She was overjoyed when her feet landed on the grassy ground. Delta jumped off the ropes, thumping down onto the ground beside her. He held up his palms for a double high-five, beaming at her.
“Good fucking job, tiger,” Delta chuckled as she enthusiastically smacked his hands. “You aren’t so bad at this. I don’t know what you were all worried about.”
She grinned in return, feeling a high. Shooting him a look, she replied, “Thanks.” Her gaze flitted around, realizing they were the only two people left on the course.
“This is why they put me at the end,” she sighed as they jogged toward the next obstacle. “They knew I would suck.”
“Nah, it’s just saving the best for last.” He reached over, squeezing her shoulder into him, literally melting her against his rock-solid body. I’m the best? A little smile tugged at her lips, and for the first time, she felt like less of an outsider and more like she belonged.
With that newfound sense of confidence, she leaped at the next obstacle, letting Delta help her again. He pumped her up, lifting her at her waist so she could grab the metal bars at the top, swinging herself across the structure like playground monkey bars that crossed over a swampy mess below. She stopped caring that everyone was watching them and seeing how much fun they were having together.
As he kept her pushing through the rest of the course, Delta laughed behind her as she slipped and fell off the last bar, but at least managed to jump to the side into the sand.
“It’s a tough one,” he said, pulling her up and dusting her off. “Let’s keep at it.”
He hoisted her back up to grab the last bar again so she could complete it without fail, making her feel like it didn’t matter how long she was taking. He was going to see her finish it. He didn’t seem to give a fuck what anyone else thought, either, showing that he was clearly a confident leader in the group.
“I can do this,” she told herself as she leaped off the last bar, completing another obstacle.
“Damn straight,” he called behind her, “with a goddamn vengeance.”
As they finished up the course, having crushed one obstacle after another, her heart was beating faster and faster. Her muscles were growing exhausted, but she didn’t care—something about being next to Delta made her feel things she hadn’t felt in a long time. Everyone else had expected her to quit, to flunk it—but she wasn’t. She was doing it.
With his final encouragement, they sprinted toward a tall tower. She nearly stopped before it, but he grabbed her hand and pulled her with him. He apparently wasn’t going to let her fail now, and he wasn’t going to leave her behind. Taking the narrow, winding staircase upward, Kendra gathered that the entire group at the training facility had crowded around the bottom of the rappelling tower—some cheering her on, some not.
As she and Delta made it to the top of the tower, she lost her breath, collapsing and taking a knee on the metal. Three stories high on an open structure was pretty fucking scary. If the rope climb had seemed high, this was practically a skyscraper. Even though she logically knew that wasn’t the case, her fear of heights spiraled out of control. Delta put his arm around her, pulling her in. He beamed down on her, having way too much fun with what he was putting her through.
“Holy fuck,” she squeaked, feeling that unadulterated vertigo.
“Don’t worry. I’ll go down with you.”
“I’m freaking out.” She blinked back at him, trying to not look around at the danger right before her. “I think I’m going to pass.”
“You’ve come all this way. You’ve got this.”
Delta’s voice was reassuring beside her, and once again he reached for her hand to lead her over the edge. However pliant they’d been before, her limbs had returned quickly to being tense and reluctant. She couldn’t even move. Her heart rate was through the roof. All eyes were on her. Am I going to do it? She stood stiffly, trying not to pass out.
She bit her lip, deeply regretting that she’d ever signed that consent waiver. That seemed like an oversight. Trying to ignore the fact that there were no guard rails, she perched on the narrow platform, wishing she’d given her sister a copy of her will.
Delta knelt and slipped a rappel belt up her thighs, harnessing it in place across her waist. He flicked the snaps and tightened it to fit her properly. His deft hands, working too close to her core, made her ache for his touch all over, making her even more uncomfortable.
“I don’t know what to do,” she murmured.
