Chapter 1
Tyson reached for a towel and wiped his face. He had to appreciate the huge weight room and open floor space Levi had built here. The new room to the side he didn’t understand yet but heard rumors that was part of Kai’s visit. Speaking of her, he’d been tossed, thrown and stomped by some half-pint demon female.
Kai hadn’t been kidding when she’d said she was ready to kick someone’s butt.
Only now she was up against Ice, and that wasn’t turning out the way Kai had planned. Tyson was handicapped with his moral code about hitting a woman. He knew it was also about skills, but he’d been unable to hit back as hard or as mean as he would have if he’d been up against one of the guys.
That had just pissed her off more.
He was who he was though, and Kai had been his wife’s best friend. No way would he hurt Kai.
Particularly not a woman he knew he could hurt. Now if she had been a terrorist holding a semiautomatic rifle on them, maybe. Well, no maybe about it. But he could no more hurt Kai or any of the women in this place. And he knew that, for all Kai’s skills, he was still physically stronger than she was.
The women might get mad and feisty and rib him over it. But the men understood. Tyson had yet to see any of them battle with Kai and come out winning the match. But Ice … Now she didn’t have the same issues. And she was giving Kai as good as Kai was giving her. Matter of fact, it was a hell of a fight. He admired the skill the two women had so equally worked for so they could unleash it on the ugliness in the world. As he thought about that, his heart filled with sadness. He’d spent his lifetime trying to heal and help, but every time he turned around, another war was going on somewhere else.
Much like his history, he liked to remember little else. Tracy was an entirely different story. Memories of her were painful, but still he smiled at the thought of her. Kai’s presence had stirred up the more difficult memories.
Kai had been very special to Tracy. And he’d always honored that. For the longest time he hadn’t thought Kai even liked him. Her abrasiveness showed whenever he was around her. He never really understood it but just accepted it. Tracy, on the other hand, used to laugh and say he had Kai all wrong. And she’d get over it. Whatever it was.
“And she did … eventually,” he muttered under his breath.
One of the guys beside him turned to look at Tyson. He shrugged and wiped his face. He had no idea what Kai was doing here. But, so far, she’d had a round with everybody. He was all up for any kind of martial arts training, but that couldn’t be exactly what she was here for. She was a weapons instructor so, unless she brought some new toys, he didn’t get it. How come she’d left the military? He’d sworn she was a lifer. Then life changed for all of them, him included. As he looked around the room at all the people here who left the military, he realized how normal that was. Now Kai worked for a private contractor. Why had she changed careers? And what was she doing here?
He grabbed a bottle of water off the counter and took several gulps. A round of cheers and clapping behind him had him turning to see Ice and Kai shaking hands—both tired, sweaty and glowing with triumph.
“A draw?” he muttered, not that it mattered both women were bad ass.
Kai grabbed a towel, wiped her face, tossed it around her neck and said, “Now that we got all that out of the way, let’s take a look at some of the new toys.”
Behind her she pointed at a rolled-up mat. “Rhodes and Merk, you want to roll that out for me?”
They grabbed it and, with a startled grunt, managed to drag it to where she stood.
She laughed at the surprised look on their faces. “Yeah, it’s heavy as it has a special resistance to it. Lay it down for me, will you?”
They stretched it out.
“Now walk across it to me.”
They walked across, shrugged their massive shoulders, turned and walked again. “Feels like a normal mat.”
She nodded. And then held up a remote in her hand. “Not quite.” She clicked the button and said, “Now walk across it.”
The two men exchanged glances but stepped onto the mat. They had to forcibly lift their legs off it to take another step. They stared at the mat, then back at her. Rhodes asked, “What the hell is that?”
“A new kind of platform so you can adjust the amount of resistance during a workout.” She handed him a thick leather belt. “Put this around your waist.”
She waited until he had it buckled in place, then pointed at the mat. “Drop and give me ten.”
Rhodes hit the floor and bounced up. By the second push-up he was swearing. By the third push-up the swearing had turned a whole lot nastier.
