Page 39 of Acting on Instinct
Today’s training mission sent them to a coordinate smack dab in the middle of nothing.
If there was a lonely spot at Fort Bragg, the northern training area was it. Isolated and thickly forested, this area was where the soldiers practiced their land navigation and small-unit tactics. They had a navigation coordinate, a map, compasses, and ranger beads to help them keep track of how many paces they’d moved.
It wasn’t much of a challenge finding their X; White had a fire snapping, and it smelled like she had apple cider warming in a pot.
“White,” Master Chief T-Rex Landry said, stepping into the clearing.
“Here we go,” Havoc called out. “Hey, White, no matchmaking this go round. Everyone here is already in a committed relationship.”
“New guy,” Jeopardy offered.
“Except for our new guy,” Havoc amended, “no one’s left to shoot with your Cupid’s arrows.”
“New guy?” White tossed her long black hair over her shoulder and scanned the group as they emerged from the tree line. “Do tell.”
“It’ll be a while until you get to meet him.” Nitro said, “He’s on crutches.”
“Easier to catch when they can’t run away,” Jeopardy said, turning to smack Nitro’s high five.
“You missed out on your matchmaking when we got Nomad,” Havoc said. “He was single when he joined the team. Red got to him first.”
“Side benefit of working with a Color Code field officer. Those matchmaker services come at no additional charge.” White’s smile was tired. “Nomad’s marrying Red in January makes him my brother, too. We have that in common. And he’s actually the reason why I’m here.”
The men stilled.
White held up her mug. “There’s cider keeping warm on the coals. Grab yourself something to eat from the table. Pull up a log and sit a spell.” White swung her hand wide to indicate the long trunks that formed benches around the fire pit. “You all are much too tall, and I have a long flight ahead of me tonight, so I’d rather not start the trip with a crick in my neck,” White said, with the hint of a southern drawl that always got her a double take since she looked the spitting image of her Japanese mother.
She wasn’t kidding about her neck, though, Ty thought. White was a bitty thing. Take that to mean weak, and you’d get your ass handed to you.
The men filed to the table and availed themselves of BBQ and fixings that she’d placed on a red and white checkered tablecloth. The plates were decorated with blue flowers that White probably chose because it tickled her to think she had the big bad Unit men balancing flowers on their knees.
Not a one of them cared.
While the others lined up, Ty went to stand near White.
“Kira?”
“Hello to you, too, Ty.”
He glared.
“She’s fine,” White said, patting the log beside her.
“You told her I called you?” Ty asked as he swung his leg over to straddle the log and look White in the face.
“Absolutely.” White dropped her hand. “How else would I know you two went through a robbery?”
“But she’s fine?”
“Yup.”
Ty was sharpening the edge of his question, and he could see that White knew it. “Before I called, you’d decided to go see Kira today. Mind telling me why?”
“I was dropping off a gift from London. And Kira’s my friend, Ty. We’ve been friends longer than you’ve known her. I wanted to see how she was doing, in person, not over a video call.”
“And?”
“And right now she’s pissed as hell at you,” White said.
