Chapter 6
LAYLA
Four a.m. sure came quicker here than it did out in the real world. At least, that was how I felt when Santiago’s voice suddenly invaded my dreams. “Get up, cadets! Let’s go! We’re moving out in five. Your dreams can wait. It’s you and me now, kids. Let’s go!”
I groaned, yawning into my pillow before sitting up and stretching my arms out. As I looked over, I saw Melanie, the other girl, already getting out of bed while Hanna had simply pulled her blanket over her head. “Hanna! Get up. You heard him. Come on. I’m not getting there late again.”
“Leave me alone,” she moaned. “I was having such an amazing dream. I know he said they could wait, but I was gutting him and it was incredible.”
Despite myself, I giggled before I tossed my pillow at where I thought her head was. “I’m sure it was incredible, but we’ve still got to go.”
Taking a page out of Melanie’s book, I shed my pajamas right here and changed into my PT gear, then headed into the bathroom to brush my teeth. Less than two minutes after he’d woken us up, I was ready to go.
“I’m giving you thirty more seconds,” I said to Hanna, who was dressed but was still rummaging around in the dark to find her toothbrush. “If you’re not ready by then, I’m leaving without you.”
“A mint it is then,” she said before popping one into her mouth.
She was still tying her shoelaces as we left, but we still made it to the field course with a minute to spare.
Unfortunately for me, that meant that we had time to look around while Santiago waited for the last of the cadets to arrive.
The course I found myself staring at was an absolute monster, built to challenge even the strongest, fastest, most agile people here. Suddenly terrified that he was going to expect us to get this thing done before breakfast, I felt my heartrate spike and my palms grow sweaty.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
Our instructor stepped forward like a specter from the shadows, and as he checked his watch, I tried to get my nerves under control.
His gorgeous blue eyes rose to look at us, and even though I couldn’t see the color, I’d stared at him so intently while we’d been running yesterday that I didn’t need to see him now to know what they looked like.
Seriously, the guy’s eyes were something else.
The blue was so deep and sparkly that it was like looking up at the sun while diving forty meters underwater in a tropical ocean.
It was a color and an effect I couldn’t describe, but it was so damn magical that he’d made me breathless just by looking at me on that run.
The exercise had had nothing on staring into those eyes.
Crap. I really need to get over this little crush of mine.
I already knew nothing was ever going to come of it, and more than that, I really didn’t like him as a person.
While he was undeniably pretty to look at, as a human being, he was so not pretty.
Whatever he had inside him, it was dark, sanctimonious, and ugly.
He was a prick of the highest order and I was quickly starting to think that I was going to hate him soon. At the moment, it was more of an intense dislike, but we were only on day two. I was pretty sure I was going to get to hate before we hit day ten.
“Good morning, cadets,” he called much too cheerfully for the hour and the monster course behind him. “For those of you who are awake enough to have noticed, don’t worry. I’m not expecting you to be able to conquer this thing this morning.”
A few sighs of relief rang out, and mine was one of them. He smirked. “However, by the end of your training, you will be required to complete it. If you can’t do it by then, you can make yourselves available to the industry because you sure as hell won’t be getting a job here.”
As he spoke, he started forward and we followed after him, listening intently as he pointed out all the obstacles and walked through the entire course with us. Some of it looked manageable enough, but other parts were going to be very difficult to master.
When we came to the end and I saw an eight-foot wall towering up ahead of me, my spirits crashed to the ground. I was only five foot six. There was no way I was going to make it over that thing. Gee, thanks for the heads-up, Dad.
“This is going to be harder than I thought it would be,” I muttered to Hanna, who was about the same height as me, and she simply nodded.
“Right.” Santiago clapped his hands and blew his whistle when we reached the starting point again.
“Let’s see how things go this morning. I’ll be waiting with a stopwatch at the wall.
You’re going four at a time. Remember, it’s not a race against each other.
It’s a race against yourself. Don’t try to keep up with whoever is on the course with you. Just try to make it through.”
We divided ourselves into groups when he turned and strode away, and then the games really began.
Obviously, Jonathan and his merry band of assholes went first. To my utter surprise, a few of the easier-looking obstacles seemed difficult for them to manage, but I was a whole foot shorter than most of them.
