Page 1 of Very Special Forces

ChapterOne

"I'mhit!" I gasped. My fingers, snug in thick, padded gloves, moveddown to the red patch currently widening over my heart. Any momentnow, my life would expire and that would be it. Game over. Idropped my head back in the grass where I landed at the impact ofthe bullet and stared up at the blue sky, so peaceful and still,nary a cloud drifting past. A second later, a face loomed overme.

Lilypulled back her protective goggles and grinned. "Gotcha!" she saidjust as the buzzer across my breastplate sounded. "You'redead!"

"We'reon the same team, Lily!" I yelled.

Lilywrinkled her nose and knit her eyebrows together. "Dammit," shemuttered, a confused look spreading across the parts of her facenot covered by the protective mask. "I knew I missed somethingcrucial in the game plan." She dropped onto the grass next to meand sighed.

Pushingup with my elbows, I sat upright and tapped the breastplate untilthe incessant buzzer stopped sounding. It continued to flash red,alerting the controller that another player was off the field andensuring that both my opponents and teammates knew there was nopoint wasting their paintball cartridges on me since I wasofficially dead.

"Ireally thought we would win this," I said. "I thought we nailed thegame plan. We would have, if you'd only paid more attention toit."

"I hadmy mind on other things," said Lily. She looked down and pulled aface. "Do you think this jumpsuit makes me look fat?"

"No.Even fat couldn't make you look fat."

"You saythe nicest things." Lily frowned again. "Although I'm struggling toget my head around that one."

"Wouldbeing fat be the worst thing in the world?" I asked. "So long asyou feel good, that's the main thing."

"Nope,it's not the worst. I just want to feel confident in my mom body. Iwant to feel like the woman who used to dance on tables until twoin the morning."

"Youfelt like that last week," I reminded her. "We were asked to leave,remember?"

"Ohyeah!" Lily giggled. "In that case, I feel great and I didn't evenhave a hangover afterwards."

"Winningat life," I said as we fist-bumped. I looked around, wonderingwhere the rest of our team was, but did I really care? Paintballingwas not my idea of a good time, even if it were fun to run around afenced-in pitch, shooting the opposite team.

A yellshattered the silence followed by other manly grunting noisesbefore two camouflaged men appeared from behind a small hill. Alltheir breastplates flashed red and one was covered from head to toein paint splatters. He pulled off his goggles and laughed as hewalked towards us, closely flanked by the other men. Before theyreached us, Lily's breastplate began to flash green.

"Uh-oh,"she said, staring down at it. "What did I do?"

I shookmy head. "You won," I told her. "You're the last womanstanding."

"Unbelievable," said Solomon when he reached us. He held hishand out to me and tugged me to my feet before pulling up Lily.After he kissed me, he asked Lily, "How did you win? What was yourgame plan?"

"Stealthtactics," she said, her face now serious. "Solid game plan. Nervesof steel."

Solomonlooked at me. I nodded. "That's exactly what happened," Ilied.

"And ithad nothing to do with me sitting here while you guys shot eachother up," Lily added.

"Thoughtso," said Solomon. He pointed to his paint-splattered jumpsuit andglanced toward the sniggering trio behind him. "Your brothersthought it was perfectly fair to team up against me."

My threeolder brothers, Garrett, Daniel, and Jord, pulled off their gogglesand laughed, clapping each other on their backs and never lookingone bit ashamed.

"You'reon our team, Jord," I reminded the youngest of the trio and alsoLily's husband. "You shot your own teammate!"

Jordshrugged and slung an arm around Lily's shoulders. "It was worth itif only to get the drop on Solomon."

"It'llnever happen again," said Solomon. "Plus, we still won, thanks toLily's tactics that left her as the last player alive."

Lilygrinned. "Let's go get that trophy!"

"Andpizzas," added Jord, "and beers."

"We havea baby to get home to," Lily reminded him.

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