Goddess Rising (41 page)

“What the fuck is going on here?!” Rita shouted, standing between them, head swinging back and forth, eyes wide with disbelief. Sam moved to push Rita out of the way and get at Alejandro again, but Rita caught her arm, shaking her hard.

It was dark, too dark to get a good look, but Sam could see the strained outline of veins popping out of his neck and face, saw the faint glimmer of sweat as he coughed hard, fighting to regain his breath, still holding his arm and his balls.

“What the fuck is going on here?” Rita asked again, looking back up at Sam with a furious expression. “Jesus, you nearly killed him.”

I wanted to. I’ve never wanted to hurt someone so bad in my life.

“That piece of shit
tazed
me!” Sam shouted, pointing at him.

Rita’s eyes widened. She turned back to Alejandro, who was struggling to sit up in the dirt.

When he said nothing, Rita patted him down roughly, finding and pulling out the Taser from his cargo pants’ pocket. She looked up at Sam, disbelief marring her features before she swung back around and smacked Alejandro hard in the back of the head.

“Ouch!” he grunted, glaring up at her. “What the hell, Rita—?”

“What the hell?!” Rita shouted, furious. “What
the hell
is the matter with you, Alejo?! You’ve crossed the damn line this time—”

“Oh, I’d say you’ve all crossed the line.”

Sam stiffened at the voice, turning.

Colonel Sasser stood behind them in a t-shirt and his fatigue cargo pants, looking disheveled, sleep-deprived, and seriously irritated.

“You jackasses can consider yourselves in deep shit, as of right now.”

September—4 a.m., Sunday Morning

Camp Swift, Bastrop County, Texas

S A M A N T H A

I
nside a musty
field office at Camp Swift, Sam and Alejandro sat stiffly in uncomfortable chairs, waiting for their punishment. Rita was wedged between them like an angry, bristling human barrier. She took turns staring at each of them in disgust, her face alternately disappointed and outright furious as she muttered obscenities in Spanish—words Sam wished she didn’t understand.

Colonel Sasser had awoken his lieutenants—presumably by telephone—shortly after marching Sam, Alejandro, and Rita into the office. Bewildered, the sleepy lieutenants looked at the three offenders in harried surprise when they’d arrived to the office fifteen minutes prior. These were the absolute
last
three people they’d expected to see in this situation. Sam wished that were the case. In the space of a few hours she’d gone from riding high on her team’s win to feeling like she’d gotten gut-kicked by a donkey.

Alejandro had one hand on his temple and the other on his junk as he slouched in the chair. Her ribs felt ravaged from his powerful uppercut. She knew they were bruised, possibly cracked. Sam wanted nothing more than to cradle her side and curl up in a ball, but she wouldn’t give that bastard the satisfaction of seeing how much he’d managed to hurt her, so she sat stiffly, ignoring the vibrating ache in her body.

Her anger had abated to bleak awareness that she was not only going to get kicked out of the Challenge—she might very well get kicked out of the ROTC altogether for conduct unbecoming.
Jesus.

Sam and Alejandro said nothing, waiting for their sentence in hostile, exhausted silence.

“If I lose my scholarship because of you—” Rita shook her head suddenly, emotion cutting off her words just as the office door snapped open.

“De Soto, Wyatt—get your worthless asses in here!” Sasser shouted from the desk as one of the lieutenants gestured them in.

They both stood swiftly, posture rigid as they marched into the office. Sam went first, standing at attention.

Alejandro stood tall beside her, all trace of his physical discomfort gone—a testament to his willpower, because she knew it had to cost him.

“I will give you each one chance to tell me exactly why you two were out of barracks after hours. Then I’ll decide how we’ll handle this infraction,” Sasser told them, his expression stern as his lieutenants looked on grimly.

Sam had no idea how much Sasser had seen of the tussle, but she did know how much was riding on her answer. In her mind, what had happened between her and Alejo should stay between them. She wouldn’t have her superior stepping in to save her, and she sure as hell wasn’t going down ratting on a fellow cadet, no matter how much she hated him. She’d never be a snitch. Sam knew without a shadow of a doubt that once you got a reputation for ratting people out, no one in your unit would ever trust you. And if no one trusted you, you’d never make it. Not here, not
anywhere.

Sasser looked at her first. Sam took it to mean she’d be the one to start.

She could lie a little or lie a lot, but the punishment was likely to be the same either way. She decided to go for broke—make a lie so unlikely that it would almost be acceptably outrageous.

“Sir, yes, sir! I apologize for being out of barracks after hours. I was having difficulty sleeping, and I decided to step outside for a smoke.”

Sasser considered her, his eyes narrowed.

“Cadet De Soto must have heard me, and he followed me out to order me back into barracks,” she continued, staring straight ahead. “I asked him to have one cigarette with me to celebrate the win tonight, and he reluctantly agreed, sir.”

Sasser raised his brows.

“To the victor goes the spoils, sir,” Sam added, sheepish. “And Cadet De Soto was a good sport. He agreed—against his better judgment.”

If Alejo was surprised by her lie, his body language didn’t show it.

“We smoked and talked—”

“About what, Cadet?” Sasser cut in, clearly disbelieving.

