by Susan Bliler
When Commander McCabe passed her, she let her eyes cut to him and, just as they touched on his face, his eyes jerked back as if he’d been checking her out. Great! He probably wanted to make sure she didn’t need a body bag, which she could really use right now.
Her team halted its jog to walk a quick three circles around the training field as a cool down before filing into to the barracks. Harlow followed the men in, watching as they went to their bunks and started peeling out of their sweaty PT gear.
“I’m Josef.” The tall leader stepped forward. “We met before, but then you disappeared for two weeks. Anyway,” he pointed down the line of cots. “The nerd is Brian, the hick is Aaron, and the asshole is David.”
She grinned at his description of David when it matched her own thoughts on him. “Hi,” she waved to the team. “I’m Harlow.”
David frowned at her as he dug a towel out of his foot locker, but the others came forward. The one Josef called Aaron asked, “So, what’s your story city girl?”
“Well, uhhh.” Shit. She hadn’t rehearsed a story, and telling them that Walker and CFO of StoneCrow, Monroe EnemyHunter, was her brother wasn’t going to work, so she shrugged nonchalantly and started unbuttoning her shirt, uncovering the T-shirt underneath. “Well, not much to tell. I was recruited to work here at StoneCrow, and chose this occupation.”
“What do you mean, chose?” The asshole, David, jerked his head up from where he was hovered over his bunk. “You weren’t specifically recruited to be a Sentry?”
She looked from him to the others. “N-no.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.” David’s eyes narrowed on her suspiciously. “What’s your background? Military? Police?”
Harlow licked her lips, feeling dread pit in her stomach. “I was arrested once for disorderly at a party, but…”
“What?” David strode forward, jabbing a finger at her and frowning up at Josef. “She’s a fucking plant, man. They put her here to spy on us.”
“What?” Harlow’s eyes rounded. “No. I’m not a…”
The asshole spoke over her. “Why else would they put someone with no experience on our team? It’s that, or they’re trying to make us look bad. Lowering our stats to shut us out. They want us to fail! It’s fucked up!”
Josef narrowed his eyes on her. “Do you have any tactical training at all?”
“No.” Harlow shook her head. “I’m not a plant. But I can fight. I’m a fighter. I asked to be placed here. This is where I want to be.”
Aaron cocked a half smile at her, then slapped her on the shoulder before heading to the showers. “It’s alright, city girl. Just pull your weight and you’ll be fine.”
Brian nodded. “Statistically, it makes sense that they’d assign us a female, and not many females in our area have tactical training.” He smiled at her with a shrug. “Makes sense to me,” he whispered before grabbing his gear and heading for the shower.
Josef followed, and Harlow grabbed her shower gear, but dropped onto her bunk. She’d give the guys privacy until they were finished, then she’d get herself washed up. Looking down the row of cots she was startled to find David still standing at the entrance to the latrine glaring at her. She barely heard his mumbled, “I’ll get rid of her,” before he turned and disappeared into the showers.
And… it began. Harlow’s first day of tactical training with the Skin Walker Sentries was on the books, and it was nothing like she’d expected. Exhaustion tugged at her, but Josef said they needed to shower then head to chow before they could rest. Damn it! She wanted nothing more than to curl up into a sweaty little ball and sleep her aches and misery away. For the first in a very long time, she felt defeated, and she hated it. Today leaned toward Mason being right all along, and she didn’t want that. She didn’t want to go crawling back to him, bruised and battered, her feelings hurt, and ask him to fix it, so she wouldn’t. She also didn’t want to fail in front of Remy. For some inexplicable reason that was important to her, so she’d suck this up and make it work. She had no other choice.
Chapter 8
Five days after Remy found himself the center of his own personal nightmare, he watched Harlow get taken down once again and he had to fight back a visible wince at how hard she hit the ground. The wind was howling, and her cheeks were red from her exertion, her lips beginning to turn blue from the cold. It was now the end of October, and they’d have to move their training indoors in a few days. In Montana, Octobers were unpredictable. Yesterday, it’d been a warm fifty-six, today the wind howled at a chilly forty-two. Winter was nearly here.
