Chapter 5
SANTIAGO
Already waiting in the field for my class, I kept a close eye on the orange hands of my dive watch as time ticked by. As soon as the second hand hit the top of the clock, I nodded and stepped forward, noticing that Layla and her friend hadn’t made it here yet.
Regardless of how much respect I had for the girl’s father, I wasn’t about to wait for her. Maybe I’d have given her an extra thirty seconds before, but since Ron had specifically asked me not to give her any special treatment, I wouldn’t.
“Alright, cadets,” I called as I put my whistle to my lips and blew it.
The shrill sound shut up everyone who hadn’t already fallen silent, and I walked to the haphazard front row of cadets, huffing when I realized they couldn’t even form a straight fucking line.
“First things first, this is not how you assemble when you hear my whistle. First graders do better than this. Get yourselves organized. Have some damn pride and stand in proper lines.”
There was some shuffling, but soon, it was looking a little better. Mercifully for the others, Layla and Hanna finally showed up and gave their classmates a reprieve from the tongue-lashing they’d been about to receive.
I checked my watch again just as they joined the back row. “Perkins and Meeks! Front and center. You’re one and a half minutes late. Are your watches broken? Did you not hear the drill sergeant telling you how much time you have? Enlighten me, please.”
“It’s only ninety seconds,” Hanna muttered, and my chest ignited with rage.
I strode closer to where they’d gathered at the front of the pack, knowing that I was about to make a scene and hoping it would make a lasting impression.
“The most important thing that all of you have to get into your thick skulls is that everything else means nothing if you are late. If you reach someone who’s in trouble a minute and a half after they’ve died, it doesn’t make an ounce of difference to their families that it was only ninety seconds.
If you arrive at an airplane for a mission ninety seconds late, it’s gone.
No matter how good you are, you’ve missed your flight.
If you miss the drug runners or the boat of starving immigrants a minute and a half late, that’s it.
They’re gone. Today, you’re lucky that you’re only going to have to run an extra mile and a half to make up for it. ”
“Yes, sir,” Layla said, looking me right in the eyes as she dropped her chin in a curt nod. I swore I saw a flicker of shame in her eyes, but it was a pity I didn’t see something similar in Hanna’s.
I wasn’t about to interfere, but as far as I was concerned, this friendship was not good for Ron’s daughter. The Meeks girl clearly had some kind of a chip on her shoulder, and if Layla wasn’t careful, it was going to bring her down too. Not my problem, though.
Layla Perkins obviously was no longer the little girl whose achievements and grades her daddy had liked to brag about. If she was too stupid to see a bad influence for what it was, then I couldn’t help her.
“Fall in line, cadets!” I yelled as I spun away from them.
“Before we go for a little run, let me tell you what I expect from you for the rest of this class. First, if you can’t keep the pace, you’d better start working on it.
Fast. Second, if you fall behind after the first mile, you might as well turn around, head back to your dorm, and pack your bags.
Last, I will not tolerate chatting or bullshit.
You’re here to work, not to gossip with your friends. Let’s go.”
Immediately taking off on probably the easiest path around here, I set a brisk pace but not an unreasonable one.
Hell, Perkins had us doing the most difficult route at double this pace on our second day.
I preferred to get a feel for my new class on day one, to trick them into thinking it was going to be easy on day two, and then only to really let them have it on day three.
Unfortunately, after only two miles, one of my cadets was already struggling. I jogged around the others and headed back to him, then ran backward as I shook my head and pointed back at the Station. “Go wait for me in my office. I don’t have time for weak links.”
The guy exhaled heavily, then ground his teeth and clenched his jaw as he shook his head right back at me. “No, sir. I can do this.”
“We’ll see about that.”
At least he has some fire in him.
Since I’d been hoping he wouldn’t give up that easily, I let him get away with talking back to me. As I watched, he picked up his pace and managed to catch up with the others, but it remained to be seen if he was going to fall behind again.
It wasn’t much of a surprise that Jonathan Hayes and his boys were right up front, pushing the others to keep up with them.
I’d clocked him as one of those guys, the type who came in and pushed the envelope.
Cocky and annoying as fuck, but unfortunately, usually with the balls and grit to back it up.
I stayed behind the pack for a while and ended up sending a few people back after all, but I also kept a close eye on the others. Jameson Gray, for all his lack of eloquence, was right up front with Jonathan and his friends, and none of them even looked slightly winded.
In the middle of the pack were Layla and Hanna.
I picked up my pace a little to reach them, and Hanna immediately slowed down but that was good by me.
