Model Soldier (14 page)

Since it was doubtful they were sending Rasta-photographer here to him, Hawk figured whatever she needed he could have Pettit take.

Hawk would have Pettit snap a shot with that super expensive digital camera he was so proud of, then he’d email it to Emily and be done with it. That should cover it.

Confident that was all this new assignment would entail, Hawk sent a quick reply to his sister, remembering to ask her to send him toothpaste, and a metal fork or two if she happened to have a spare. Then he emptied all the remaining emails out of his inbox and logged off.

Back in his tent, Hawk broke down his weapon and broke out the gun oil and supplies he’d need. He settled in for the meticulous task of cleaning the familiar item.

The act was almost like meditation for him as he let his hands complete to task they knew so well. He let his mind wander and as usual, Emily was the main attraction.

Chuckling, Hawk imagined Emily’s horror at having to ask him for more pictures when she knew how unhappy he’d been about the first set.

Then he heard the chopper, the familiar whoop whoop whoop of blades cutting air. Immediately on alert, Hawk’s eye located his backup weapon in the tent as he slammed the pieces of the gun in his hand back together until he heard the jubilant shouts of his guys and relaxed immediately.

Outside the tent, someone, it sounded like Wally, shouted, “Woo hoo! Supply drop.”

Slamming the last piece of his cleaned and oiled weapon into place, Hawk flung it over his shoulder and went outside to see what goodies had been delivered. Hopefully Wally’s care package with his toothpaste and maybe even Hawk’s mysterious new orders would be among the letters.

He chuckled again and thought of Emily trying to get him out of them. Perhaps she wasn’t too angry at him after all.

In her peripheral vision, Emily noticed Jai glancing at her once again.

“What?”

“Nothing. You just seem nervous.”

“I’m not nervous.” That said, Emily noticed she’d been drumming her fingers on the armrest between their two seats and immediately folded both hands in her lap over her seat belt.

“It’s perfectly understandable, Em. You’re flying to Afghanistan. The war may be centered in Iraq, but Afghanistan is no picnic. I remember my first time here. It can be scary, and even more so for you, a woman.”

She rolled her eyes. “We’re going to be on a US base full of armed men. I’m not worried I’ll be taken hostage by the local gun-toting bad guys. Honestly.”

It was only one armed man that had her on edge.

“Hmmm.” Jai’s doubt was clearly evident in that one sound.

Raising a brow, she turned in her narrow commercial airplane seat to face Jai. Even in business class, the seats were not exactly comfortable for the length of time they’d been in them.

But Jai was more annoying at the moment than Emily’s seat and the stiffness in her butt and legs it caused. “Yes? Do you have more to say?”

“I was just remembering the flight home from Germany. You were a little freaky then too, exhausted and hyper at the same time.”

“I’m not afraid of flying,” Emily asserted. She was afraid of a lot of things but that was not one of them.

Jai shook his head. “No, I know it’s not fear of flying. I’ve flown with you before and you were fine. But there’s something…”

Emily watched realization dawn on his face. “It’s him. You’re afraid of seeing him again.”

She felt her face blanch.

“I don’t know who you’re talking about.” Emily looked anywhere except at Jai. She was such a bad liar, people always saw right through her and she didn’t need Jai knowing the truth. Not now.

“Oh my god! You spent the night with Hawk that last night in Germany. The night we went to the bar and he was there!”

Emily nearly choked. Was it written that clearly across her face? “What? No, of course not!”

Jai continued on, studying her face as she felt it grow hot. “I can’t believe I didn’t realize it before. You two just seemed to hate each other so much, but now looking back, the sexual tension between you and Hawk during those photo shoots and then at the bar was so thick I could have cut it with a knife.”

He shook his head and let out a long slow hiss of breath. “Wow. You and Hawk.”

Heart pounding, Emily started to deny it but instead sank low in her seat, defeated. “You must think so badly of me.”

Frowning, Jai let out a short laugh. “Why?”

“I barely knew him.”

