Phoenix

by Crouch, Janie

  If Wildfire was going to be on the WAR course, that’s damn well where he was going to be too. He still needed answers.

  He’d spent the rest of the day running around Oak Creek prepping. WAR wasn’t something you just showed up for unprepared.

  Athletes were only allowed to use and eat what they carried with them in a backpack. Part of the challenge of the race was deciding how little you could survive on and still maintain optimal levels of performance. The race provided water and shelter. Everything else you packed and carried yourself.

  The lightest sleeping bag and smallest amount of food—usually in the form of nutrition bars or MREs, Meals Ready to Eat—could make the difference between who won or lost the race overall. Running twenty miles a day, plus the daily adventure events of the race, required a lot of calories, but everyone also wanted their packs as light as possible.

  Riley wasn’t necessarily trying to win, but that didn’t mean his competitive nature was going to just let him coast. He’d begged, borrowed, and bought what he’d needed to get him to the starting line with all his provisions this morning.

  Now if he could just focus on what he was doing, he might survive the next five days.

  He pulled himself out of the pit.

  “You doing okay there, Phoenix?” Baby Bollinger gave Riley a little salute as he came up to the balance beam next to Riley. Baby was the younger brother of Finn, one of the founding members of Linear Tactical. “Saw you take a tumble. Looked pretty hard.”

  Riley took a confident step onto the beam. Lack of confidence when you had thirty feet to walk across was going to end with you down in the pit.

  Of course, not concentrating the way you should would end with you down there too.

  Riley nodded. “Momentary loss of focus.”

  Baby gave a good-natured chuckle as he moved slowly across the beam. “My brother and his buddies have made it so a momentary lack of focus in this race might get you killed.”

  They both moved across their beams, arms out for balance. “That’s the damn truth.” And it really was. Figuring out what to do about Wildfire was going to have to wait or there might not be anything left of him to worry about anyways.

  She’d be here each day as race support. Until he figured out a plan, that was enough.

  He finally made it across the damned balance beam with no more falls. He and Baby stayed together as they ran the quarter mile to the next element, a fifty-foot rope climb with two ropes. Every ten feet, there was a barrier requiring the competitors to swing from one rope to the other. Nets were set up to keep people from dying if they fell, but it was going to take a shit ton of time to get out of them and back down if they fell and had to start over.

  “Shit,” Baby muttered. “Gabe Collingwood is a sick son of a bitch.”

  They both shook their heads as they spotted a giant yellow sign with a huge smiley face on it. Under were the words Remember, you paid to do this.

  They both flipped off the sign and ran over to two of the empty sets of rope.

  Riley immediately used both his arms and his legs to shimmy up the rope. Times like this, he was glad he did functional strength training as much as possible rather than just hitting the gym. A gym could provide the strength element but didn’t include other factors that came into play with a challenge like this: grip, agility, balance, and burst strength.

  A lot of times, there were no gyms around when he was filming stunts in the middle of the jungle, wilderness, or mountains. So functional training had been the only option. Hell, one time in Nepal, he’d spent his mornings pulling a cart of yak dung five miles.

  At least the smell had encouraged speed.

  Riley pulled far ahead of Baby as he reached the top, rang the bell, and climbed back down. But considering Baby wasn’t a professional athlete, he wasn’t doing too badly. Being a mechanic was its own sort of functional training.

  Riley took off for the quarter-mile run to the next obstacle, smiling as he caught sight of the front-runners just a little farther head. He was making up time. He grinned even harder when he saw what was slowing them down.

  A team element, a fifteen-foot vertical wall that no one was going to be able to get over by themselves. Riley could understand why an obstacle like this would be included in Navy SEAL training, where team building was of critical importance. But in a competition where there was only one winner, requiring athletes to work together was just cruel.

  “Sadistic bastard,” Riley said with a chuckle.

