No Turning Back (The Traveler) (16 page)

Gary smiled sheepishly and didn’t bother to answer.

“Yeah, I know, you’re gonna try to hold out for as long as you can.”

Gary chuckled. He appeared sharp and determined with the maturity of life experience behind him.

“I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings until I’m really sure,” he said.

Before Cummings could respond, they both looked back at a second man and a woman, racing out of the woods toward the shooting station. The man was slightly in the lead, but only slightly, with less than two hundred yards to go to the finish line.

“Fox is gonna catch him at the end,” Officer Cummings predicted.

Gary grinned and watched as his mentor, Jonah Brown, a nearly forty-year-old African-American woman dressed in black, ran behind the slightly younger guy in dark green. They reached the shooting station simultaneously and aimed the pistols to fire at their targets. With three rapid shots to the stomach, chest and forehead, Jonah Brown was off and running again toward the finish line. However, the younger man struggled to control his gun with weary arms and shoulders, needing more time to steady his aim. By the time he connected with a single shot to the chest of the target, Jonah had crossed the finish line.

“Great comeback,” Gary told her.

Jonah hunched over with hands on her knees and gasped for air while rolling her eyes. Her loose ponytail draped over her right shoulder.

“Are you kidding me? I was trying to catch you.”

Officer Cummings laughed. “Yeah, well, get in line.”

The third runner crossed the line and said, “You two need to try out for the Olympic pentathlon team for Brazil.”

“Maybe he can, but I’ll be too old in twenty-sixteen,” Jonah huffed.

“You can do anything you put your mind to, Fox,” Officer Cummings interjected.

Jonah looked at Gary and nodded with an approving smile. She was proud of him.

She said, “So can he. He’s come a long way now, right?”

“I tell him that every day,” Officer Cummings said.

“Yeah, but I see he still won’t shoot to kill,” their third runner commented. “He shot twice at the knees.”

“And he hit ’em both,” Jonah argued.

Gary said, “I think it’s much harder to target different parts of the body.”

“Of course it is,” Officer Cummings agreed. “That’s why you’re the Eagle and he’s the Beaver—you’re sharper.”

“Yeah, but a beaver still gets it done,” the man retorted.

“It just takes you a little longer,” Jonah joked.

The Beaver looked back in the woods at a fourth man, dressed in dark blue, who was just making it out into the open greenery.

“Yeah, but I’m not as slow as him.”

They all shared a laugh as Cummings shook his head, concerned about his latest recruit.

“That’s what happens when you allow yourself to get out of shape.”

Later that evening, Gary strolled into a downtown Arlington, Virginia, bar to meet up alone with Jonah. Dressed comfortably in a long black wool coat, the wandering eyes of young women followed Gary, just as they always had. His handsome mystique begged for attention, even though he no longer asked for it.

Jonah Brown sat at the bar in a conversation with a tall black man in his late twenties who stood beside her. He looked huge and well groomed, like a professional athlete with money to blow. But when Jonah spotted Gary approaching her, she dismissed the young man.

“All right, I may call you. But my business partner just walked in, so you’ll have to excuse me.”

“You
may
call me?” the well-groomed man questioned. He didn’t budge. After buying her a drink at the bar, he felt slighted.

Jonah eyed him with measured authority. “That’s what I said,” she told him. “Now have some respect for your elders. As I told you earlier, I have a business meeting.”

The towering man paused and grabbed his drink from the counter. He nodded to her and said sarcastically, “You have a good night,” before walking away.

“Did I just break up something important?” Gary asked Jonah, picking up on the tension.

Jonah smiled. “Not at all. You know my dilemma with men. There are other things that are more important.”

Gary grinned, marveling at how young and vibrant she continued to look. Dressed professionally in a black skirt suit with her hair done, she didn’t look a day over thirty, and that was only because he knew how old she was.

“Well, they seem to continue to line up for you,” he hinted with softness in his eyes. Any man would line up for a woman so attractive, professional and confident if they could handle her intimidation factor.

But Jonah would have none of the conversation. “Anyway, getting back to our business, because no one gets more attention than you do,” she commented lightheartedly.

“Tell me about it. I need to get away from one right now,” Gary hinted. “I’m thinking about taking a much-needed trip out of the country.”

That gave Jonah a moment of concern. The last time Gary had been out of the country, he had lost his best friend to a murder at point-blank range.

“Are you ready for that yet?” she asked him.