Kai chuckled. “I’ll lower the resistance. Now try again.”
Instantly he could do push-ups.
“Now watch,” Kai said as she turned up the dial and Rhodes strained harder. “Now this.” She turned the dial right to the end. Even with everybody cheering him on, Rhodes couldn’t get his chest off the ground.
“What the hell magic is this?” Merk roared.
“No magic about it. It’s a torture instrument,” Rhodes snapped. “You want to turn that all the way back down again please?”
With a chuckle Kai turned the knob down. “New special magnets on the inside affect your energy. It creates a stronger gravity pull. Think about how much weight you have to use when you’re powerlifting or doing machine work. This is resistance training at a whole new level. These mats, plus adding one or more of these”—she lifted smaller ankle and wrist bands—“will help you get more out of your workouts.” She turned to look at the fascinated faces and grinned. “It’ll make a huge change to the way you work out.”
Back upright, Rhodes took off the belt and handed it to Levi.
Levi shook his head. “I already know what these things can do.”
Rhodes handed it off to Michael as he strapped it on, this time with Merk holding the remote for practice. He sat up. “I wouldn’t have believed it. These things are deadly.”
“Sure, but it’ll also build and tone muscle faster, stronger, better than ever before.”
Michael grinned. “But at what cost? Our egos are not so easily replaced.”
Kai chuckled. “Maybe, but I do have a new virtual-reality set for you to try out.”
Murmurs hummed through the room.
Tyson wondered. He hadn’t seen anything like that yet, but he hadn’t been here more than forty-eight hours. He glanced at his buddy, looking back at him. Together the two men shook their heads, raised their eyebrows and focused again on Kai.
“This one is for target practice. We have specific VR programs which Levi is working on in the training room. What you have at the moment is the option of three training programs, which we will hook you up to. I can show you one of the programs right now. This one is nice and simple. I would like a volunteer.” She glanced around and said, “Tyson, you’re up.”
He stepped forward obediently, wondering why she was picking on him. She fitted him with the headset and gave him a belt plus what looked like a futuristic pair of gloves yet a realistic-looking weapon—only it was plastic with some weight behind it. And, instead of ammunition, it had a control panel on the side. He stared at her and said, “I don’t even play video games, so this will be totally new for me.”
“And while you’re playing,” she said, “we have a monitor for the others to see what you’re seeing. But you’re in the middle of it. So let’s just do this as a test run.” She turned to Levi. “Did you get the installation completed?”
Levi nodded. “Yes.” He motioned everybody to the back of the room where a clear wall separated Tyson from the rest of the crew. He turned and glared at what appeared to be a ten-by-twelve space. What the hell that meant he didn’t know.
Kai’s voice came through some kind of a speaker system in his head. “Okay, Tyson, not to worry. This will just be practice. Hit the button on the left-hand side of your belt.”
He hit the button and was on a slum street in a North American city. He turned slowly, stunned at the details showing up around him. There even appeared to be total interaction as a newspaper floated aimlessly in the wind in front of him.
“Tyson, you understand this program is just a simple training program to help you work on target practice, response times, cognitive discernment and a host of other things. So get ready.”
Suddenly out of the corner of his eye, he saw a motorcycle rip around the side of a building, the driver with a gun in his hand who shot off a round. It wasn’t that Tyson took a hit physically. But it was almost like he had. In fact, the scene around him went static instead of dynamic.
“That hit was a kill shot. You’d be dead in reality. You have two options. You can switch the settings. The entire scene disappears, and you’re back to the empty room, or the scene freezes. Why these options? One allows you to walk away, ending the game, maybe answer a phone call—whatever the situation. The other allows you to consider the scenario and assess performance. Now if you’ll stand back up …” Kai stared at him.
Tyson shook his head and realized he was down on the ground. His body had reacted as if he had taken a shot. He glanced at the odd gloves to see sensors flashing on his system.
“Now we’ll run that again. This time it’s up to you to decide if you take the hit or if you can shoot somebody.”