  He added extra speed into his gait so he could catch up with the three men ahead of him. When he made it to the wall a few minutes later, the athletes were still arguing over the best way to handle this.

  “How’s it hanging, fellas?”

  Damon had decided to bypass Sri Lanka and join Riley in the race. He stepped to the side now and pointed over his shoulder, revealing Amber Lowe.

  Shit. Everyone knew Amber. Or had known her brother, Felix Lowe. Riley hadn’t realized she’d be racing here.

  “Sorry, Amber. I didn’t realize you were racing. Good to see you.”

  She nodded and gave him a small smile. “They let me take Felix’s spot, since it was already paid for.”

  Felix definitely wouldn’t be racing it.

  Riley patted the woman on the shoulder, wishing he wasn’t so awkward. “That’s what he would’ve wanted.”

  Everyone around them murmured their assent. Felix had run in the same adventure and extreme sport circles as all of them until a skiing accident last winter. Riley and Damon had been there. Had seen Felix lose control and go over the side of a small cliff.

  The fall had left Felix paralyzed. Then, unable to handle it, he’d committed suicide a few months later.

  Riley had wondered every damn day since that accident if there was something he could’ve done to have changed the outcome of what had happened.

  “I’m not trying to be an asshole, but are we just going to wait for everybody else to catch up with us or are we going to do this?”

  Good old Bo. Always ready with his unfiltered comments.

  “You’re an asshole, Bo,” Gunnar Jefferson muttered.

  Riley didn’t know much about Gunnar except that everyone called him Iceland since that’s where he was from. He was known more for endurance races than the stunt stuff Riley and Damon did. The man generally kept to himself. But if he was up here at the front of the pack, then he was definitely a contender to win WAR.

  “What, Iceland?” Bo shrugged. “I’m just saying what everyone else is thinking.”

  Riley doubted anybody else had been thinking that.

  “Bo is right,” Amber said. “Look, somebody else is on their way. Let’s get moving.”

  “You need to send me up first,” Bo said. “I’m tallest and the only one who’s going to be able to reach that top. I’ve got the upper body strength to pull over everyone else. I’ll do my part.”

  “What’s to stop you from jumping down the other side if we lift you over first?” Damon asked. It was a valid question.

  Bo rolled his eyes. “I’ve already told you I’ll do my part. Now let’s quit bickering like old women and get past this thing so we can get on with the race.”

  Everybody looked over at Riley to see if he would voice an objection. Since he didn’t have anything better planned, they might as well get going with this one.

  “Hoist him up.”

  Riley and Iceland got into position at the bottom of the wall with their hands cupped. Damon and Amber stood to the side, ready to provide support if needed. Bo jogged a few meters back and turned to face them. He counted it down and ran toward them at a full sprint. Riley and Iceland both grunted as they caught his weight—bastard was fucking solid—and pushed him toward the top of the wall.

  Bo grabbed it and pulled himself up the rest of the way. They were all a little bit surprised when he swung one leg over for balance but remained up there.

  “I thought he was going to bolt,” Damon murmured.


  They all grunted in agreement.

  “Send up the chick,” Bo called out.

  “Chick’s name is Amber, asshole.” Amber sounded so much like her brother Riley had to smile.

  Bo rolled his eyes. “Whatever, sweetheart. We’re wasting time. Let’s go.”

  “You want a hoist?” Damon asked her.

  She nodded, then stepped back and turned to sprint at the wall. She stepped into Damon’s waiting hands, and he was able to propel her much higher than they’d gotten Bo. Bo grabbed her hand and pulled her the rest of the way, and soon she was sitting opposite him over the wall.

  The two of them would be able to help get everyone else over.

  But then Bo gave them a little salute. “Okay, I think we can agree I’ve done my part.” Without another word he slipped his leg over the other side of the wall and slid down out of sight.

  Iceland shook his head as they watched Bo sprint out from behind the other side of the wall and leave them behind. “That guy really is an asshole.”

