Danika

This place is nasty.

Not garbage dump nasty. It doesn’t smell like sewage or anything. No, it’s formidable. High, gray concrete walls form a perimeter around the maze. Brittle vines climb the sides, disappearing into cracks. The overcast sky above does nothing to lessen the worry that we’re going to find a fire-breathing dragon inside.

When we walk through the wide entrance, a bunch of badasses in ESU gear smirk at us from a very basic, unmanned reception area. They huddle closer together and laugh amongst themselves, taking our measure with quick sweeps of intuitive eyes. Translation: We’re about to hand you your butts on a silver platter. Funny, I believe them. Meanwhile, Jack and Charlie are posturing at the smirkers like they’re getting ready to call out the biggest one. Lord. This is what happens when their girlfriends aren’t around to keep them from turning into Neanderthals.

Greer approaches the recruits, and my pulse begins to gallop. Am I crazy thinking this impromptu trip to the maze has something to do with me? I’m not a self-centered person—mostly—but the timing makes me wonder. I was almost shot on Friday. Greer broke up with me over it. Now he’s throwing me into an intense simulation while he watches from the sidelines?

“Listen up.”

My blood jumps along with my body at the sound of Greer’s voice. We fall into an inspection line without hesitation, as if we’re back in the gymnasium. In twenty years, we’ll all probably still react on instinct to Greer’s commands—he’s that grippingly confident and in charge. Only . . . I know him well enough now to see the chink in his armor. There’s a thin sheen of sweat on his forehead, and his knuckles are white on the clipboard.

“This is a more amplified scenario than the ones you’ve been trained to handle,” Greer continues. “Your flight or fight instinct will be stronger. Your ability to focus will be diminished. Control the fear. Don’t let it overpower you.”

Another ESU officer saunters out of the reception area and stands beside Greer, grim-faced. “You’re going through the maze in entry teams of four first. Your job is to clear the building and retrieve the hostage. Say hello to your hostage,” says Greer. The ESU officer does a pinky wave, earning him a grudging laugh from the recruits. “The officers who’ve agreed to assist us today will be using rubber bullets to deter you. That shit stings, so keep your goggles and vest on at all times. No exceptions. If you make it through the group session without getting tagged, you can come back to the beginning and go through solo. If you do get tagged in the group session, go sit in the grass and call your mommies for moral support.” He gives an uncharacteristic wink. “And if you tag one of these assholes, you can call their mommies and gloat.”

That gets a laugh out of the three remaining ESU officers who are sauntering into the maze like a faction of gods, weapons tucked under their arms. Charlie’s goals include moving through the ranks and retiring in a million years as a bureau chief, like his father, but Jack’s shooting skills could land him among ESU ranks in the future. Glancing over at my best friend, I can totally see his big, cocky ass making it there for the first time, scaring recruits out of their minds someday.

Greer calls out names, putting us in groups of four. I’m with Charlie, Nick and a girl named Raquel who has spent the last few months working herself to the bone, like me. I’ve got a good crew. We go into the reception area and gear up, deciding among our group that Charlie will run point, since he has some after-hours experience training with ESU and knows their procedures, even if he isn’t an expert. Yet.

Over the next half hour, we watch teams go in through the front entrance and walk out the back one, lights on their vests illuminated like billboards of shame. Out of the twenty recruits who enter the maze, only two walk out untagged. I’m relieved to see Jack is one of them.

“There’s more than one entry point to the maze,” I whisper to my crew. “If two of us come in through the exit, they might be distracted by the two of us at the front. We’ll cut the ground we have to cover in half.”

“Good point.” Charlie checks his weapon, which is also loaded with rubber bullets. “We might screw ourselves if the hostage is located up front and they take out the two of us coming in from the main entry. The other two would have to do double the work to retrieve him.”

“So let’s send you in through the front,” Raquel says to Charlie. “That gives the front entry team the best chance of survival.”

Charlie laughs. “I’m the sacrifice, huh? Fine.” He slaps a hand over his heart and throws me a deadpan look. “Tell Ever I loved her.”

I snort. “Will do.”

Greer appears in the doorway of the reception area, his heavy gaze resting on me for a few beats. “You’re up.”

We’re heading for the maze when I realize Nick isn’t with us. I turn in a circle, surprised to find him ten feet behind, his gaze locked on Levi, who’s just come through the obstacle. Levi’s hunched shoulders and wry expression tell me he must have failed. He grimaces at Nick, slashing a finger across his throat, and Nick smiles back. And even when Levi passes, Nick continues to just stand there, watching his friend head for the grass.

I give a not-so-subtle cough. “Nick, are you coming?”

“What?” His head jerks around, and he jogs to catch up. “Yeah. Sorry.”

Training exercise or not, my pulse is hammering in my ears as the four of us approach the maze. My weapon feels foreign in my grip. Sweat rolls down my spine. It’s ridiculous, but I have the added burden of unfinished business. As if I’m a soldier going off to war while in the middle of a fight with her sweetheart. Stupid. But when Greer catches my eye, a knot forms in my throat. There are so many things we haven’t said. I don’t even know what the stamps in my locker mean yet. That chink in his armor is bigger than before, too, his jaw locked like the door to a safe.