Remy bristled as Recker approached. He knew he was supposed to be supervising his own team, not watching what was happening on the human team, but he’d been having difficulty keeping his eyes off Harlow. He played off the fact that she was a new recruit to keep his team from suspecting anything. All Sentries at StoneCrow were his responsibility now, so he didn’t bother defending the fact that he’d just ignored Recker and Shane’s match to watch Harlow get taken down for the umpteenth time since hand-to-hand training began.
Recker tilted his head to watch the training taking place out in the field. “What in the fuck is she doing?”
James stepped up, speaking around a bite of apple he’d opted to choke down before his turn at fighting came up. “Oh, she’s getting her ass kicked.”
Remy growled.
“Easy, XO.” James held up his hands in mock surrender. “Just making an observation.”
Shane joined them, frowning at her pitiful attempts to get up from beneath David. “She’s terrible.”
Remy didn’t respond. He just watched, silently willing Harlow to pull David down closer to her so he’d lose his center of balance and give her a chance to roll to her feet. She didn’t. Remy’s eyes snapped to Josef and he listened to the advice the team lead was giving Harlow. It was good advice, she just wasn’t following it. He knew why. He could scent the panic rolling off her in waves. None of her team recognized that she was drowning right now, but he did, and so did the Walkers beside him.
Shane’s angry gaze jerked to him. “You gonna do something about that?”
By the Gods, he wanted to, but this was it. He had a feeling that, if he could just manage to force himself to stand back, just a little while longer, Harlow would break. Then, he’d be free of her. Two more days like this and she’d be begging him to cut her from the team. Problem was, he didn’t know if he could handle watching it for another two minutes, let alone two more days. “No.” He answered simply.
They watched as David laughed, then grabbed Harlow’s hair and dropped to a knee. He rolled her onto her stomach and snaked an arm under her belly to lift her up so her ass was aligned with his hips.
“Fuck this!” Shane snarled, and he and Recker stalked toward the fighting ring, but didn’t get the chance to interfere.
Josef, Harlow’s team lead, jerked David up by the throat, shoving him hard into the tall cowboy on their team, Aaron. Aaron’s large arms wrapped around David’s, holding him in place as Josef slowly leaned in, a murderous look on his face. “She!” He jabbed his finger toward Harlow where she rolled slowly to her feet with Brian’s help. “Is your teammate!”
“This is fucking training,” David countered, his eyes leaving Josef to go to Harlow. “We don’t pull punches here. You know that! If women can’t hack it...”
“Oh no, he didn’t!”
Remy’s head turned as Nyree broke off from her team of Walkers who’d also been watching and stalked to where David was still being held. She and Beth were both fully human, but some of the most highly trained Sentries he had.
Nyree jerked her chin to Aaron. “Let him go.”
Aaron did as commanded and Remy smirked. David was about to get his ass handed to him by the baddest female on any team, and he deserved it.
Letting his eyes drift from where Nyree was striping down to a form fitted T, Remy settled his gaze on Harlow. She looked so damn sad, and when she lowered her chin,
he knew she was disappointed in herself. His thought was confirmed when Brian tried to reach for her, but she jerked away with an angry, “I’m fine. I’m just used to fighting on my feet is all.”
Shane growled as he and Recker came back from their attempted rescue. “You need to fix that.”
Tearing his eyes from Harlow and the pain she was causing in his chest, Remy turned his back on her. “You fix it.”
Shane snarled, “Maybe I will!” He stalked off toward the barracks, and his threat to do something about how Harlow was being treated and trained shouldn’t have made Remy as livid as it did. It shouldn’t have twisted something inside him. His beasts were tearing at his insides, a daily fucking occurrence now that Harlow was here. Hell, he had to fight every damn minute just to keep his eyes off her, and even then his ears were primed for the sound of her voice and the commands of her team lead.