“Dallas Cowboys versus the Chicago Bears this season, sir. De Soto stated firmly that the Bears had the best chance of making it into the playoffs this season, and I said
, ‘No way, no how,’
sir,” Sam continued, back rigid, eyes straight ahead. “We got into a friendly tussle. Cadet Ramos came out to tell me to get back to the barracks. You saw us when we were getting ready to ruck up. It was my fault Cadet Ramos was out after hours, sir. She was just trying to do the right thing. Any punishment should land squarely on me, sir.”

Sasser stared at her in silence for what felt like a solid minute. It was no news to anyone that there was no love lost between her and Alejo, but she could feel him wondering why she’d lie.

“De Soto, your turn.”

“Sir, yes, sir! I heard a noise outside of the barracks and went to investigate. I was worried one of the men on my team was outside, and as the leader for my team, I felt responsible. When I saw Cadet Wyatt, I ordered her back to barracks. She was smoking a cigarette and asked if she could finish. Maybe it was bad judgment on my part, but I felt like she’d earned it, sir.” He paused for a quick breath, his chest high and his posture rigid.

Sam was more than a little shocked he was going along with her, but she figured he realized her story was the least likely to get them kicked out of the ROTC altogether. Thank Christ no one had patted Rita down and found the Taser, or it would have been all over for the three of them.

“We got into an argument about football, sir,” he continued. “I told her the Chicago Bears have had their first four-win season since 1975, and she said it wasn’t enough to make the playoffs. We got into a friendly tussle. Cadet Ramos came out to get Cadet Wyatt, sir.”

“Prove it.”

Alejo blinked. “Sir?”

“Can you prove your story is true?” Sasser asked, leaning back in his chair, fingers steepled under his chin. “Otherwise, I’m fixing to kick both of your sorry asses to the curb. Not only will you be out of the Ranger Challenge. You’ll be out of the ROTC for fighting, lying, and insubordination.”

Sam fought not to react.
How had tonight gone so goddamn sideways?

“Sir, may I reach into my side pocket?” Alejandro asked.

“Only if you think you can pull a rabbit out of a hat, cadet,” Sasser replied. One of his lieutenants snickered from behind. Sam ignored him, wondering what Alejo was up to.

Alejandro pulled out two cigarette butts, field stripped like a proper soldier. He held them out for inspection.

“I was going to toss these afterward, but you caught us before I could, sir. I apologize for my role in this situation. As a senior cadet, I should have set a better example, but I didn’t. The punishment should lie with me, sir.”

Sam could barely suppress the smile. Alejandro was a son of a bitch, but at least he had an iota of personal accountability. And for the first time ever, he’d actually backed her up. Granted, she was trying to save his ass too, but it took two to tango.

Sasser considered them both for a long time, his expression wary. Finally, he released a long, irritated sigh.

“I’ve never seen the two of you agree on the color of the sky, much less on covering up whatever you were mixed up in tonight. Fact is, you two are among my best cadets, and you know it.” Sasser paused, and then he leaned forward, clasping his hands on the desk. “But you broke the rules tonight, regardless of exactly what happened out there. So here’s what’s going to happen first: You’re both out of the Ranger Challenge for conduct unbecoming.”

Shit! Shit, shit, shit
.

Epic disappointment crashing through her. Everything she’d worked her ass off for—gone with one
incredibly stupid
fight.

“I don’t buy either of your stories for a single minute, but I also know neither of you two will come clean, and to be honest, I kind of like seeing you idiots doing something as a team for once, even if it is so damn wrong.” Sasser paused, leaning back in his chair. “So here’s the thing I’m going to do: You two will be paired up together for every single detail, event, exercise, and corrective action for the rest of the year until this little Abbott-and-Costello act you’ve got going becomes the real deal.”

Sasser stood up and moved past his desk, coming to a stop in front of them. “You two need to learn what every real soldier knows—that without each other, neither of you will survive.” Sasser looked at each of them. “Neither of you will succeed without the other this year. So you two had better figure out real quick how to work it out.” He nodded at the two lieutenants. “Get these morons out of my sight. They’ll be doing two extra hours of PT tomorrow, cleaning gear and equipment while the cadets finish FTX.”

“And Cadet Ramos?” one of the lieutenants asked.

“Latrine duty,” Sasser replied. “She wants to mop up their bullshit? Then let’s give her the real thing.”

September—Sunday Morning

Wyatt Ranch, Texas

R O B E R T   W Y A T T

R
obert sat on
the porch swing, swaying gently as he enjoyed his morning coffee and a copy of the Sunday paper. The phone rang inside the house as he finished the article he was reading.

Hannah poked her head out the screen door.

“Rob—you’ve got a call from a Colonel David Sasser. Do you want to take it outside or pick it up in the library?” she asked, wiping the flour from her cheek.

“Can you bring me the phone?” he asked, wondering why Sasser was calling. They’d spoken briefly after David told him Wes was still planning to write the article, but he wasn’t due for a check-in on Samantha’s progress for another week or so.

Hannah brought him the cordless and poured him a warmer for his coffee. He smiled his thanks as he answered the phone.