Model Soldier (4 page)

“I’m sure your winning won’t be an issue,” Dalton smiled. “But just to be fair, what would you like?”

That stopped Hawk dead in his pride-filled shoes. “What do you mean, what would I like?”

“Exactly that. No games, Hawkins. If the universe shifts, hell freezes over, pigs fly, and your group wins, what do you want?”

What did he want?
Cocky bastard. He’d show him. But still, Hawk couldn’t come up with a thing. “I don’t know,” he admitted after an embarrassingly long moment spent in indecision.

Shit, why couldn’t he think of anything really good? A keg of beer crossed his mind, but didn’t seem like enough compared to the mystery assignment he’d have to take in exchange. A humvee perhaps? Dalton had said anything, but what the hell would he do with it while he was deployed, and when he got back Stateside, Hawk had a feeling if he never stepped foot inside one of those vehicles again, it would be too soon.

“Want a suggestion?” Dalton asked after watching Hawk struggle.

“Sure.” What the hell, might as well see what Pretty Boy had to say.

“If Zeta loses,” Hawk didn’t miss the smirk on Dalton’s face as he emphasized the word
if,
“I’ll get you a tryout for the teams.”

Hawk raised a brow and then purposely played dumb. “What teams?”

“You know what teams,” Dalton said, the words “smart ass” unspoken but unmistakably present in his response.

Hawk had to smile. Against all odds he was actually starting to like the Pretty Boy, but not in that way, of course.

“So, do we have a deal?” Dalton asked, one pretty brow raised.

David Hawkins in the SpecOps? Never. Not gonna happen, but it might be fun to see what the tryout was like and it would sure make a hell of a story if he made it and then turned them down.

After a breath, Hawk nodded and shook Dalton’s extended hand. “Deal.”

Dalton turned to leave when Hawk called, “Hey. Tell me one thing.”

Pausing, Pretty Boy nodded, waiting.

“This assignment, is it something you’d be willing to do yourself?”

He smiled back at Hawk broadly. “I’ve already done it, Hawkins. Believe me, I’ve already done it.” Then Dalton turned to head for his task force commander, but not before looking back to add, “Oh, and Hawkins, besides the comm units, we’ve all got GPS implants, too, so Matt can keep us informed of our positions during
our
real-world missions. I probably shouldn’t have told you that either, but I figure your boys can use all the help you can get. See you up on the mountain.”

Implanted tracking devices, too?
Well, fuck.

And with that less than heartening farewell, the entire Task Force Zeta team disappeared as quickly as they’d arrived, presumably to get into place on the mountain and await the arrival of Hawk’s squad, who’d be walking into a pre-planned, computer coordinated ambush like lambs to a slaughter.

Special assignment, here I come
, Hawk thought bitterly.

Double fuck
.

“Pettit! Report!” Pinned down by Zeta’s gunfire for the past hour, Hawk had never felt so disconnected from his men nor as helpless as he did right then. Dalton’s team seemed to be everywhere, and always one step ahead of Hawk and his men.

Hawk barely heard his Alpha team leader over the noise, but what he heard wasn’t good as Pettit’s shouting finally filtered through his earpiece, “Four of our men are down, sergeant.”

“Wally, what’s Bravo team’s status?” Hawk needed some good news at this point but there was no answer. “Wally. Dammit! Answer me!”

Barely audible, Wally hissed across the airwaves, “I’m not allowed to talk if I’m dead, Hawk.”

Shit.

More frustrated than before, Hawk shouted into his radio, “Bravo team. Someone who isn’t dead, give me a damn report!”

Radio silence gave him his answer. As far as this exercise was concerned, the entire Bravo team was deceased. That left himself and Pettit as sole survivors of his eleven-man squad. “Pettit?”

“Yes, sergeant.”

“What’s your location?”

“I’m behind the rocks just to the east of you.”

“What do you say if we’re going to go out, we go out with a bang?”

Always right on the money, Pettit asked, “Are you talking about the Butch and Sundance offensive defense?”

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
The squad’s favorite movie. Sure, Butch and Sundance die, but they do it with style. “That’s exactly what I’m thinking, Pettit.”

“Roger that, Hawk. I’m ready.”

He could hear the smile in Pettit’s response. Doing something, even running toward your pretend death in a training exercise, was preferable to doing nothing at all.

“On my count of three, then. One.” Hawk checked his ammo before continuing. “Two. Three!”

Hawk flung himself out from behind the rocks, dove and rolled behind the closest cover. When the shots came at him again, he was in better position to see exactly where they came from and how best to get there.

Aware of Pettit falling almost immediately to enemy fire to his left, Hawk lobbed a grenade in the direction of the incoming volley that had taken his team leader out. While that explosion kept the shooter down, Hawk ran full out, head on toward the shooter, jumped on top of the rocks hiding his opponent and showered the man hidden there with a hale of gunfire before feeling the hit in his own back.

Even with the knowledge that he was, for the purposes of this exercise, dead and a loser, Hawk felt satisfied that if nothing else at least he’d taken one of them out with him. And when he looked closer and saw it was Pretty Boy, he felt even better.

“Game over,” Hawk told the surprised and paint-splattered Dalton with a smile.

Barely a beat passed before Dalton replied, “Yes, it is, Hawkins. Matt, make sure Hawkins has those orders for his special assignment waiting for him when he gets back to the garrison.” Then Pretty Boy flashed his pearly whites at him.

Hawk had temporarily forgotten about that damn special assignment. He stifled a groan.

Shit.

Chapter Four

Emily walked into the office to find Katie cradling the receiver and practically cooing into the phone. There was no doubt in her mind who was on the other end of that call. People in love could be so annoying. Cute, but annoying.

