Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 71880 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71880 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
“Hide me, Mister Rivvuh!”
Nope, don’t involve me in this family madness. Kids were so damn breakable, and I didn’t need that on my conscience. I’d already made one of Greer’s kids cry once when I accidentally threw a football too hard, and I’d felt like shit for weeks. So I just stood there and folded my arms over my chest.
Elliott let out a laugh and closed the distance in a few quick strides. “You should’ve picked a better bodyguard, sweetheart.” He scooped the boy up and threw him over his shoulder. “Breakfast in the mess hall when you’re ready,” he told me.
I nodded with a dip of my chin. He knew I had an errand first.
“Daddy, noooo!” Julian protested. “I don’t wanna wear pants!”
He really sounded like Reese.
The rest of my morning walk around the house was uneventful, and I ended up outside the command center a minute later. Upon opening the door, I spotted Coach and Reese by the wall of screens. One for each recruit.
Reese took a swig of his coffee and zoomed in on Shay’s screen. The beacon blinked red against the digital illustration of the terrain. Judging by the topography, Shay was moving through a valley not too far away from his last marker.
“How’s everyone doin’?” I asked, joining Reese at his side.
Coach was inspecting Ames Wilde’s screen. That young woman was something else. I’d been impressed by her determination since we’d arrived.
“Just one marker left for most of them,” Coach replied absently. “Finnian and Crew almost crossed paths during the night, and Shay’s heart rate spiked at around four after staying still for three hours, so I’m guessing wildlife woke him up.”
“He’s on the run again. All’s well.” Reese pointed to Shay’s screen.
Thank fuck. Encountering wildlife was to be expected, but it was never pleasant.
Reese extended his coffee mug without taking his gaze off the screen, and I took a couple sips.
The recruits were moving through a massive area of approximately four thousand acres, so running into wildlife was more common than stumbling across a fellow recruit. The terrain offered zero paths and roads; it was all thicket, trees, mountains, and valleys. Plenty of streams and rivers too.
A lot had changed since Reese and I had gone through the selection process. For one, we hadn’t carried heart rate monitors or beacons transmitting through a satellite network. We’d appeared on no screens. We’d had flare guns… For two, we hadn’t been able to contact each other out there either. These days, in case of an emergency, the recruits were allowed to reach out and perform first aid if necessary.
“Daddy, I’m hungry,” I heard a boy complain.
“One minute, baby—Daddy’s just gonna check in on the boys.” Ryan poked his head into the room and nodded at us. “Final stretch, eh? No more dropouts?”
Four dropouts wasn’t bad, actually. Three young men and one of the women.
“None last night,” Coach confirmed.
“How’s Crew doing?” Ryan pressed. “Asking for a Finlay.”
I smirked.
Coach chuckled. “You can tell Cullen his boy will likely finish first.”
I wasn’t surprised. He had the most field experience—although, the vast majority of that came from deserts, not rainforest. Even so, he was one hell of a Marine who refused to quit.
Ryan disappeared again, but soon, another Quinn came in.
Darius. And he had their three runts with him. I liked Jayden; at fourteen, he wasn’t as fragile as Justin and Cass.
“Which one’s Dad’s screen?” Jayden asked Darius quietly.
“Number three, up there.” Darius nodded at the screen in question, studying it.
“Daddy, I want up.” Cass held up her arms, and Darius soundlessly positioned her on his hip.
“Nothin’ to report, buddy,” Coach said. “Gray’s on his way to his last marker in sector four.”
Just twenty-four more hours.
Reese Tenley
When all the kids—and a few partners—had gone to bed, we marked our last night without our recruits with alcohol in the courtyard. We’d put the firepit to use a lot.
I leaned back in my Adirondack chair and planted my feet on the edge of the firepit.
One last drink, then bedtime.
“Where did Coach go?” Danny demanded.
“To check the screens,” Ryan yawned.
“I think he’s particularly interested in Wilde’s screen,” Mercier noted.
I cocked my head at him. Huh. He might have a point. Coach had been monitoring her closely.
River refilled my drink.
Maybe another after this one too. I hadn’t decided yet. To be honest, it was just nice to hang out with the guys. We had no young punks who gave us crap for going down memory lane, and most of us here went way back. Joel and Mercier were the exceptions, but they’d been in the game long enough to relate in their own way.
Aside from those two, Darius, Ryan, Elliott, Danny, Em, Coach, River, and I—we all had Hillcroft that refused to stay in the rearview. Something we’d come to accept now.
With Shay joining as an official employee next week, River and I had agreed to come in as consultants occasionally. For training and shit like that. And given the direction Elliott and Mercier had taken with JATE, they were more involved too.