“What are you doing here?” Sean asked brusquely.
“Last I checked, you told me to come here for team training,” Aidan said dryly.
“I meant this early,” Sean said, not sounding apologetic in the slightest.
Aidan cocked his head. “I am a very prompt person. I didn’t want you to think I would miss this for the world.”
“Why would you when you’re supposed to be on this team?” Sean asked.
Aidan was tempted to dig in a little harder and ask how the meeting with General Winter went but held his tongue. Sean wasn’t the first snarly person Aidan had dealt with, but something about the sheer dismissive attitude Sean had toward him dug deep into Aidan’s nerves. It wasn’t enough for him to lose his temper, but he also found he couldn’t help but try and poke at the man a little bit if only to ease his own frustration.
“Sparring again?” Came a deep voice, as Ricardo appeared to melt out of the forest.
Aidan chuckled. “That’s a pretty neat trick for such a big guy. We heard Sean coming from a mile off.”
Ricardo eyed him, a ghost of a smirk on his face. “Years of sneaking out of the house as a teenager.”
“Ooh, a delinquent, I like it,” Aidan said, giving Ricardo a wink.
For a moment, Aidan thought that the shadow of a smile might become a real one before even the hint of amusement disappeared from the man’s face. Aidan watched as Ricardo moved his attention back to Sean, and he wondered if the big man had forgotten how to be amused, or if he was attempting to show some solidarity with Sean.
Nick appeared. “Sparring?”
Sean sighed. “Yes, sparring. Our last CQC training ended prematurely, so here we are.”
Aidan once again had to stop himself from speaking and reminding Sean that it had ended early because Sean had got pissed off.
“And I want to see what our newest member is capable of,” Sean continued.
Aidan leaned back, not bothering to hide his amusement. “Really? You want me to fight?”
“If I’m going to know what you’re capable of, then yes, and we’re going to start with CQC. And you’re going to start by fighting me.”
Ricardo tilted his head. “Really?”
“I need to know, and what better way than to have him go up against me?”
“And the fact that you’re the best hand to hand fighter we have on the team?”
Aidan could see Sean struggling to find a response, either because he wasn’t sure himself, or he didn’t want to admit in front of everyone what his real motivation was. In truth, Aidan couldn’t argue with his logic, even if it might have been hiding a desire for Sean to be able to try and smack Aidan around a little.
If the guy wanted to work out some of his aggravations, then Aidan would be more than willing to give him the opportunity. Whether or not it would work out the way Sean thought it would, well, that was something else entirely.
Aidan shrugged, pushing himself up from the ground and dusting his hands off. “Alright, fine.”
“New guy is confident,” Nick noted.
“Just happy to be here and doing something,” Aidan said.
Sean stepped forward, over the edge of the circle and into the makeshift ring. “Good.”
“Any rules, restrictions, rituals, little dances I should know?” Aidan asked as he too stepped forward.
“No trying to kill or cause serious damage,” Ricardo said.
“And you go until someone says quit,” Sean added.
Ricardo frowned. “But someone from outside the fight can make it stop early.”
“So, don’t try to kill or hurt my team leader, got it,” Aidan said.
Sean took a readied stance, shaking his head. “Not me I’m worried about.”
“Aw, are you saying you’re worried about me?” Aidan said, unable to help the tease.
As expected, he could see the man’s eyes flash with a moment of sheer irritation and anger before the emotion faded away. It had been the same in their first conversation, where Aidan had watched as Sean struggled to rein in his emotions, seemingly every time Aidan spoke. He had yet to tell if that was his new team leader’s personality, or if the guy was just pent up and couldn’t let go of the wheel.
It didn’t matter, the man was obviously spoiling for something, whether a simple fight or a way of asserting his dominance, Aidan was curious to see how it would go. While he was certainly willing to admit a bit of curiosity at what Sean was capable of in a fight, he wasn’t going to admit that part of him found it amusing that Sean thought he’d be easy prey.
Sean watched him, snorting. “You going to start?”