“I’ll let you down slow. Hold on to the rope,” he said calmly as he was explaining the process to her. “Just swing your foot over the edge, and I’ll do the rest. All you have to do is hold the rope and climb down.”
“Okay, okay,” she replied, her voice cracking.
As he made his final adjustments, heaving at the rappel system to ensure stability, she confessed, “They think I’m going to eat it. I’m a joke to them.”
He turned her toward him, speaking so low that no one else could hear. “Does it matter what they think? Fuck those guys.” His dark, determined focus poured that last little bit of needed confidence into her.
“I’m not cut out for this. I’m just not good at—” Her anxious voice trailed off.
“I bet you are damn good at a lot of things, Kendra.” Delta’s gaze hardened as he drove his words into her. “That’s very clear to me.”
As his assertion washed over her, she grew even more breathless gazing into his striking face, giving herself permission to feel what she’d been repressing all afternoon.
“Just listen to me. Trust me—and I promise you won’t be eatin’ nothing but dinner tonight,” he again assured her, straightening his spine as he stared down the tower. “So, you better tell me where I’m taking you.”
When he held the rope where it was bound to the handrail, his muscles flexed as he gripped her only lifeline. Biting her lip, she flashed her eyes over the side. It was happening. It was going to happen.
“I’ve got you,” he once again reminded her, encouraging her on. “Let’s go.”
So, she listened—and she trusted. For the first time in a long time, she did—blindly trusting Delta with her life. Swinging her foot over the edge, gripping the rope for dear life, she allowed her body to rappel down the wood planks bolted onto the side of the structure. Delta was the only thing between her and falling several stories down. Lowering herself one step at a time, she softened her grip on the rope slowly and surely.
“Oh my God,” she said to herself, “I’m doing this!”
She was one third of the way down—not bad. When she gazed up at Delta, he beamed down on her, shouting words of encouragement. Something warm hit Kendra in her chest—in her heart.
But…then her rope got stuck.
“Shit,” she said, tugging at it. “Shit.”
“Wait,” Delta ordered. “Stop.”
But she was too damn nervous to stop as she pulled at the rope again and again to release it. Then she realized it had lost its tautness. The mechanism at the top had faltered. She looked up, grasping the urgency splashed across Delta’s face.
“Fuck.”
“Oh God!” she cried out, while shouting commenced below her.
Delta immediately jumped down, grabbing the rope in one hand and sliding down the side of the tower—with no rappel belt. Just as he flung his body next to hers, the rope attached to her belt finally broke away from the mechanism and began dropping her in free fall. But, before she could plummet to her doom, Delta grabbed her to him just in time, and expertly kicked off the side of the building—rappelling fast and hard, bringing them both safely to the ground.
“Oh my God, oh my God.” She tried to catch her breath, feeling a crowd rush around her.
He’d saved her.
Delta leaned into her, grinning. “I told you it was fun.”
Inspector Hall tapped on her other shoulder, drawing her attention and asking her if she was okay. He eyed the head SEAL to the side as they both exam
ined her. It was clear that they’d just dodged a nasty bullet.
Trying to smile like she was fine, she couldn’t ignore the hot knife stabbing into her back when she overheard some guy making a snide comment about why they shouldn’t bring women to this type of training. Leaning back against the wooden side of the tower, she struggled to stabilize herself as she fielded questions from onlookers. Everyone was trying to figure out what the hell had happened. She felt dizzy, but now not just because of the near accident.
“What the fuck did you do?” Hunter’s voice hit her from the side. “You could have gotten hurt or worse, Kendra.”
She turned to him, struggling for words. He was shooting looks between her and Delta, who was momentarily distracted, fielding questions from his boss.
“I-I didn’t do anything,” she stammered to Hunter in disbelief.
Delta spun, apparently realizing she was getting grilled. His shoulders tensed as he shot Hunter a fierce look.
“Is there a problem here?”
Hunter stepped in between her and Delta, snarling. “Yeah, there’s a fucking problem. You almost killed her.”
