Finish the Course (The Barnes Family Book 1)

by Riker, Becky

  “Indefinitely.”

  Slater heard a soft noise coming from the back of her throat, but he didn’t think the general’s ears were that good.

  “And our impending assignments?” Anna’s voice conveyed none of her annoyance, but her toe had begun to move in a tiny pattern back and forth across the carpet.

  “I’ll take care of that.”

  Slater had another question, “May I call to see what the schedule is?”

  He nodded, “You are free to move around and use the facilities,” he handed them visitor passes, “but please do not leave the complex. Tomorrow, we will meet with some CIA operatives who will be conducting Ms. Hanbali’s interrogation.”

  “Are there laundry facilities on site?” Anna rose next to Slater.

  He nodded and extended a piece of paper that turned out to be a map.

  “Please keep your cells on you at all times. Dismissed.”

  Slater and Anna walked back toward their rooms.

  She spoke up first, “House arrest.”

  He didn’t respond.

  “I’m not really sure why you even needed me with you.”

  He wondered if she resented him, “I didn’t request you come along.”

  That sounded rude even to his own ears.

  “I didn’t say you did.”

  He didn’t think her tone indicated irritation, but he didn’t know her that well.

  She looked up from the map she was studying.

  “Do you want to play some horse?” she pointed down at her foot, “I’d challenge you to one on one, but I’m kinda slow.”

  “I haven’t played ball in months.”

  She grinned, “Afraid you’ll lose?”

  He laughed, “Just saying I’d love to.”

  They went back to their rooms.

  “I need to call Hall before I do anything – to get the schedule for everything.”

  She opened her door, “I’ll get changed. You can come get me when you’re ready.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  Anna opened her door and walked into her room, tugging her jacket off as she walked in.

  “Hello, Captain Barnes.”

  The words, softly spoken, nearly made Anna jump out of her skin.

  Sitting on her bed was Lieutenant Avery Hall.

  She was about to call for Slater when a hand covered her mouth. She knew better than to bite the hand or to wrestle against the one gripping her middle. Her heart rate increased. She assumed these were the good guys, but, after the past few days, she couldn’t say she trusted anybody.

  Hall frowned at the guy behind Anna, “She’s not gonna scream, Porter.”

  Porter dropped his hand but left his arm around her. She pulled against it. He let her go.

  “Actually,” she corrected the seated man, “I was.”

  Porter’s hand came up again. She rolled her eyes.

  “Porter,” Hall chided.

  He loosened his hand, “Just don’t yell.”

  She stepped away from him again, “I promise.”

  “Where’s Reed?”

  She frowned, “You don’t know?”

  Hall folded his arms across his chest, “Should I?”

  “How’d you find me?”

  “I had your phone traced.”

  She leaned her hip against the desk, “That’s creepy.”

  “Where’s Slater?”

  Anna warred between telling them just so she could get rid of them and making them squirm.

  She folded her arms across her chest, wishing she had left her jacket on. She looked more feminine in just the t-shirt – feminine and vulnerable.

  “Did daddy get a whiff of another man sniffing around and decide to put an end to that?” Porter crossed to the wall.

  She blinked, “And that scenario would make me. . .?”

  Hall shrugged, “Fill in the blanks.”

  “You would do well to show some respect regarding my father, as well as me, soldier.”

  Hall dismissed her counsel, “Where is he?”

  “Why didn’t you trace his phone?” she ignored his question.

  “He has the sense to take out his battery.”

  “I suppose I would too if I had known he had friends like you spying on me.”

  “Listen, Lady,” Porter had a menacing look in his eye, “quit wasting our time.”

  “Sergeant Porter,” she bit out, refusing to be intimidated, “you may refer to me as Captain or ma’am. You may not call me ‘lady’ or refer to me as any variety of animal. If you have trouble remembering this, perhaps a stint in a basic will help you learn.”

  They were having a staring contest when Anna heard the door to her room open.

  “Anna,” Slater was obviously speaking from the hallway, “I’m not trying to sneak a peek of you in your towel, but are you ready to go?”

  She smiled smugly at Hall before answering over her shoulder.

  “Come in, Captain Reed. I have a little surprise for you.”

  “Um,” he sounded unsure, “what kind of surprise?”

  She walked toward the door and threw it open, “Not that kind of surprise, Reed,” she nodded toward the room, “Come in.”

  He saw his friends instantly, “Hey, guys,” he was less surprised and more pleased to see them than Anna had been, “What are you doing here?”

  Hall and Porter both embraced their friend.

  “We could ask you the same thing, chief,” Porter sat down on the bed.

  Anna pointed to the door, “You could also ask yourself why you’re having this conversation in my room.”

  Slater looked surprised by her unfriendly attitude, but she wasn’t going to enlighten him.

  Hall stood up and nudged Porter, “I assume your room is nearby, Reed?”

  Slater pointed, “I’ll be right behind you, guys.”

  They each offered a mock salute to the captain and left.

  “What was that about?” Slater closed the door.

  She pulled a pair of hot pink gym shorts and a t-shirt from her bag.