“Ready?” Nick asks, giving me a discreet elbow in the side. “Let’s head around back.”

I tear my attention off Greer. “Let’s go.”

Charlie and Raquel take their position at the front entry point, while Nick and I jog around toward the rear. The recruits waiting in line for their turn make interested noises over our strategy, but there’s no time to process that or psych myself out. Because it’s time. There’s no whistle signaling we should begin—that would tip off our opponents—but a neutral observer from the control area opens the doors.

And it’s on.

Nick and I move in a buttonhook, him going to the right of the door, me stepping left and finding the wall with my back. Weapon raised, I assess the layout as quickly as possible, seeing the maze is a series of rooms. Okay. Okay, we’ve done this before.

We’ve just never done it with music blaring and gunshots firing in the distance. The music is so loud, I have to scream to be heard. And boom. My legs are anxious to run, my mind calling for me to find a solution to the chaos. For a few seconds, Nick ceases to exist, and it’s just me. But it’s not only me in the maze. I’m part of a team. It’s alarming how quickly my impulse kicks in to forget our strategy and go after the hostage alone. Just rely on my instincts, instead of trusting my partner. Can’t do that. Can’t. That’s how people get killed.

Follow your training.

At first, it’s Greer’s voice saying those words in my ear, but eventually it becomes mine. My own voice repeating what I’ve learned and keeping me focused.

Nick and I clear each room, one of us opening the door, the other hooking in and clearing the space. We’ve only been inside the maze about thirty seconds when our rhythm falters, though. One of the doors is locked.

That’s when the lights flicker and go out.

“Oh, come on,” I groan, my words swallowed up by the pounding bass. If I was wearing a police belt, there would be a flashlight attached, but we’ve got nothing. Except phones. Without consulting each other, Nick and I whip them out and open flashlight apps, holding them above our weapons as we try to recapture our equilibrium in the dark. We need to get inside that locked room. My instincts tell me that’s where the hostage is located.

Nick and I trade nods, like he’s already figured out the same thing. Because he’s my teammate and we have the same goal. It’s that easy. I’m not doing this alone. Hoping Charlie and Raquel can manage to hold off the ESU badasses a little longer, I step aside, train my gun on the doorway and give Nick the signal to kick in the door. He does.

Gunfire rings out and Nick’s vest lights up. I’m so stunned, it takes me a split second to register the shot came from inside the room, so I raise my weapon and fire. From inside the room, another vest lights up, belonging to an ESU officer. There’s no time to gloat over that small victory—although, I’m planning on it later—because the hostage is sitting cross-legged at the officer’s feet. Playing Candy Crush.

Greer

When Danika stumbles out of the exit, I’m caught between three emotions. Pride, first and foremost. Christ, there’s so much pride I can’t decide if I want to laugh or squeeze her to death. She did it. My girl fucking did it. Second, I’m relieved as hell. She was safe inside the maze, but ask if my heart cares. It’s a thousand pounds right now and living in my stomach just imagining her in a scenario where she could feel fear or loss of control.

My third and final response is irritation because the “hostage” is pretending to be incapacitated, tongue lolling out like an idiot, forcing Danika—who’s half his size—to carry his weight.

“Enough,” I bark. “You’ve got two legs. Use them.”

The jerk-off comes back to life and smirks at me.

Well. Apparently news has made it around the department that I’m seeing Danika. Or was seeing her, as the case may be.

If I want to be with her again, I have to get used to my heart living in my stomach. That’s how it’s going to be, if I want to have a heart at all. Because she owns it. Every beat. And as I watch her smile light up her face over the victory, I have zero doubts that it’ll be worth the worry to have happiness with her. To make a life with her. To let her warmth and beauty push out the cold ugliness that’s dominated my life for so long.

God, I want that so much, it must be right there in my eyes when she finally looks over at me, because her smiling lips wobble, and she stops walking.

We’re not done yet, though. There’s more to come, and I want her focused. Later. Later I’ll tell her how proud I am of her and erase all the ugly shit I said last Friday. “Okay, Silva. Head back to the front with the other winners.” I refocus on my clipboard, even though I’m still seeing her. “Nick, go call your mom.”

After the rest of the teams brave the maze, there are a total of four recruits who’ve earned the right to face it alone. Am I surprised Jack, Charlie and Danika are three of them? Not really. Charlie and Danika have been my strongest recruits since the beginning, and Jack is making up for lost time. I would be concerned their three egos aren’t going to fit into one apartment after today, except for one fact.

The ESU guys only operated at half speed during the group exercise.

My brother, Jack and the other recruit emerge looking like someone put their head in a trash can and banged on it for an hour. Pretty much the same way I looked the first time I went through the maze. Maybe I’ll tell them that later and save their delicate feelings. Maybe not.

My own delicate fucking feelings are hanging in the balance right now.

Danika is the final recruit to go through solo, and her confidence has slipped in the face of her friends’ failures. The need to say something encouraging to her is intense, but the door to the building bangs open, and in she goes, weapon raised.