  “All right, people, it’s not like we weren’t expecting something like this.” Riley looked up at Amber. “Can you pull someone up by yourself?”

  “Yeah. Send Damon. He’s lightest.”

  They set back up to send Damon up to the top. True to her word, as soon as Riley and Iceland hoisted him, Amber grabbed his hand and pulled him the rest of the way.

  Her brother would’ve been damn proud.

  Iceland went next and by that time Baby had caught up to them.

  “Got room for one more to your little party?”

  Riley nodded. If they didn’t help Baby now, he’d have to wait until the next three or four people made it. Actually, Baby would be pretty damn useful.

  “I can hoist you up, the guys will catch you, but then you’ve got to hang and let me crawl over you. Then they’ll pull you up.”

  “Wow, just the sort of fun I was hoping for when I signed up for this crazy race.”

  Amber got down off the back of the wall as Iceland took her place. Double-checking that Damon and Iceland were both ready, he and Baby jogged back to position. “I’m three seconds behind you so that the guys don’t have to bear that weight too long.”

  Baby nodded. “Roger that.” A couple seconds later, Baby burst toward the wall. Riley caught his foot and gave the man as much of a boost as he could.

  Iceland and Damon caught Baby, both of them grunting as they lowered him back down.

  Riley backed up, then flew at the wall. Parkour had never been his area of expertise, but he kept his footing as light as possible as he grabbed Baby’s shoulders and basically climbed up his back. He pushed off Baby, leaping for the top of the wall, grabbing the edge, and pulling his weight up so that the other guys didn’t have to hold both him and Baby any longer.

  All said and done, it took less than eight seconds, but they were all breathing heavily by the time they were up and over the wall.

  But they had done it.

  They leapt down to the other side.

  “Now let’s go finish this hellish course and catch that cheating bastard.”

  Chapter 6

  Boy Riley didn’t leave.

  But then again, she hadn’t really expected him to. After all, why would he when she’d basically torn her own clothes off to have sex with him the first time they were alone?

  That didn’t exactly suggest she was serious about the breakup.

  So, when he’d shown up this morning at the starting line in race gear and with a race backpack rather than his regular one, she’d known he planned to stay.

  Never mind that he hadn’t specifically trained for WAR like so many of the athletes had. Never mind that he probably hadn’t had most of the needed supplies. He’d shown up, determination in his eyes.

  Whether it was to get answers from her or win the race—or both—she wasn’t sure.

  She’d stayed away from him as he’d listened to Zac’s briefing and chatted with the other athletes. He hadn’t come near her. Hadn’t tried to talk. Thank goodness.

  Damn heat between them. She had to make sure they weren’t alone for the rest of this race. She couldn’t let that happen again. Her heart couldn’t take it.

  So she would just ignore him. Or treat him like every other athlete: with detached respect. If he needed medical assistance, she’d help, of course. And she would clear him to race each day like she had to do for everyone.

  But that was it. Besides that, she would pretend she didn’t even know him.

  Which worked perfectly as she pretended she didn’t even notice him taking off at the start line for the eight-mile loop that led the athletes to the obstacle course.

  Then she had pretended not to watch him on the obstacles themselves.

  It definitely hadn’t been his best day. She’d winced with every fall, felt every bruise as if it was her own.

  But even unfocused and at a disadvantage, he’d still been beautiful to watch.

  He was always beautiful to watch. There was a grace to him, the way his body moved. It was something only the most elite athletes possessed.

  She’d always been sort of awed by his physical prowess. Whenever they’d done anything together, she’d always felt clunky and slow and cowardly.

  Watching him just reminded her why they had to remain broken up. The physical differences between them from the beginning had been bad enough. The MS would just make it all unbearable.

  At that point, she’d turned away from the obstacle course to drive back to the camp where everyone would be sleeping for the next three nights. She needed distance.

