Page 41 of The Woman Left Behind

“But you did it, right?”

“On the third try—and it wasn’t pretty.”

“No points for pretty,” he said and slapped her on the shoulder. “You did it, you qualified! You’re officially on the team.”

She grinned. “The guys took me out last night to celebrate, and my mom called in the middle of it. I told her I’d finished training and the guys were getting me drunk. Levi—Ace—had to explain himself to my mom and she made him text her his name and phone number. She held him hostage, in case anything happened to me.”

Donnelly laughed so hard he stumbled and had to stop. Jina pulled up, too, walking around with her hands on her hips and breathing deep so she wouldn’t get stiff. She had to grin, too, because Levi having to deal with a worried, horrified mother had been pretty good stuff.

They finished the run together, though Jina thought Donnelly probably ran longer than he’d been planning, but he asked her a lot of questions about jumping. She could tell he wasn’t thrilled by the prospect of parachuting, either, and he said his training in it was due to start that week, so the experience was rushing at him a lot faster than he wanted. She didn’t sugarcoat the experience, nor did she gloss over how horribly everything had gone the first two times. That seemed to reassure him, that she could goof up so bad and still pass. He’d been expecting to get one chance, and that was all.

Kodak was extremely well liked in the GO-Team community, but Jina didn’t at all approve of how he was handling the trainee situation; for that matter, none of the team leaders other than Levi had taken a hands-on approach to their training. Levi was also the only one who had been saddled with a woman, which was why he’d done it. She had to admit she was likely in much better shape, and as far ahead as she was, because of his decision. Funny how she hadn’t felt honored during any of the ordeal.

But it wasdone,and she was ready to get in the field with Tweety, see what she could do. As the first operator activated with this particular program, a lot of attention would be paid to her results.

There were a lot more people at the training site as they neared the end of the course; neither of them slacked up, because doing so would get some sharp words from Baxter or someone else (don’t let up until the job is done), and she saw a few of her guys, including Levi, standing around talking.

Levi turned to look at her, and even from that distance she could feel his gaze boring into her. He hadn’t asked her anything about Donnelly, though he’d waited in the parking lot Saturday night to see if Donnelly stayed late. Was he taking it for granted that her “date” had been nothing but window dressing? He might be rethinking that, though if he did she thought she might be insulted, because if she’d truly been dating Donnelly, she wouldn’t have kissed Levi the way she had and she certainly wouldn’t have allowed the rest of what had happened, but he didn’t know her well enough to get that about her. She actually knew more about him than he did about her, because of the scuttlebutt about him.

Any way she looked at it, she was annoyed, angry, embarrassed, and she didn’t want to talk to him right now.

She said bye to Donnelly and he continued jogging to join the group of trainees, some of whom waved at her. She felt a little sad that she hadn’t gone through training with them, the geeks and nerds with whom she was so comfortable, but that water had long since passed under the bridge. She was walking toward her group, swiping her sweaty face on her shirtsleeve, when she saw Kodak himself pull into the parking lot and on impulse she swerved, heading instead toward him.

Kodak was a big, good-looking blond guy, kind of scruffy in a just-rolled-out-of-bed-after-a-good-time way. He was known to be as cheerful as he was good in the field, and normally being on his team was the best assignment Donnelly could have asked for. Kodak stood in the open door of his truck, reading something, but as she approached he tossed his reading material onto the seat and closed the door.

She probably shouldn’t do this. How Kodak ran his team was none of her business. No one had ever told her “Don’t interfere with another team” but that didn’t mean there wasn’t an unspoken protocol about how things were handled. If there was, she was about to violate it.

Damned if she did, chicken if she didn’t.

“Hey,” she greeted him, then stood there feeling awkward. Eloquent and effective. They had never actually met, though she knew who he was.

A slow, easy smile lit his face. “Babe,” he said, making it clear that he knew who she was, too. Or maybe he called all women babe.

“Could I talk to you for a minute?”

“Darlin’, you can talk to me as long as you want.” His gaze went over her, and his eyes said he liked what he was seeing. “I know a little hole-in-the-wall café that has the best coffee in D.C. Want to go over there and start the morning out right?”

She sighed. His reputation as a hound was evidently well deserved. “No flirting, this is serious.”

“I’m dead serious about flirting. It’s one of the most enjoyable things in life.” That easy, charming smile flashed again. “Can I hope you want to leave Ace’s team and join mine?”

“After you’ve screwed up so bad? No way.”

The smile left his face and he straightened, his gaze turning direct. When it came to work, Kodak was serious. “Whattaya mean, I screwed up?”

She took a deep breath and plunged in. Might as well get it over with. “Ace is the only team leader who involved his team in his assignee’s training. I’ve spent months with the guys, getting to know them, becoming part of the team. Brian Donnelly, the trainee assigned to you, is a good guy, but you haven’t made any effort to make him a part of the team before you have to go into the field with him.”

Kodak took off his cap, slapped it against his leg, replaced it. His blue eyes were steady, narrowed. “You involved with him?”

She scowled at him. “You don’t have to be involved with someone to take up for them.”

He held his hands up in a surrender gesture. “Just asking, don’t take my head off.” He grinned. “I could get used to being fussed at, if you’re the one doing it. I heard you give as good as you get. You sure you don’t want to transfer to me?”

Determinedly she stayed on message. “He’s a casual friend. I know him a bit better than I know most of the other trainees, but they’re all getting hung out to dry by their assigned teams.” She shrugged. “Ace wanted to oversee my training because he figured I’d be more of a liability because I’m a woman. I wasn’t happy at the time, but in hindsight that was the best thing he could have done. Time’s running out for the rest of you.”

He rubbed his jaw, nodded. “You have a point.” He cut his eyes to the right, grinned a little. “Looks like you’re about to be snatched from my lascivious clutches,” he said, winking at her.

“Oh my God, you really saidlascivious!”She had to laugh. Even when she disagreed with him, he was so damn likable she thought hanging out with him would be one big party. Too bad she felt none of the visceral reaction to Kodak that she had to Levi because he would be so much easier to get along with. Maybe there was something wrong with her, that she preferred the man with the scowl, his roughness to Kodak’s smoothness.

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