I honestly didn’t think she was going to graduate from this program anyway, and the sooner she accepted that, the better.
As she fell back, I turned my focus on Layla.
“You know there are easier jobs than this if you want to be part of the Coast Guard, right?”
Her cheeks were only slightly flushed, her breathing even as she glanced at me. “Like what?”
“Working on the Station,” I said, not as harshly as I should’ve. “You could do paperwork. We have amazing administrative teams. There’s also PR and marketing, recruitment, outreach programs, and a whole bunch of other things that are safer and have better hours than search-and-rescue.”
With every word I said, she just ran harder. “Is it just because I’m a woman?”
I snorted. “No, it’s definitely not that. Some of the best people we’ve got are women, but it’s about being the right kind of woman. Same for men, by the way. Look around you, I’ve already sent four of those back.”
As she did what I’d said and realized I was telling her the truth, her pace picked up a little bit more. “Thank you for the career advice, but I’m exactly where I need to be.”
I hid a smile at that, pushing forward instead to go see what was happening up front since old Jonathan seemed to be cracking jokes again. He was, this time about what he was going to do with all the pent-up energy he’d have left after this lame run.
As it happened, a lot of his suggestions involved sticking his dick in one of the female cadets.
My blood boiled as I grabbed the back of his collar and yanked at it.
“Do you have hearing problems? I made myself clear, cadet. You’re not here to gossip, and if you think we’re letting you within fifty feet of their dorm at night, you clearly haven’t been listening. ”
Anger flared deep within those brown eyes, but his footsteps hadn’t faltered. As he wrenched free of my grasp, he had the decency to eyeball the dirt. “Yes, sir. It won’t happen again.”
“That’s strike two, Hayes. One more and you’re out.”
He growled somewhere in his chest, and I had no doubt that he wanted to punch me right now. He could try. It would only earn him a couple black eyes and a one-way ticket to a court martial. It didn’t even matter if he was one of those guys.
Generally, his type made it through, but they either ostracized themselves or they got knocked down a peg or two by something or another on the job.
They only became bearable once their egos deflated a bit.
If we got lucky, training got the job done, but if it didn’t, the job itself would.
I hadn’t had one yet who fell in that rare class of simply ostracizing themselves.
There were a few old-timers like that, but no one who had come up through the training recently. Either way, Jonathan was going to have to learn some respect if he was planning on passing while I was in charge.
After I left him to stew in his thoughts and fantasies of fighting me, I checked in with Gray, decided I liked him just fine, and then headed back around to the rear of the group. No one else had fallen seriously behind, but Layla had dropped back and seemed to be giving Hanna a pep talk.
I briefly considered interrupting them, but then I realized that it wasn’t my place. If the girl was going to crack, she was going to crack. A few of the guys were muttering to those running alongside them as well, and I wasn’t interfering with any of them.
Just because I’d already pegged Hanna as someone who lacked the drive and determination to get through this didn’t mean I had to be harder on her than any of the others.
My decision not to join them was absolutely not influenced by the fact that, as I made it, I realized that I actually had a pretty good view from back here.
As much as I hated myself for even noticing, I was only human and Layla’s workout gear clung to her full curves like a second skin. Her shirt was a little big on her, but since she’d worked up such a sweat, it was now sticking to her in all the right places.
I could do this run without breaking a sweat, blindfolded, in the middle of the night, with one hand tied behind my back. So while the others seemed to have a bit of a hard time with it, I didn’t have to focus on what my feet had to do at all.
Instead, I did the unimaginable. I let myself stare at my mentor’s daughter’s ass, even if I knew I’d be going straight to hell for it. I wouldn’t even pretend that I couldn’t help myself. This wasn’t some pathetic case of body betrayal.
I could help myself. I had almost two dozen other cadets in this class to check on and a heck of a lot to think about, but I didn’t. Instead, I decided to give myself just this run to get her out of my system.
Those perfectly shaped thighs and supple ass would haunt my dreams for days to come, no doubt, but they were going to do it regardless of whether I let myself look or not. The problem was that Layla was my idea of sex on a fucking stick.
She was curvy but strong. Beautiful but smart. She had fire in her soul and determination in her bones. Getting that underneath me would be heaven. Fuck. I really need to stop thinking about her like that.
And I would.
Just as soon as this run was over. As soon as I hit a cold shower when we got back, I would stop, but for now, the forbidden fruit was just a little bit too juicy and the run was just a little bit too boring.
As I watched her toned flesh shift under all those layers, I groaned softly and sent a piercing glare up at the heavens above.
Damn it. Maybe I should’ve gone for one of the harder trails after all.