Within seconds a motorcycle came toward him. He raised his gun and fired. The motorcycle spun out of control, flashed past him with the driver rolling to the side. Tyson didn’t know if it was a direct hit, but, considering the guy still held his weapon, Tyson realized he would be a target if the man survived. Tyson raced to the alley and watched. The motorcycle driver didn’t make a move. Just as Tyson thought it might be safe to step back out again, another motorcycle came from the opposite direction. The driver screamed, “Asshole, that was my brother you just killed.”
And bullets hailed in his direction. For the next ten minutes he executed evasive maneuvers, firing shots to keep the gang from taking his life. By the time the program ended, Tyson was shaking, his adrenaline running through him, his body covered in sweat.
The glass wall slid to the side. Kai walked in, reached up and unbuckled the headset. She studied him. “How are you feeling?”
With his chest heaving and his breath coming out in rasps, he nodded. “I’m fine, but that’s quite a rush.”
She grinned. “It is.”
“Did you have anything to do with that invention?” he asked.
As she unbuckled his gloves and the belt and took the weapon away from him, she answered, “I didn’t do any of the technical work. But I was in on the testing from the beginning.”
He walked to the other side of the room, a big grin on his face, and for the rest of the morning watched as everybody had a chance to try out the new system. He turned to Levi and said, “That is a hell of a training program.”
Levi nodded. “What we can’t ever do is get soft. We can’t ever lose that edge that keeps us who we are in the field. So, yes, it’s a big financial investment, but then I’m investing in our lives. And that’s what counts the most.” Levi slapped Tyson on the shoulder. “You did a good job in there. Welcome to the team. It’s good to have you.” And he turned back to the others.
Tyson wasn’t exactly sure how to take that because, as much as he really enjoyed what he’d done this morning, it still wasn’t the same as understanding what life here as part of the compound would be.
Michael walked over. “That’s a hell of a deal Levi’s got going.”
“I can’t argue with that. Perhaps this is where we belong.”
“I’m positive.”
“Yep, you’ve made a home for yourself. I still feel like an odd man out.”
“And you will for a while. No doubt about it. But these are good people. Don’t forget that there are all kinds of people. Just be glad to know that others like us are out there.”
“Are they like us? Have they had the losses, the tribulations, the trials, the agony?”
The smile fell away from Michael’s face. “Yes, they have. Every last one of them.”
Tyson studied his buddy’s expression for a long moment and then nodded, something settling deep inside. “Good. Then maybe there’s a place for me here too.”
*
Kai watched Tyson walk away. He’d done incredibly well, considering he was the new boy on the block and she’d been picking on him all morning. She’d beaten the crap out of him, trying desperately to get him to hit back. But she’d forgotten about their code. Not only was it a case of not hitting or hurting a woman but also the fact they had his late wife between them. Tracy had been Kai’s best friend since they wore pigtails and took tap dancing lessons as five-year-olds.
Tyson and Kai had both felt the loss when Tracy had died in childbirth, taking Tyson’s daughter with her. And Kai knew that memory was between them at all times. Even when on the mat. He would always be someone who took it easier on her because of that relationship. And that was the last thing she wanted.
She wanted to kick him out of that fugue state he was in. Bring him back to life. Tracy had been gone for two years. It was long enough. It was well past time for him to get his act together and rejoin the land of the living. She couldn’t believe it when she found out he was here with Levi.
It was a good thing. She’d heard Tyson had left the military. And, at the time, she thought that was the right decision. It was as if he had had a death wish. He took any and all missions, pushed himself to the edge, always just a hair past whatever, but he wouldn’t let them see him lose control. As if joining Tracy was the only way he could see a future for himself.
It wasn’t unusual in the military to see a reaction like that. Sometimes it went the other way with men getting freaked out and becoming too cautious. In other instances they became the opposite, as if daring fate to take them as well. She knew Tracy would be horrified if she saw how off the wall Tyson had gone after her death. He tried to launch an investigation into the hospital and the doctors responsible. There was possibly a case there, but Kai knew it wasn’t in his best interests to keep focusing on it.
