Tex, page 16
Nora looked at Cameron and she shook her head. “Men,” she said, rolling her eyes. That was tame compared to some of the things that had been said to her. As a woman officer in the Navy and daring to fly jets, it had felt like she was a target from day one. There was a lot of “we are equal” talk in the armed forces, but truth be told, there were still a lot of guys who didn’t think women should be in combat, let alone fly an eighty-million-dollar jet. Men who said the right things and acted supportive but were secretly waiting on her to fail. But that never deterred her. Her mom had always told her to be better, faster, smarter, and tougher than her counterparts. She’d never taken the put-downs to heart, especially from narrow-minded people. She could only attribute that to her bad-ass helicopter pilot mom.
“We’ll start with the bunny hop, tires, cargo net climb,” he said, which was a bar about shoulder height, evenly spaced tires, and a rope net reaching up into the sky. “Then we’ll move on to the crawl.” The crawl was loose sand, covered with wood-pegged barbed wire so that it formed a box.
“Just a tip,” Twister said. “Turn your head to the side so you don’t get dirt in your mouth and lungs.”
“That will put you at the balance logs, monkey bars, the Burma Bridge, and after that, the wall.” The logs and monkey bars didn’t worry her, but the bridge was high up and it required them to climb a rope to reach it. The wall looked to be about six to eight feet and challenging. “Climb the wall. Do the weaver, then swing over the water obstacle, then tires again, vaults and you’ll go through the tubes and that will be the finish line.”
Nora turned to look at him. The tubes dropped the runner out into some thick, wet mud. He grinned. “We have to get you dirty. It’s the SEAL way.” The guys chuckled.
“We spend most of our career wet and dirty,” Dagger said, fist bumping with Shark.
Bondo smiled. “After this, you can hit the showers, grab lunch, and meet us at Hampton Roads. We’re going to do a few more mini-courses, then if we’re all satisfied, you will be briefed on the mission, and it’ll be wheels up at 0600.”
“Copy that.”
“Look on the bright side,” Easy said. “We’re not making you drag a small inflatable boat across the rope bridge.”
Nora really didn’t have a whole lot of information about what Navy SEALs go through in their training. She knew about the famous Hell Week, and there was no doubt it was grueling. “What sick bastard thought up that maneuver?”
Easy burst out laughing and nodded. “Exactly what I said.”
She grinned at him. “What am I saying? SEALs are all crazy bastards.”
More laughter and head nodding.
“All right. This isn’t social hour,” Bondo said.
She glanced over at Tex, and he was smiling. Looked like he was more than happy to have Bondo driving the train. For a split second their eyes met, and her lungs got tight remembering staring deep into them while he was pounding into her. She had to look away to manage her breathing and all the uncontrollable sensations that came with the memory.
“You ladies ready?” Bondo asked, pulling out a timer.
“I thought this wasn’t for time.”
“It’s not, but I’d like to see how you perform.” He looked down at the timer. “Ready, set, go.”
Nora took off. The bunny hop didn’t pose much of a problem and neither did the tires. At the cargo net, she began her climb just slightly ahead of Cameron. When she reached the top, she flipped over, her muscles straining and at about halfway down the net, she released her feet and used her upper body to lower herself the rest of the way down. She heard Brawler say to Bondo. “Is that legal? I’ve never seen that.”
Bondo shrugged and said, “Not illegal that I know of.”
“Nice, Lieutenant. Work smarter, not harder,” Brawler called out and clapped. She smiled softly. That was quite a compliment coming from one of the most elite men on the planet.
The other guys egged them on as well. It was nice to have a cheering section. Although pilots had wingmen, they didn’t really hang out with each other, except for in the ready room and sometimes on shore leave. It dawned on her that SEALs were completely different. Where fighter pilots were up in the air solo, SEALs were always a team and they supported each other. The Brotherhood took on a whole new meaning.