“This is your party. I figure you should have the first dance,” Aidan said.
And again, that flash of temper, followed by a brief struggle and then nothing. Even then, Aidan wasn’t surprised when Sean advanced on him, ready to start the fight. In Aidan’s assessment, that was either a product of Sean wanting Aidan to shut up or his temper starting to get the better of him.
The first blow was easy to dodge, Aidan ducking around it with a soft snort. The next came, and Aidan weaved again and then around the follow-up blow. Sean was testing the waters, not going as hard as he could, but definitely trying to read Aidan’s reaction time and the way he moved. When the next attack came, Aidan weaved around it again, expecting the third blow as the fist came for his middle.
“Are we warming up first?” Aidan asked with a cock of his head.
He was almost taken off-guard by the flurry of the next set of blows. Sean had apparently decided he’d tested the waters enough and came at Aidan with fists flying. Careful to avoid the several blows aimed at him, Aidan dodged around those he could, and swept the rest away from him, sending Sean’s fists to either side before they could touch him.
“I don’t know, are you done ‘dancing’ yet?” Sean growled.
Frustration again, but was it because he had yet to come close to hitting Aidan, or because Aidan hadn’t struck back? Sean was a big man, admittedly he was only a few inches taller than Aidan, but he had more bulk, and all of it was muscle. Aidan wasn’t so blind as to miss the fact that one solid punch from Sean could spell disaster, and he wasn’t keen on getting his head knocked off by the stronger man.
“I’ve been waiting till you decided to start the fight,” Aidan threw back.
With a speed Aidan hadn’t been expecting, Sean threw himself forward, shoving his shoulder into him. Aidan pivoted on one heel, trying to get away before the blow landed, but was caught by the arm Sean shoved out toward him. It was a glancing blow, but enough to take Aidan off-balance, forcing him to twist to catch himself on the ground with one heel before he was sent flying.
Sean twisted with that same startling speed and lashed out with one foot, using his body’s momentum to drive his foot forward with extra force. Aidan caught it, a jolt running up his arms as the boot drove into his palms, but it was far better than taking the blow to its intended place in his gut. He knew better than to hold onto Sean’s foot, though, letting it go and allowing the momentum of the blow to let him gain distance between them as he stumbled back.
It was becoming rapidly apparent that Sean’s entire strategy during a one on one fight was to go at his opponent as hard and fast as he possibly could. He wasted no time in advancing on Aidan, lashing out with another series of blows. Aidan dodged once more, unable to help his laugh as the final blow sailed half an inch from his jaw, Sean’s knuckles nearly brushing his cheek as his fist flew by.
Sean growled. “You have a good sense of humor for someone who hasn’t even tried to land a punch yet.”
Adrenaline pumping, Aidan’s shoulders shook with another laugh. “Yeah? I don’t know about you, but I’m having a good time like this.”
It was the truth. It had been ages since he’d sparred with someone in earnest. Sean was trying to hit him and hit him hard. So far, none of the blows would have done more than stun Aidan and probably hurt like hell, but there was a th
rill in their safe combat. Even as Sean growled and lunged forward once more, driving Aidan to duck, weave, and make a hasty retreat on a few of his blows, Aidan couldn’t help his good mood.
That was until the next set of blows. Aidan managed the first two hooks well enough, still privately impressed by Sean’s speed. It was the follow-up of Sean’s elbow, which Aidan barely managed to avoid in his surprise, that shot Aidan’s rising good mood in the foot before he could hold tight to it. Elbows and knees were meant for doing damage, not just causing a bruise and a bit of pain.
Heat flaring in his chest, Aidan twisted away from the next punch, diverted the one that followed it, and prepared himself. Sure enough, another attempted blow from Sean’s elbow came flying, this time from below as Sean brought his elbow up toward Aidan’s stomach.
Patience breaking, Aidan didn’t bother to divert the blow, twisting and bringing his arm down so that he took the elbow to the meaty part of his arm. Ignoring the flare of pain, Aidan jabbed out, hooking his fist into Sean’s jaw. It hurt like hell, and Sean knew how unconsciously to prepare his body for the attack, so he wasn’t knocked out, but it was worth it.
