Page 22 of Fatal Intent
“Won’t that annoy them?”
He shrugged. “Gives us more time to train and look into things ourselves. The priority is training, though. I’ll alert Brent and Zane so they know everything that’s happened. They’ll put the computer geeks on the job. I trust them to find the truth more than I trust the Hartman cops.”
“Agreed. Let’s hope the geeks move fast to unearth the facts we need to clear our names. I have a feeling Brent might deploy our team early.”
That wouldn’t make the Hartman detectives happy. They seemed to be rule followers and would want her and Grant available any time to answer questions.
Iona walked toward them. “Suspects or not, we need to return to training.” She pointed at Rayne. “You have ground to make up. Since you didn’t run this morning, you have the privilege of running five miles before you catch up with the rest of us. Get moving.”
Rayne sighed, foreseeing a need for a soak in hot water with bath salts to ease her aching muscles. “Yes, ma’am.” She stood.
“Same goes for you, Grant. Your pretty face won’t get you out of PT. Move it, buddy.”
He saluted her and fell into step with Rayne. “Your choice of where we run.”
“Indoor track. We can keep track of everyone else’s progress while we run.”
They walked to the stairs leading to the second-floor track. When they reached their destination, Grant motioned for Rayne to take the lead.
She grinned. “You don’t want me to follow you?”
“Are you kidding? I don’t want to frustrate you with my slower pace. Run at your normal speed. I’ll try to keep up.”
Rayne laughed as she fell into her natural running rhythm. She started slowly, then gradually sped up until she was at least half a lap ahead of Grant. The farther she ran, the better Rayne felt.
She smiled, relaxing into the run. This was what she’d needed, to feel her muscles burn and her lungs work efficiently. When she’d been in gymnastics, Rayne had enjoyed pushing her body to its limits and beyond. Winning competitions hadn’t been the end game for her. She had thrived on stretching herself to achieve new heights of skill.
Her smile faded. Everything changed on that fateful night so many years ago. A split-second decision to grab the knife changed her life and ended her father’s reign of terror behind closed doors. That choice ended her gymnastics career. Since none of her relatives would take her in after what happened, Rayne had been tossed into the child protection services system where no one took her in or took an interest in her gymnastics.
She pushed herself to run faster. Rayne smiled grimly. As if by running faster she could leave painful memories behind.
When she breezed by Grant, he called out, “Show off. Way to make me look bad, babe.”
She laughed and kept running. Despite the terrible events of her teenage years, Rayne couldn’t help but be grateful for her life intersecting with Grant and his teammates. They were a special group of men.
As their EOD man, Grant had the dubious honor of handling the assembly and dismantling of explosive ordinances for their group. Rayne had seen firsthand his delicate precision in wielding his instruments as skillfully as a surgeon.
Minutes later, she finished her laps and walked the outside lane to cool off while waiting for Grant to complete his run. He soon joined her.
“Did you set a new land speed record for the five-mile run?” he teased.
She shook her head. “I was a little winded today.”
Grant narrowed his eyes. “You held back, didn’t you?”
Rayne smiled, neither confirming nor denying his accusation. But yeah, she’d definitely held back. Bad enough that they would be singled out for extra training today because of their delay in arriving at Fortress to join their teams. The last thing she wanted was to add even more reps to their training exercises because Grant appeared to be slacking when the blame lay in the difference in their running pace. He’d actually improved his running speed by running with her every morning. Score one for his male ego that couldn’t stand to be shown up by Rayne.
He sighed. “I thought I improved my run time.”
“You did.”
“Nope. I’ll have to put more time into running. Come on. We better go. Seth is giving me his move-it-or-pay-hard look.” They descended the stairs and joined their teammates on the main floor.
“Next stop, the firing range and the kill house.”
Grant rubbed his hands together. “Now we’re talking. I’m ready to redeem myself. Rayne left me behind to eat her dust while we ran.”
“Your pace is better,” Seth said as the members of Echo unit and Artemis grabbed their Go bags and began walking toward the firing range. “What have you been doing to help yourself?”