  “Nobody has died yet, have they?” Zac smiled as he walked over from the supply truck to where she was standing outside the medical RV a few hours later. “I only expect that face if someone needs to be taken to the hospital.”

  Zac didn’t know about her diagnosis. Anne would never tell him even if it wasn’t for all the privacy laws. Riley had gone to Reddington City for all her tests to make sure no one in Oak Creek found out.

  She found a smile for Zac. “I’m just preparing myself for all the whining about to commence. You know how endurance athletes are. Big babies when it comes down to it. Second only to Special Forces soldiers when it comes to whine.” She elbowed Zac’s rock-hard abs. He, like most of the other guys who made up Linear Tactical, had served in the Army Special Forces.

  And they were definitely not whiny.

  “If you think they’re going to be boo-hooing today, you should see what we have in store for them tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow’s the kayaking, right?” The specifics of the race were a closely guarded secret until the night before, when Zac, as race director, would hold a briefing about what the athletes could expect the next day. Riley had been sworn to secrecy, and even she didn’t know all the details.

  “Yup. Rapids navigation and kayaking skills. Everyone will have two choices: the long and safe route, or the shorter and much more likely to get you killed route.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I don’t even have to guess which route most of them are going to take.”

  “Well, the river will filter out those who can’t handle it. They’ll never be able to make the turn to get to the harder rapids. But I’ll have most of the Linear team out ready for emergency water rescue tomorrow in case they’re needed. How’s Phoenix on the kayak?”

  She tried to hide her flinch. “He wins. Like he does everything.”

  Zac ran a hand up over his hair. “Damn, I’m sorry. I heard you guys broke up. I’m just so used to you being—”

  She touched his arm. “Don’t worry about it. Everyone is used to the two of us a unit. It’ll take a while for us all to adjust.”

  It should only take her thirty or forty more years. “And Phoenix is better on a kayak than a lot of people might think,” she continued, forcing a smile. “It’s less his paddling skills and more his situational awareness, I think. He sees stuff sooner than most people do.”

  “That’s wh
y he’s a world-champion athlete.”

  She nodded. It was exactly why he was a world champion in so many sports.

  “He would’ve made a damn fine soldier also.” Zac poured water into a large pot and set it over the portable stovetop to heat. The athletes would start coming into camp not long from now. They’d need hot water for their MREs or freeze-dried meals. “You know Phoenix has helped Linear out more than once in some kidnapping situations. Gotten our men into places they wouldn’t have been able to access otherwise.”

  “I know. He loves making a difference.” How many hours had they spent talking about the missions he’d helped with?

  God, she couldn’t keep thinking about this if she didn’t want to end up crying like some whiny Special Forces soldier.

  “Okay, so tomorrow.” She changed the subject. “It’s not the kayaking itself that’s going to give me the most business, but getting up and down to and from the river. Gashes, sprains, that sort of thing?”

  He nodded. “Hopefully, everyone will take it slow and easy and no one will take the riverbank too fast and end up with a concussion.”

  They looked at each other and both rolled their eyes. The chances of the participants, particularly the elite athletes, taking it slow up or down the path into the river were slim to none.

  Riley laughed. “I’ll be ready.”

  This camp would be home base for the first three nights. The tents were already set up for the participants, although they had to clear out the tent each morning and take everything with them in their backpack. Self-sufficiency was part of the challenge of this race, requiring the athletes to figure out what was necessary for optimum output.

  They looked at each other as both their walkie-talkies went off. It was the volunteer stationed about a mile out from camp. “We’ve got our first athlete coming in.”

  Riley waggled her eyebrows at Zac. “Let the whining begin.”

  They walked together toward the camp’s entry point. “You got your bets on anyone?” she asked Zac.

  He shrugged. “I would’ve said your… I would’ve said Boy Riley on principle, but…”

  “Yeah, he was looking a little rough out there on the obstacle course this morning. Unfocused. I think it’s probably jet lag, or honestly, lack of training for this specific race.”