Chapter 4
LAYLA
Hanna and I dropped into seats at the front of the room we’d now found out was our classroom.
I felt a little bit stupid about not having known where to go from the outset, but I hadn’t been on this Station in about a decade and they’d changed things up since the last time I’d visited my father here.
For starters, I didn’t remember the high-ranking guys from his time looking like that one had. The guy whose office we’d been busted in was easily and by a mile the hottest man I’d ever seen. They definitely hadn’t made them that way in Dad’s time.
With eyes the color of the deepest parts of the Gulf outside and sandy brown hair in a crew cut, that uniform, and a face that must’ve been carved by Michelangelo himself straight out of my wildest fantasies, he was just breathtaking.
As soon as he’d walked into that room, it was like all the air had been stolen right out of it.
For all my protests just yesterday about the instructors, if ours looked like that, I was in trouble. Not that I’d act on any attraction, but how the heck was I supposed to focus with a guy like him barking orders at me and sounding all commanding and sexy while he was doing it?
Okay, I’ve just realized I have issues.
I usually wasn’t one of those girls who was affected at all by good-looking men or their deep, commanding voices, but it seemed like I was finally learning that the struggle was real.
If his office was in the vicinity of this room, it meant he had something to do with the training center, but thankfully, I was sure he was too young to be one of our instructors.
He was probably only here to teach a brief, advanced course of some kind.
In my quick assessment of that office, I hadn’t noticed any personal touches, so he was probably only using it temporarily.
Hanna still hadn’t stopped talking about our run-in with him earlier, though, and it wasn’t helping me forget that we’d ever seen him.
“I really don’t appreciate being spoken to like that.
He was so condescending. Who the hell does he think he is, pretending like he’s got my paperwork right there to send me home?
It was one joke, for God’s sake. It’s not like he caught me doing stand-up in the middle of a lecture.
Also, we weren’t the only ones who didn’t know where to go.
He didn’t have to act like I don’t know what a classroom looks like.
We were in there to ask, not to attend a fucking class. Asshole.”
“I realize that he wasn’t exactly pleasant or respectful, but you’re going to have to get used to people talking to you like that.
This is what we signed up for. All of the higher-ranking officers are going to treat us that way until we prove that we deserve to be here.
Right now, we’re not even the low men on the totem pole.
We’re the parasites stuck to the ground around the base of that pole.
Once we work our way up, it’ll get better. ”
“That’s easy for you to say. You signed yourself up for this, but I sure didn’t.
I’m really not sure I can handle being treated like that indefinitely, so if everyone around here is going to speak to us that way, then I might just ask him to sign my damn papers as soon as we get out of here for the day. ”
“Relax,” I said softly. “We’ll get through this. Besides, we’ll probably never even see that guy again and our instructor won’t be kind, but I’m sure he won’t be quite as condescending as that guy.”
As I was speaking, a hush fell over the room, and when I glanced over my shoulder to see why, I looked over just in time to see none other than that guy walking through the door. Shit. Fuck.
Hanna ground her teeth and rolled her eyes at me but thankfully kept her mouth shut as he commanded our attention simply by being in the room.
He strode to the front and planted his feet about a foot apart, his hands clasped in front of him as he surveyed us like he was looking for a traitor in our midst.
His stare was piercing as it swept over each of us in turn. Then suddenly, he lifted his arm and pointed outside. “People die out there.”
I blinked hard, but his opening line had sure been effective.
Every last person in here was suddenly at attention, all eyes on him before he continued.
“I’m Master Chief Santiago Cortez. It’s my job to equip you with the knowledge you need to save some of them and with the tools you need to give you the best shot at not becoming one of them. ”
Suddenly, his gaze swung back to the room and he pointed at a random guy about halfway back. “What’s your name?”
I twisted in my seat and the guy started when he realized he was the one who had been called upon. “Jameson Gray, sir.”
“Jameson Gray,” Santiago mused, then reached for a few printed sheets of paper that had been stapled together and had been waiting on the desk behind him.
His gaze swept down the first page, then the second, then he finally nodded.
“Right. We’ll start with you, then. Why are you here, Jameson Gray? ”
As he asked the question, he reached into the inside pocket of his jacket, produced a pen, and made a tick—presumably next to Jameson’s name.
The man in question stumbled over his words, stuttering so much that it was difficult to make out what he was actually saying. “I, uh, I swim well, sir. Hurricanes. Rescuing people, sir.”
Santiago gave him a few more seconds before he sighed. “Okay, that’s enough. You swim well in hurricanes, or so you say. I suppose we’ll find out. Wanting to rescue people is admirable. Let’s find someone a little less nervous.”
He worked his way through the class, pointing at people in no particular order, then marking them down on his list while he listened to them trying to articulate their answers.
The first few people were as bad as Jameson had been, but after that, having had a little more time to prepare themselves, the answers started getting better.
