I.N.E.T 1

by Brenda Cothern

  Knight had no doubt that Agent Conner would have better numbers then him when it came to firing a weapon from the hip. However, Knight would bet that he could blow Conner’s numbers out of the water if he could draw from a shoulder holster. His numbers would be even better if he could draw from his back.

  “What will keep me alive won’t be a gun on my hip,” Knight spat out.

  Knight noticed that the firing on the range ceased at his words and from the corner of his eyes he could see that several of his fellow trainees had stepped out of their firing stations to look in his direction.

  Conner raised another questioning brow and his voice dripped with sarcasm when he replied. “Tell us then, how pray-tell, you can be faster than a bullet if you don’t have your weapon at your hip?”

  Knight smiled, removed his gun from the holster on his hip, and tucked the weapon into his pants at the small of his back. He glanced down the row of his classmates in each direction while he held his hands loosely down and slightly out to each side. Some of his classmates looked smug that Conner had singled him out for harsh criticism while others looked curious about what he might say or do next.

  Knight looked Conner dead in the eye when he replied, “I never said I was faster than a bullet.”

  No sooner did Knight’s last word leave his lips, did he act. His hand moved to grasp the gun from the small of his back at the same time he spun toward his target down range. In one fluid motion, his gun was drawn, he turned, aimed, and fired.

  A smirk graced Knight’s lips and he knew he shouldn’t feel so cocky at showing off. However, the draw time numbers that were based on when his hand left the area near his hip and the accuracy numbers that were based on the kill shot difficulty on the target displayed the best scores achieved yet for this training group’s session.

  Knight heard a few surprised gasps and one ‘holy shit’ from his classmates before he lowered his weapon and holstered it at his hip. He forced a neutral expression on his face before he turned and looked at Agent Conner. Knight fully expected the man to give him shit or make some snide comment about firing from anywhere other than his hip not being standard procedure.

  However, Agent Conner just returned his gaze for a moment before looking over Knight’s shoulder at the digital score again. The numbers didn’t lie and Knight knew that Conner knew it too.

  “Point taken Trainee Knight,” Conner conceded and turned to look at the rest of Knight’s classmates. “However, just because Trainee Knight seems to be a ‘trick shot’ does not mean the rest of you are going to draw your weapon from wherever you want.” Conner looked up and down the row of recruits. “Beat those numbers,” Conner pointed at Knight’s score without looking at the board above Knight’s target. “Then we’ll see about drawing your weapon from anywhere other than your hip.” Conner shot Knight one more look of disdain and resumed walking up and down the line.

  Asshole, Knight cursed the firing range instructor as he turned back to his target and drew his weapon.

  Not once during the rest of the weapon training on the firing range did Knight return his gun to the holster on his hip.

  Slade had observed Knight during the morning orientation. He had traded a favor to get into the room that monitored and recorded the new recruits that McCall instructed. He wasn’t surprised that Knight didn’t fall for McCall’s distraction tactics.

  McCall was damned good at her job and had helped INET weed out plenty of operatives in the past. She had also helped identify sexual orientation so that INET could utilize the recruit to the fullest benefit of the agency.

  Slade knew McCall’s technique of exposing recruit behavior wouldn’t work on Knight. It wasn’t because he had firsthand knowledge, literally, that Knight was gay, either. No, it was because he knew, just knew that his new partner wouldn’t be duped so easily.

  When Slade purposely sought out Knight after the recruits were released from McCall’s clutches, he was not only pleased that he was right about Knight’s observation skills, but surprised at his deduction skills based on the little Slade said. A lot of people can recognize a behavior, but not all of them could see the motive behind that behavior. Knight did both and quick as hell, too.

  However, Knight’s memory ability caught him off guard. Most new recruits remembered bits and pieces of what they read in their new employee paperwork. They tended to remember a bit more when reminded of the information again. The fact that Knight could remember everything, literally word for fucking word, from pages that were enough to kill a small tree, was downright scary.

  Knight’s skill at remembering anything he read would surely benefit them undercover. However, Slade wondered if Knight’s photographic memory only applied to reading. If he could recall anything, then Slade was sure the amount of intel that they could gather undercover would be phenomenal.

  Slade pushed thoughts of Knight’s memory retrieval skills aside while he stood behind the mirrored glass facing the firing range.

  Knight had excellent skills, but even Slade could spot the weakness in his new partner when it came to Knight drawing from his hip. Slade recognized the weakness for what it was: undercover cops didn’t carry on their hip.

  If Knight hadn’t been his new partner, Slade more than likely wouldn’t have found it so amusing when the man put Conner in his place. Conner was an asshole, plain and simple. So, the moment Knight tucked his weapon at the small of his back and turned toward Conner, Slade knew the agent in charge of weapon training was about to get his ass handed to him on a silver platter.

  When Knight did just that, Slade laughed. He ignored the glances from the monitoring techs and watched as Knight turned back to his target and Conner stormed off down the line. Slade’s eyes never left the taut muscles of his new partner’s back. Taut, but not tense, as Knight fired his weapon then stowed it at the small of his back before he repeated the process all over again.