Realistically, some things would be easier for me to navigate than it would for them.
Unsurprisingly, all but one of them made it over the wall on their second or third tries. I let out a frustrated breath, but soon it was my turn along with Jameson, Hanna, and Melanie.
We started at the sharp snap of his whistle, but I lost track of the others after that.
For the first part of the course, we had to crawl through sand on our bellies and this was definitely where the smaller people had an advantage.
There was less than an inch of space between the top of my head and the bars we had to duck beneath, but that was plenty of space for me.
Jameson fell behind almost immediately, but we weren’t competing, and I also knew he’d be making up the time he was losing as soon as we were clear of this obstacle. And he did.
I was still lugging a massive tire across the sand when he sped past me, heaving his tire with ease. He even managed to smile as he overtook me. “Hey, great job back there. You made it look like a piece of cake.”
“Thanks,” I ground out between pants as I tried to return his smile. So far, Jameson was the one guy who didn’t make me feel like he was looking down on us girls, and I appreciated him for it.
After that, I was on my own again and I worked on getting back into my zone. Just as I’d expected, some of the obstacles were definitely easier to get through than others. To my surprise, I managed a few I’d expected not to be able to do and a couple some of the others had struggled with.
Before I could get too confident, however, the wall was rising up ahead of me with our hateful instructor standing right beside it. When he saw me emerge from the last obstacle before the wall, he sighed and shook his head.
“Don’t even worry about this one today, Perkins,” he called as I ran toward it. “This is where I always lose a lot of people. There’s no way you’re going to make it over, but especially not today.”
My eyes narrowed and my heart started thwacking against my ribs. My muscles were already aching from the exertion and I had a feeling I was barely going to be able to lift my arms, but fuck him. I wasn’t going to give up without even trying.
It made me mad as hell that he would even suggest something like that, and I channeled my anger into my first attempt at the wall. I gave it my all but to no avail. I couldn’t even come close to the top, let alone over it.
Since I’d watched a few of the guys scaling it earlier, I’d seen how they had managed it, but no matter what I tried, I just couldn’t do it. Santiago watched me without a word of either encouragement or discouragement, but eventually, he pointed at the side.
“Quit wasting everyone’s time, Perkins. Just go around it.”
After stopping to give him a gut-melting glare, I tried again, but when I failed, he snapped at me once more. “Get off my course, Perkins! Now! You’re holding up the rest of your class.”
I glanced behind me and saw what he was talking about. A few other cadets had reached this point by now, and they were all waiting for me so they could take their turns.
With a defeated groan that made me feel worthless, I walked around the wall and hung my head. It only took a few seconds before a couple more people had been told to give it up, though. Thankfully, I was far from the only one who’d failed at that final obstacle this morning.
It didn’t make me feel much better, but at least it allowed me to walk away from the course with my head held high. As we got to breakfast, Hanna and I collected our trays and got some oats, fruit, and toast.
When we sat down, Hanna moaned softly. “Dear lord, I hurt in places I’m not even supposed to have places. How the hell are we supposed to do that all over again tomorrow morning? And what is with that wall? Obviously, it’s designed to take out the women.”
“We’re going to get over it,” I said confidently. “Mark my words, by the end of this, we are going to have figured out the secret. There has to be one. I’ve seen a lot of short women in search-and-rescue. I don’t know how they did it, but we’ll figure it out.”
“You heard what Cortez said.” She sniffed and did her best to imitate his deep voice. “This is where I always lose a lot people.”
I rolled my eyes, chuckling at her impression of him before I shook my head. “We’re going to make that prick eat his words. That is not where he’s going to lose us.”
Of course, because the universe hated me, as I said it, a pair of gorgeous blue eyes met mine. A smirk appeared on Santiago’s full lips as he passed us carrying a tray of his own breakfast. Not even pretending that he hadn’t heard me, he put a piece of toast in his mouth and spoke around it.
“We’ll see, Perkins,” he said, making me more mad than embarrassed.
I had no idea why he seemed to want me to quit so badly, but I was going to show him.
Nothing he did was going to force me out.
My dad was the toughest nut of them all and he’d raised me.
A chauvinistic dick like Cortez sure as heck wasn’t going to crack me when not even my own father had been able to.