“No,” he shouted. “It wasn’t an attack. You need to get on the chopper. Now.”
I glanced around, wondering about Warren. Would he look me up and call to let me know what had happened?
“You need to go,” Negan shouted, pointing at the helicopter.
“Fine,” I shouted back, ducking my head and jogging over. A soldier helped me inside and as soon as I sat down, the chopper lifted into the air. I peered over the side, looking down.
Warren!
He looked up at me in the chopper as it flew away.
The entire trip to the Kandahar airport, I thought about what had happened at Savage base.
While I hadn’t gotten the story I sought or the man I desired, all I wanted to do was get back to New York and resume my normal life.
CHAPTER 11
Warren
Two Years Later
As I got out of the yellow cab and saw the New York City skyline, I suddenly realized how much I had missed the city. As the car drove away, I walked up on the sidewalk and pulled out my phone.
Everything had fallen apart after Rose left the Savage base in Afghanistan. Captain Jacoby, involved heavily with the smuggling operation, had ordered her to the chopper after Melvin blew himself up; the damn fool had constructed a bomb from mining dynamite. It had gone off before he had a chance to take it off the base. He had said it was to shut-up a local Afghanis who wanted to report us.
I glanced up at her building from across the street, wondering which apartment was hers.
Was she looking out a window at me? I checked her address on my phone.
After more than two years of not hearing from her, I looked up her information online. It had cost me two hundred dollars, but I found it.
Crossing the street, I wondered why she hadn’t contacted me over the years. Our last night together in Afghanistan had turned hot and heavy, but she had been sent away before we could finish what we’d started.
I made it to the front door of her building, not seeing a doorman. After finding her name, I pressed the button to ring her apartment.
She’s not home, I thought immediately, stepping away. I’ll come back some other day.
“Hello? Who is it?” came the sound of her voice.
My heart soared from the thrill of hearing her again. “Me,” I answered.
“And who is ‘me’?” she said after a brief pause.
“Warren.”
“Warren?”
“From Afghanistan.”
“Oh, Warren! Come in.”
The door buzzed and clicked, unlocking. I walked through, entering the lobby. On the way to the elevator, I thought about the two years since I’d last seen her.
Was I insane for showing up out of the blue? Questions went through my mind as I rode the elevator to her apartment on the eleventh floor.
The moment I reached her door and knocked, it swung open.
When I saw her beautiful face, memories of that fateful night in Afghanistan rushed to my mind.
“Warren,” she said, her long dark hair as curly as ever. “What are you doing here?”
“It’s been two years. I thought I’d look you up.” To my dismay though, she didn’t seem too excited to see me.
“Come inside a minute. I need to leave for work,” she said
I stepped into her apartment. Feeling awkward, I began to ramble. “Anyway, like I said, we were separated a bit abruptly, and—”
“Yeah,” she interrupted and then took a step toward the floor-to-ceiling windows on the other side of the living room. Her shoes tapped on the polished wooden floor as she walked over.
I followed her, captivated. She hadn’t changed a bit. “That’s quite a view,” I said without thinking.
“Yeah, it’s why I moved here. The rent is crazy expensive, but I think it’s worth it.”
“You must be some big-name journalist by now, huh?”
She frowned. “No. I’m an editor now.”
“Oh, working on the other side of the equation? Still a journalist though.”
“I’m not actually a journalist anymore. I edit…other stuff.”
The tone of her voice piqued my interest. “I’d love to hear more about it then, if you’re up to it.”
She shook her head. “I’m sorry, but like I said, I’m on my way to work. It’s weird that you caught me. I’m usually not here this late in the morning. How did you find me, anyway?”
“Oh, some stuff I did online.”
She chuckled. “Okay. Fair enough.”
“How about dinner tonight?”
She took a deep breath.
Meanwhile, no matter how hard I tried not to, I couldn’t stop thinking about that last night we’d shared in Afghanistan and what had almost happened between us.
Nor could I stop thinking about how beautiful she looked…
“Okay,” she finally said. “But I need to go now.” She put her hand on my arm and guided me to the door.
“How about I pick you up around six?”
“Yeah, that should work. Give me your number.”
“Here…” I dug my phone out and handed it to her. “Call yourself.”
As her fingers manipulated the screen, my eyes stole glances of her cleavage.
She handed my phone back as we exited her apartment. “If I don’t call you, meet me here at six,” she said as she locked the door.
“Here’s hoping you don’t call me.” I grinned.
She smiled. “My life’s a little chaotic right now, but it’s good to see you again, Warren.”
“I understand. We can take it slow.”
As we walked down the hall, I pushed all the questions I had aside. The elevator doors closed and my body tensed as I fought the urge to touch her.
She turned and grinned at me as we rode down.
Did she feel the sexual tension in the air too?
The doors slid open and we walked toward the front door.
“It really is good to see you again,” she repeated.
“I’ll see you later tonight. Have a good day,” I said before turning to walk away.