  “Your brother is a helluva shot, Agent Slade.”

  Slade glanced at the tech briefly before his gaze returned to his new partner. He hadn’t given any thought to their likeness, although he should have.

  When Knight confronted him, for leaning on his truck outside his partner’s old precinct, Slade had noticed they were almost identical in height and build. When Slade confronted Knight at Sparta the same day and they went a few rounds in the ring, Slade noticed their skin tone and hair coloring and cut were alike. When they were face to face on Knight’s kitchen floor, jerking each other off, Slade noticed that Knight’s blue eyes were only a slightly different shade than his own.

  Somehow he never added all those pieces together to come up with the sum that people might assume they were related. They couldn’t pass for twins, but since Slade knew there were only two years between them, he could see how people would think his new partner was his older brother.

  “Yeah, he is,” Slade replied without correcting the tech about his relationship, family or otherwise, to Knight.

  As Slade continued to watch Knight practice on the firing range, he couldn’t help but wonder if the fact that he and Knight could pass as brothers was the reason why Fish finally forced a partner on him.

  After three hours on the firing range, Knight was ‘released’ from training for the day. He walked up the stairs that led to the dormitory-style trainee rooms. As he passed other recruits, he once more felt old.

  Every one of his classmates looked fresh out of college, if not high school. Knight was sure that was most likely the case. If INET recruited like the FBI or CIA, and he was sure they did, then they were recruiting operatives straight off college campuses.

  Knight was sure that INET, just like other U.S. and international agencies, benefited from the younger recruits because they were so impressionable. The agencies could practically brainwash the younger recruits with the agencies ideology.

  He was too old to buy into that type of shit. Knight didn’t give a shit about the politics of INET or any of the carrots they were surely going to dangle, li
ke ‘one day being director,’ because he didn’t need to be conned into staying with INET for life. He just wanted to work undercover for as long as he could in order to bust the assholes that poisoned the world.

  That was all he wanted to do, and did with TPD. He would do more of the same with INET. The only difference was that he would work on an international level instead of a local one. His motivation was personal so there wasn’t anything INET could tell him to encourage him to be more dedicated to the job than he already was.

  Knight entered his assigned room and pushed thoughts about government agencies and his little sister from his mind because he already had his goals and INET fit neatly within them.

  Knight threw his back pack onto the narrow bed and looked around the small space that was to be his home for the next two months. Knight fully expected that he would be back in the field after two weeks based on what Slade had told him on Friday. However, as he undressed to take a shower and review the day’s events, he doubted his undercover training would be completed so quickly.

  As Knight stepped into the shower he groaned. The groan was a combination from the thought that he would be stuck in training for the next two months and from the steamy hot water that now worked to release the tension in his back that he hadn’t even been aware of. While the hot water worked his muscles loose, Knight’s thoughts wandered to Slade again.

  Knight wasn’t sure how he felt about Agent Aaron Slade. He had had two days to organize his thoughts into some semblance of reason after they came all over each other. The heat of the moment that had turned them both on to the point of practically attacking each other to get off was not enough to forge a good partnership. In fact, it was a recipe for a disastrous partnership, regardless of what Slade had said about their superior encouraging sexual relationships.

  Knight thought about Friday when he grew hard while he traded blows with Slade in the ring. The man was light on his feet and fit, a great match for him to spar with, but it was the memory of Slade’s body on top of him that had Knight as hard as a rock now. He wrapped his hand around his aching cock and groaned, again, at the contact. Knight was as hard now as he had been after sparring with Slade at Sparta and when Slade was on top of him on his kitchen floor.

  Slowly, Knight pumped his fist and imagined it was Slade’s hand touching him again. His breath hitched and his free hand pressed against the now warm tiles to brace himself. His orgasm built quickly while in his mind, he felt Slade restraining him again. That thought was all it took for his orgasm to explode almost painfully from his cock.

  “What the fuck?”

  Knight panted and pushed off the tiles to stand fully under the spray once his legs stopped quaking. He rinsed his hand and quickly washed his body while his mind whirled. Kink wasn’t his thing and he didn’t get off from being restrained.

  You do now, a small voice in the back of his mind whispered.

  “It was a fluke,” Knight argued aloud and frowned.

  In the past, he had handled tricks roughly and even held a few down if that was what they were into, but Knight got nothing out of it. Well, nothing except an orgasm.

  Or did you? the voice asked.

  “It wasn’t being held down,” Knight continued to talk to himself. “I’m not that fucking weak.” He growled and turned off the water. Knight dried off as he stepped back into his shoebox-sized room.

  “The fight… I got off on the fight and Slade’s aggression,” Knight rationalized while he dressed in his trainee uniform.

  He already hated the damn thing and missed his regular clothes. Sadly, there wasn’t a damned thing he could do about his wardrobe. All trainees were required to wear the uniform, but Knight had hoped he wouldn’t be forced into his until after his physical tomorrow afternoon.

  McCall stated the uniforms would be issued at that time, but when he entered his dorm room, he found several pairs of uniform pants and T-shirts on his bed. Thankfully, INET wasn’t issuing him shoes so he could wear his Magnums. Just the thought of breaking in new combat boots during training made his feet throb with phantom pain.

