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“Oh,” Lauren deadpanned, “a little place called Marine Corps Sniper School about eight years ago.”
Mace’s gray eyes glittered as he glanced down between her collarbones. “See you’re wearing the graduation present around your neck: a hog’s tooth on a leather thong.”
Lauren knew the price of entry. Operators were a tight, small club. Few were accorded entrance into it and their world of danger. Mace Killmer look to be around thirty years old, rugged looking, a hunter of the first order, with black hair and a black beard. He knew his own kind and she saw him give her a nod of respect. Anyone wearing a hog’s tooth meant they had graduated from one of the most well-known and respected sniper school in the world. Foreign countries friendly with the USA, sent their best men over there to be trained. She was one of a handful of women who had carved a path into the men’s world of sniper ops. The irony was that women were better snipers than men. She’d proven so all the time throughout her schooling. And in the field as well.
Mace rubbed his chin. “Mind sharing with me your final school scores, ma’am?”
Lauren said, “990.” She saw Killmer’s straight black eyebrows raise. She saw his eyes narrow.
“That’s…,” and he cleared his throat, “pretty unbelievable. A perfect score is one thousand. Not many men get to 920, and it’s just a handful that have made it that high.”
Lauren gave him a feral grin. “They were men, Sergeant. I’m a woman.”
Alex hid his grin, and saw Nate gesture to the last hut on the left. He took their gear and pushed it inside the hut.
“We’ve been hearin’ the ladies are straight shooters,” Mace admitted, dipping his head, giving her the due admiration she deserved.
“We’ve proved we’re the best,” Lauren told him calmly. She had no reason to get defensive. Gage Hunter had hired five military women out of a top-secret program, paid them top price as snipers, and the military was crying now because their best had left for a helluva lot more money. Never mind that the military gave them a paltry thirty-thousand dollars a year. With Shield, Lauren was earning a hundred and fifty thousand a year. Because she was that good. She saw Mace grin a little, amusement glittering in his eyes.
“I’m truly looking forward to working with you, ma’am. It’s going to be interesting.”
Right.Well, Lauren knew that tone of voice, that look. Killmer was like many operators. It didn’t matter which branch they came from; they were all eyeballing the women infiltrating their ranks. Snipers were no longer a boys’ club as before. There were women trained in combat, the elite of all the women in the military, and they were as good as, or better than, the boys. And Lauren could tell Mace was just dying to see her shooting capabilities. She might wear a hog’s tooth but, as always, she would have to prove herself all over again. She nodded and turned, heading for where Alex was standing outside their hut.
And then, it suddenly struck Lauren that she’d be sharing that small, cramped little hut with Alex. And, as she looked through the grayness of the dawn at it, the hut seemed awfully small. Maybe too small…
CHAPTER 10
“Come over hereand let me examine you,” Alex urged as Lauren walked up to their hut. He pulled out his medical ruck and opened it up.
Lauren stood waiting while he was crouched over the ruck, selecting what looked like a pen light. “I’m okay, Alex. Just a headache, is all.”
Rising, he came over and gently took the hat off her head and handed it to her. “Humor me?” and he met her shocky-looking eyes.
“I’m not smiling, Kazak.”
He grinned and tipped her chin up. “Look at my nose? I want to see if both your pupils are equal and responsive to light.”
Patiently, Lauren stood. “Thanks for saving my butt in the Hawk. If you hadn’t held me, I’m sure I’d be in a helluva lot worse shape than I’m in right now.” He moved the small light slowly from one eye to the other and back several times over. Alex was so close and she absorbed his quiet strength. He cupped her cheek with his hand, not wanting her to move while he performed the pupil-check.
“I told you it would be rough.”
“You were right.”
Alex held aside the pen light and said, “Good, your pupils are responsive and equal.”
“And that means?”
He gently eased his fingers through her hair, moving slowly across her scalp, feeling for a cut or a bump. “That you do not have a bad concussion. Probably just a level one, which gives you a miserable headache, maybe some acute dizziness and feeling tired. But it will not last for usually more than a day or two.” The pleasure of getting to touch her silky hair, even as damp and flattened as it was by the hat she’d worn, was an internal joy to Alex. Even better, he saw Lauren’s eyes droop closed, as if enjoying his examination of her scalp.
“I told you: I’m okay.”
“Spoken like a true operator,” he teased. Reluctantly, Alex eased his hands out of her hair. “You have a nice egg goose above your left eye. That is probably where your helmet struck the door.”
“Alex, it’s a goose egg. You got it turned around again.” She saw him give her an apologetic grin.
“One day, I will surprise you and I will say all my slang I am collecting correctly.”
He saw her give him a slight smile. It felt like a gift to him.