Tracy had died from complications during labor. She’d been at home while he’d been off on a mission, and she’d gone into labor three weeks early. He’d planned to be home with her, but she’d been alone, until the last minute when Kai arrived. By the time Tracy got the help she needed at the hospital, it was too late. Kai figured guilt had to be what had driven Tyson to that destructive edge.
He hadn’t shared too much with the rest of his team. One of them flung him to the ground and sat on him until he could pound out of Tyson what the hell was going on. But even then they had treated him with kid gloves. But he wasn’t left alone from that time forward. He wasn’t going anywhere unless he was part of the buddy system.
She’d heard it happen before with other SEALs. She imagined it wasn’t all that uncommon. Some divorced guys felt like their world came to an end. Other times, divorce was like a whole new life. Losing a loved one, well, that was harder than anything else. But when you blamed yourself, that just made it even worse.
Tyson was a good man. It had taken her a long time to see it. She’d been sure no man was good enough for her best friend. But maybe that was more of a cover so she didn’t have to examine her own attraction to him. Feelings that appeared to be just as strong today. She sighed inwardly. She thought she’d stuffed all that away. But the sight of him, well, it was a sledgehammer to her heart, knocking down the wall she’d hidden behind.
He’d loved Tracy as much as Tracy had loved him. But it was too fast, their relationship. They were married within weeks. She’d been pregnant within that first month. Tracy never did things in a small way. She was flamboyant and passionate. Tyson probably had no idea what hit him. But the roller coaster ride had ended in disaster. Kai wasn’t sure if he even understood just how much he’d been through.
“Kai, these are some awesome toys,” Jace said.
She beamed. “Aren’t they? I absolutely loved being part of the testing. I helped set up the scenarios, the settings, the weapons. That’s my contribution to the research and design. And of course I’m now heavily involved in the marketing as I know many people in the industry. With the experience I bring to the table, it’s easy to tweak these prototypes for all our benefit.”
Jace nodded. “I never expected to see something as advanced here. Tyson and I have only been here a couple days. We came at Michael’s urging. And of course, Levi’s offer.” He gave her a crooked grin.
She remembered some of the stories she’d heard about this man. Lethal. But picky. She liked that part of him. “Levi’s done right by you,” she said quietly. “I’m delighted to see Tyson here.”
Jace slid a gaze toward his buddy and nodded. “It’s good for him. Will hopefully give him a new lease on life.”
“Doesn’t look like he appreciates it much though,” she said with a laugh.
“In truth, he hasn’t settled in yet. He sits off to the side, alone, in spite of all the welcome, and just studies everybody and often leaves the first chance he gets,” Jace said.
Kai turned to look up at him. “She was my best friend, but she was a hundred and fifty percent of everything to Tyson.”
“And Tyson … he’s a dragging-his-heels kind of guy.”
“He still stepped up to the plate when it was about marriage and fatherhood.”
“I always wondered though if it wasn’t too fast for them,” he said, his voice neutral.
She understood. “I had the same thoughts myself, but Tracy knew the minute she saw him and understood that was it. Everything else, as far as she was concerned, was wasting time.”
Jace smiled. “I remember when Tyson first met her. He looked completely shell-shocked. But not anywhere near as much as he did after she died. He’s never been the same again.”
Kai stood, took a sandwich from one of the many platters Alfred had brought to them and said, “Tyson had to adapt fast to all that was Tracy. Then he had to adapt faster eight months later. But he’s doing it. That’s what counts.”
Ice and Levi were having a heated discussion at the far side. Kai didn’t know if it involved her or not; she hoped not. The items they brought in today were done deals. She just wanted to make sure Ice and Levi were happy. But Kai sure as hell believed in these items for training. She had a few more tricks up her sleeve, but she figured the men were pretty well worked out for now.
