“Trying to solve a mystery.”
“Maybe I can help, if you tell me about it.”
“Got any idea who would fill my room with condom balloons?”
“Well, I think it’s safe to rule out the skipper and XO.” Kyle rubbed his chin with the palm of his hand trying to hide the smile. “It wasn’t me, so that leaves about a hundred and thirty-six suspects.”
“That’s okay. I’ll figure it out and when I do, I hope they remember revenge is a dish best served cold.” She chuckled and shook her head.
“Is everything else okay?” Bright spots of pink stained her cheeks, but he didn’t see any dark circles under her eyes, which was a good sign that she was adjusting to the eighteen-hour days.
“Everything is fine.” She closed the laptop and focused those dark, almond shaped eyes on him. “Just trying to play catch-up on paperwork and quals.”
“Speaking of, I hear you’ve already got Sub Force History and the Ventilation System signed off on your card. Not bad, especially for being on board for a week.”
“I’ve got a goal.” She smiled and everything inside him lit up.
“So I’ve heard. Beating SUBLANT’s record of earning his dolphins in four months. Aggressive. I like it. If you’re going to succeed, we better get started on your next checkmark.” He stood up and waited at the doorway for her to secure the room before leading her down the passageway.
She tagged along after him. “What system are you going to teach me?”
He ducked through the hatch and headed up the stairs. “Not me. The Chief of the Watch. It’s time you learned the trim and drain and to keep this pig stable and not sink her to the bottom of the ocean.”
“Oh.”
Was that a hint of disappointment in her voice? He’d been keeping his distance, letting her get her bearings without him and the memory of their night together crowding her space. According to Mace and Bryant, the crew was still a little unsure how to behave around her, not sure if she’d get offended by their jokes or give back as good as they gave. In time, she’d learn the ropes, learn to tell when someone was yanking her chain and most importantly, that they were a family down here.
Once they returned home, the married guys would return to their wives and kids. The single guys would hang out in the barracks or they’d converge at someone’s house for a barbecue before hitting the bars in the hopes of getting lucky. Underway or at home, if you found one submariner, you found more.
Another thing she’d learn is that life underway got monotonous and a bunch of bored men quickly turned into adolescents. Someone was always razzing someone else or playing practical jokes. It was only a matter of time before Nic was the next target.
They entered the Control Room and Kyle nodded to Mace before leading Nic over to a short, balding man with a paunchy belly. “Chief Knowles, she’s all yours.”
He passed Nic off and went to stand at the Conn where he could keep an eye on everything in the control room: the planesman, helmsman, dive officer —basically the guys driving the boat—all the while keeping an eye on Knowles and Nic and doing his own job.
Knowles instructed Nic to take a seat on the NUB bench and Kyle suppressed a smile. Leave it to a Chief to put an Officer in their place. To Nic’s credit she sat without a word, eyes scanning the BCP—Ballast Control Panel—pen and notebook ready. Knowles gave her a quick rundown of the system, how they bring seawater in to submerge, move it from one end to the other to the keep the boat steady and release it back to the sea when they want to surface.
It sounded simply enough and it was, it was the knowing how many gallons to bring on board, how to disperse it and how fast to empty the tanks that was the tricky part. Too much too soon and you’d sink her like a rock. Empty the tanks too fast and you chance hitting a ship on the surface that you missed on SONAR.
“Sir.” One of his men approached and stood stiff as a board.
“Relax, Petty Officer Stone. This is a control room, not a parade grounds and the captain is in his stateroom.” The guy went from attention to parade rest. Major suck-up. The helmsman nodded to the planesman and snickered. “What can I do for you, Stone?”
“Sir, Chief Long asked me to give these to you.” He stuck out a stack of papers. Great. More reports. One of those things the recruiter forgot to mention. Kyle distinctly remembered ‘Join the Navy, see the world, go on an adventure.’ Nothing about spending over half your time filling out freaking reports. He held his hand out and waited for Stone to pass them over. And waited. And waited some more.
He gave the sheets of paper a little tug. The young man’s eyes shifted quickly to meet Kyle’s gaze, let go and returned his attention to a point beyond Kyle’s right shoulder. He didn’t need to turn around to know what the guy was staring at— or rather who he was salivating over. Kyle didn’t consider himself a violent man. Sure he’d been in his share of fights before, but none for the fun of it. Not like his dipshit brothers. Right then, it took everything he had had in him not to punch the guy in front of him in the face.
Reining in the urge that would land him in front of the captain he glanced at the all-important papers. Standard evaluations. Nothing that needed his immediate attention.
“Was there anything else, Petty Officer Stone?” Kyle cocked a brow and cleared his throat as the other man, barely more than a kid really, continued to ignore him to watch Nic.
“Um, no sir.”
“Good.” He shoved the papers against Stone’s chest. “Leave these in my stateroom. Lieutenant Havers should be in there and you can give them to him. Then you can join the crew in field day, starting with the heads.”
