Page 5 of The Woman Left Behind

One by one the team dropped to the ground until they were all in a rough circle. During the last six torturous hours, she’d learned their names. Ace was Levi Butcher, team leader, head badass. She had a tough time thinking of him as “Ace,” which seemed kind of lighthearted for someone who wasn’t. He was one scary dude, mostly because of the way his expressionless dark eyes drilled holes through her. He’d made it plain he didn’t want her here, but because she was, he’d get her in shape if it killed her. She wasn’t certain which he wanted to do most: kill her or get her in shape. She was betting on the first choice.

Snake was the team medic and he was generally the most cheerful, which at first had made her think kindly of him, but on second thought, what kind of sadist was put in such a good mood by making someone else suffer? She kind of wanted to smack him for making her distrust cheerfulness.

Crutch was blond, kind of quiet, which was misleading because from what she’d seen he was the most likely to pull a practical joke. His quietness was a dodge, and knowing he was deceitful that way made her give him a wide berth, lest she fall victim to one of his pranks. She couldn’t handle pranks right now. She could barely handle walking.

Then there was Boom, who looked to be the oldest of the bunch, maybe late thirties. He was kind of bulky in build, but fast and agile anyway. She figured “fast and agile” was in the job description, so what the heck wasshedoing here?

Trapper seemed as easygoing as Snake, and again that was misleading, because she’d figured out that Trapper was the team sniper, which meant he was very good at killing people. Jina couldn’t quite get her head around that. It wasn’t that she didn’t know what the GO-Teams did, but somehow she’d expected that they wouldn’t seem sonormal—excepting their superman physical conditioning, of course. Trapper was like one of the guys, kidding around, laughing at jokes, joining in the competitive nature with which they tackled everything.

Jelly, on the other hand, looked barely old enough to be shaving. He was also the most likely to instigate the others by ragging on them, sitting back with a smile of satisfaction if he could get something started between the others. He bore watching. What was it about these guys that made her suspicious of cheerfulness, smiling, and low-key geniality? That was just wrong. This whole situation was wrong.

Last was Voodoo, and he looked less pleased by her presence than even Levi. He’d had nothing to say to her, hadn’t given her any tips or encouragement, hadn’t interacted with her in any way. She might as well have been invisible to him. Too bad she hadn’t been invisible to the rest of them.

“Drink all the water you can,” Snake advised. “It’ll keep you from getting so sore.”

“Fat chance,” she muttered. “I won’t be able to move tomorrow.”

“You will,” Levi said. “One way or the other. When we’re on a mission, we do whatever we have to do, no matter how it hurts or how we feel.”

Great. She took that to mean she wouldn’t get a day off to heal and work out some of the inevitable soreness.

“Soak in hot water,” Snake continued. “Then cold water, ice if you can stand it.”

Her horrified look told them how she felt about that, because most of them chuckled—not Levi or Voodoo; they both looked even more grim.

She drank more water, then capped the bottle and determinedly struggled to her feet. “It’s been great, guys—”Not.“But unless you want to continue killing me after dark, I need to get back to my group and go home.”

“Good luck with that,” Levi said, tipping up his own water bottle. “They left over an hour ago.”

What?Jina whirled—ouch—and in horror surveyed the empty training field. Even Baxter was gone. There were still some vehicles parked to the side, seven of them, which meant they belonged to the seven team members who had been getting their jollies by tormenting her.

“I’ll take you home,” Jelly offered.

“Don’t trust him,” Trapper promptly said. “He drives worse than a drunk eighty-year-old. I’ll take you.”

Snake snorted. “Forget that. You’d take her home via New York and think it was funny. I can drop her off.”

“I’ll do it,” Levi said, getting to his feet. His deep voice cut through the chuckles, stopping the discussion in its tracks. “I need to brief her on some things anyway.”

That was that. There were no more offers, no joking. The boss had spoken, and while they didn’t hesitate to involve him in their rough joking around, when it came to GO-Team business, he was undisputed. “Let’s go,” he said, striding across the uneven ground to where the vehicles were parked. Resigned, Jina trudged in his wake.

There were two types of vehicles, she noticed: three sports cars, and four four-wheel drive pickup trucks. She was hoping for one of the sports cars, figuring she could simply drop into the seat, but of course her luck wasn’t going to turn on a day that had been sucky from start to finish. He went straight to the truck that looked as if Darth Vader should be driving it. It was black, but not the shiny black of a normal paint. Instead it was matte, no shine to it. In fact, there was no shine anywhere on the truck, not an inch of chrome, not on the wheels, not on the rearview mirror or side mirrors, not even the door handles.

“How do you find it in the dark?” she asked. “Tie a balloon to it?”

“I’m good at finding things in the dark.” He didn’t crack a smile. “The doors are unlocked, get in.”

Get in. Yeah, uh-huh. Already knowing what she would face, she opened the passenger door and stared inside. The floorboard was at least a foot higher than that of a normal truck, but on a normal day she’d have hoisted herself inside without much trouble. This, however, wasn’t a normal day. Every muscle in her body was quivering with fatigue, to the point that walking was an effort. And he didn’t even have running boards. The truck was as stripped down and no-frills as he was.

He slid behind the wheel and sat there, watching her expressionlessly.

Was this some kind of test? Was he expecting her to ask for help? Say she couldn’t get in his freaking Vadermobile?

She started to do just that. Maybe she’d wash out; maybe all that was needed was for the team leader to nix her as an addition to his team. MacNamara had said that if any of them couldn’t handle the physical demands, they wouldn’t be fired. If not getting into Levi’s truck would also get her out of this physical torture, wouldn’t she be smart to jump at the chance?

Except she couldn’t. Giving up wasn’t in her. No matter how tempting it was to take the easy way out, she had to give her best effort or know she’d been a quitter.

Her best meant she mumbled a grumpy, “They must have been out of tanks when you went car shopping, so you settled for this,” as she gripped the armrest with her right hand and stretched to grab the sissy handle. She strained, lifting one foot, her arms trembling as she tried to pull herself up far enough that she could get one foot on the edge of the floorboard. Didn’t happen. Her biceps gave up the effort and with a grunt she dropped back to the ground.

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