Page 38 of The Woman Left Behind

A quick look through the peephole revealed the guys, or at least five of them. Even Voodoo was there, though not Levi or Boom. She opened the door, gave them a puzzled look. “What’s up?”

“You made the team,” Snake announced, grinning. “We came to take you out and get you drunk.”

What?

“I did?”

Trapper grabbed her, tugged her out of the door. “Yep. Jumping was the last segment, and you passed it.”

“Mostly they threw me out of the plane and I lived to tell about it... barely.” She tacked on the last word in the spirit of being honest. “Wait! I’m not going out wearing sweats. I need to change clothes.”

All five of them got that look that said they didn’t understand, then Crutch hitched a shoulder and said, “Girls.”

“Undeniably,” she countered, and let them in to watch TV while she hurriedly pulled on jeans and sneakers, and a bra. Deciding her sweatshirt was good enough, she grabbed her phone and wallet and keys and rejoined them within three minutes, start to finish. Because she was cautious, getting drunk wasn’t likely to happen, but she’d have a drink with them. She’d made the team!

She didn’t know how that made her feel, other than giddy and scared all at once. The training was over, or at least the preparatory phase was. The guys constantly trained to keep their skills sharp and she’d be expected to do the same, but now it was all maintenance instead of proving herself.

Going down the stairs, she said, “Ace and Boom nearly killed me. I’m not speaking to them.”

“Yeah, we know,” Jelly said cheerfully, giving her his deceptively sweet smile. “You’ll have to get over it. They’re waiting for us at the bar.”

Allof them? That sounded ominous. She skidded to a stop, holding on to the railing in case they tried to drag her the rest of the way down. “Wait. If this is any kind of initiation, I’m going back upstairs and locking the door.”

Snake snorted. “You’re kidding, right? Boom and I had to tell our wives about this. My orders were you can’t be hurt, embarrassed, or humiliated. That leaves getting you drunk.”

Jelly shook his head. “Sad but true.”

Reassured, she released the railing and went down the rest of the stairs. “I’ve already been hurt and humiliated today, but I was too scared to worry about being embarrassed. I don’t know why anyone goes skydiving for fun.”

“Not Voodoo’s favorite way to exit a plane, either,” Trapper said. Voodoo just looked surly and shrugged.

Oddly, that made Jina like Voodoo just a tiny bit more, because not liking skydiving proved he wasn’t an idiot, at least in her book.

The bar and restaurant they took her to was on the lowbrow side, which made her comfortable with her jeans and sweatshirt; she hadn’t expected fine dining, anyway. The booths and tables were mostly occupied, and to her surprise she recognized more than a few faces; several guys from other teams were there. They lifted their beers in her direction. She’d made it!

A small table had been pushed up to a big booth that would easily seat six people, so there was more than enough room for the eight members of the team. Sure enough, Levi and Boom were already there, beers in front of them. Levi slid out of the booth and somehow she was herded in on that side, he slid back in beside her, and she ended up against the wall with no escape.

His thigh pressed against hers. The booth was large enough that even with Voodoo taking a seat beside Levi there was enough room that they didn’t need to touch, but there his leg was, and she had nowhere to go.

“I don’t want to sit next to you,” she said. “You tried to kill me.”

“You got back at us,” he replied, then told the guys what she’d done in the truck. “Scared the shit out of us.”

Boom blew out a breath and shook his head. “My heart’s still pounding.” There was a lot of laughter and joking, a waitress came to take their orders, and to her relief there was a lot of food ordered as well as drinks.

In short order a burger and fries were in front of her, as well as a lemon drop martini, which the guys called a sissy drink, but she didn’t like beer, so tough; that was her celebration drink, the one she’d gotten when she turned the legal age to drink, as well as when she’d finished college.

It was also astronglemon drop martini.

Like any made-the-team celebration, this one involved a lot of toasts, not just from her guys but from the other team members, too. By the fifth toast, she was feeling the martini, though she tried to be careful with her sips. By the time the drink was gone, she was very happy indeed, so much so that she’d stopped worrying about Levi’s leg touching hers.

A jukebox was playing and one of the other team members—she couldn’t remember his name—had the balls to approach and ask if she wanted to dance. As happy as she was, Jina started to accept, but then realized something.

“I’m trapped,” she announced to her would-be dance partner. “I can’t get out.”

“They’ll let you out—”

“No,” Levi said. “We won’t. There’s a reason she’s where she is, and that’s to keep assholes like you from hassling our girl.”

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