Oliver poked his head into view. “Definitely has the look.”
“Oliver!” Jenn laughed.
“Tell us about her,” Kara said.
“She’s talking to another guy here at the hotel.”
“Oh, snap!” Oliver said with a smile.
Jenn frowned. “Oliver, enough.” She looked at me, concerned.
“It’s fine, Jenn. It really is. He’s a good guy. They belong together. I should uh… I should go,” I said, scratching the back of my head.
The kids groaned but understood. We said our goodbyes, and then I yanked out my earbuds, tossing my phone onto the bed and walking to the lobby to see the guys engaged in an intense poker game. The Maddox twins were winning—as usual.
“You working out tonight?” Jubal asked. He was standing next to the round table watching everyone lose their money to the Maddoxes. If he didn’t have such a weird name we could’ve come up with a better nickname for our captain, like Hollywood or Silver Fox. He crossed his arms, his silver hair and tan skin made him look like a damn GQ model. He’d been married to the same woman for years, and they had a few equally beautiful children. I tried not to hate him because he was such a good guy. Maybe that was why no one wanted to give him a nickname. That, and Jubal was just fun to say.
“Of course he is,” Tyler said, still staring at his cards. “He always does after he talks to his parents.”
“You want some company?” Jubal asked.
“Nah, I’m good,” I said. “The gym here is the size of a closet anyway.”
“Oh, sorry then. It’s time for me to workout too,” Jubal said.
“Right,” I grumbled.
He followed me down the far hall to the very end. There was one machine, a chin-up bar, one treadmill, a few bands and mismatched free weights, but I’d make it work.
Jubal was true to his word. After fifty-five minutes, he didn’t say a word while sweat poured down my face and dripped off my nose onto the floor, my arms shaking. I growled as I pushed my body up from the floor. I’d ran, I’d worked every muscle until my body begged for mercy, and then I’d kept going.
After all that, I couldn’t shake her. Naomi was mean, crass, and not my type at all. She was the complete opposite of Becca, who was tall, her limbs long and elegant. Becca looked more like a ballerina, and Naomi could probably kick my ass. I was ready to get back on the mountain. The fire line would fill the parts of my mind focusing on Naomi.
My arms stalled halfway, shaking under the weight of my torso.
“Hey!” Jubal yelled.
I fell on my face and rolled onto my back, panting. “What?” I snapped.
“Don’t overdo it, Zeke. We have a full day tomorrow.”
“Good.”
He tossed over a towel, and I used it to wipe my face. My t-shirt was soaked on both sides, my back was already cooling off, wet against the fabric and the floor mat.
“I’m glad I don’t have to remind you to sanitize the equipment, because you sweat the most,” he teased.
“Because I workout the most,” I said.
“You’re not wrong,” Jubal said. “Well, it’s probably a tie between you and Sugar.” He leaned against the machine. “How are your parents?”
“Good,” I said, too tired to correct him.
“And the brood?”
“The siblings are all good too. Sam just moved to the east coast. Kendra is a senior in high school. Kara is a sophomore in college this year. Everyone else is just plugging along.” I only gave him the highlights. We were too many to update anyone on all of us unless they specifically asked.
“How does Jenn feel about Sam moving?”
“About the same as she did when I left.”
Jubal nodded. “How long has it been?”
“Since I left?”
“Since you’ve heard from Becca.”
I made a face. “You know the answer to that.” I stood, sanitized the equipment, wiped off the remaining sweat on my neck and arms, and tossed the towel into my basket in the utility room as I passed. The washer was shaking, mid-spin cycle, as if it was trying to forget the love of its life too.
“It gets easier,” Jubal called across the room. “Heard you met a girl and she’s pretty … impressive.”
I crossed my arms as I leaned against the doorjamb. “You all gossip more than my siblings.”
He threw his head back and laughed out loud. “I guess we do.”
Jubal had been promoted to captain the season before, and there was no better man for the job. He was also a great therapist when it was called for. He’d steered me straight more than once.