“About fucking time,” Sean grunted.
“Figured if you weren’t going to hit me, someone might as well do it,” Aidan shot back, anger replacing his almost playful good mood.
The blow to Sean’s pride was as bad as the blow to his jaw, and he launched into the next attack. Aidan was always careful to make sure Sean’s blows landed on parts of him that wouldn’t be hurt too badly or injured severely, but that didn’t make them hurt any less. His own punches and jabs were far more precise, carefully aimed where they would hurt the most, and despite wanting to return the favor, he made sure not to go too far.
And then Sean tackled him, hard.
The air whooshed out of Aidan’s lungs as his back slammed into the ground, and he fought around the radiating pain from the back of his head as it smacked against the dirt. Another blow, this one against his head, came from Sean, and Aidan had to shake himself quickly out of his stunned daze. With an angry grunt, he smacked at the next attack and shoved Sean’s follow-up away as well. He wasn’t in the best position to keep up the fight, but he could buy himself time.
Sean cocked his head, smirking. “You look good on your back Sergeant, you should keep it up.”
Aidan almost laughed, was Sean finally loosening up and talking shit?
Aidan grunted, knocking the next couple of blows away again. “What can I say? Not often I get a big strong man like you on top of me. Make it hurt, daddy.”
Sean’s eyes widened, and Aidan took advantage of the moment of hesitation to shove his palms into Sean’s chest. The startled expression on Sean’s face disappeared and upon hearing the strangled gasp from Sean, Aidan used the man’s hips to push himself away and yank his legs free from beneath him.
Sean lurched forward, trying to catch Aidan before he could make good his escape. Shoving his chest against Aidan’s feet, he bent Aiden’s legs back toward his chest and used his weight to hold him down. Considering their last few comments, Aidan couldn’t help his laugh at their position.
Aidan twisted his body, repositioning. “Staff Sergeant, I’m going to have to ask you to take me to dinner first.”
“Christ, shut up!” Sean snarled.
“Fine, then get off me,” Aidan shot back, placing his feet into Sean’s chest, and using the ground beneath him as leverage, gave a huge shove.
Sean flew back from him, arms flailing as he tried to catch himself before he was the one who ended up on his back. Not content to let the other man get his balance, Aidan quickly scrambled up to launch himself. Shoving against the ground, he kept his eyes on Sean and leaped forward.
That was when a thick arm wrapped around his chest and yanked him back.
“That’s enough,” Ricardo said, his voice rumbling with a warning.
Aidan looked up, having completely forgotten that the rest of the team was even around them. The quiet man wasn’t looking at him, though, even as he kept his grip on Aidan. Instead, Ricardo was looking at Sean, his lips thin as he watched him.
Sean pushed himself up with a grunt. “I didn’t say we were done.”
“And our rules say anyone can end it, to keep it from going too far,” Ricardo said, holding Sean’s gaze.
“It wasn’t going too far.”
“That was...a little rough,” Matt said from somewhere behind Aidan.
“Yeah, man,” Nick agreed.
Sean jerked his eyes away from Ricardo, glaring at Aidan as though it were his fault. “Fine. I guess I’ve seen enough.”
There was no assessment given, but Aidan hadn’t expected one either. If he’d done badly, Aidan had no doubt Sean would have been more than happy to point it out. That he kept his silence and said nothing told Aidan he’d done just fine and had probably made an impression.
Though if the looks on the faces of the rest of the team as Sean stomped off were any indication, it might not have been the best impression to make.
Sean turned to face them before disappearing. “Be back here tomorrow. I need to see you all in action as a team.”
Somehow, Aidan thought he wasn’t talking about the team, but him.
5
Aidan
After days upon days of different training sessions, Aidan was beginning to suspect that Sean was trying to kill him. First had come their sparring session where Sean had gone a bit too far in his attempts to beat Aidan. Then had come the series of exercises, day after day. Then had come the first day on the Gauntlet a few days before, where Sean had continued to run them ragged.