Gary sighed. “I told myself years ago that you have to face your fears to live the life that you ultimately want to live. So after spending the last five years of my life to finish school and complete this military training, I now have to figure out who I am and what I want out of life. What I am I even here for, you know? I still haven’t answered those questions of myself. And I still haven’t met my father,” he added.

Jonah looked away momentarily, feeling a semblance of guilt.

She said, “You’ve been great about that. You’ve really shown a lot of patience and maturity.”

“Yeah, too bad I can’t say the same about the old man,” he jabbed.

As an intermediary between a father and his estranged son, Jonah had become leery of the wait as well. How much more did Gary have to prove to show that he was trustworthy enough to meet his overly secretive father? Maybe his acceptance of the matter had even served to prolong the issue. Nevertheless, Jonah was the consummate professional, who would continue to carry out the orders of the man who had hired her, no matter how close she had obviously become to his son.

As usual, Jonah quickly changed the subject. “So, where are you planning on going?” she asked him.

Gary shrugged and answered, “I’m thinking I’ll fly out to Dubai in the Middle East. The place looks awesome, and I understand it’s a tourist haven for the world now.”

Jonah nodded and was not troubled by the idea. Dubai was considered safe ground as an international tourist destination in the middle of the desert. The Middle East literally connected Africa, Europe and Asia.

“Good choice,’’ she said, always caring about Gary’s safety. “Are you taking your lady friend from D.C.?”

She took a sip of her drink, anticipating an interesting answer from Gary. She knew he would have one. In the half-dozen years that she had watched over him, the young man had been as allusive with the opposite sex as she had been in her own personal life.

Gary paused and grinned. “That’s where the problem is,” he answered. “I really need to get away and find myself before I can truly commit to anyone like that. I don’t think it would be fair to her to have a man who’s obviously still searching to find himself.”

“I bet she wouldn’t agree with that, especially after you tell her you’re traveling there alone.”

“Yeah, well, at least I’m going to a place where all of the women are covered in sheets,” he joked.

Jonah chuckled and said, “Not all of the women. I’m sure they have enough tourists over there who are not in sheets.”

“Well, that’s not what I’m going there to look for. I just need to clear my mind for a minute. And I haven’t done that in a while.”

“You sure have the money to do it,” Jonah hinted with another sip of her drink. “Are you gonna stay at one of their seven-star hotels?”

Gary had barely spent any of his inheritance from his mother’s estate, let alone the millions more that he would get from his father. Money would never be an issue. He never liked to talk about it. But he had definitely been spoiled, and he knew it.

He frowned and said, “I may spend one night at an ice hotel just to see what it feels like, but for the rest of the time, I’ll just stay at a four-star place or something.”

Jonah chuckled and joked, “Yeah, a Motel 6 in Dubai, right? As if that even exists over there.”

Gary laughed along with her. He joked, “Maybe they call theirs Motel 16.”

Jonah asked him, “Does this girl even know how well-off you are?”

“Oh, of course not,” he answered. “Look at how I’m dressed.”

Jonah looked over Gary’s typically casual dress code and grinned.

Gary was more embarrassed and apologetic of his windfall, especially in light of the recent economic struggles in America and around the world. So he never bragged about it, contributing more than a million dollars to foundations for charity. After the tragic deaths of his mother, Gabrielle, and his best friend, Taylor, Gary was always thinking about ways to help others. His humility had been strengthened by his painful losses.

Jonah said, “Well, whenever you want to buy a top-grade suit and shoes, you just go do it. That’s definitely how your father would want to see you.”

“Yeah, when he finally agrees to it.”

Jonah changed the subject again. “Okay, so let’s get to the hard part now. Do you want to change your name for this trip? I can help you do to that if it’ll help you to feel safer.”

After what happened to Gary and Taylor in Colombia, Jonah was very cautious of his travel out of the country. But now he had years of military training and instruction in mixed martial arts to help protect himself.

Gary joked and said, “What, and become Jared Heath or something?”

He laughed out loud at the idea.

“If that’s the name you want,” Jonah responded seriously. “Of course, we would have to search it first to make sure there’s nothing crazy attached to it.”

Gary frowned and said, “Yeah, but I’m not a spy or anything. That would be more of a liability than me using my own name. What if someone asked me some hard questions?”

Jonah said, “I’m just trying to protect you.” She paused and added, “I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you.”