She dipped down for the crawl, kicking up sand as she scooted through the narrow canal, her clothes barely catching in the barbed wire. At the end, she was up and running for the balance logs. Hopping up, she firmly, but carefully ran along them, keeping her balance in check. Back on the deck, she kicked up sand as she powered toward the monkey bars. She always found these difficult because the handholds were larger, but she worked her way across without losing her grip thanks to her increased upper body workouts with the pullup bar.
She was panting a bit by the time she hit the bridge. She grabbed the rope and pulled herself up, using the J-hook method that Easy taught her at the gym yesterday, curling her foot on either side to form a J to give her leverage so she could use her legs and arms to climb. They were about halfway through, and Nora was starting to feel it in her muscles. But she couldn’t let up. She had that wall to get up and over. She wasn’t going to fail.
On the bridge, she navigated the knotted rope to cross. Cameron was right on her heels, but Nora was focusing on staying on top of her own game. The only performance here was all her own. Although, she did feel a bit competitive, and Tex was watching. She couldn’t help wanting to impress him.
As she climbed down the rope on the other side, she gauged her plan of attack on the wall. She felt she could get up and over it using a technique that involved her toes and bracing her knee.
But Cameron passed her and struggled for a couple of attempts. Finally, Nora walked over and offered her a leg up. Cameron took it with a smile. Then Nora backed up, raced to the wall, hit it with her toe, used her knee to brace, then swung up and over.
She heard a lot of murmurs as she dropped down to the other side. Cameron was into the weaver and struggling a bit. The guys started to encourage her. Nora, once again, thankful for her upper body strength, navigated under and over with effort, yet ease, but she stopped there and waited, encouraging Cameron.
“Come on, Cameron,” Nora said. “Let’s finish strong and show these alpha males we’re unstoppable.”
Cameron grinned at her and when the woman finished, it was onto the rope to swing over the water obstacle. Her legs were heavy when she negotiated the tires, but when she sped up as she jumped over the vaults, Cameron paced her.
When they reached the tube, she was breathing hard, but not winded, satisfied with her pacing. Down on her hands and knees, she entered the tube on the left while Cameron went into the right one, then when she got to the end, she gasped softly as she hit the cloying mud, splashing it everywhere as she half crawled half swam through the viscous liquid. Cameron floundered and Nora slipped her arm around her and helped her through it.
They pulled themselves out and ran to the end where Bondo clicked his time watch. “That was an excellent time. Nice job. Impressive.”
All the guys gave them a loud and rousing “Hoo-yah!”
“Thank you, Petty Officer,” Nora said, grinning, leaning her hands on her knees as she caught her breath.
“Thank you, ma’am,” Cameron said, standing to attention and saluting her.
Nora laughed and nodded, returning the salute.
“Hit the showers and we’ll see you at Hampton Roads in BDU’s in an hour,” Bondo said.
“I’d be happy to show you the way, Petty Officer,” Dagger said as the guys crowded around Cameron. Nora had to choke back a laugh when she put her filthy hand against Dagger’s clean white T-shirt, leaving a muddy print and said, “I’m sure I can find my way. I’ve been walking since I was one.” She gave them all a very small, very aware smile that said she got hit on every day of the week and twice on Sundays. Then Nora caught her giving Bondo a look…that look…the kind of a look a woman gave a man she found attractive, but Bondo was consulting with Tex and didn’t notice. She studied him, or maybe it was that he didn’t want to notice. Hmm, this would be an interesting mission.
Well, hell, Bondo thought as he demolished his lunch, torn between the great performance of both the women and his own personal wish that Cameron Ryan hadn’t been so spectacular running the O-course. The way she made him feel and the way she looked…
When he got to Hampton, he had a chance to review her file and knew right then and there he had no wiggle room to dismiss her as a candidate for the mission. In person, she was a confident, squared-away sailor…well, except for that unruly red hair, but on paper, she was even more impressive. She had won awards and commendations for her work with jets, even going so far as to find a faulty 0-ring on an F-18 component, potentially saving the Navy millions. She had been correct. Pilots did fight over her.