Jubal’s cell phone rang. He walked out into the hall and stood with our superintendent, Chief. Chief was the opposite of Jubal: balding, faded brown hair, a large, misshapen nose, and he towered over us, even the Maddox boys, at nearly six feet six. He looked every bit a leader, and we all trusted him implicitly.
I showered and put on a clean pair of shorts, stopping just short of my bed when Jubal walked out. Everyone turned to listen to him speak.
“The Queens Canyon Fire has been upgraded. Everyone get your gear and let’s head down.”
“Is that Colorado Springs?” Watts asked.
“Yep. Let’s go,” Jubal said.
Everyone smiled. We ended up at the Springs a lot, and, more importantly, we had a good relationship with the owner of the Colorado Springs Hotel—who also happened to be the hotel bartender.
I pulled out my pack and began shoving my personal effects—my uniform, playing cards, toiletries, boots, wallet, keys and cell phone. I snapped my helmet onto the fabric loop at the top then made a bee-line to the truck bay. In as little time as it took me to pack, I wasn’t the fastest. Half the crew were already in place and ready to roll.
“I have a good feeling about this one,” Tyler said, grabbing my shoulder.
“We know why you love the Springs,” Sugar said. “You ain’t foolin’ no one.” His voice was deep enough to match his size. His arms were as big as my head, his chest equaling two of mine. He joined the Alpines because he couldn’t pass the float test for the Coast Guard. Muscles don’t float.
Watts was the last to load up, and the engine rattled as we pulled away from the barracks.
Watts reached up and grabbed the radio, yelling, “Colorado Springs!”
The rest of the squad celebrated with him. Everyone but me. The Colorado Springs Hotel was the last place I saw Becca, the last time I felt true happiness, and it was the last place in the world I ever wanted to return to, even for a fire. I wanted the whole town to burn.
chapter six
albatross
Naomi
T
he Complex was twice as old as I was, but I had to hand it to the cafeteria, it was better than a lot of restaurants in the Springs and an exponential improvement on the typical military-grade slop. Peter may have been a junior senator and the executive representative at the Complex, but he controlled the budget and had always been a foodie. He was likely behind the impressive menu. I wondered what else he was behind. The furnishings of my new house, the turn down service the first night, the roses—all slightly creepy if he’d requested it and stage five clinger creepy if he’d done it himself. Peter hadn’t tried to contact me since I’d arrived, even after he’d seen me upstairs the day before, so either his wife was in town, he was back in D.C., or he was giving me space.
The guys were still in the cafeteria stuffing their faces. I was changing, getting ready to use the hell out of the Complex’s gym. Sports bra, t-shirt, shorts, socks, sneakers, badge. I pulled my hair back and jogged down Charlie corridor to the last door on the right before the second elevator bay. Colorado Springs was dry, but the Complex air had a humidity that was hard to explain. The air was thick, settling on my skin, and it made me sweat more than usual. By the time I reached the gym, the hair at the base of my neck was already damp.
Trex had jo
ined a gym downtown, making little sense since the Complex’s state-of-the-art facilities were free. It had been almost a week since I’d worked out, so I hit the weights hard, my sweat dripping on the floor after the first set. A wall of mirrors made my isolation even more obvious. The gym was large, and my every movement, breath, and grunt echoed, bouncing off the white walls and cracked ceiling.
So much for giving me space.
“Naomi,” Peter called from the doorway.
“I don’t remember you being so creepy, Peter,” I said, throwing down the bar in my hands. The weights slammed against the padded floor, reverberating through the room. My muscles felt like Jell-O, shaking every time I moved. It was the only thing besides throwing punches that made me feel like I didn’t need to crawl out of my skin.
Peter looked down, revealing his perfect part and side-swept hair. He hadn’t changed much, except for the splashes of white above his ears, not that noticeable against his light brown hair. Unlike most people in his life, I knew him as a boy, as a teenager, and the white hair was different, just like the wrinkles around his eyes when he smiled.
“What happened?” he asked, straightening his tie before he returned his gaze to mine. “Your face.”
“Training,” I said.