The thing was, just as with the first day, and the couple that had followed it at the Gauntlet, Sean had been a little too focused on Aidan. While Aidan could forgive him to an extent, as he was still an unknown factor, he knew damn well it wasn’t just that. Aidan could tolerate Sean being hard on him because he needed to make sure Aidan could keep up, but after days of having everything he did nitpicked, made to repeat the course more often than the rest, and every little comment on Sean’s part, Aidan’s patience was running thin.
“Thirsty?” Ricardo asked, holding out a bottle of water.
Aidan took it, cracking it open and downing the entire bottle. “A bit.”
Ricardo snorted. “Guess so.”
Aidan glanced over toward the rest of the team huddled together. Nick and Matt were chatting away with one another, managing to have a conversation without an argument. Sean, however, was gazing off into the distance, absently chewing his bottom lip.
“Is he always this much of a hard ass?” Aidan asked.
Ricardo glanced at Sean sighing. “He’s...always been demanding, that’s how being a team leader goes sometimes.”
Aidan was more than aware of that, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that Sean was specifically targeting him. In fact, he damn well knew it was true. There had been extra sets forced on him during workouts, several times during the Gauntlet, he’d been made to repeat some of the harder walls and crawls while the rest were not. If there was some flaw that Sean could find in what Aidan did, and force him to repeat it all over again, he was bound to do it, and without hesitation.
Aidan grunted. “I guess it’s just new guy syndrome is all.”
Ricardo frowned. “I wouldn’t take it personally.”
“Wasn’t planning on it.”
Which was a damned lie, but he wasn’t going to tell Ricardo the truth. The rest of the team seemed to be tolerating his presence pretty well. Nick didn’t seem to say much, but Matt was friendly with him, and Ricardo was at least trying to be nice. Sean, however, seemed to hold everything against Aidan and didn’t want to let up.
“You could try not goading him,” Ricardo said.
Aidan looked askance at him. “What, and treat him differently than I treat anyone else? I tease you guys too. It’s who I am.”
“He is the team leader.”
“And we’re suppo
sed to be a team. Maybe if he wasn’t such an obstinate ass, looking to take offense at every little thing I did, I wouldn’t give him such a hard time. Instead, he’s being a complete dick, and you can’t stand there and tell me it’s all my fault for giving him a little sass once in a while.”
Ricardo looked away, shrugging. “He’s…”
“An ass.”
The corner of Ricardo’s mouth twitched, but the smile never fully formed. “He can be, sometimes. I’ll be honest with you, Aidan, you seem to set something off in him, which is...weird. The past few months, he’s generally kept his temper in check, but I get the feeling he’s barely holding on.”
Aidan sighed. “Then maybe he should let it out, get that shit out of his system, and then we can all deal with it. I’m tired of waiting to see if he’s going to lose his mind or continue being an asshole forever.”
At a distance, Sean turned around and motioned the two of them over with a curt gesture. Ricardo looked at Aidan, giving another shrug and walking forward to meet with the rest of the team. Aidan closed his eyes for a moment, cursing himself for doing exactly what he said he wouldn’t. Ricardo didn’t need to know that Aidan was just as frustrated as it seemed Sean was, and he didn’t need to hear Aidan bitching about their team leader either.
Sighing, Aidan followed after Ricardo. “What’s up?”
Sean glanced his way, green eyes flicking over Aidan’s face before returning his attention to the rest of the team. It was moments like that, where Aidan was left wondering what was going through Sean’s head. When Sean wasn’t glaring at him, there was always a strange look in the man’s eyes, some emotion that disappeared too quickly for Aidan to detect. It drove him nuts, especially because it was so much easier to dislike the man when he was being an obvious asshole.
“We’ve been doing the Gauntlet enough for the past few days, so we’re going to use it in a different way this time around,” Sean told them.
Trust Me, I Hate You Page 4