“I know what you’re doing, bro.” James was back in his face with that damn apple. He stared at Remy as he chewed. “You’re staying away from her cuz she’s Mason’s sister.”
“Keep your voice down,” Remy growled. “Her team doesn’t know that, and she doesn’t need them finding out.”
James took another big bite of apple, glancing over Remy’s shoulder. “Maybe they should. Maybe, if they knew her brother was a Walker and the CFO, they’d stop fucking with her.”
And they were fucking with her. He tried not to watch her, but every night at chow she looked worse and worse. She was always bruised or beat up. Hell, she was just getting to the end of her first week, already sporting a mouse under her eye and a fat lip. None of the other trainees looked like that at the end of the day. None of them pushed their evening meal around their plate with their head rested in their hand before they gave up and dumped the contents into the trash, stumbling blindly back to the barracks for the night. All of this had Remy confident that Harlow would tap any day, yet every evening she made it to chow, every morning she was in line for PT looking miserable and weak. Every day his gut clenched a little more with the knowledge that she was suffering, and every day his disappointment was laced with pride. She was a lot tougher than he’d given her credit for, and the more damage she took, the more difficult it became for him to keep from doing…something.
“What do you think Mason’s gonna do when he finds out she’s having a rough go of it?” James’ words pulled him from his reverie.
“He’s going to do what he should have already done,” Remy growled as he stalked away. “Pull her off the team.”
***
Josef had given Harlow permission to duck out of training early so she could hit the showers before the guys got to them. Humiliated, she stepped away from the fight circle where a woman she knew only as Nyree was creaming David. It was awesome, but even that couldn’t bolster her mood.
Turning, she ducked her head and made her way slowly back to the barracks as the truth began to settle its weight over her soul. She was a terrible soldier. Sure, she was in good shape, and had gotten better each day at PT and running, but with everything else she was crap, and today only proved it. Granted, Josef had directed her and David to talk out a plan before just going at it full-bore, which David completely ignored, jumping her before she could prepare herself, but still it hurt that she’d been unable to defend herself. The fact that everyone saw only made it worse.
“EnemyHunter.”
Her head jerked up as she nearly ran into the wall that was one of the Walker Sentries standing in front of her.
“Tomorrow, I’m pulling you out for one-on-one training. Commander McCabe has approved it.”
She jerked her head in a nod and the Sentry walked away. She thought the offer should give her hope, but it only made her feel like more of a failure. Looking over her shoulder, she watched the other Sentry teams as they cheered Nyree when she punched David in the throat, sending him falling on his ass, gasping for air. Eyes drifting over them, Harlow realized they were like family to each other, and she was just an outsider. Just like before. Even here, she didn’t fit in. Mason had called himself a misfit, called the Walkers monsters, yet even among them, she had no place.
Turning, she hurried to the barracks. She needed to get into the shower so she could shed a few tears without being caught.
Twenty minutes later found her lying on her cot, a ball of misery. She’d showered, foregone dinner—much to the protest of her grumbling stomach—and had finally fallen into an exhausted slumber, her only escape from the realty that she had no place at StoneCrow.
Chapter 9
Remy strode into Monroe’s office, tensing when he found Mason seated on one of the CEOs two leather couches. Monroe was absent. They were scheduled to meet to go over Harlow’s performance in order to determine whether or not she’d stay on with Sentry training.
“Mason,” Remy clipped out by way of greeting. “Monroe coming?”
“Yeah,” Mason leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his knees, folding his hands together. “He’ll be here.”
Silence hung between them as Remy paced to the window and stared down over the Estate.
“How’s Harlow?”
Remy turned at Mason’s query. “You haven’t spoken to her?”
“No.” Mason’s expression darkened. “She didn’t want me visiting or checking up on her while she’s in training. She thought it’d look bad for her.”