“Oh, jeez, Em. Do you know what I see on the road with all those models and crew? One night stands are the tamest thing compared to the orgies, drugs, alcohol, you name it and I’ve seen it. Now on the other hand, you finally letting yourself relax for a night and falling for a really nice guy who obviously found you attractive as well is nothing to be ashamed of.”

“You think Hawk is nice?” That surprised her.

“Yeah. I mean, in a tough guy, trained killer kind of way. But the man holds honor high on his list of priorities. Hawk is dedicated to serving his country. That much is obvious. He’d do anything for his soldiers and them for him.”

“Really?”

“Oh, yeah. He’s a good guy.” Jai nodded.

“How do you know?”

“Don’t forget, I spent time with his squad at the Ratskeller after you got ‘tired and went to bed’.” He chuckled, knowing now that excuse had been a big old fib, hence the air quotes Jai used when repeating her weak lie. “You want some guy advice, Em?”

Emily guessed it couldn’t hurt. “Sure.”

“If you want to know if a man is worth your time, you look at how he treats others and how they treat him, particularly his subordinates. Hawk’s a decent man. A bit serious at times, but still, you could have done far worse than him to jump in bed with.”

Emily sighed. As much as she would love to tell Jai how wrong he was about Hawk, she couldn’t bring herself to admit he hadn’t even bothered to email her after she wrote him about this assignment.

Hawk may well be a good guy to his soldiers. She’d freely admit that, but so what if he was a man’s man? In the female department, the man was severely lacking. In fact, he just plain sucked.

“Can we change the subject now?” Emily asked hopefully.

“Sure. Hmm. Let’s see. Subject change. Oh, I know. So what do you think of Little Miss USO up there?” Jai suggested the new topic of conversation in a low whisper.

Emily wasn’t so considerate and used her natural voice figuring Little Miss USO and her entourage probably couldn’t hear all the way up there in first class where she was drinking complimentary champagne and eating freshly baked chocolate chip cookies which Emily was allowed to smell but not eat.

“I think, judging from the looks of her outfit, the soldiers at Bagram are going to be very happy to see her.”

Honestly, how many years ago had tube tops gone out of style anyway?

“She’s an entertainer, Emily. They all act a bit over the top. It’s just part of the image. You know, packaging for the public.”

Emily raised a brow, thinking that the “packaging” had a little help from a bottle of red hair dye and some silicone implants, not to mention a press person, makeup person, and bruiser of a bodyguard.

“So, you’re saying the fact she flirted with you is all part of the act?”

Jai grinned. “Nope, that was all part of my charm.”

“And what about her flirting with the pilot, the man who took our boarding passes, and even the gay male flight attendant? Hmm?” Emily challenged.

Jai feigned shock. “She did? I’m crushed.” He laughed at Emily’s scowl. “Alright, I’ll admit. She is a bit flirty.”

And Hawk was scheduled to be at her side every step of his time in Bagram. Just great. Emily imagined all the flirting, or worse, Little Miss USO would do with Hawk and how he’d eat it right up.

She let out a low groan.

“Oh, lighten up, Em. This being part of a USO tour will be fun. You’ll see.”

Emily laughed bitterly. “Oh yeah, real fun. I can’t wait.”

Chapter Thirteen

Emily’s love for Kerri London, chart-topping country singer and star of this USO thing, did not grow during the twenty-two hour journey from New York. In fact, by the time their plane landed in Afghanistan and Emily waited in the aisle for what seemed like forever for Little Miss USO’s entourage to get all of her many carry-ons out of the overhead compartments, she was seething with anger.

“Some people are so inconsiderate! Why the hell didn’t she check all that stuff with the regular luggage instead of carrying it on?” Emily complained to Jai.

He glanced down at Emily’s laptop case and additional briefcase and raised an eyebrow accusingly.

“I needed this stuff to work on the flight,” she defended against his unspoken condemnation. Okay, so she’d been so nervous about seeing Hawk again she hadn’t done a damn thing, but still, she’d intended to and that’s all that counted.