“Are you headed uptown? If so, we could share a cab,” she called after me.
“No, I’m the other way.”
“Oh well. We have a lot of catching up to do. I guess it’ll have to wait until tonight.”
“Yes, tonight,” I replied, smiling.
She waved and then spun around, taking off down the street and stretching her arm out for a cab. I watched for a moment or two before heading to find a place to kill some time.
After leaving the military, I had been living on the small nest-egg I’d acquired helping Melvin and the others extract a ton of minerals from Afghanistan. On rare days I missed working and having a reason to get out of bed in the morning. But most of the time, I enjoyed having nothing tying me down.
Melvin still called me occasionally, wanting to go into business together, but I’d never taken him up on the offer. We’d gotten away with our operation in Afghanistan, and I didn’t want to push my luck any further.
I just wanted to concentrate on the future.
After two years, I would finally be having uninterrupted time with Rose Bennett, the woman I’d never been able to forget.
CHAPTER 12
Warren
I approached the apartment building without receiving a single phone call all day. She’d been on my mind since the day I saw her being lifted into the air and away from the base. My luck in love had been far from satisfactory since getting out of the army, but it hadn’t exactly been my first priority either.
I hit the buzzer at the door and waited to hear her voice. After years of not seeing her, I could still hear her laughter ringing in my memory. There was something special about Rose; she had been the first woman to leave a real impression on me.
“I’m on my way down,” she answered, interrupting my thoughts.
I hailed a cab for us as I waited. When she walked through the doors and made her w
ay to me, she demanded every eye on the street. I eyed her as the cab took off toward the restaurant I had instructed the driver to take us to. The red, low cut dress she had on played off her dark hair and enticing eyes.
“You look incredible,” I said.
“Thanks. You never told me where we’re going.”
“A picnic in the Afghanistan mountains.”
She laughed.
“No, it’s a place called Maggiano’s,” I said. “Do you know it?”
“Yes! They have the best pasta.”
“You have good taste then.”
Tall buildings passed outside on either side of us, so different than Afghanistan buildings that were rarely more than two-stories high.
“Whatever happened with that story you were working on?” I asked, curiosity suddenly coming over me.
Rose frowned. “Well, after Captain Jacoby kicked me out before I’d had a chance to put the story together, my readers and the website that had paid me to go to Afghanistan weren’t happy, to say the least. I had a hard time finding work as a freelance journalist after that.”
“That sucks.”
“You’re telling me.”
“But you’ve got a better job now?”
“I don’t know if I would go that far, but it pays the bills. What about you? What happened after…that night?”
At the mentioning of that night, the mood shifted. Rose looked away, peering out the window on her side.
“Things didn’t go too well for me either. I left the Savage Soldiers about a year later.”
“What have you been doing since then?” she asked, turning back to face me.
“Oh, a little of this and a little of that. Let’s forget about work and the past for now though. Let’s just be two people about to have a great dinner together.”
Rose’s smile returned, putting me at ease. “I don’t think it will be as romantic as a picnic in the foothills of a mountain range, but I’m game,” she said.
The driver pulled over to the side of the road in front of Maggiano’s. I paid the driver and then got out, glancing around.
“I haven’t eaten here in a while,” Rose said. “It’s so expensive.”
“My treat.”
We walked to the front of the restaurant and I opened the door for her. Once inside, the hostess smiled, recognizing me.
“Mr. Lewis, your table is ready.”
“Wow. You come here a lot?” Rose asked.
“Yes, usually alone though.” I nodded at the hostess and then gestured toward Rose. “After you.”
She followed the hostess and I followed behind her, loving the way her dress clung to her body. After we were seated at my usual table in the corner, she glanced around. The sound of other diners filled the room with their chatter.
“Looks busy tonight,” Rose observed.
“The food’s good.” I picked up a menu. “I’m not sure what to get yet though.”
We studied our menus for a moment until a waitress arrived to take our orders.
“Sucks that the story didn’t pan out for you,” I said once we were alone again, feeling a litttle guilty about not giving her all the information I had about what was going on in Afghanistan.
She shrugged. “It was probably for the best. At least I’m not traipsing across the planet to war-torn countries anymore.”
“Yeah, me either.”
“So what are you doing now?” she asked, taking a sip of water from her glass.
“Not too much. I saved a bit of money, and I’ve been thinking about starting my own business. But lately, I’ve just been relaxing and enjoying life after all the craziness in Afghanistan.”
“What kind of business?”
“I forgot how much you like asking questions,” I said with a chuckle.
“I’m sorry. When I’m nervous, I tend to ask questions to keep the conversation going.”
“You’re fine. It’s cute.” I unrolled my cloth napkin and put it on my lap. “I guess I’m not sure what type of business I want to run yet. With my background, maybe a security firm or something.”
“It must be nice to have enough money saved up to not need to work for a while.”
“Yeah, I guess. My expenses were super low the two years I was over there, so I saved a lot.”
“Maybe I should join the navy or something then!”