Her comment forced Gary to think back to his painful visit to Colombia again, five years ago. He could still hear the Colombian man’s voice in his head:
Now you can travel alone in pain and fear.
Those words were followed by the single gunshot to his best friend’s head.

During his training, Gary had often shot at targets with the Colombian in mind. The torture in South America was his main purpose for receiving military instruction, to learn to protect himself at all times and in any given situation. But he also knew that he had to move on and let it go … unless he ever came face to face the Colombian man again.

Shaking off his thoughts of pain, fear and revenge, Gary wanted to imagine a beautiful time of healing, discovery and wonder in Dubai instead.

“All I have to do is mind my own business and behave myself like a respectable tourist, and I’ll be all right,” he stated. “So I’ll book a room at the most obvious place and do what every other tourist does to stay out of trouble.”

Jonah nodded, agreeing with his strategy. “You do that. So when are you planning to go there?”

Gary shrugged, thinking spontaneously. “I don’t know. Next week, maybe.”

Jonah nearly choked on the last of her drink. “Next
week
?” she repeated. “Well, that’s not enough time to—” She stopped herself. “Oh, I forgot. You can afford the last-minute travel. It must be nice.”

“Well, if you need to fly over there and save me from something, I’m sure my old man can afford to get you there,” Gary teased.

Jonah grilled him and said, “That’s not funny. And if I have to fly somewhere to save you, your butt’s not going anywhere but Disney World from that point on. So stay out of trouble and leave the exotic women alone.”

Gary chuckled, attempting to keep it all light. “Yeah, I’ll do my best.”

. . .
Welcome to Dubai
by
Omar Tyree
, coming this
Fall
from
Koehler Books
…

Omar Tyree

I would like to thank the following individuals for their enthusiasm and feedback on our international thriller series,
The Traveler
. We hope that even more supportive readers will continue to provide us with suggestions on how to make our future novels in the series even better. So thank you:

Anita Alphin / Karen Alston / Laura Atchison
Sharon Badlu / James Bacchues / Linda Barr / Jessica Beall / Fantasia Blackson
Tallulah Blige / Dewanda Blye / Twilight Bob / Tina Moye Branch / T. Brawner
Bill Brown / Cheryl Brown / Anthea Bryte / Zia Burleigh
Sherry Cannon / Joe Coccaro / Shanna Collins / Tonya Cosby / LaTasha Crutcher
Milan Danel / Raoul Davis / Shelley Davis / DeShantell / Michelle Dovishaw
Tressa Epps / Shantae Esannason / Ernia Evans / Karen Evans
Roger Fernandez / Rokia Foster / Kelly Friedman / Edmond Frost
Mary Jane Garces / Author G.D. Grace / Tiffany B. Grantham / Robin Green
Jami Greene / Fallon Guess / Gustavo
Jason Harrell / Pamela Hawkins / Janiece Henderson / Tijuana Henderson
Cedrix Hill / Darielle Hill / Aura Holmes / Charade Hopkins
Heather Houston / Tamela Hurtt
Theresa James / Desiree Johnson / Jerval Johnson / Letitia Johnson / Shonn Jones
Kelicia / Victoria Kelly / John Koehler / Kimmi Koehler
Lakila / Renee Lawrence / Holly Layman / John Leonard / Kenyetta Lewis
Keesha Littles / Robyn Lucas
Trina Manor / Michael McGrew / Bernard McLaurin / S. Ladie Moe
Rahsheeda Muhammad
Nady Nataly / Stormy Neal
Debra Odom
Donielle Pace / Tasha Campbell Parker / Sadie Pink / Alisa R. Phillips
Kevin Porter / Dana Purdom
Simone Reed / Lakisha Richard / Crystal Richardson / Rosalind Richmond
Deyonna Roberts / Andre Robinson / Ryan
Brian Sanders / Edward Sargent / Jerry Scicchitano / DJ Simba
Reuben Simmons / Sahar Simmons / Verlean Singletary
Kenyetta Singleton / Andrea Smith / Chanel Smith / Taniqua Smith
Kim Spano / Marilyn Sparkman / David Stevenson / Marcallus Sunday
Arlene Taylor / Terell
C.W. / Kim Washington / Jen Wasserman / Wendy / Monique Williams
Rosemarie Williams / Rovella Williams / Shanell Naomi Williams / Tiara Williams
Jennifer Wilson / Kim Wilson / Larry Wilson / Monique Windley
Twanja Windley & DeMeekie Wylie