The control room went silent as Stone exited so it wasn’t hard to catch his ‘asshole’ comment. Every hair on the back of Kyle’s neck stood up and the skin prickled. He didn’t need to turn around to know she had her gaze trained on him. He crossed his arms and focused on the screens in front of him, doing his job, which is what he’d done with Stone. Yeah, sticking the kid on cleaning duty was harsh, but Kyle had a point to make. Down here Nic wasn’t a woman, she was a submariner and as such she was to be treated like everyone else on board.
No exceptions.
Not by the crew.
Not by him.
“Okay, think you’ve got it now?” Chief Knowles asked.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Nic wipe her palms down her thighs and nod, as her eyes scanned the BCP.
“Seems pretty straight forward.”
Kyle let Knowles’ instructions fade and his mind drift. He needed to keep his focus where it belonged and that wasn’t Nic Riley. This would be his last run before he transferred to Hawaii and shore duty—something he was sorely looking forward to. A little sun, a little sand, a whole lot of surf ‘n turf and babes in bikinis on vacations with no expectations but a good time.
He had goals and they didn’t include getting tied down. Next year he planned on putting on Lieutenant Commander. Give him another four years after that and he’d be putting silver oak leaves on his collar and captaining his own sub. When he crossed the twenty-year mark he’d either be sporting Captain’s birds or moving on to his next career. Either way, he’d show his old man that he had what it took to do something with his life, to make something of himself besides a farmer living paycheck to paycheck.
“What?” Nic’s squeak broke through his thoughts.
Kyle turned to her and Knowles.
“I can’t sign off on your qual card until I know for sure you’ve got a full understanding of the BCP. And you can’t move on to dive officer until that’s done.”
“I know, it’s just… I…” She turned to Kyle. “He only just showed me, um… don’t I have any time to study my notes first before I’m tested?” Even in the dim lighting of the control room he could see the pink stains on her cheeks. Was she afraid she’d fail? Didn’t seem like her.
“Sure you can take your time. Most don’t punch all the buttons for s
ix, twelve months. SUBLANT’s record is like the golden ring and most don’t even come close to touching it.”
There it was, the fire inside her.
He knew the minute his words hit their mark, saw the spark of determination light up in her eyes, the change in her stance that went from scared and uncertain to kick-ass mode. The many sides of Nic Riley: conservative, wild, insecure, confident, funny, serious. Who was she really when no one else was around? When the shades were pulled and the doors were locked, who was the woman no one saw?
Did she play her music loud and sing off-key? Throw things when she got mad? Soak in bubble baths? Leave a path when she got undressed?
Think of him and want to break all the rules?
Dangerous questions given their situation.
He turned away when Nic started re-explaining the system to Knowles. She’d do fine and it wouldn’t surprise him when she beat her dad’s record. It had taken Kyle six months to punch all the buttons, then again, he didn’t have the same motivation lighting his fire.
As he listened to Nic, Kyle saw the other men in the room nod. Did she know they wanted her to succeed as much as she did? It didn’t mean they’d grant her any special treatment. Before long he imagined she’d be the butt of a practical joke or two. He’d already heard the crew giving her crap about the soft serve machine breaking down. None of it meant they didn’t like or accept her. It was the way of life on the boat, how they all survived eighteen-hour days, no sunlight, the monotony, and being away from their families.
Kyle kept his eyes glued to the dive monitor as the boat went deeper. Nic’s soft voice swept over him in the dark Control Room bringing back memories best not revisited at the moment. The next six months couldn’t go fast enough.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Nic’s arm shoot out right about the time someone walked into her path.
The XO jumped back, but not fast enough.
“Fuck, that’s hot!” A wet stain spread across the middle of his chest, as coffee dripped off his hand and onto the floor.
Nic shot him a worried look.
“Sir.” Nic stepped forward. “I’m so sorry.”
“Not your fault, Lieutenant. Any idiot who walks around with an open cup of coffee deserves to get scalded. Carry on. A word, Hutch.”
He stepped over as far out of hearing range as one could get on a submarine.
“How’s she settling in?”
“Good, sir.”
“Everything okay, between you two?’
“Sir?”
“Just something I overheard. I’m sure it was nothing and I don’t need to remind you how small a submarine is. That there are no secrets and that I expect my officers to conduct themselves appropriately at all time.”
“No, sir. You don’t.” Shit. Had he heard about the night in Boston? From whom?
“Good. At thirteen hundred I want you to run the drill. The Virginia will be ready.”
“Sir.” Kyle nodded and stepped aside to let the XO go. Exactly what had he overheard? Neither he nor Nic had stepped over any lines since she’d reported on board. Well, there was that initial conversation in her room. Still no one had overheard except maybe Doc and he wouldn’t have repeated any of it. The man wore a perpetual cone of silence.
* * *
Great, just great. They’d been underway for a little more than a week and she’d already screwed up. Sure the XO said not to worry about her spilling scalding hot coffee down his front, but then he’d called Kyle over to the side and spoke to him in private. It might seem egotistical to think it was all about her. Really it was logic, as Kyle was her sponsor. The XO kept looking her way while talking to Kyle in hushed tones and after he left the control room, Kyle acted like she wasn’t even there.
It made sense she’d been the topic of conversation and not in a good way.
Plus, she’d been called to the CO’s office.