“I haven’t seen you since the—”
“Yeah. I know. I’ve been good,” I said, nodding. I didn’t want to talk about the funeral. I didn’t want to talk about Matt to Peter at all. It was a collision of world’s I wasn’t mentally prepared to tackle anytime soon.
“I should have asked you if I could come,” he said, taking a step forward. “If I’d known…”
“It wasn’t about you, Peter.”
Peter frowned, blinking. “Right. Of course. How stupid.” When he couldn’t stand my silence, he spoke again. “Crazy, isn’t it? That we both end up here?”
“You were surprised?” I asked, arching one brow.
“No … well, of course, I found out. Nothing happens here without me knowing about it.”
“You didn’t bring me here?”
“There was a short list. Your team was the most qualified.”
“So you didn’t bring me here?” I repeated.
His lips formed a hard line. “Do you really think it’s up to me in a place like this, Naomi?”
“Yes.”
He chuckled, stepping closer. “Well, it’s not. There are committees, the general, military HR. A lot goes into this.”
I nodded, taking off my lifting gloves. “It was good to see you, Peter.”
I began to walk past him for the showers, but he grabbed my hand, slipping his fingers between mine. I looked down, and he did the same.
“Don’t touch me.”
“Naomi…” he whispered.
“You’re still married,” I said. “And so am I.”
He nodded. My slick skin easily slid from his grasp.
I scrambled to the shower stall, and then to turn the knob, standing under the cold water still dressed, visualizing the invisible hurt Peter’s skin had left on my mine rinsing away. No other man had held my hand like that since I’d met Matt, and all Peter succeeded in doing was bringing back memories of when I could touch my husband. It was almost too much to process. My back slid against the cold tile, my knees bending as I slowly lowered to the floor. The icy water was easy enough to concentrate on, helping me focus through memories of trudging thick jungle in rainy season, so soaked my clothes felt like extra skin. My chest ached worse than my muscles. Five minutes to sink into despair, and then I forced myself to stand and dry off; to pretend I wasn’t weak enough to be wrecked by the smallest, tender touch of a man.
“Hey,” Trex said as I stepped out of the gym and tightened my belt. “You’re with me.”
We were sent out to the perimeter to pick up some mouthy kids for trespassing, then we split up to walk the facility. Trex asked me to go with him, so we headed down together, watching each other’s backs like always. I trusted my entire team, but with Trex, I felt invincible. Maybe that wasn’t a good thing, but we’d been through so much together, it didn’t seem so farfetched.
We entered Echo corridor, and I didn’t wait to start the boring conversation I knew I’d been brought along for. I was a girl, so my guys automatically thought they could talk to me about other creatures with vaginas—as if I had any clue what normal women were thinking. I grew up with an AR-15 in my hand.
“So? The girl…” I began.
Trex didn’t hide his relief. “Yeah. I ended up staying up and talking with her. Then when I finally went to my room. I couldn’t sleep for shit.”
“Why’s that?”
“Her ex, man. He put hands on her. She ran away, came here with nothing. She knows no one. No family, really. Her dad and brother were killed in an accident a few years back.”
I sighed. His perfect woman sounded like an albatross—a phrase for burden that my cousin Spenser used often when she found herself stuck with a green team during one of my father’s training exercises. If it was anything but war, Trex wanted nothing to do with complicated situations or burdens, and that seemed to describe this woman’s entire life. “Sounds like a lot of baggage, Trex. Are you actually attracted to her, or are you trying to save her?”
When Trex spoke about her beauty, he didn’t sound like himself, and I couldn’t help but let my WTF flag fly.
I stopped, unable to hide my concern. It was like she’d put a spell on him. “You really like this chick. How much time have you spent with her?”
He didn’t stop with me, instead strolling by as if I wasn’t calling him out. “Like, none. It’s the stupidest fucking thing ever.”
I shrugged. “You can’t control chemistry, T-Rex. You can’t explain it. Hell, Matt was a cowboy. Quiet. I could have a conversation with an inanimate object as easily as I could with him. He wasn’t funny. Wasn’t particularly interesting or a show-off. Not my type at all.”
