Chapter 20
LAYLA
After the weekend, I was feeling refreshed and ready. I had a new outlook on training and I was going to smash it this week. At the end of the day, even if I hadn’t made any friends here or had any bonding experiences, I was getting to do what I loved with a super hot guy leading the way.
Maybe friendship and bonding experiences would come, and if they did, I definitely wouldn’t be opposed, but if they didn’t, then it was what it was. I still got to do what I loved and Santiago Cortez was still leading the way.
As long as both of those things remained true, I was happy. The first one in formation on our first morning back, I bounced on the heels of my feet and rolled my head from one shoulder to the other. He’d said to be ready for a big week this week, and I was.
Slowly but surely, the other cadets jogged around the training center and joined me on the field, falling wordlessly and effortlessly into formation as we waited for our fearless leader to arrive. It was weird how seamless our mornings were becoming.
A few people murmured to each other, but there was no real talking. We also weren’t standing in haphazard lines anymore and no one seemed unsure of where to stand or what to do. I grinned when I realized how organized we had to look right about now.
Santiago is going to be proud.
Once he arrived, however, it was immediately apparent that he was not in a good mood. There was a deep scowl etched into his features and his movements were stiff. Almost robotic. When he was standing in front of us, he simply glowered for a few long minutes before he even said anything.
I stared at him with my hands clasped behind my back, wondering what could’ve happened to upset him this much. As I stared at him, I realized he hadn’t looked directly at me yet. Not once. Those blue eyes were glaring at everyone but me, which was either a very good thing or a very bad thing.
Nerves erupted through me when I saw his jaw ticking and his Adam’s apple bobbing. His shoulders were set in a straight, hard line, and although he looked as good as ever in his uniform, he was so tense that it kind of looked like he was about to Hulk out of it.
On the other hand, that wouldn’t be the worst thing ever.
I sure wouldn’t mind getting a better look at that body.
Friday night, I’d noticed tattoos on his abdomen that were usually hidden by his clothing, but I hadn’t even really seen them yet.
It’d been too dark and I’d been a little too preoccupied with what had been going on in my own body.
Which is something that I now deeply regret. If he’d been serious about it never happening again—and I didn’t doubt that he had been—that meant I wouldn’t get the chance to explore him the way I couldn’t stop thinking of doing.
The shrill bite of his whistle pierced the early morning air before he’d even said anything, fully waking up anyone who might have needed that extra bit of help.
The sound also yanked my mind right back to the present and I blinked, standing up a little straighter when I realized we were finally getting underway.
“I hope you got that rest, cadets. We’re starting this morning with a five-mile run.
” One of the other cadets came around the building, but he was late and Santiago clearly knew it.
He glanced at his watch, then shook his head.
“Make that a ten-mile run. You’re doing an extra mile for every minute Murphy made me wait. ”
Soft groans sounded around me, but I didn’t mind the extra running. It would give me some time to get my head back in the game after that stroll down sexy memory lane. As soon as we took off, though, I realized this wasn’t going to be just another leisurely run.
Santiago set a punishing pace right from the outset and he kept it up. He also didn’t double back this time to check if anyone was falling behind, and if he heard someone say a word, he snapped at them from his position at the front of the pack.
We were all breathing hard by the time we got back to where we started. It was time for breakfast, but as we started getting ready to go, Santiago blew his whistle again. “You’ve had three days to eat nice, long breakfasts. Get to the course, cadets. We’re not done yet.”
What?
This was a definite deviation from our usual routine, and I was starting to question if he was doing this because of us sleeping together.
He still hadn’t so much as glanced in my direction, but as we got to the course, it was evident that this was going to be the hardest day of our time here so far.
He let us drink some water, but most people hadn’t even caught their breath from the run before he blew his whistle again. “Today, you’re doing this one at a time. I’m going to be at every obstacle with you and we’re going to make sure you’re doing this right.”
On the sharp shriek of the whistle, Jonathan took one for the team and volunteered to go first. Santiago went through every obstacle with him, pushing him to go faster, to do better. A trend that continued when the next cadet took his turn and for everyone who went after that.
When it was my turn, he still hadn’t really looked at me. There wasn’t so much as a hint of warmth in his eyes when he blew the whistle to signal my start, and even as we moved away from the others, he didn’t relent.
