunset so no one was hurt."

"That's-that's amazing, do you realize that?" Her admiration for them was getting out of control, which meant she was a few minutes from crawling across the table to wrap herself around Riley. She still hadn't mustered up the courage to ask him if he was dating someone and just not sharing that detail with his mother.

"We were skeptical it'd work, but we were lucky." Riley smile widened. He was a charmer, and she was letting him work his magic on her. Hell, she wanted it to work. Thinking about that smile was a far cry better than what she'd obsessed about in the dark.

"This far across the border you could have been walking into a town full of people who'd want you dead. Was that place even on a map? How did you find me?"

"We knew a guy who knew a guy that had heard about the kidnapping," Riley said in his slow drawl. His green eyes seemed to twinkle. He wasn't sharing his source with her, and she couldn't find it in her to be upset about it.

"And the town?"

"It helps to make a lot of friends who want nothing but the best for everyone."

"You aren't telling me anything." She flicked the cap of her bottle at him.

Riley caught it and his grin merely widened.

"This is what you do, then? Drive in, save the day?" She leaned her elbow on the table and propped her chin in her hand. God, he pulled all the right strings. He'd done everything to keep people safe. Even when he'd fired the one shot, he'd hit the shooter in the leg. If he flirted with her-for real, none of this smooth talking one liner stuff-she could not be responsible for her actions.

"I wish it was that easy." He pushed to his feet and stretched. "I think I saw some snacks in the pantry. Still hungry?"

"Oh, not really." At least not for food. She wanted to forget the last few days, if only for a little while, and replace it with something good. She wanted to feel alive.

Riley strolled to what passed for a pantry and opened it. His phone went off and he paused for a moment to stare at the screen. She didn't mind. It gave her a wonderful view. Her initial impression of him was: big. A good deal of that was due to his tactical gear, but there was no denying that Riley was a tall, muscular man. His sandy brown hair was short, his skin a warm golden tan and those eyes. They made her think about mojitos. He'd showered sometime after her and changed into sweatpants and a t-shirt. There was something about plain, gray sweatpants on a man that looked damn good.

"That's our company liaison. She said your family has not been notified, by the way." He pulled a box out of the cabinet. "I don't know what these are, but I'm eating them, anyway."

The warmth returned to her chest. He didn't forget a thing she'd mentioned. Damn, if that bit of knowledge didn't punch her in the gut. "I can't decide if I'm glad my parents don't know or..."

Riley offered her a cookie like biscuit from the box. She took it and nibbled on it while she rolled that information around.

"Say what you're thinking." Riley nudged her.

"You know what I'm thinking." If he didn't, she'd totally misjudged him.

"They're going to tell you they didn't inform your family about the kidnapping because they didn't want to worry them. That our team was here, and qualified, to bring you home without harm. That's what they want you to believe."

"There hasn't been a terrorist attack inside Kurdish Iraq in years. If they label what happened an act of terrorism, it will impact the whole region. We haven't even covered how they managed to smuggle me past so many security checks. The car didn't stop once, Riley. Not a single time. I get stopped going from my home to the office at least six times on a normal work day."

He sighed and chewed his cookie.

"I think there's a lot going on here, and it's going to take more than me, you, and this box of cookies to figure it out." Riley neatly folded the box back together. "We should get some sleep."

"I don't think I can sleep," she finally admitted.

"Try? For me?"

"I can sleep when I'm dead." There had to be a reason she wasn't seeing a reason, something obvious if only she'd open her eyes.

Riley held out his hand and speared her with a rare, serious look. He wasn't going to leave her alone, and he wasn't going to take no for an answer. If she had a reason to stay up, she'd give it to him, but she couldn't identify anything more than a general sense of unease.

She groaned and put her hand in his. Nothing said she had to stay in a dark room by herself. She could try to sleep, and when that failed she'd just come out here. He wrapped his other hand around hers and pulled her down the bench. She swung her feet over the edge and he helped her up.

"Thomas is across the house on the first floor from you. There's two of us on security at all times, and we have people back home monitoring the cameras. I'll be across the hall if you need anything, okay?" He guided her toward the narrow stairs.

Erin hung her head. Was it that obvious?

In all her time, she'd never been at risk like she'd been the last few days. She'd done her best to maintain her cool, think through what she should do, what she knew. It didn't change the fact that she'd been kidnapped by potential terrorists and held in a cellar for three days.

"This is you." Riley gestured to a door at the end of the hall. "I'm over here."

She stared at the other door.

Erin didn't want to be alone. She didn't want to be in the dark.

"Thanks for everything," she muttered and stepped into the bedroom, flipping on the light.

For as long as she could remember, she'd been independent to a fault. She'd struck out on her own, determined to do whatever she wanted, even if it horrified her parents. And now here she was, afraid of the dark and being alone in a house full of people. It didn't make any sense.

If she managed to sleep, everything would be fine.

Erin walked through the room, but there wasn't anything besides the bed, a nightstand and a dresser. It was a room for resting.

She was going to have to come to terms with the dark someday.

She turned off the lights and stood next to the door, gritting her teeth.

It wasn't absolute darkness. She could still see, thanks to the moonlight coming through the windows. It cast a square of light on the floor and once her eyes adjusted, she could see the shapes of the furniture.

An invisible hand closed around her throat. Sweat dampened her underarms and her mouth went dry.

Yeah, that was enough of a test. She turned the light back on and sucked down an easier breath. She was thirty years old and afraid of the dark.

This was stupid. She just needed to get over it.