  “Are you seriously not going to answer me?”

  She turned to him, “What would you like me to say, Reed?”

  He sat down, “We’re back to last names?”

  She sat down and pulled her walking boot from her injured foot before moving onto the laces of her boots, “Fine. Slater. What would you have me say?”

  “How about starting with why my men were in your room.”

  “I left my phone on, and you didn’t. They found me.”

  Slater sat and stared at her, “And they knocked on the door to say, ‘Do you know where Reed is?’”

  She unfastened her belt, “Not exactly.”

  His eyes followed her hands’ motions.

  She smirked, “You’d better go get that schedule for your team’s memorials, and chat with your boys a little.”

  “They were in here when you arrived?”

  She tugged her shirt from her pants, “I’m going to change now, Slater.”

  He didn’t let it go, “Were they rude to you?”

  She shrugged, “They didn’t know where you were, and they thought I did.”

  Slater grinned and stood up, “But you thought it would be too easy to tell them I was next door.”

  Anna simply smirked in response

  He rolled his eyes and left.

  Slater opened his own door, “You guys need to work on your manners.”

  “If we do, can we call Captain Barnes, ‘Anna’?” Hall was lying on Slater’s bed.

  “Forget that,” Porter came from the latrine, “can we see her in a towel?”

  Slater glared at one and then the other, “It’s bad enough that she got dragged into my mess. Don’t make it harder.”

  “Wait,” Hall sat up, “this is your mess? I thought she got in some kind of trouble.”

  Slater had caught them, “And you blamed her?”

  Porter had found breakfast leftovers, “What’d you do?”

&nbs
p; “And not the version of what we already saw on the news,” Hall waved away that plan.

  Slater dug through his drawer from some shorts as he debated what to tell them.

  “I stole a few vehicles, shot at a chopper, got on the bad side,” he stopped and thought of it a moment, “make that the really bad side of a colonel.”

  Hall gave a low whistle, “You do know her daddy’s a three star?”

  “Did you guys come here for a reason or just to see me before my court martial?”

  Porter spoke around his food, “They gonna let you out for the funerals?”

  Slater nodded, “As long as we’re back within a reasonable amount of time.”

  “We?” Hall pulled a paper from his pocket and handed it to Reed.

  “She lost two men in the crash.”

  Porter and Hall looked like they were starting to feel ashamed.

  Slater looked down at the piece of paper on the desk. It was a schedule of all the funerals and memorial services, “Thanks for getting this to me, guys.”

  They nodded.

  “Barnes and I are going to play some basketball. I’d ask you along, but I’m guessing you’re not officially in the complex.”

  Porter laughed, “Not officially.”

  “What happened to her foot? Can she play on that?”

  “She took a knife through it,” his stomach clenched at the memory. “Four inch blade straight through, and she didn’t make a sound.”

  Hall swore, “What did you get into, Slater? You need to keep with your men.”

  “I don’t think it would have been better with you two hanging around.”

  Porter had started on the orange, “It would have been more fun.”

  “How’s your side?” Hall pointed.

  Slater lifted his shirt, “I changed the bandages, checked for infection, and I’m still taking my antibiotics.”

  Hall glanced at the wound, “Still giving you a lot of pain?”

  “I’ve been sleeping on my right side.”

  When he was sleeping at all.

  The men left soon after and Slater knocked on Anna’s door. She didn’t answer, so he unlocked it. The chain was fastened, so he knew she was in.

  He went back into his room and turned on his cell.

  “Hi, Slater,” she didn’t sound thrilled to hear from him.

  “Anna,” he had no idea what to say, “I’m sorry for my guys.”

  She huffed, “You’re sorry for them?”

  “About them. About how they treated you.”

  That was greeted by silence.

  Finally, she broke it, “You wanna go play ball?

  Slater wondered if he had found the perfect woman. Instead of talking about her feelings, she wanted to play ball.

  An hour later, Slater was convinced he had, indeed, found the perfect woman.

  “That’s H-O-R, and S for you,” she taunted him.

  He watched her dribble, admiring how relaxed she was about it.

  “You can’t make that shot,” he scoffed.

  “I have very little to lose,” she had her back to the net, “I’m only on H.”

  “Big talk for a girl who’s lost over half the rounds.”

  She stopped and glared, “Layups are no fair.”

  He held up his hands, “And I stopped doing them.”

  She dribbled a couple more times and flung the ball backward. For a brief moment, he thought the ball would make it in, but it nicked the edge of the basket and bounced the wrong direction. He breathed a sigh of relief.

  She snorted, “Haven’t made one of those yet.”

  He laughed, “Never?”

  “Nope, but my dad hits them regularly.”

  Slater stood half court and threw the ball with one arm.

  “You’d better be careful,” she waited until the ball came back to her, “you’re going to tear those stitches open.”

  His hand went reflexively to his side at those words.

  She lobbed the ball, but didn’t make it. He cheered.

  “H-O,” he got in her face, “Ho, ho, ho.”

  “Are you trying out for a Santa routine?” a voice came from a darkened doorway on the other side of the gym.