“I did, did I?” Delta remained cool, studying his opponent.
“I’m taking her home.” Hunter grabbed at her arm.
“Sit the fuck down.” Delta took one intimidating step closer.
“Fucking SEALs.” Hunter fell back, grumbling as he released her. “She’s my fucking sergeant. Who is she to you?”
“She ain’t yours like that.” Delta squared himself, planting his body firmly in between them.
Before Hunter could counter, Inspector Hall spun back around, looking between the three of them. Kendra wondered if he saw what she saw—a protective SEAL and a retreating staff sergeant.
As she cast a side glance at Delta, he shot her a mysterious grin, like he had something up his sleeve. There was something glinting in his eyes. Then, he stood to his full height, confident and solid, calling out over the crowd.
“First round’s on me, boys,” Delta boomed, and his announcement was met by cheers.
She slipped the rappel belt off her shaking thighs, wanting to disappear.
“You need to refuel. Dinner?” Delta said down to her, pressuring her to accept. “Come on.”
“I—” Kendra started, searching for words. “I shouldn’t—”
He crossed his arms, scowling down his nose at her in his ‘don’t fuck with me’ way—both intimidating and stirring. He was simply undeniable.
She bit her lip as she grew the courage to ask him, “Why did you help me?” She nodded back to the obstacle course. “You were the only one—and I just want to know why you did it?”
“You don’t know?”
A little grin tugged one side of his mouth up, exposing his row of straight white teeth. Dipping his head and locking eyes with her, he demanded, “Just come.”
Her lips parted at the words, a hot pink flush running up her face. Did he mean to say it that way? She stirred, nearly jumping out of her skin. He curled his lips at her reaction, and Kendra knew then exactly what his game was. It was just that under his gaze, something inside her felt electrified. It was the something inside that had been alone, lost in her books for too long.
He wanted her to trust him.
And so, she cautiously accepted his invitation.
Chapter Eight
Present day
“I’m starting to get the feeling you really wanted to know what was in that blood.” Lily leaned against the lab counter, fiddling with test tubes while side-assessing Kendra.
Kendra exhaled slowly, knowing it was true. “But it’s not possible now, is it? We didn’t get enough of a sample, and I’ve lost the glove now. It’s gone.”
She bit her lip, hating how the glove had suspiciously disappeared in the car accident days before. She’d had the repair shop search her car for anything left inside, but its absence only led her to one conclusion. Delta had taken it back.
Lily grinned, looking down into the microcentrifuge between them. “Well, you may not have the glove, but we still have that small sample.”
Kendra lunged forward. “But it’s not enough? We barely scraped it for the PCR.”
“Sure, it is. I trimmed a piece of material off the glove’s knuckle, right where the dried blood was—very small, barely noticeable,” Lily said as they watched the machine work. “I hope it’s enough to give you the answers you seek.”
Kendra blinked as she observed the machine working, running aspects of the sample inside it. The answers she was looking for were just hours away.
“God, I hope so, too,” Kendra whispered to herself.
She couldn’t admit out loud just how important it had become to her—how much she wanted to understand the irregularities in Delta’s blood. Lily watched her, checking out the bruising that lingered on her temple from the car accident. Pensively, she reached up to touch her aching face. Kendra wasn’t the type of woman to engage in games with trust.
“Are you okay, Kendra?” Lily asked in a lower voice, concerned and compassionate. “Have you gone to see a doctor yet?”
Kendra let out a low breath, shaking her head. “No, I’m fine. I don’t need to see a doctor.”
“Don’t need to—or don’t want to?” Lily challenged her.
Kendra’s focus shot to her junior colleague. The truth hurt. Don’t want to was a far better description of how she felt. She did not want to go into the hospital or the clinic—or wherever. She did not want to see a doctor, just to hear them reiterate everything that she knew was wrong with her.
