Uncut Bundle

Cam looked at his brothers. Their eyes reflected what they’d gone through over the last weeks.

“Yeah,” he said softly. “Right.” He managed a quick smile. “One of us never could get away from the others, I guess.”

“Damned right,” Matt said. “Even the old man stuck to you like glue.”

Cam nodded. “Yeah.” His voice roughened. “Thanks. For everything. I mean, for a while there, I kind of figured I’d imagined seeing you ugly so-and-so’s climbing out of that big, beautiful bird.” He paused. “Asaad? Did I really get him?”

“The son of a bitch is history. You would have been, too, if that call you made on your cell hadn’t gotten through. We got just enough info to figure out your location.”

“And save my life.”

“Yup. Us and a few pals from the old days saved your sorry ass, and don’t think we’re gonna let you forget it.”

The brothers grinned at each other. Then Cam ran his tongue over his lips.

“She phoned, right? Salome?” There was an uncomfortable silence. “Phoned you? To find out how I was doing?”

“Actually…actually, no. Not me,” Alex said. “Matt? You hear anything?”

“Sorry, man. She hasn’t been in touch.”

“But—but—” But, why would she call? He’d said things meant to hurt her. Or—or maybe she couldn’t call. Maybe she’d never gotten to Dubai.

“Cam?”

“Yeah.” Cam cleared his throat. “I have to find out what happened to her.”

“Okay.” Matt reached for a notepad and pencil. “Give me her name and address, and I’ll—”

“I don’t know it.”

“Just her name, then, and her town… What?”

“I told you, I don’t know.”

“The town?”

“Any of it. Where she lives, where she’s from.” A muscle knotted in Cam’s jaw. “I don’t even know her name.”

His brothers stared at him as if he’d lost his mind. He couldn’t blame them. How could he have spent those days and nights with Salome and never once asked her her name?

“It isn’t Salome?” Alex said.

Cam gave a bitter laugh. “I’m the one who came up with that.”

Matt frowned. “You don’t know this babe’s name?”

“Don’t call her that,” Cam said tightly.

“What am I supposed to call her, then? Salome?”

“No,” Cam said roughly. “I’m the only one who can call her…” He fell silent. “I’ve got to find her,” he said, and from the way he said it, his brothers knew he was right.

Salome had vanished. It was as if she’d never existed, except in Cam’s dreams.

He demanded to have a phone plugged in beside his bed.

His doctors objected. He needed rest. Cam said he knew what he needed a lot better than they did and after the nurses found him all but crawling down the hall to a public telephone, his doctors threw up their hands and said yes, fine, he could have a bedside phone.