“So why’d you fall for him?”
I felt that familiar tingle in my lips, the smile only Matt could trigger. “Because he was a good man, humble, he didn’t play games…and he had a nice ass.”
Trex chuckled. “That’s it?”
“That’s it. I mean, yeah, it was nice that he knew his way around a rifle and he wasn’t intimidated by me at all. We had a few things in common. But he had his moments. Occasionally, he was charming. It really came down to him being interested in me, the way he treated me, and something else I can’t explain. Has to be chemistry. Or maybe we were meant to be.”
“You were definitely meant to be. I’ve never seen a man love a woman the way Matt loved you, Nomes.”
I looked up. “He’s up there somewhere, still loving me, just like I’m down here, still loving him.” Trex didn’t say anything, so I changed the subject. I didn’t like to stay in my feelings too long. It was as painful as it was comforting. “It doesn’t have to be anything specific, Trex. You can like her for no reason. You can even like her a lot for no reason. Maybe it’s just that you don’t know the reason yet.”
“Thanks, Nomes. I knew you’d help me figure it out.”
I didn’t want Trex to get stuck in a bad situation, but I also hadn’t seen that look on his face before. I’d seen it on the faces of my cousins, fellow Marines when they’d come back from leave, and Matt a few weeks before he proposed. Love did weird things to people—it even began too soon for our own damn good.
We reached a T and turned right. Something didn’t feel right, and I held my rifle closer to my torso. It bothered me even more that I couldn’t pinpoint why I felt so on edge.
“I think it’s those experiments they were talking about,” Trex said. “I’d always heard it was a bunch of space and missile nerds here.”
“I think we can safely dismiss that theory.”
We stopped at a large door, a red and white striped banner stretching across the middle, along with a half dozen warning signs. Trex held his
badge against the black square on the wall, frowning when it blinked red. A second later, a single, low-toned horn sounded.
We both took a step back, a small screen near the badge reader lit up, revealing a group of armed men.
“Back away, Trexler,” one of them said through a speaker. “You’re unauthorized for this area.”
“Oh. This is Deep Echo? It’s uh…not that deep,” Trex said.
“I’ve experienced deeper,” I added.
Trex and the man started to get into a pissing match, so I tugged on Trex’s vest.
“Let’s go. We’ll discuss it with Bianca.”
Trex followed me back the way we came, and it took a few minutes for either of us to speak, a positive because I had a feeling we were still being watched. After the air around us returned to normal, I felt the grip on my rifle loosen. “What the hell was that? Deep Echo?”
“I don’t know. Above my pay grade, apparently. You want to grab a beer after work?”
I shrugged. “I kind of just want to change into some sweats and veg out in front of the television.”
“I have a TV.”
I looked at him with a pained expression. “Are you asking me to your hotel room, boss?”
His face screwed into disgust. “Why do you say that shit to me, Nomes? You know I hate it.”
“Because you hate it,” I said, popping a piece of gum into my mouth and chomping. He hated that too.
We returned to the locker room, unpacked, and debriefed. My phone buzzed, my cousin Spenser’s silly face filling the screen. I tapped the auto-answer that I’d call her in a bit and said goodbye to my team.
Hey, I texted her when I got into the FJ.
I’m coming in a couple of weeks. Do you have room? Spenser typed back.
Yeah. Of course. What will you do while I’m at work?
The usual.
Prostitution, gambling, and maybe rob a bank or two?
That place you work at is top security, right? Maybe I’ll take a crack at it.
Not funny.
:) See you in a few.
K. See you soon.
I put away my phone and headed out of the Complex, already eager for Spenser to be there. The thought of going home would be so much better knowing she would be waiting for me at the end of the day. I almost turned the FJ toward McCormack’s but decided to get home and finish unpacking to make the house presentable for Spenser. She wasn’t particular about anything but her men and her guns, but I didn’t want her thinking I was down again. She worried about me too much as it was. That was probably why she was coming so soon after I left.
The Edge of Us (Crash and Burn Book 2) Page 5