  Knight finished tying his boots and stood. The dresser desk combo was barely three feet from his bed and he was sure that if he sat in the desk chair that there would be no space to move between the two.

  Knight ran his hands through his damp hair before scrubbing them over his stubbled cheeks while he stared at his reflection in the mirror above the dresser. For a moment, he contemplated shaving and glanced at his watch. He had plenty of time to run a razor over his face. However, he didn’t want to mislead Slade into thinking this was anything more than partners’ getting to know one another, because it wasn’t more than that, even if Knight’s dick did twitch at the thought of seeing Slade again.

  Knock it off, Knight told his cock and stepped closer to the dresser. Slade would be there soon and he needed to finish getting ready.

  Ten

  Knight glanced at his watch again. He had been lost in thought long enough that Slade should be there shortly.

  He stared at his issued firearm atop his dresser. The .9 mil was sheathed in its leather holster; a leather holster that could only be worn on his hip. Knight frowned again.

  All of the trainees, just like INET employees, were required to be armed after they were issued their weapons. Knight mentally pulled up the section pertaining to the protocol while he picked up his weapon. He removed the gun from the holster, returned the holster to his dresser, checked the clip, and ensured the safety was on while scanning his memory on the requirement to be armed.

  A small smile spread his lips. There wasn’t a single place in the policy that stated he had to be armed with his weapon on his hip. The only requirement specific to trainees was that their weapon had to be visible at all times. However, just because he didn’t have a shoulder holster, didn’t mean he would be stuck wearing his gun on his hip.

  I wonder how much shit I am going to get for this? Knight thought and tucked his weapon into the waistband at the base of his spine. He purposely didn’t pull his T-shirt out of his waistband to conceal his weapon like he normally would. It had to be visible after all. His reflection smirked back at him and he chuckled.

  “Semantics matter,” Knight said to himself just before there was a knock on his door.

  He glanced at his watch, 6:54, but he didn’t really need to check the time because there would be only one person knocking on his door. Knight tried to stifle his smile and was sure he had managed to bring it down to a grin when he opened the door.

  Knight’s eyes were at a level to meet Slade’s and instead, all he caught was a glimpse of blond hair. He shifted his gaze downward and his grin faltered when he looked at the woman who stood on his threshold.

  “Hi,” the shy-smiling blonde with the pixie bob from the auditorium smiled up at him.

  It took Knight a moment to recover from seeing the petite woman standing in front of him instead of Slade.

  “Are you lost?” Knight inquired neutrally since he could think of no other reason why the girl would be knocking on his door. He didn’t give her any indication he was interested in getting to know her while they were in orientation so he wasn’t exactly thrilled that she was on his doorstep now.

  “Um…ah,” she bit her lower lip and glanced away from Knight’s questioning stare. “I’m Stacy.”

  Her eyes darted back to him before she quickly glanced away again. Knight noticed the slight blush that covered her neck and ears and had to refrain from letting a curse cross his lips.

  “Do you need something?” Knight asked and mentally cursed when the girl’s blush only deepened.

  “I…um,” Stacy nervously looked back at him. “We’re neighbors.” Stacy gave him another shy smile.

  Knight had to bite his tongue to prevent himself from being impolite. It wasn’t Stacy’s timid attempt to get to know him that made him want to rudely lash out at the woman. No, it was her behavior that reminded him so much of his baby sister.

&nbs
p; Movement from the corner of his eye gave Knight the excuse he needed not to engage the girl further. Slade walked down the hall toward him. Knight clearly saw, from where he stood in his doorway, his new partner’s smile turn into a frown.

  Slade rounded the corner to Knight’s hallway just in time to see a small blond haired woman knock on his new partner’s door. She paused for a moment, as if gathering her courage, before her fist made contact with the door. The woman’s knuckles knocked on the door and Slade wasn’t close enough to see Knight’s reaction to finding a fellow trainee on his doorstep. Since it was almost seven, Slade was sure Knight expected the person knocking on his door would be him.

  Slade never took his eyes off the blonde while he walked down the hallway toward Knight. It was clear to him that the trainee was nervous. Whether she was nervous because of Knight’s hulking size over her or just because she was shy, was still to be determined. Regardless of the reason, though, she radiated unease like it was something Slade could reach out and touch.

  Slade had been smiling while he walked toward Knight, but his smile turned into a frown when he met Knight’s penetrating blue eyes. A chill raced down his spine at the anger-filled emptiness he saw in his partner’s gaze. The look on Knight’s face almost made his step falter as he approached. Still, he kept his eyes locked with Knight’s until he stepped next to the small blonde. He still didn’t look away even when the smaller woman startled at his presence.

  “Oh!” the woman stepped back to the side so that she wasn’t practically sandwiched between them.

  “Am I interrupting?” Slade asked without looking away from Knight. His tone was neutral with a hint of curiosity about the woman and concern for Knight.

  “No,” Knight replied at the same time as the woman stuttered.

  “Um…no…I just...”