She was an avid parachutist and had experience in jumping from planes, and she had done several marathons, along with a lot of charity work. If that wasn’t enough, she was the only woman on the Navy’s Rifle Team. The best of the best, representing the Navy in national competitions.
No matter what his sex-starved body and lonely lifestyle were telling him, he had to reel it in. First off, she was under his chain of command, even if it was a temporary duty for her. He was a Senior Petty Officer, an E8, and she was a Petty Officer First Class, an E7, which in the new fraternization policy prohibited him from acting on any of his impulses, mostly because of the chain of command issue.
Not that he would pursue her even if it wasn’t prohibited by Navy regs. He didn’t feel ready. Not that she’d be interested. He wasn’t exactly her type, he was sure. She probably went for the pretty boys like Flash, Dagger, or Brawler. With her looks and personality, she could have anyone she wanted.
In a way, the Navy’s Frat Policy gave him a measure of relief, as if it got him off the hook. The guys started filtering in dressed in full battle kit. Bondo’s gear was in his duffel next to his chair.
He stood and grabbed the duffel as Tex, Nora, and Cameron entered. His gaze went right to her, and his lips thinned at the state of her hair. It seemed to always look…messy. Gorgeous…but messy. The Navy didn’t tolerate messy.
Otherwise, she was in shipshape. Very nice shipshape. He jerked his glance away and took a hard breath. Dammit. Focus, Angelo, he thought.
“All right, we’re going to go through a room clearing drill so that you both can see and feel what it’s like to be part of a SEAL Team and how we operate.” The guys immediately started moving toward Cameron, and Bondo felt a sudden, irritated knee-jerk reaction to their interest in her. “Ryan!” he bellowed. “You’re with me. Lieutenant Wilson, you’re with Tex. Brawler, take point,” he ordered.
Tex’s gaze was on him, but he ignored it. The guys were just standing there looking at him. “Move your asses,” he said in his best drill sergeant voice.
“Aye, Senior Chief,” they replied in unison.
Petty Officer Cameron came toward him, and he picked up his weapon. She eyed it as only a sailor who was used to wielding weapons could. He knew she was as proficient on the shooting range as she was on any other task at sea.
He pulled his handgun out of his holster. “You familiar with this?” he asked. She looked up at him, once again unnerving him with her direct gaze. Fuck, but she was beautiful. Most women were first intimidated by his size and secondly by his mug.
“Aye, Senior Chief,” she said, taking the weapon from him.
He got down to business because that was all there could be between them. He turned his back. “Set your hand on my shoulder. When we breach, you keep it there come hell or high water unless I order you not to. Are we clear?”
“Yes, we’re clear,” she whispered, her voice husky. He gritted his teeth as her hand clamped onto his shoulder. He looked at Tex, who was giving Nora the same instructions.
They room-cleared for two hours until he felt the women getting into their rhythm and was impressed with both of them all over again. He had never been comfortable with Davis’s shaky anxiety, but Ryan was a completely different person. She was twice the sailor Davis was.
After the breaching exercise was concluded, he got them up on the scaffolding to practice jumping off onto a mat below. He wanted to see their form.
He took another hard breath. Cameron’s parachuting form, not her willowy body. “When was the last time you jumped out of a plane—and ejecting doesn’t count,” he asked Nora. It was so much easier to focus on her. Tex was standing behind the women and the guys were below to assist with their descent.
“Jump school,” she murmured, looking over the edge down to the mat.
“It’s like riding a bike,” Bondo said.
Nora shot him a tight smile. “Easy for you to say. You do it as a matter of course. But if I can eject out of a plane at thirty thousand feet, I can jump from one at the same altitude.”
“You can do anything if you put your mind to it,” Cameron said matter of factly. He looked at her and had to curse himself one more time. Did this woman have a SEAL can-do mentality? He had to wonder why she wasn’t an officer, one who led instead of burying herself in a hanger bay and fixing machines others flew.
He cleared his mind. That was none of his business. Getting to know her was out of the question. “And you, Ryan?”
“Last shore leave. But it wasn’t at thirty thousand feet. But I have taken a HALO jump.”
