Chapter 10 The Ritz
TEN
The Ritz
Ryker found himself torn between staying with Bent and chasing after T in the same way Ash had pursued his wife. In the end, the decision was taken from him when Forest slung an arm around his shoulders and tugged him toward the band.
“Sounds like you’re up for this.” It wasn’t a question but a statement of fact.
No backing out now.
“Maybe if I understood what I was volunteering for?”
He had the same concerns T had raised previously. His team kept a heavy ops tempo. They supported a special ops unit operating far forward, doing things that didn’t exist. It wasn’t a job he could step away from. It wasn’t a job he wanted to step away from.
“I can hang and play during the concert,” he said, “but that’s as far as it goes. T and I have to get back to our unit.”
“I’m working on a solution,” Forest asserted. “Calls are being made.”
“What does that even mean?” Ryker asked. “Our job is very specific. You can’t just replace us and send us on a USO tour.” No way in hell was Forest separating him from T. Not now. Not ever.
Forest arched a brow. “You’d be surprised.”
He wasn’t going to argue with Forest over the specialization of his career field.
His team wasn’t the only one in the Air Force, but they were the only ones assigned to this combat zone.
Bringing in others would mean putting them on deployment within a matter of days.
He’d be pissed if someone did that to him; however, Forest seemed unfazed.
That decision remained far above Ryker’s pay grade, and he decided to focus on what he could manage. Right now, that was understanding the men of Angel Fire. He’d had an image of them as unapproachable rock legends, but after spending a few minutes in their company, they were just like anyone else.
Bent, Bash, Spike, and Noodles mercilessly ribbed each other. They acted like brothers, which he supposed they were. Playing in a band did that to a group of guys. He remembered his friends from high school and the tight bond they’d formed. Angel Fire was no different.
After a couple of hours of goofing around with the instruments, the band moved into the required sound checks. Ash hadn’t returned. Forest had mentioned the band would be taking a down day, but the men of Angel Fire seemed incapable of taking any time off from their passion.
Ryker felt the same way and excused himself to track down T.
The sun had dipped below the horizon, taking with it some of the heat of the day. He headed to the medical facility and asked around, even going as far to visit command and control.
No T. No Skye. No Ash.
Thinking she might have taken her friend on a tour of the base, he visited all the highlights of Bagram Airfield.
No T at the hangar. No sign of her at the gym or anywhere else.
He had no idea where she could have gone and decided the best way to get a hold of her would be to leave a note at her barracks.
After a quick search for Collins, he found where T had been assigned and headed to the rows of converted cargo containers.
The dry air sucked the moisture from his body, and his lips cracked, but he enjoyed the heat, unlike many others.
He stopped by a hydration station, filled his CamelBak, and then continued his search.
T’s lilting laughter stopped him in his tracks. At last, he’d finally found her. The other voice had to belong to Skye. He knew little about Ash’s wife, except she and T had a connection.
He made enough noise for the women to hear his approach. Their laughter died out, and T’s head poked out of the doorway to her barracks.
“Lyons,” she said, “what are you doing here?”
Someday, she’d be calling him by his first name rather than his last. That was the way with the military.
Everyone reverted to last names in the field.
T was an exception and probably because of her sex.
Rather than the team calling her Meyers, they’d taken to calling her T.
He liked the name. No one else but the team called her T.
Even her close friends, Forest and Skye used her full first name.
He liked having that little piece of her.
He shared it with four other men, but all of them had wives at home.
It meant nothing to them while it meant the world to him.
He glanced inside the converted cargo carrier. Ash was spread out on the lower bunk, his head in Skye’s lap. She finger-combed Ash’s hair while he snored softly. With a finger placed gently against her lips, she gave Ryker a smile.
“Shh,” she said. “He’s sleeping.”
“Obviously,” Ryker said. “Although I don’t see how.”
“What do you mean?” Skye asked.
“I heard the two of you long before I closed in on this…” He glanced around the makeshift barracks. “You know, I’m not even really sure what to call this thing.”
“The Ritz,” T said and then giggled. “I’m living in The Ritz.”
He loved the way her face lit up with the soft laughter. He’d seldom seen her smile, and her laughter was a rare and fleeting event.
