The Infinity Tattoo (18 page)

She returned to the bathroom and found Jack sitting in the stall. She breathed a huge sigh of relief. “I’m sorry I took so long. The woman in front of me in the grocery store was . . . Jack? Are you all right?”

Jack nodded. Meg pulled his hand away from the wound and tried not to gasp at the amount of blood that had soaked into his shirt. “I’m afraid you’re going to have to take that shirt off,” she said. With shaking hands, she unbuttoned the shirt and pushed it off his shoulders.

The gash was just below his rib cage. It was about three inches long. “Jesus, Jack.”

“It’s shallow,” Jack said. “Trust me.”

She grabbed two of the towels from her grocery bag. She folded one into a pad and pressed it onto the wound. She wrapped a second one over the first. While Jack held it in place, Meg pulled the T-shirt she had purchased over his head. Then she guided his free arm into one sleeve. While she held the towels in place, Jack pulled his other arm through the remaining sleeve.

Before he could press his hand to the make-shift bandage, Meg had to use the third towel to wipe as much blood off his hand as possible. Then she told him to press his hand on his side to hold the makeshift bandage in place.

She exited the stall and ran water onto the third towel, rinsing out the blood. Back in the stall, she gestured for Jack to sit on the toilet so that she could look at his face. There were a number of bruises and lumps starting to form. He has a gash on his forehead and there was blood in his hair.

She dabbed at the gash. “It doesn’t look too bad,” she whispered. “But I don’t know about the one on your head.”

“Just clean up the blood as best you can,” Jack said.

She dabbed at the blood smears on his face and gently finger-combed his hair into some semblance of order. “I guess that will have to do.” Just as she was about to open the stall door, she heard the door swing open.

“Quick,” she whispered. “Stand on the toilet.” Jack moved with alacrity, stepping onto the toilet seat, while Meg turned, pulled her jeans down, and sat on front edge of the toilet. They could hear the sound of heavy footsteps, at least two men.

“Just one woman in here,” said a voice, “in the stall.”

“Come on, let’s get out of here,” said another.

When the sound of the door closed, Meg and Jack gave it another few seconds, then exited the stall.

“We’re just going to walk out of here and head for the main door to the shopping center,” Jack said. “You go first.”

Meg opened the door and walked out without a glance in either direction. A second later, she heard Jack’s footsteps behind her.

Out on the street they had no choice but to take a chance with another taxi. The hotel was too far to walk to and night was upon them. Fortunately, this time the taxi was legit and brought them to the front entrance of the hotel.

The street was deserted, as was always the case in this part of town at night. Usually the empty streets made Meg uncomfortable, but tonight she was grateful. They entered the lobby and walked quickly to the elevator so as not to draw attention to their state of dishevelment.

In the relative safety of their room, Jack lay on the bed with his head against the headboard. She checked the wound in his side. Blood had soaked through the towels. She grabbed the cell phone.

“Who are you calling?” asked Jack

“Sister Reina. You need a doctor.”

When Meg heard the calm voice on the other end of the line, she fought back tears. In the short time Meg had known her, she had really grown to love this salt-of-the-earth woman.

“Sister Reina, we need your help.”

“Of course, dear. Tell me what’s going on?”

“W-we were attacked. Out on the street. Jack has a knife wound and needs to see a doctor. But we don’t want to go to the emergency room.”

“Oh, dear. Where are you at the moment?”

“We’re in our room at the Hotel Maya.”

“And how bad is Jack? Can he walk?”

“Yes.”

“Right, then. I’ll come and get you. I should be there in about thirty minutes. You should plan to leave the hotel, but don’t check out. I’ll take care of it. When I’m at the entrance, I’ll call you.”

“Okay. Thank you, Sister Reina,” Meg said, then realized she was talking to a dead phone.

While they waited, Meg took a closer look at Jack’s battered face. Tears welled up as she saw the bruising and cuts. She wiped the blood from his forehead with trembling hands. Wiping away tears, she rummaged through her backpack until she found her first-aid kit.

“I forgot what a boy scout you are,” Jack said.

“Be prepared. That’s my motto,” she said in a choked voice. She opened her bag and found some gauze and tape which she applied to the wound. Then she started checking his head for the source of the blood there. He trembled under her touch, from pain or perhaps pleasure.

“Is it bad?” he said.