All she wanted was to fit in with everyone else and show she could hack it with the boys, not stand out as a screw-up who couldn’t play with their toys. Suddenly she felt five years old again, trying to keep up with her brothers, Liam and Reece. It didn’t make sense either because Kyle said everyone made mistakes. Although she’d bet few had roasted their executive officers.
She could hear muted voices behind the CO’s closed door upon her arrival. Cringing, she leaned against the bulkhead and waited. Every now and then she could make out a word, like blatant disregard and dereliction of duties from the CO. Whoever was on the receiving end kept their responses short and low. She could only hope it wasn’t Kyle or someone that fell under her command.
Had someone gotten food poisoning? Or what if they were short on supplies? Not that it would be her fault, as she didn’t do the actual cooking and everything had been ordered before she reported in.
Still: her people, her mess to fix. Or as the saying went, her flying monkeys, her circus to run.
Her gaze darted toward the door and back as two sailors came down the passageway. Their eyes got round and big and they shot her an apologetic nod before scurrying away, probably hoping to keep out of the crosshairs. Given you could hear the CO as he told whomever that he didn’t give a rat’s ass whose fault the fuck up had been, to just fix it, she couldn’t blame the guys. If she had a choice, she’d come back later.
The door swung open and a red-faced petty officer stepped out.
“Ma’am.” He stepped around her and she let out a breath.
“Commander Holloway, you wanted to see me?”
“Lieutenant Riley, come in and close the door.”
Shit. Based on his last closed door conversation, what little hope Nic had that this was just a quick welcome aboard or “Hey, can you get us a copy of U571” chat rapidly slipped away. She did as he said and turned back to him, wiping her palms down the back of her poopy suit where the CO couldn’t see how nervous she was.
She hoped.
He got up, pushed a chair her way and stepped over to his coffee maker. He lifted a mug and she shook her head. She’d already made the XO spill hot coffee down the front of him; she really didn’t need to spill it on the CO or worse, because with the way her nerves were bouncing all over the place there was no way the liquid would stay down.
“Sit down and relax. I promise, I only eat one sailor a day.” He dropped back in his chair and inhaled the aroma from his mug. “You’ll find out I have two vices. This,” he held up the cup, and root beer floats. How are things going? Settling in?”
The men sidestepped her like she had leprosy, her chief cook scowled every time she stepped foot into the galley, she’d screwed up in front of the crew, and she’d been having steamy sex dreams about the weapons officer.
“Everything’s going great, sir. No complaints.”
A corner of his mouth lifted before he took a sip of his coffee. “I read your file. Top of your class. No reprimands. Excellent evals, which isn’t surprising. Considering you could have picked any rating, why supply?”
The smile came easy, but wasn’t one filled with joy. “To keep my family happy, sir. They would much rather see me working in the civilian sector than be put in harm’s way. I picked a specialty that could easily convert to either the private workforce or government contractors or so I told my parents, but the truth is I’ve known for years women would be brought on submarines and I knew this was one of the first specialties they’d fill.”
“Why subs?” He leaned back with one ankle resting on his knee.
“I could ask you the same, sir.” She dropped into the second chair and grasped her hands in front of her to keep from twisting them. “Lots of reason, I guess. It’s a family thing. Did you know my grandfather served with Rickover? My dad, my brothers, it’s all I’ve ever known. There’s nothing wrong with the surface community, but it’s just not us. Is it?”
“No, it’s not.”
“I’ve missed the closeness of the sub force these past couple of years. Do
n’t get me wrong. I’ve been with some great commands and the people in them, all top-notch sailors. Being on a sub, as a woman, it’s a challenge, but it’s more than that. We’re making history. I like knowing I’m helping to change the future, plus what we do here on the boat… It may not be the front line, but we make a difference, sir.”
“That we do. The COB has said you’re off to a good start on your qualifications, Lieutenant. I do have some concerns on your goals though.”
“You think I’m rushing through them, especially after this morning?”
“Are you?”
She thought about his question, her uncertainty about being tested so quickly, and then shook her head.
“No, I don’t think I am. I wouldn’t purposely put the crew or the boat at risk for my own ego, sir. No goal is worth a person’s life. In hindsight, I realize, taking some time, even an hour or two to study my notes would have been the wiser move. I got lucky, but the situation could have played out differently. I endangered not only the boat, but also the whole crew. It won’t happen again, sir.”
“Good. Just for the record, Chief Knowles wouldn’t have let it get that far. I don’t have a problem with sailors setting challenging goals for themselves. In fact, I’m all for having something to aim for, if it’s for the right reasons. I know what it’s like to walk in someone else footsteps, someone big and bright. You wouldn’t be the first person to serve onboard who comes from a military family or the first person to try to prove themselves to dad, grandpa, or Uncle Bob.”
She nodded in silence.
A sense of déjà vu hit her. How many teachers said those same words to her? How many times had she been compared to her brothers? More than could remember and not for the first time she wondered how much simpler life would be if she’d been an only child or even better, because she really did love the jugheads, if she’d been first born. Then they could be compared to her. Yes, it was petty, but she was only human.
“I don’t mind having one of my sailors beat SUBLANT, but not at the cost of my boat.”
Love Runs Deep Page 6