“Well, it’s a far cry above where I’m bunking,” he said. He’d been shoved into a tent with seven other men but agreed with T. Compared to what they were used to, they were both living it up for the next two days. “Looks like I’ll be playing with the band tomorrow night.”
“Oh, that’s good news,” T said. “I can’t believe how well you played.”
“I have a few surprises up my sleeve.” He hoped to one day show her a few more.
His comment seemed to catch T off guard, and her hand strayed up to her pocket.
Skye laughed. “Should I leave you two alone?”
T’s brows pinched together. “No. Why?”
He had an answer. All he wanted was to slam T up against the wall, kiss her until she forgot her name, and do unspeakable things to her in one, or both, of those bunks. Instead, he tilted his lips into a grin and kept those thoughts to himself.
While more spacious than his accommodations, T’s converted shipping carrier was cramped with four people inside.
He needed to get T alone, see where her head was at, and confirm his suspicions about her plans for the band.
Although he had a solution for that. If he played with Angel Fire, he’d have a better chance at looking out for her interests.
He’d be able to break anything up. She would hate him for it, but he didn’t care. His top priority was taking care of T.
“It’s almost time for chow.” He directed his comment to Skye. “Do they have something planned for the band?”
“I don’t really know,” she admitted. “Probably, but to be honest, I was kind of hoping to meet with your team. Tia’s told me so much about your job…well, at least those bits she can share. I have a personal interest in how you operate.”
“Operate? You mean, surgeries in the field?”
She shook her head. “Yes, and no. Sorry, I see how that might be confusing.” Her fingers brushed back the hair from Ash’s face.
“This man can sleep through anything.” She shifted on the bunk.
“Forest has a need for…well, I guess you could call it an insurgent team. I’m interested in how your team operates under such austere conditions.
How much do you know about what Forest does? ”
“Not much,” he admitted.
Other than the fact that Forest and Skye were filthy rich, he understood Forest’s business had to do with tech industries.
There was little in the press about Ash’s unusual wife or her brother, although everyone knew about the story behind the marriage of Ash and Skye.
They’d taken off on a three-day adventure, found themselves accidentally hitched, and somehow decided to stick it out with each other.
What he wanted to know was how Skye and T had met.
All he understood was T had worked as a nurse in an emergency room where Skye was an attending doctor.
From what little he’d gleaned from Forest’s comments, T had been involved as one of his rescue projects.
He’d have to ask T to fill in more of those blanks, but other than that, he knew next to nothing.
“Do you know about Forest’s foster program?” Skye asked.
“No.”
She glanced at T. “It’s how we met Tia.”
T leaned against the wall and crossed her arms. “Lyons doesn’t know that story. It’s not something I share.”
“Oh!” Skye’s eyes widened. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to spill your secrets.”
T vented a sigh. “Nah, it’s okay. I just tend not to talk much about myself.”
Unfortunately, that was true. Their team trained and socialized together as much as they could.
It increased unit bonding. Family picnics, children’s birthdays, and holidays were well-attended events.
He and T were the only unmarried members, and neither of them had any children.
He never brought dates to unit events, and T had only recently started bringing Scott around.
Ryker had hated the man on sight. There’d always been something not quite right about Scott.
T’s focus landed on him, and her expression tensed. “I met Forest when I was sixteen,” she explained. “I was in foster care, doing okay but not. If that makes sense.”
“I’m sorry,” he said and wondered how to ask the delicate question of what had brought her into foster care.
“I’d just been placed in my second home,” T continued. “Foster care for teens is…difficult. We’re not as cute as babies and not as simple as toddlers. There are few families willing to take on a teen foster child.”
“You said, second home? How old were you when you went into foster care?”
“I was fifteen,” she said. “It was scary and traumatizing.”
“Do you have any siblings, or was it just you?”
A cloud of pain settled over her eyes. “I did.”
“Tia,” Skye soothed, “you don’t have to talk about it.”
“No, it’s okay.” She turned back to him. “There was an accident. My parents and brother didn’t survive.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, needing to go to her, to hold her, but Skye’s discerning gaze stopped him in his tracks.