“Come on. It looks like we’re moving and I’ve had quite enough of riding around in this tin can.”

“Hmm. A bit of claustrophobia?”

He shot her a look. “I admit nothing. And before you start teasing me, let’s see how you fare on your first helicopter ride, shall we?”

Jai headed down the aisle and Emily followed a bit less enthusiastically. She’d thought the incredibly long and many-legged trip to the airport in Kabul had been bad, but she had a feeling the relatively short helicopter ride to the military airport at Bagram Air Base would probably be far worse.

She was right. White knuckled and shaking, Emily managed to not lose her lunch or pass out during her first helicopter ride. Jai on the other hand, didn’t seem to mind it at all.

“So you don’t like being on a huge commercial jet, but you don’t mind this flying eggbeater? Why is that?” she accused as she stumbled after him on wobbly legs.

Jai grinned at her. “We all have our little quirks.”

Emily glanced back and noticed that Little Miss USO was doing just fine as both her bodyguard and some military guy helped her out of the helicopter. That figured. Emily probably could have fallen out on her face and they would barely have noticed. She glanced down at her own comparatively diminutive chest, figuring that must be the differentiating factor.

With a sigh of resignation, Emily glanced up and noted Jai had gotten pretty far ahead of her and was already striding toward a tall, smiling, sandy-haired man. She rushed to catch up.

“Hey! Mel!” Jai greeted the man like they were old friends.

“G’day, Boofhead! How’s it going?” The stranger responded with a handshake and a slap on Jai’s back.

Emily frowned at him. “You two know each other?”

“Sure do. I’m sorry, Em. Let me introduce you. Emily Price, marketing maven from Madison Avenue’s famed Howard & Dean Agency. Mel Townsend, Australia’s best embedded combat video man.”

Emily extended her hand. “Australia? Wow. When I asked Jai if he knew any cameramen for this assignment, I didn’t realize his little black book extended to another hemisphere.”

Mel shook her hand warmly with a smile. “Jai and me, we’ve known each other for years. Since…”

“Kandahar, two-thousand and four,” Jai finished for him. When he noticed Emily’s surprised look he shrugged. “I told you I’ve been to Afghanistan before.”

Her brows drew closer together as she considered she really didn’t know all that much about Jai at all. She’d always just assumed he’d stuck with magazine fashion layouts with the occasional ad shoots thrown in. Hmm. Perhaps she should pay more attention.

“Onya, Jai, that’s right! That was a hell of an assignment,” Mel nodded.

“Mel’s been embedded here in Afghanistan with the 82
^nd
Airborne along with an Aussie reporter for the past six months. When I found out he was here and that the reporter he was assigned to recently shipped home, I contacted him.”

“And I said bloody hell, yes, I would gladly work with this old bastard again, especially for this assignment. She’s sweet. Easy peasy. Aye, Jai?”

“Compared to some of our other assignments, oh, yeah,” Jai agreed with a snigger but didn’t elaborate.

Hmmm. Definitely some history here.

Mel laughed and addressed Emily again. “I figure any assignment where the humvee I’m riding in doesn’t get blown up is apples.”

Emily shook her head. “Is that very often? Your getting blown up, I mean?”

The ruggedly handsome Australian grinned, his whisky-colored eyes twinkling mysteriously. “More often than I’d like. No worries, Emmie. This assignment, she’ll be right. Here we’ll be as safe as a joey in his mama roo’s pouch.”

“Alrighty, then. Good to hear.” Emily nodded, wondering what she’d done to deserve this particular assignment with this man she couldn’t understand and how her name had suddenly become
Emmie
.

“Any word on Hawkins’ ETA?” Jai asked Emily.

She shrugged. “We don’t have any events scheduled for the handshake tour until tomorrow. He’s supposed to arrive sometime today, but you know the military—when they do give you a timeframe, they change it ten times. I guess we have to trust the Army will get him here.”