I smiled. “Well, what about you? Boyfriend?”
She glanced away, avoiding my eyes. “Not really,” she said in a noncommittal voice. “You?”
“Still single. I’ve been thinking about that night though…” My voice trailed off as the waitress returned with our bottle of wine and poured us each a glass before leaving.
Rose lifted hers into the air. “To finding friends years later.”
“And to moving relationships to the next level,” I said.
She stared into my eyes as we clinked our glasses together. I took a sip of the expensive wine, enjoying the bittersweet taste in my mouth.
“This is good,” she said after taking a sip of her own.
I smirked. “Maybe I’ll open a vineyard.”
“Then you’d have to move out the city.”
“True. And there’s too much here I’m interested in right now.”
“Yeah? Like what?”
“Well, Maggiano’s, for one.” I joked. “Then there’s you…”
She looked down at the white tablecloth.
“You’ve thought about that night, haven’t you?” I asked in a low voice.
“Yeah,” she said. “I mean, once or twice. Not excessively…”
The waitress returned with our salads.
I stared at Rose, wanting to press her for more, but felt it best to back off for a while.
We ate quietly for a minute.
“We can’t just pick up where we left off,” she said suddenly.
“No, I guess not. Let’s forget about it then and just have fun tonight, okay? We have more options here than in Afghanistan.”
“That’s for sure,” she said, smiling.
By the end of our dinner, we had fallen into a comfortable conversation that had her laughing lightheartedly.
As we were leaving the restaurant, I didn’t want the night to end. “You up for a comedy club or something?” I asked, trying to figure out where we could go next.
Rose took a deep breath. “Normally I would, but I need to get up early in the morning, so I should get home.”
“Maybe some other time then. Let me get a cab for us.”
“I’d rather go home alone, if that’s okay.”
“Sure,” I said, hiding my disappointment. From what I could tell though, she would be worth the wait.
“I’ll call you later this week, okay?”
“All right.” I stepped forward and hugged her around waist. A few seconds later, I debated with myself and then went for it, giving her a quick peck on the lips. “Good night, Rose. So great to see you again.”
“Yeah,” she said, a little flustered. “You too.”
“Hold on.” I stepped to the street and hailed a cab for her.
“Thanks again,” she said before climbing into the back.
“No problem. Talk to you soon.” After I closed the door, I watched the driver pull away, merging with the traffic. I thought briefly about heading to a nearby strip joint to blow off some steam, but with her on my mind, I decided against it.
She’ll come around, I told myself as I made my way home. And we’ll finish what we started…
CHAPTER 13
Rose
Back at the apartment after my dinner with Warren, I debated whether I should have invited him over.
My phone rang. I glanced at the screen and saw Melvin’s name.
Ugh.
“Hey, Melvin,” I answered. “What’s up?”
“You never called me back about our second date. You’re not backing out on me, are you?”
“No, I’ve been busy with work and stuff,” I said, although
a voice in my brain yelled at me to tell him about Warren and get it over with.
“How about tonight then? We could grab a bite to eat.”
I walked into my kitchen. “It’s late. I’ll call you later in the week, all right?”
“What’s wrong? You didn’t like our first date?”
“It was fine, but I’ve got a lot going on right now.”
“Yeah, that’s what you said.”
“Well, I’m going to go. I need some sleep. I’ve got an early day tomorrow.”
“All right. But just know I’m not going to stop trying to get that second date.”
“You can keep trying, but I’m not making any promises.”
“Later on, Rose.” He ended the call before I had a chance to say anything else.
Melvin had looked me up a week earlier. Against my better judgment, I went out with him, mainly out of curiosity. A part of me was still bitter about not getting my story two years ago, and another part of me was still curious about Warren. Hence, Melvin had struck me as an opportunity to dig for information.
But now, regrettably, both men were interested in me and I didn’t know what to do. In Afghanistan, I had leaned toward Warren, but was ultimately left wondering if that had been a mistake. Melvin was much easier to read, but there was something predatory about him that was an immediate turn off; it wasn’t like I could forget how forceful he had tried to be with me in Afghanistan.
After pouring myself a glass of water, I retired to my bedroom. It was early, but I actually need to be up early for work the next day; my skills as an editor were in high demand.
I worked for a publisher of trashy romance novels, which was as far away from journalism as one could get. While I told myself I didn’t care what other people thought, none of my friends or family knew about the job.
As I laid under the covers, memories of that night in Afghanistan flooded my mind. Warren and I had been so close to taking our relationship to the next level.
The look on his face after the explosion was permanently etched in my memory.
Why had both he and Melvin come back into my life so suddenly? Was it some kind of sign?
I had been sleeping with one man on and off for the past year. He’d been one of few male romance novel writers, but I had broken things off with him some months earlier. He’d been okay in bed, but I couldn’t stand him the rest of the time, so continuing things with him had been hardly worth the trouble.
Lawless Hero: A Bad Boy Military Romance (Savage Soldiers Book 4) Page 5