She glanced at her watch and winced. “I have to leave within the next hour or so. If anybody has any questions, maybe we can do an informal session right now.” Instantly, she was surrounded.
“How many levels of difficulty?”
“How many more can you add on?”
“Can we change the weapons? Everything is different, depending on what weapon we have.”
“Can we play this outside?”
And the questions kept coming. She laughed. “Okay, let’s see if I can give you some kind of a fact sheet. There are handouts, but I know that’s not the same as getting it from the horse’s mouth. So, at the moment, there are three levels. However, within each level are several levels of difficulty for each scene. There are three current scenes—one in the woods, one in slums and one in an urban setting. We do plan to set up enemy lines, like behind terrorist lines. We also plan to set up one for a big city, as in skyscrapers, dealing with snipers. And we’re contemplating other scenarios like Coast Guard settings.”
She heard exclamations and murmurs over those suggestions, which made her smile. “I guess you guys like the new toy.”
“It’s freaking awesome,” Stone said.
She always had a soft spot for the big guy. That he walked through life now with his supremely awesome prosthesis the same way he walked when he had a flesh and blood leg just made her admire him all that much more. Of course, the fact that he had a partner who appeared to adore him as much as he deserved would have gone a long way to making that adjustment easier for him. Kai glanced around the room and realized almost everybody was paired up.
A group of women stood to the side. She knew some worked in town. The place was just a happening community. She didn’t know how Alfred handled it. What she had heard was one of the women now worked with him as well. Her thoughts pulled back to the men.
“Okay, as for weapons … you have several choices.” She walked over to one of the large cases she had brought with her. Laying it on the ground, she popped it open. “We have a crossbow, a Beretta, an assault rifle and a police-issued service revolver. Now should you want or feel the need for other weapons, then let me know. We’ll do what we can. We have to go through this whole process to set up a new weapon, but it’s getting easier. I do understand though. Like you, I have favorites.”
Stone asked, “How about a knife?”
She eyed him with surprise. “That’s an interesting suggestion.”
“We all carry them,” he said. “But it’s hard to get enough training using them.”
She sat back on her heels next to her case and thought about it. “That’ll be a whole lot more difficult.” She tried to work it through in her head but couldn’t imagine it herself. “I’ll tell the design team and see what they come up with. You guys have my email, and I’ll leave my business cards with you. Suggestions are always welcome. As you work your way through the programs and the levels of difficulty, etc., you can certainly send us whatever tweaks or suggestions you have. If you want to cuss us out as you’re getting your ass kicked on a daily basis, we’d love to hear that too.” At the snickers and snorts, she chuckled. “Honestly you’re the guys this is for, so it’ll be awesome to hear back from you about it.”
Just then her phone beeped. She pulled it out, checked the number, and her smile fell away. She read the text. What’s your decision?
She hurriedly returned her phone to her pocket and tried to regroup. She shouldn’t even be here with this asshole tracking her constantly. She just didn’t know whether he was serious or some kind of a screwball. She’d already contacted the police, and her company knew what was going on. She didn’t want to involve anybody here. It wasn’t her style. Besides, she’d yet to find a situation where she couldn’t look after herself. She wasn’t about to start looking for one now. The guys had more questions for discussion, and then a good forty minutes later she escaped to her vehicle.
She got in and turned on the SUV engine as she spotted Tyson in the open doorway, watching her. Her heart picked up a few beats. Damn that man. Even now he looked lost. And yet, she doubted anybody else would see it. Then again he wouldn’t appreciate anyone noticing. It had to have been a tough day for him. Even though she wished it wasn’t the case, just seeing Kai would bring back memories of Tracy. Kai could only hope at this point they wouldn’t be too painful for him.
But staying away hadn’t diminished her feelings. After seeing him again, she figured nothing would. Hopefully he’d dealt with his loss because he’d had all the time he would get. She’d been waiting. She could only pray she got the chance to find out if what she felt was real or not. And if Tyson could feel that way for her.
The trouble was, somebody else apparently felt the same way about her.