“You’ve got to take care of yourself, Kendra.” Lily spoke gently, as if knowing she was overstepping.
“I am doing just fine,” Kendra answered as she smoothed the outside of her brow where her head had hit the steering wheel, feeling the pain that lingered. “It’s going to heal. It was just an accident.”
Her final words came out like someone trying to convince themself, so she stopped. Lily raised her eyebrows but said nothing else, seeming to know more than she let on. It was no secret that Kendra was ultra-independent—to the point of pure stubbornness.
Kendra relented. “I don’t feel great right now. My head hurts, and it’s all been a bit much lately.”
Lily agreed, a sympathetic glimmer in her eyes. “The transition back to work is never easy. You’ve only been back at the lab for, what—a month now?”
Kendra gave a quick nod but didn’t reply. She hadn’t ever confided in Lily about all that had happened to her when she had been off work the past year—and she didn’t want to. She didn’t want to see those compassionate eyes flashing at her. She just wanted to feel normal, feel like she was good enough.
She just wanted to start over.
Taking in a deep breath secretly so Lily wouldn’t hear, Kendra watched the young laboratorian jotting down analyses in her lab report book, diligently working through the list of standard checks.
“It may help your report to know that the owner of the glove was in the military,” Kendra explained slowly, trying to get the conversation back on track. “The SEALs, to be exact.”
Lily’s lips formed an understanding circle as she nodded, her analytical eyes darting toward the test tubes and back to Kendra.
“I don’t know what you expect to see,” Lily began assuring her, “but I’m sure it’s all normal.”
“I just— I just need to see what’s in his genes.”
After a moment, the machine clicked, alerting them that it had an error. Lily immediately started working the console, trying to understand what the error code was telling her. She pulled out the instructions of the brand-new machine that were still hanging on the side.
“Error 72— Okay, now it’s telling us that it needs the optimizer add-on to complete the analysis,” Lily sighed, reading the material from the company. “The microchip optimizer assists in low-material situations—”
“The optimizer?”
Lily flipped through the pa
ges of the manual.
“Ah, yes. It’s an added cost to buy it, of course. And that makes sense—another way to make money.” She sighed, slamming the manual down in frustration. “They don’t give things away for free anymore.”
Kendra darted her gaze back and forth, trying to figure out a solution. Are we the only lab that has the new machine?
“What about our sister lab up north—in Bakersfield?” Kendra pressed, wondering what options they had. “They always get the best equipment.”
“Actually, I think they did buy the optimizer. Smaller police department, bigger lab budget—go figure,” Lily scoffed in disbelief. “Field trip?”
Kendra reached forward and released the lock on the machine, pulling out the sample. Lily gave her a bright, questioning expression.
Kendra explained, “I’ll take it to Bakersfield myself. I need you here to finish the real cases. Keep your eye out for plasma levels of doxycycline in those bodies. Don’t tell Hunter anything, if he asks.”
“So, you’re skipping town?”
“Just for the night.”
“You really need answers on this glove, don’t you?” Lily let out a low laugh. “Okay, I won’t say anything, and I’ll get Hunter his report.”
“God, I owe you. Thank you.”
Palming the sample from the glove, Kendra moved to the exit. It was a long enough drive to Bakersfield that she needed to go home first and make arrangements. She hadn’t gone away overnight for a long time, but this was something she needed to do, even if it meant being away from her baby for one night.
She had to understand her son’s genetic inheritance. She had no choice.
Then it happened—the thing she really, really didn’t want. A creeping sensation of guilt rushed through her mind, alerting her conscience to something she was failing to do. It was a question of morality at that point, something that Delta might be bereft of, but she wasn’t. She had to tell him—eventually. She had to tell him that he had a son.
Clenching her teeth, she stuffed that feeling of guilt away in a locked corner of her mind. Until he proved worthy of trust, she had no obligation to tell Delta anything. But she did have an obligation to protect her son, and she would do anything to do that.
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