For some reason, this didn’t surprise him. “It’s not on your record.”
“That’s because I did it outside of the military. I am a good candidate for this mission.”
He nodded. “I have to agree.”
She tilted her head. “You don’t want to agree. Is that because I’m a woman?”
“Don’t put words in my mouth, Petty Officer. I treat all people with respect. Don’t let us down.”
“I won’t.”
“Do something with your hair, sailor.”
She smoothed it back, giving him a dry look. “It has a mind of its own.”
“Give it an order,” he growled.
She didn’t smile, but her eyes got all sparkly.
He explained to them the correct procedure, how to arch their backs, how to jump out, and the intricacies of free-falling five miles to the earth. The women performed very well. They would be read in at 0600 and then it was wheels up.
He was eager to get into Venezuela and get out with the plane and everyone alive.
After everyone left the training facility, Tex sat down next to him at the round table. “You put them through their paces. We a go?”
“Yes, they’re both excellent choices.”
“But?”
“Neither of them has been in close-quarters combat. No one can predict how that will affect them.”
Tex nodded. “Hoo-yah! Test by fire,” he said.
Bondo had to agree when he watched Petty Officer Ryan leave. Hopefully, they wouldn’t have any deaths, friendly fire or otherwise.
13
Slipping the bag of groceries into the crook of his arm, Tex opened his door. He’d stopped and picked up a couple of steaks, some veggies, and potato salad for dinner. He’d given Nora directions to his house and his key. She had planned to stop by her place and gather her things for the mission. When he walked in, he went to the kitchen to put away the groceries, then he would start the grill. Finally, he could take a shower.
Nora appeared and he smelled her before he turned to look at her. “You’ll want to make sure you use my stuff to wash and shampoo tomorrow. We can’t have bad guys smelling you from a mile away.”
Her eyes widened. “Geez, that never crossed my mind. Tips and tricks of a commando,” she said as she crossed the kitchen and looked at the stuff he’d purchased. She set her hand against his back, and he loved that gesture. He turned and smiled at her.
“I bet you’re hungry.”
“I’m starved.” She opened the fridge and pulled out a pitcher of lemonade, found two glasses, and filled them.
He took in her face and the fatigue around her eyes. She looked tired, but they had a full day. “I’m going to get the grill going and take my shower.”
“Can I do anything to help?” She took a few swallows of the lemonade.
“Sure, you can unpackage the steaks and rinse them, then make a salad.”
“Okay.” She was already looking for a knife and he left her searching through his kitchen to find the right drawer. He pushed the sliding glass door open, then the screen, stepping out into the early evening glow. The sun hadn’t set yet. Opening the grill, he checked it and found it just as he’d left it. Clean and ready for their steaks. He was so happy he wasn’t going to have to eat alone. He was quite sick of it. He looked back at her and smiled again. She was busy doing her tasks.
He turned the knobs on, checked to make sure it was heating, but he was sure he had enough propane. He walked back inside, leaving the sliding glass door open.
“Nora,” he said, and she turned. “You were exceptional today.”
She grinned at him. “Up to Navy SEAL standards? I’m flattered.”
He chuckled. “You impressed the guys with your team spirit. They really got into you helping Petty Officer Ryan with the wall, weavers, and mud. Nicely done.”
She gave him a sly look. “I suspect they would have preferred to help her themselves.”
“Well, yeah. She’s beautiful and they’re…uh…sailors.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Is that so?”
He realized what he’d said, but he hadn’t meant he would be interested in her. She was too young, enlisted, and was stationed in San Diego. It had been nothing but an observation. His gut clenched, remembering Debbie’s jealousy and the terrible fights they’d had. Their relationship had been like a minefield. “Yeah, um…if you like that tall, redheaded, gorgeous thing she’s got going.” He waved his hand. Going for humor. “I’m more into a mouthy blonde.”
She set down the knife and wiped her hands crossing the kitchen to where he stood. “I was just teasing you,” she said. “I know who you are, Tex.”