  Slater couldn’t see the man, but the way Anna suddenly stood erect, he knew she recognized the voice.

  “I wondered how long it would be before you found me, sir.”

  The man stepped into the light, “I can see you are using your injury to your advantage.”

  Slater tried not to stare. General Barnes was walking across the gym floor.

  Anna’s lips tilted upward, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  The father pursed his lips, “He hasn’t done a single layup all this round.”

  She held up her foot, “Hardly in a position to do a layup, Dad.”

  Barnes did something that surprised Slater more than Anna’s basketball skills – he laughed.

  “Nice try, but you should tell your friend the truth.”

  She shook her head, “Whatever can you mean?”

  The elder Barnes turned to Slater who had finally gained the sense to salute.

  “Never mind that,” the older man didn’t bother returning it.

  Slater dropped his hand, but couldn’t help but remain at attention.

  Anna still wasn’t talking.

  “Annie can’t make a layup. She’s a sure shot on almost anything else, but she blows the layup nine times out of ten.”

  “Thanks a lot, Dad,” she nodded and handed him the ball.

  Slater watched the scene through the fog in his brain that was telling him this was a dream. General Barnes took the ball, turned around, and threw the ball at the basket. True to Anna’s words, the shot went in.

  “Good shot, sir.”

  Was that what you were supposed to say to a general when he made a basket?

  “Thanks,” he turned to his daughter. “Can I take you two to supper?”

  She looked at Slater, “You want to?”

  Slater was no little bit cowed by this.

  “Yes, sir,” he spoke to General Barnes rather than answering the daughter.

  The general was watching him with suspicion – there was no doubt about that.

  “Great,” Anna threw the ball into the bin, “I’d like to shower before we go, though,” she rolled her eyes, “or take a bath, I guess since this thing,” she pointed to her foot, “can’t get wet.”

  “I could help you with that,” Slater offered before thinking twice, “I mean I could help with the shower – not the bath.”

  Slater glanced quickly at the other man, but the general’s expression was inscrutable.

  “I mean, the foot. I could help keep the foot dry.”

  The general raised his eyebrows. Waiting.

  “I could wrap it, of course. That way it won’t get wet,” he glanced up and saw the general’s eyes narrow.

  “While you’re in the shower.”

  He looked up at Anna, “Alone.”

  Anna was chewing on the inside of her cheeks.

  The general rolled his eyes, “I understand you have a meeting at seventeen hundred. I will be at reception at nineteen hundred.”

  He turned smartly and exited.

  Slater looked at Anna, “I think I’d prefer the court-martial.”

  She started laughing then.

  She hobbled picked up her crutches, tossed on the floor previously so she could shoot, and started toward their rooms.

  “I would appreciate help with my shower,” she responded to his earlier offer. “It was a pain to take a bath.”

  Slater did not seem the least bit comfortable with the conversation.

  Anna stopped moving and rested on one crutch, “I meant with my foot, Slater.”

  “I know,” he assured her, “but it’s a little too soon after humiliating myself in front of my hero.”

  She smiled, “That’s so sweet,” she resumed walking. “I didn’t know I was your hero.”


  He chuckled behind her.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  “That wasn’t nearly as frightening as I imagined it would be,” Slater stood at Anna’s door hours later.

  She was used to people being in awe of her father, “When I was in high school, my dad would meet every new guy – whether the interest was romantic or platonic – in his uniform. If he liked the guy he would wear civilian clothes the next time.”

  Slater raised his eyebrow, “If he didn’t?”

  “He’d always just happen to be cleaning his gun – in his uniform – when the guy stopped by.”

  “Very effective.”

  “You’ll notice he was not in his uniform.”

  “Maybe he thinks I’m only interested in a platonic relationship.”

  Silence.

  “Are you?” she forced the words through her lips.

  A long silence preceded his soft answer.

  “No.”

  She wasn’t sure how she felt about that. On one hand, she was very attracted to him – his personality and his appearance. On the other, she hadn’t seen a long distance relationship yet that worked. At least, not one that began that way. And seven thousand miles was definitely long distance.

  “I’m not very good at this, Anna.”

  “This?”

  He groaned, “Girls.”

  She resisted the smile and squeezed his hand.

  He returned the squeeze, “Goodnight, Anna.”

  “Goodnight,” she backed into her room and their fingers separated.

  She started to close her door, but then remembered something, “And I’ll lock the chain as well.”

  She closed the door on his chuckle.

  She went with him to Emerson’s funeral the following day. General Merchan had given them permission to be off-site from eight hundred to sixteen hundred.

  “Can I ask you something, Reed?” she spoke up as the car drove back to Langley.

  “Sure,” he glanced away from the road.

  “You seemed to be more. . . I don’t know, at ease at Emerson’s funeral than you were at Falton’s. Were you that much closer to Falton?”

  Slater didn’t answer right away.

  “No. It wasn’t that.”

  She waited, not sure if his silence was due to emotional turmoil, fear of her response, or the inability to articulate his thoughts.

  “I know where Emerson was going, Anna. He had a relationship with Christ. I know he’s in Heaven right now. Falton was. . .”