“It could be worse. The problem is I can’t tape it up and it keeps oozing blood.”

“Don’t you have sutures in that bag of yours?”

“Very funny, Jack.” She divested herself of the torn jeans and soiled shirt she had been wearing and slipped on a skirt and blouse. Then she grabbed her room key and headed towards the door.

“Where are you going?”

“To look for ice.”

“Meg, be careful,” Jack called after, but the door was already closing.

She wiped the tears away once again and then took a good look around her. Their room was on the second floor and opened into a hallway. There were no ice machines, not in Honduras. She decided that her best bet was the bar on the top floor.

The bar had a smattering of guests grouped around several tables. She asked the bartender for a couple of glasses of water with lots of ice.

She returned to the room a few minutes later with two glasses brimming with ice water. She soaked the towel in the cold water and wrapped the ice in it. With this calming the head wound, Jack sat on the bed with his head resting on the headboard.

Meg rummaged in her bag for aspirin, “That was quite some fighting you did back there.” She shook out two and handed them to him, offering him water to wash it down.

“Pretty standard stuff they teach you in the military. I was lucky those guys didn’t have any training.” Then he looked at Meg and scowled. “But you had no business getting into it. That was extremely dangerous.”

“If I’d had time to think about it, I might have chickened out. All I could think about was that it was you against three guys. And then I flashed on Alex. I wasn’t going to let the same thing that happened to him, happen to you.”

“Well, thank you. I guess.”

Just then the cell phone rang. “Hello, dear,” said Sister Reina. “I’m at the hotel.”

Meg stuffed their meagre belongings into their packs. “Ready?” she said and offered him her arm to lean on as he stood up. She pulled a shirt over his shoulders and the wounded side of his torso, to hide the blood.

* * *

Sister Reina was waiting for them outside in her pickup. She held the back door open for Jack. Meg sat in the front. She navigated the hilly streets of Tegucigalpa until they reached an area that was totally unfamiliar to Meg. The streets were even narrower and what little she could see of the buildings were small and crudely built. They came across an occasional dog sniffing through a garbage heap, with protruding ribs and sunken stomach.

Eventually, she stopped on a street that appeared to be tidier than those they had passed through. Sister Reina hopped out of the vehicle and tapped on the door of one of the houses. It was a small but tidy house, terracotta colored with a heavy wooden door.

A woman opened the door. Sister Reina quickly pecked her on the cheek, then returned to the truck. She and Meg hustled Jack out of the car and inside the house.

“This way,” said the woman, leading them down a hallway to a small bedroom with a double bed.

“Where are we?” asked Meg.

“You’re at the home of my dear friend Maria Elena,” Sister Reina said with a nod to the woman. “She rents rooms out and has agreed to rent this room to you.”

“Are you sure we aren’t putting you in danger?” Meg said to the woman.

“Don’t worry,” said Maria Elena. “You are in a safe place. We will look after you. Now, the doctor should be here soon.”

Maria Elena spread a plastic sheet across the bed, then covered it with a sheet. “Come,” she said to Jack and urged him to lie on the bed.

Before long, the doctor arrived. First he examined the wound to Jack’s abdomen.

“You’re very lucky, young man,” the doctor said. “It’s not too deep. Once it is stitched up it should heel very quickly. Now, let’s have a look at that head of yours.”

Meg helped him sponge away the blood in Jack’s hair so he could get a better look. Then the doctor sat down on the bed next to Jack.

“That must have been one hell of a fight,” he said.

Jack grinned. “Yes, it was.”

“How many men were you fighting?”

“Three. Well, two at first. The third man was holding Meg. Then, when it looked like I might be winning, he let Meg go and attacked me with a knife. If I hadn’t jumped out of the way, this wound would have been a lot more than superficial.”

“Hm,” said the doctor. Then he examined Jack’s pupils. He held up a finger and made Jack follow it with his eyes.

“I don’t think you have a concussion. You sure have a hard head.” He reached into his medical bag and laid out the materials he needed to stitch Jack up.

He worked quickly and nimbly, then he packed up his bag, and stood up.

“How much do we owe you?” Meg asked. He named his fee, and she counted out the cash for him.

Sister Reina led the doctor to the door. They had a brief, whispered conversation, then she let him out and locked the door behind him.

“Well,” she said. “I think I should go as well. I’ll come check on you in the morning.