Remy smiled. That sounded like something Harlow would request. “Surprisingly well,” he offered, unwilling to inform Mason of his sister’s recent difficulties. Sometime over the course of the past few days he’d decided not to throw her to the wolves. He didn’t know if it was how hard she was trying, or how sad she looked yesterday after training, but something within him had changed, and he was now willing to see just how far she could take it. “She’s a lot tougher than I’d have expected. She’s a hard worker, and an exceptional teammate.” It was hard to hide the admiration he felt for her. She’d been busting her ass from the moment she’d stepped out of the barracks decked out in her brand new BDUs. “I’m lucky to have her.”
Mason shoved off his knees and stood. “You don’t have her! And you’re going to stay the hell away from her, Remy McCabe, or I’m going to fucking end you!”
Remy’s own lip peeled back in a snarl. He was sick and tired of having this same argument with Mason. Sure, he’d done some pretty shitty things when he’d been trying to get back at Mason for stealing Amanda, but that all ended when Aries Drago had been so badly hurt because of his actions. Her car crash, complete with serious wounds and a dangerous head injury ended for good Remy’s vendetta. He finally let his hatred for Mason extinguish itself with his relief that Aries hadn’t died because of his selfishness.
“I was referring to having her on my team! I’m giving Harlow a compliment, not trying to get a rise outta you,” Remy snarled, stepping forward. “You’re no longer worth the effort.”
“Why? Because now you’ve got the object of your obsession in your hands? All your focus on Harlow now, is that it?”
Remy shook his head in disgust. “I’ve said I’m done with it, and I’m sick of fucking talking about it!”
Mason snorted his derision. “You’ll have to excuse me if I find it a little hard to believe that, finally presented with the one weapon that could truly wound me, you’re choosing the higher ground.”
“SHE’S NOT A FUCKING WEAPON!” The words were out before Remy could check them, startling not only Mason, but himself as well. Straightening, he pulled at the front of his shirt that had bunched with his muscles and lifted his chin. “She’ll make a good Sentry. Put her where you want her, but know right fucking now that I have no intentions of making this hard for her, and that’s not for your sake. She’s volunteered to go through the most rigorous training there is to defend a species she doesn’t belong to. My respect is earned, and she’s got mine.”
“Implying I don’t?”
“I’m not implying anything, boy!” Remy was back to scowling down
at Mason. “I just told you, my respect is earned. You haven’t earned shit! But your sister is an entirely different matter, and she’ll not bear any burden for your bad choices. Wounding one woman to get to you was enough for me.” Some of the heat left his words as his scowl slipped. “As I said, I’m done with you and Amanda.”
At the mention of his Angel’s name, Mason slowly inched around the table separating them, his expression darkening.
“You two are perfect for each other,” Remy continued, undaunted by Mason’s advance. “You deserve each other,” Remy threw at him.
Mason lowered his head to glare up from beneath lowered brows. “Amanda never betrayed you, Remy. I took her. I claimed her. Point your hatred where it’s deserved, and keep my Angel’s name off your fucking lips.”
“Gentlemen.” Monroe stepped into the room, his lips tweaked in amusement as he used one hand to pull at the crisp white sleeve cuff that poked out from his tailored suit coat. “I see you’ve started the meeting without me.”
King snickered as he entered just behind Monroe, as usual.
Remy spun, stalking toward the door. “This conversation is over. Harlow can go, or stay on the team. I don’t give a shit. Just like you and Amanda, she’s nothing to me.” As he stormed toward the exit he had to swallow hard at how much the words clogged his throat, and how his inner beasts raged at his words. Pushing Harlow away felt like a betrayal, and he wondered if it was because he wouldn’t say that about any of his other soldiers, or because it was something more.
The door slammed behind him and Monroe’s grin broadening into a smile as he turned from the door to face a visibly enraged Mason. “You’ve got quite the job cut out for you.” He sauntered to the nearest chair and bent, hiking up the legs on his slacks before sitting to beam at Mason.