Those blues were hard as stone, supremely focused as he put me through my paces. When I got to the wall, he sighed and pointed around it. “You’re not wasting my time today, cadet.”
Cadet? Not Layla or even Perkins. Cadet.
I wasn’t one to get butt hurt. I hadn’t doodled our names in my notebook or drawn hearts around his picture in my training manual. I knew that what we had was not a relationship and that it wasn’t steering toward a happily ever after, and I was okay with that.
But cadet? Really?
Coming from the guy who’d taken me places I’d never been before just three days ago, that kind of hurt. I glanced at him once I’d walked around the wall, my muscles aching but my face, hopefully, not betraying how I really felt.
“Is everything okay?”
He rolled his eyes at me. “None of your concern, cadet. Get back to the group.”
Well, that stings.
Even so, I didn’t argue. I simply blew out a frustrated breath and did what he said. Some of the guys who’d been around the obstacle course were now lying on the ground while others were sitting and stretching out their muscles.
Master Chief Cortez was pushing people to their brink today, and it was showing. As I sat down on the ground next to Jameson Gray, I kept my voice down even though he’d already taken off after the next cadet.
“What do you think is going on with him?”
Jameson squirted some water into his mouth and shrugged. “No idea, but if he carries on like this, half our group will be gone by the end of the week.”
I looked around at the others, taking note of the panting, the pained looks, and those who were on the ground and didn’t even have their eyes open. “Yeah, you might be right. Did something happen over the weekend, or do you think it’s just because we’re getting closer to the end?”
He shrugged again. “No idea, Perkins. I wasn’t here this weekend.”
He got up and his eyes darted around before he gave me a quick smile. “I’m sorry, but I’m really not going to risk talking to you today. Not with the mood he’s in. I like you, but I have a feeling he’s going to want to punish me for it.”
I sighed but nodded my understanding. “You do know that he only did that because of the way Bruce treated us and not just because he was speaking to us at all, right?”
Jameson smiled again. “Yeah, I do. Everyone does, but until he calms down, I’m not taking any chances.”
He gave me a small nod, then strode over to where Jonathan was watching the last of the cadets go through the obstacle course.
Their heads bent together as they talked quietly, and while I was a little jealous that they’d obviously had the bonding experience I wasn’t getting, I wasn’t going to put them at risk by making them talk to me.
Especially not today.
Santiago came back to us once the last cadet was finished, and everyone scrambled to get into formation when we noticed him heading our way.
Once he was standing in front of us again, not even looking slightly flushed or winded while the rest of us felt like we were dying, he swept a disapproving gaze over the group as a whole.
“One of you brought a woman back to the Station and to the dorm this weekend,” he said, his voice dangerously low and quiet.
“The actions of one of you reflect on all of you. Clearly, you have not learned respect for your role, your Station, or the work we do here. Until you learn that respect, you can expect more of what you got this morning.”
Shock ricocheted through me. He did all this because someone brought a girl back with him?
My heart stammered in my chest. If that’s true, then this must also be about what we did on Friday. Shit. This is partially my fault.
It was his fault, too, though. Hypocritical freaking hypocrite. It takes two to tango, buddy.
“This is not a brothel,” he said as he walked slowly up and down between us.
“If you can’t control your baser urges, then this isn’t the place for you.
I’m not going to tolerate you bringing people back to the Station and turning your dorm rooms into a live sex show.
That is not what we do here. It’s not how we treat our facility, and it sure as hell isn’t what we gave you the time off to do. ”
I wanted to snort so badly. For weeks, they’d been putting a bunch of twenty-somethings through hell, and then they gave us three days off. Surely, he should’ve expected someone else to do the exact same thing he had done.
Since I didn’t want to bring his wrath down on myself, however, I kept my snort in and the disbelief off my face. Santiago went back to the front before he’d even come close to me. “Go have breakfast. If there’s anything left for you to eat. Dismissed.”
After briefly debating hanging back to try to talk to him, I decided it was useless.
A fool’s errand. The guy I’d caught glimpses of before was obviously gone, and the dick was back in full force.
Gone was the guy who laughed and talked about his mother.
Gone was my passionate, skilled lover with all that heat in his eyes.
Instead, he was back to being a stone-cold prick, and I had a feeling I wasn’t going to see that other side of him again. Not anytime soon anyway.