A preppy-looking blond guy smirked at our instructor when he gave his answer, but judging by the way Santiago pressed his lips into a hard line, I assumed he didn’t like the guy’s cocky attitude. Watch out, Jonathan Hayes. He’s going to be gunning for you once we get out there.
When my turn finally came, he surprised me by calling me up to the front of the class. “Okay, Layla Perkins. Why don’t you come on up here and tell us why you’re part of this class?”
I nodded, my limbs feeling heavy as I got up. Since I desperately wanted to avoid putting a target on my own back, I tried my very best to appear confident but not cocky. Sure and assertive, but not a know-it-all.
As I turned toward the sea of faces in the room, my head spun a bit. These were the people I was going to come up with. Those who made it were going to be my coworkers and my friends, but I might see some of them die and one or more of them might someday save my life.
Deep bonds were forged by people who went through this kind of experience together.
The way my dad told it, even just the training was going to test us individually and as a unit.
It was as important that I impress them as it was that I did the same with Master Chief Cortez, who I really needed to stop thinking of as Santiago.
We were not on a first-name basis, and we probably never would be. For the sake of my own sanity, I needed to stop thinking of him as approachable—even in my own mind. He wasn’t.
He was as off limits and as forbidden to me as no other person had ever been. I needed to remember that, and the best way of doing it was to think of him not as a person but as an instructor. A mentor.
“Well, Layla Perkins, why are you here?” he prompted.
“Honor. Respect. Devotion to duty. To me, these are not just words. They’re a condition to my employment and I believe that with every fiber of my being.”
I risked a glance at him, but his expression remained impassive. “Oh, good. You’ve been on the website. I didn’t ask you to recite the values of the USCG, cadet. I asked you why you are here.”
“You did, and I answered your question. People may not respect us as much as they do the Marines or the Navy. They may not think that we do as much work or that we’re as brave, but when your boat is going down in a hurricane and you’re surrounded by twenty-foot waves in ten-degree water, we’re the people who get called in to save you.
That’s a sacred duty, and it’s one that I’ve devoted my life to fulfilling. ”
“Have you now?” he mused softly as he lowered his head to one side, looking at me like he didn’t believe a word that had come out of my mouth.
I stood tall, though, refusing to back down.
So far, I’d been strong in my responses, but as he went on, I got the feeling that he was trying to make me understand that this wasn’t the place for me.
“Cadet Perkins, have you ever been surrounded by twenty-foot waves in ten-degree water? Have you ever been in a helicopter when the mother of all storms is raging outside and all you really want is to crawl home to your mama?”
I shook my head, and he snorted. “Yeah, I didn’t think so.
See, it’s one thing to read all about it on the website.
To hear other people’s stories. Once you’ve done any of it yourself, come talk to me.
Then we’ll see if you still believe it with every fiber of your being.
If you’re still around by then, that is. ”
I bristled, but he waved me back to my seat and called on the last few people remaining. Then he crossed his arms and perched himself at the very end of his desk. His jaw was tight and his posture was rigid as he looked at us like we’d all failed to impress him.
“I don’t like wasting my time. If any of you are going to quit, do it now.
There’s the door.” He inclined his head toward the back of the room, and when no one took him up on the offer, he let out a heavy sigh.
“Very well, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Now, some of you moved into your dorms last night.
Those who haven’t will have some time to take their things to their sleeping quarters now.
The guys are sleeping separately from the girls.
There are plenty of other dorms and living quarters between you to keep you from fraternizing at night.
If any of you were planning on trying to mingle after hours, I’m here to tell you to stop planning right now.
Rest assured that you will be caught, and when you are, you will have to answer to me. ”
Before he dismissed us, he gave the room another scrutinizing glare. “Everyone who still has to move in, go do it right now. The rest of you, you’ve got a few minutes. Use them wisely, then change into your PT gear and get ready for Hell.”
With that, he nodded and got up, then strode out of the room without another word. It turned out that it was just me, Hanna, and one other girl in our dorm, and just after we’d walked in, before we could even show her around or get her name, a drill sergeant yelled from somewhere behind us.
“You have five minutes to get to your first PT, cadets!”
My eyebrows mashed together as I slung my duffel bag off my shoulder and quickly unzipped it. “Crap. I knew I should’ve just changed in the bathrooms at the Center. That’s why I took the bag with me. I got lulled into a false sense of security when he said the others had time to move in.”
“What he meant was time to drop our stuff,” the new girl said.
Hanna rolled her eyes, strolling over to her clothes like she had all the time in the world. “Relax, ladies. We’ve got a few minutes. Wait for me, would you? I’ll be done soon.”
“Uh, no offense, but I’m getting my ass to PT,” the other girl said, shooting us an apologetic smile as she stripped out of her uniform right there next to her bed and rushed into her workout gear.
She was done less than thirty seconds later, and she waved as she jogged out of the dorm. “See you ladies out there.”
I sighed but dutifully waited for my friend. A mistake I was about to pay for and one I definitely wouldn’t make again.