When I hear the hollow sound of bullets being fired, my vision grows hazy, the lunch I ate threatening to come up. I’m so focused on getting through the next few minutes and proving to Danika that I can, that I believe in her, I forget about the earpiece in my ear.

Until it crackles with static and my blood goes cold.

“Lieutenant Burns. You might want to get in here.”

Danika

Pain throbs in my ankle, hot and sharp. Is it twisted? Sprained? I don’t know.

I need to get up off the ground where I tripped hard and fell, but I can’t see. There’s smoke everywhere. Somewhere in the back of my head, I know it’s meant to look like tear gas. It’s not actually tear gas. But that knowledge doesn’t help me see anything, does it? I manage to crawl on my elbows behind an alcove wall so I can get my bearings.

Ha. Bearings? I don’t even know which direction to head for the exit. I’ve already been hit by more than one rubber bullet. I’m the maze equivalent of DOA, but I still have to make it out. I can’t stay in here forever. This is what it’s like to be alone. Without a partner to cover me or call for backup. Now that I’m incapacitated, my options are whittled down to nothing. If this was a real life situation, I’d be well and truly screwed, but the consequences would be far worse.

Christ. My ankle hurts. The pain is flooding my eyes with tears, but I can’t take off my goggles to wipe them away. Dammit. I get it now. How important it is to trust a team, in addition to my own gut. In the future, I won’t find myself in a situation like this alone. Right now, though, I need to get my shit together. Come on, Silva.

I try to stand and fire shoots down to my toes, stealing my breath. My butt lands on the ground, and I release a choked gasp. Another round of smoke goes off, rubber bullets hit the wall above my head. Whap, whap, whap. Where’s the exit? Which way did I come in?

“Danika.”

Greer. Is here? His silhouette appears in the smoke, and I swear I see bullets bouncing off his shoulders before he’s down on the ground beside me, his powerful back against the same wall as mine. Amazing that even in a smoky battle zone, my breath holds itself in his presence, my spine straightening. Inside my chest, though, that’s where the real chaos happens. It wants to leap out through my mouth and let him take custody.

His eyes are more than a little wild as he looks me over, attention landing on my swollen ankle. That giant chest lifts and falls on a shudder, and he blows out a slow breath up toward the ceiling. When he leans toward me, I’m not prepared for what he says in my ear. “Get up.”

Just like that, I want to kill him. “You don’t think I’m trying?”

“Try harder.” He lifts my chin in a cold hand, seeming to gather his words. “God knows I want to carry you out of here, baby. No one would fault you with that ankle. But I need you to understand something. I know you can do it. I have faith in you.” His swallow shifts the muscles in his throat. “And next time you face something dangerous, you’re going to have faith that I’ll be there, waiting for you, when it’s over. Do you understand?”

Well, if I thought I was crying before, it’s nothing compared to now. My goggles are going to look like a fish tank by the time I make it out of here. Damn this man. I knew deep down what this exercise was about. I knew, didn’t I? Stupid, glorious idiot. He did this for us, and I’m not going to miss the chance to build the bridge to something real, something amazing, he’s offering us. “I love you,” I blurt. “And . . . in a way, you will be carrying me out, because I’ll be feeling and hearing you the whole way. I do the same for you, right?”

“Yes.”

I hold out my hand and he takes it, squeezing. “Partners?”

I’m not asking to be professional partners, and he’s well aware of it. With my eyes, I’m promising to trust him, to believe in him and requesting the same in return. I’m promising to be more trustful, period. A vow I know I can keep now. “Partners,” he rasps, his expression fierce in the near darkness.

“Good.” I take a deep breath. “Now get out.”

He makes a sound and looks away, but that gaze thunders back to mine right away. Bullets ping the wall above his head. “Jesus, Danika. You just made it a lot harder to walk out of here without you.”

“You love me, too,” I whisper in his ear. “That’s why you’ll be able to do it.”

Greer’s mouth finds mine in a single, hard kiss, and I hear a few howls out in the darkness. His fingers push through my hair, his lips landing on my forehead, lingering there a moment. Then he’s gone and it’s just me inside the smoke.

It’s not easy and I get shot twice more, but I find a way to walk on my ankle that doesn’t make me want to scream. Keeping my weapon raised and returning fire when I can, I slide my back along the walls, wincing as I go. Finally, I recognize the series of rooms Nick and I swept during the group drill and limp toward the exit, bursting out into the muted sunlight.

Everyone is there waiting. Jack and Charlie look ready to murder me. I only have eyes for Greer, though. He’s white as a sheet, and his clipboard is snapped in half, but he’s here. And he’s waiting for me, letting me know that’s how he’ll stay. With his words inside the maze echoing in my ears, I believe him.

Every fiber of my being is demanding I go to Greer, so I do exactly that. I manage to take three more limping steps before he lunges forward, drops the broken clipboard and scoops me into his arms. “You can’t stop me from putting ice on that ankle and acting like an asshole when you try and run on it too soon. So don’t even try.”

“No.” I laugh the word into his neck. “I won’t.”

“I fucking love you,” he breathes, tightening his grip on me. “I love you, I’m proud of you and I need you. Come be with me.”

Happiness turns me weightless. “Yes.”