The Military Wife (A Heart of a Hero, #1)(17)

Bennett couldn’t stop. If he did, he might not make it. He slid a few more feet and glanced back. Noah hadn’t moved.

He couldn’t just leave him, could he? A sense of duty trumped his self-preservation. Cursing himself, he dropped into the mud, landing in a graceless roll that twisted his ankle. Mud and sand and sweat caked every part of him. He crawled to Noah, grabbed his collar, and hauled him to sitting.

“I can’t,” Noah said between clenched teeth.

“You can and will.” Bennett ignored the pain in Noah’s eyes, a piercing blue against the almost black, stinking mud. Any sympathy on Bennett’s part would made things worse. “Did you come this far to give up? You want to disappoint your family and your girl?”

“Fuck no.”

Using each other as support, they stumbled through the mud and out of the pit, Noah holding his left arm tucked up on his chest and Bennett limping. The pressure in his boot where his ankle was swelling was already uncomfortable.

But they’d made it to the other side and out of the pit. Like salmon fighting a current, they fought their way across the sand to the training center. Less than a third of the class that had entered indoc gathered on the grinder, exhausted and trailing watery grime.

Instructor Lennox paced at the front and Bennett had a feeling the man was waiting for someone else to bail and ring the bell before announcing their next impossible task.

“Cl-l-lass Three Thirty-Seven secured from Hell-l-l Week.” The instructor’s cadence was a combination of drawn out and punctuated. “Dismissed.”

It was like hearing “And they lived happily ever after” or “the wicked witch is dead.” Unimaginable. Unreal. Unbelievable.

He wasn’t the only one in shock. The instructor might as well have hollered, “Freeze.” Then, everyone reacted at once, whoops and high fives and hugs. Brown T-shirts that signified graduation of a sort were passed out. Bennett and Noah stared at each other. A grin spread over Noah’s face, cracking the already-drying mud. Another man slapped Noah on the back, and he doubled over with a groan.

“Come on, let’s get you to Medical,” Bennett said.

They limped along and Bennett left Noah with the medic after assurances his shoulder wouldn’t get him kicked out of BUD/S. Bennett’s ankle was throbbing, but the swelling went down after icing.

Bennett collapsed in his bed, closed his eyes, and enjoyed the feeling of being sand-free with endless peaceful hours ahead of him. Except for Hollis’s snoring. Both Hollis and Carter had made it through Hell Week, too. Bennett’s body was exhausted, but his mind whirred.

How close had he come to sacrificing his dream of becoming a SEAL to help Noah? Scenarios scrolled rapid fire through his head, each one involving Bennett quitting or getting cut.

“Hey, Bennett, you still awake?” Noah’s voice was soft.

“Yeah, man.”

“Thanks for today. Not sure if I would have made it without you. Glad I’m not headed home right now.”

Bennett’s thoughts calmed. He hadn’t quit. And neither had Noah. Bennett was glad he hadn’t lost his friend. “I’m glad, too,” he whispered before turning over and falling into a dreamless sleep.





Chapter 5


Present Day

Harper sat behind the wheel of her car in the parking lot of Caldwell Survival School. It was Tuesday and not even lunchtime. Two other vehicles were there. A black truck with mud tires and a Jeep. The building was a rustic log cabin with a wraparound porch. Good branding for his line of business. As was the location, outside of Virginia Beach proper with expansive views into the distance.

She’d found the certificate Bennett Caldwell had given her with the money and had been surprised not to find something misspelled. It wasn’t even a good fake. How had she just accepted him at his word? Her thoughts churned in circles, gnawing at the possible reasons this man, with the same name as her son, for God’s sake, had shown up on her doorstep with a huge check.

Righteous anger had fueled her since uncovering the deception, but now that she was here, a tingle went down her back. Her mom would have said someone had traipsed over her grave. Harper was too logical for such nonsense, but the feeling of being on the cusp of change filled her with trepidation. There was still time to turn around and go home.

But the questions she hadn’t been able to formulate in her shock after Noah’s death might finally be answered. Questions she’d never get answered through official channels. And the money. She was honor bound to return it. Knowing she would no longer be able to put her fuzzy business plan into motion soured her mood further.

After a half-dozen pep talks, she gave herself one last bolstering look in the rearview mirror and unlatched her door. A chilly wind flung it wide, and she took a deep breath. The gray skies portended rain and the air was salt tinged even this far inland. A storm fit her mood.

Yet she was entering enemy territory and needed to proceed with more caution than she was feeling at the moment. When her emotions ran hot she could be counted on to say something she would regret.

The wind helped dampen her anger. She hesitated at the Closed sign in the window. An unexpected roadblock. The shade was up, the lights were on, and the door was unlocked. Gathering her gumption, she took a deep breath and stepped over the threshold as if it were booby-trapped.

A chime sounded and made her start, but no one was there to greet her. The interior of the building was stocked with survival and outdoor gear for sale. The nearest rack held all-weather coats in different colors, and backpacks hung from hooks along the wall.