The Woman Left Behind: A Novel Read online

  His gaze raked down her and lingered momentarily on her boots. “The guys are this way. Let’s get started.”

  Fine, no small talk. She was good with that. She didn’t try to keep up with his long-legged stride, first because she wasn’t in any hurry to get started, and second because she’d have to trot to keep up and damn if she would.

  The others were jeering each other over a wall—the wall. All the trainees had seen team members scaling the wall as if they were monkeys, climbing the dangling ropes with legs and arms working in perfect coordination, kind of pinching the rope between their feet. Fearing the wall was in her future, Jina had begun doing some push-ups and chin-ups at home . . . okay, she was up to ten push-ups and two chin-ups, but both were now plural so she’d been happy with her progress, at least until this exact sickening moment when she realized she and the wall were going to meet much sooner than she’d hoped.

  Snake waggled his eyebrows when he saw her. “Babe, you have a little muscle definition in those arms now. Good for you!”

  Muscle definition? Her? Doubtfully she looked at her arms. All she could tell was that she had a tan, though she was diligent about putting on sunscreen every day. And, yeah, her sweatpants were a little loose now, but not much, because she was eating like a horse.

  As far as the guys were concerned, she could definitely tell that they looked leaner and more tan. Wherever they’d been and whatever they’d been doing, they’d been in the sun and hadn’t had enough food to maintain their weight. But they didn’t look tired or lethargic; instead, they were like tightly wound springs, energy contained but ready to explode if needed, their reflexes on hair triggers, their alertness in the hyper zone. Jina had the feeling she shouldn’t make any sudden moves, despite the joviality with which they tackled the wall.

  Levi indicated the wall with a jerk of his head. “Let’s see how far you are from getting up to speed.”

  Damn it, she’d known he was going to throw her at the wall. “A long way,” she assured him. “Miles and miles. I’m nowhere near any speed.”

  He just gave her that implacable look, and she resigned herself to the inevitable. Grumbling under her breath—she hoped far enough under that he couldn’t understand her, because she was calling him some really bad names—she wiped her palms on the seat of her sweatpants and approached one of the dangling ropes. The guys gathered in a loose circle, grinning, ready for some entertainment at her expense. Most of them grinned, anyway; Voodoo scowled, and Levi looked as if his face would crack if he smiled. Screw them, anyway.

  She wasn’t going to impress them, not when she could do a whole two chin-ups; the best she could go was get this out of the way, so she could suffer through something else. Glaring at the rope as if it were her mortal enemy, she picked out the spot as high as she thought she could jump, which wasn’t as high as Levi was tall, but what the hell she had to start somewhere.

  She jumped.

  And missed. The damn rope was like a snake, coiling away from the impact of her hand, and she wasn’t fast enough to catch it.

  The guys were laughing as she got to her feet and brushed the dust off her ass.

  She ignored them and studied the demon rope. Okay, she’d done that wrong. She shouldn’t jump at the rope, she knew that, but she’d screwed up and jumped anyway. On the second try, she gripped the rope in her left hand, jumped, and caught the rope with her right hand while she groped with her feet, trying to imitate the pinching motion she’d seen the guys do.

  She couldn’t catch the wiggling length, her arms gave out, and she dropped to the ground. Thank God she didn’t have far to fall, though she supposed she should feel humiliated that she wasn’t quite a foot off the ground. She didn’t, though, because what fool had thought being good at a computer game would equip her for climbing ropes?

  Her boss, that’s what fool.

  “You have the right idea,” Levi said, “but you’re complicating things. You’re right handed, so let the rope lie against the outside of your right leg, then catch it with your feet as if you’re stepping in a loop.”

  That kind of made sense . . . kind of. And at least he was making the effort to be helpful, instead of just letting her lurch from one screwup to the next.

  Boom moved to stand beside her. Sweat gleamed on his dark skin and stained the once-white bandanna he’d tied around his head as a sweatband. “Like this,” he said, reaching up to grip the rope. He hauled himself off the ground, showing her how to hook the rope using his off-side foot, pulling it up under the instep of his rope-side foot and pinching the rope between them.

  “The loop of rope, not your arms, will support your weight,” Levi said. “Think of the loop as a step you’re using to go higher.”

  “You still need arm strength to reach higher,” Snake added, “but your legs will be holding your weight so this technique isn’t as tiring as others.”

  She growled a little in her throat, annoyed they hadn’t shown her this before she’d busted her ass, but she approached the rope with a determined air. She worked through the motions in her mind, then when she had it set what she needed to do, she gripped, hauled, hooked, pinched . . . and stood in the loop of rope. She was only inches off the ground, but she hadn’t fallen again so that was a big plus.

  “Up,” Levi said.

  Up. Okay. She reached higher, pulled herself up, caught and looped the rope with her feet, and damn if she wasn’t a foot off the ground.

  She did it again, her arms beginning to tremble a little, and this time she reached two feet off the ground. Again. Three feet now, and she repeated the process twice more and found herself a whole six feet off the ground because somehow she’d gained more each of the last two times, even though the rope had wiggled around like a snake and she’d had trouble snagging it. She didn’t think her arms would hold out for another go, though. She was breathing hard and sweating like a pig. Why didn’t they want her to run? She could run for a much longer distance than she’d been able to seventeen days ago. Running wasn’t so bad, at least not as bad as rope climbing.

  “Once more,” Levi said, which she took to mean he’d noticed her arms shaking and while he didn’t want her there, neither did he want her to fall and break her neck on his watch. Her feet were almost level with his head and she briefly fantasized about “accidentally” kicking him in the teeth, except he was smart enough to stand out of reach. Besides, if she freed either foot she’d have no anchor and she’d fall. Falling from six feet was way different from falling at ground level.

  She stood in the loop for a few more seconds, letting her arms rest, then hauled herself up. Wow—seven feet. She was impressed with herself, though the sweat running down her face was stinging her eyes. She scrubbed her face against her shoulder and blew out a breath.

  How in heck was she supposed to get down? The rough rope was already burning her hands, and she didn’t want to slide down it. But she had to get down soon, because her arm muscles were quivering and could give out at any minute.

  “Guys,” she began in alarm, about to ask them how she was supposed to dismount or whatever one did to get off a rope, when her sweaty hands began to slip. She yelped, grabbed, and somehow lost the rope snagged between her feet. She had a split second to make a decision: burn her hands or let go and maybe break a leg, and she was about to opt for the burned hands when her sweaty palms decided for her and down she went—for about a foot, when Levi grabbed her with one steely arm wrapped around her thighs and hauled her away from the rope.

  For one second, just one, he held her tight against him. Her senses spun; the bottom dropped out of her stomach again and every nerve went on danger alert. His body heat seared straight through her, all the way to the bone. Her entire body went rigid, as if she’d been electrified—and he let her drop with a thud, making no move to steady her.

  Once more, she landed flat on her ass—thank God. Nothing was a better distraction than hard contact with Mother Earth.

  Seven men stared silently