As Emily sat down at her desk and proceeded to boot up her laptop, she noticed that even though Katie continued her conversation with BB, at least her boss had the decency to quit the lovey dovey stuff in deference to the lack of privacy.

“I told Em about the baby… Mmm. You’re right. It probably is smartest to start transferring a few things sooner rather than later… I will, I swear.”

Unashamedly, Emily listened to the half of the conversation she could hear. After all, her name had been mentioned. That made it okay. Right?

The printer across her and Katie’s shared office began to buzz and spew out a few pages, which, with the part of her brain that wasn’t eavesdropping, Emily found odd. Katie’s computer wasn’t even on and Emily had yet to open any files, let alone print them. But she was too intrigued by what Katie and BB would be transferring sooner rather than later to worry much about the printer.

Were BB and Katie moving so they could be together full time? And if so, where? And more importantly, what did that mean for Emily and her job?

The phone conversation continued.

“It’s here. Tell him I got it… Have fun going out tonight and safe flight home, baby, in case I don’t get to talk to you before you leave… I love you, too… Bye.”

Emily noticed the tears in Katie’s eyes as she hung up the phone. “You okay?”

Katie glanced up, laughing at herself. “I’m fine. It’s just the hormones. I can’t even say good-bye without crying over it. Someone should really warn women that being pregnant also makes you insane.”

Emily laughed. “I’ll keep that in mind.” Then she had to ask the question uppermost in her mind. “What are you going to do? I mean, where will you live once the baby is born and you get married? Down south near the base for his job, or here in New York so you can keep working? Or are you going to keep up the long distance thing?”

Katie shook her head. “With the baby, a long distance relationship would be ridiculous. But I can’t expect him to give up his career for me.”

“And he would never ask you to give up your career for him,” Emily added.

“Exactly.” Katie nodded.

Knowing her boss the workaholic would probably shrivel up and die if she wasn’t able to work anymore, Emily could appreciate Katie’s difficult decision. Of course, motherhood could change things.

“So what then?” Emily asked.

“Well, I kind of have a plan for that. It seems like we’ve picked up a lot of business in the south, especially with the latest military recruitment ad campaigns. I’m thinking about suggesting opening a southeast branch. I could still fly to New York whenever necessary, but home base would be down there near BB.”

Emily hesitated before nodding. “Okay. I can do the south. My hair will frizz but otherwise, I won’t miss the New York ice and snow, or the outrageously expensive rent and super-sized cockroaches.”

Katie smiled. “Thanks, Emily, but don’t start packing yet. If I’m able to go full term with the baby, if the bosses agree to this and if I move—so many ifs—but
if
this all ends up happening, you don’t have to follow me, you know. You can stay here in New York and continue to work.”

Surprise and hurt colored Emily’s voice. “You don’t want me to come with you?”

“Of course I want you with me. I’d be lost without you. But you’re getting too experienced for the job of my assistant. You need to start taking on clients of your own. The day will come when you will be able to totally replace me in my job, I’m sure.”

It was true that so far, Emily had been responsible mainly for organizing absolutely every minute of Katie’s daily life and holding down the fort at the office while she was away on her many business trips or visiting BB. Given that Katie was so focused on work she would probably forget to eat if BB or Emily didn’t remind her, Emily kept pretty busy.

In addition, Emily was sometimes responsible for handling the talent also. She on occasion would have to fetch non-fat lattes or bottled sparkling imported water for the anorexic female models and gay male models they dealt with for their marketing firm. But that was about it.

Thinking about all the clients, bosses, divas, bitches, queens and crap that Katie dealt with daily, Emily cringed at the thought of taking it all on herself. “I’m not sure I’m qualified to totally replace you quite yet.”

“Oh, you’re qualified. You better be, because I’m about to give you your very first big solo assignment.”

Big solo assignment?

Emily peered at Katie to confirm she’d heard correctly. “You’re giving me a solo assignment?”

Katie grinned and nodded. “Mmm, hmm. It was initially BB’s idea, actually. He’s worried about my working too hard when I travel. But I’m in total agreement with his suggestion on this one.”

Travel?
Yay!

Fears of divas and queens forgotten, Emily sat up a little straighter now. “For real? You’d trust me with my own
client?”

Shaking her head while laughing aloud, Katie rolled her eyes. “Why in the world are you so surprised?”

“Uh, because you’re a control freak, for one thing,” Emily challenged.

Katie’s mouth screwed up into a scowl at the reality of that statement. “Maybe I was, a little bit, before...”

Emily snorted. “You think?”

“Hey! Do you want this assignment or not?” One perfectly shaped auburn brow flew up in warning.

“Yes! And I’m sorry. You are the perfect boss, control issues and all,” Emily added as she pasted on an overly sweet grin.

“Well, I am also a pregnant control freak and I’m thinking a trip to Germany, if not Afghanistan, isn’t the best idea right now.”

“Germany or Afghanistan?”

Katie nodded.

What was this assignment?

“Alright. That’s okay. I like travel. I’m ready for anything, Katie.” Maybe not quite ready for Afghanistan but she’d worry about that later.

Katie hmmphed at that statement while shuffling through a pile of papers and file folders on her desk. “I certainly hope you are ready, because I’m afraid it might not be easy.”

God, Emily hoped she wouldn’t be stuck working with some German-speaking model on this assignment. She could get by with a few words of French, even Italian, but German?

Finally Katie found whatever she had been looking for. “Here you go.”

Emily’s eyes opened wide as her boss thrust the file into her hands. “US Army Marketing Campaign,” she read, an uncontrollable smile spreading across her face as visions of soldiers danced in her head.

“Yup. And I’m not exactly sure you should be so happy about it,” Katie warned.

“Why not? You met and fell in love with BB during the Special Ops Recruitment Ad Campaign.”