“Sister Reina, I don’t know how I can ever thank you,” Meg started to say.

“Hush, now,” she said. “All the thanks I need is to see this young man on the mend. Now you both get some sleep.”

* * *

Meg lay awake long into the night. Visions of the fight in the narrow street popped into her head whenever she closed her eyes. She had come close to losing Jack today, and it nearly broke her heart.

He had come to mean so much more than just sex, although she couldn’t complain on that score, she thought, smiling.

She sensed his body next to hers as he snored away. She reached over to touch him, to feel the soft rise and fall of his chest. Thoughts of losing him weighed down on her. And she felt the slow trickle of tears sliding across her cheek and onto the pillow.

She loved this man. And it wasn’t just the passion of new romance. She knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he would always be there in her heart. But would he be there in her life? He was in the army and could be posted anywhere, anytime. She had made her life in Sedona and was forming deep roots in the rocky soil.

Besides, she didn’t really know how Jack felt about her. Sure, there was the physical attraction, the passion born on a perilous journey, but beyond that? What would happen when it was all over?

With these thoughts swirling in her head, she finally drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Jack woke in the early dawn feeling like hell warmed over. His head ached and he had a throbbing pain in his gut. He reached down to touch where it hurt and found a bandage taped to his side.

Memory came flooding back. The street fight, the escape back to the hotel, the flight from the hotel to . . . where were they, anyway? Ignoring the tremendous pounding in his head, Jack turned to look at Meg. She was lying next to him in the bed in her T-shirt, snoring softly.

In repose, she looked like an angelic pixie, with her short dark hair falling against her cheek, her lips rosy and full. She was an amazing trooper and Jack admired her more than any person he had ever known.

It was small wonder that Alex had been in love with her. And sad for Alex that she couldn’t reciprocate. She’d told Jack that she’d never felt about Alex the way she felt about him. He wasn’t exactly sure what way that was. Clearly she wanted him physically. But what about in her heart? And what about his own heart? What he was feeling for her was so profound he couldn’t put it into words. He didn’t think he was capable of caring for someone as deeply as he cared for her.

He wanted to turn on his side and touch her face. But his body was having none of it. Instead, he reached for her hand and squeezed it lightly.

Meg opened her eyes and smiled. “Hello, Jack,” she said.

“Hello, Meg.”

“How are you feeling?”

“Like shit.”

“Oh. Well, I guess that means you’re going to live, so that’s something.”

“Did you ever doubt it?”

“The truth?” she said, regarding him with limpid brown eyes. “There were some moments when I really wasn’t sure.”

“Yeah, yesterday was an experience I’d rather never repeat,” Jack said.

Meg rose and pulled on the skirt she had dumped on the floor the night before. “I’m going to go see if I can find some coffee,” she said. She returned ten minutes later with a tray laden with a coffee pot and two cups. “Our hostess was kind enough to let me bring a tray to the room.”

She poured a cup for both of them, then helped Jack into a sitting position with his head on a pillow against the headboard.

“What I’d like to know,” Meg said, revived by caffeine, “is who those guys were that attacked us yesterday. What were they after?”

“You don’t suppose Augusto sent them, do you?” Jack replied.

“But how would Augusto know we were there? I mean how would he even know we were in the country?”

“Beats the heck out of me,” Jack said.

“Unless . . . do you think it’s possible that someone from the embassy had us followed?” Meg said. “I mean, plenty of people saw us there. The guards at the front door, the Marines who gave us a pass, anyone we happened to pass in the hallway to Karl’s office.”

“And don’t forget Karl and that guy from the regional security office,” Jack said. “What was his name?”

“Roberto something.”

Jack stared at Meg and shook his head gently.

“What?” Meg said.

“You are getting to me, you know that? Now I’m starting to see bad guys everywhere.” At her puzzled look he went on. “I’m thinking about the regional security office. Remember it was also someone in the RSO that I sent that letter to. The RSO never responded.”

“Roberto said he was there at that time,” Meg said.

“Damn it,” Jack said. “I don’t want to be thinking this way.”

“I know, Jack. But this is Latin America. People are connected to people, here. And Roberto could very easily have roots in Latin America. Besides, the point is, there must be a leak at the embassy. How else would Augusto know we were here? I don’t think we should wait around to hear back from them. I think we need to take matters into our own hands.”