Page 5 of Twins for the Secret Prince (Even More Babies #8)

EVA

E va woke up with a smile on her face. It was boot camp day, one of her favorite events with any new squad.

She never failed to feel a rush of excitement when she saw a squad working together to figure out challenges she’d set for them, which pitched teams against each other in feats that were as much about problem-solving as they were about brute strength.

The brute strength aspect of boot camp was what she’d been most afraid of after she’d decided to join the army years before.

As a teenager she was tall and willowy, and not known for her physical strength.

In fact, her arms were so thin that her older brothers used to make jokes about her noodle arms. Soon after the teasing started, she’d started to lift light weights, determined that the noodles-for-arms jokes would stop when her brothers noticed that she was developing muscles.

Instead, they’d teased her about the paltry weights she was using, comparing them to the ones they lifted in the gym.

Eva learned to hide her efforts to transform her physical strength from that point on, lifting heavier and heavier items in the house when her brothers weren’t around.

Seeing the change in her body was nothing short of thrilling for Eva, and she’d taken pride in her hard-earned physical strength and endurance.

Nonetheless, she’d imagined the military was full of brawny men and women who could lift her up using only one arm.

She worried that she would be far and away the weakest new recruit, forced out of basic training on the first day.

It was that mental image of walking away from the military, head hanging in disgrace, that propelled her more than anything else through the actual first day of training.

It was grueling and physically punishing, by far the toughest day of her life.

But, as exhausting as it was, she’d loved it.

At the end of the day, she had stood in the shower under a stream of hot water and had known beyond the shadow of a doubt that she was in the right place.

She’d found her true home, the place she belonged.

Eva knew that not all of the new recruits felt that way about their decision to join the military.

Not yet. Some would never feel like this was home, but others would experience that feeling of belonging soon enough.

Some, like Eva, had felt it on their first day.

She knew because she’d seen it in them, that rush of pure adrenaline and joy.

The morning air was fresh, and although she hated to admit it, it smelled just as Sergeant Billings had described.

Eva cast her eye over the obstacle course, really just to make sure that there were no obvious problems with any of the equipment.

The hell wall — the tall wooden wall that was the first obstacle every recruit had to overcome — was the one thing Eva knew she was ready for on her first day of boot camp because she had practiced by throwing herself at and over all of the tall wooden fences she could find in her home town.

And it had worked. She’d scaled the wall in record time.

Not all of her recruits were so adept, or so lucky. But with her encouragement and some solid teamwork, she vowed that everyone would get over the wall in decent time today.

Next, Eva dragged equipment out of one of the storage rooms and arranged the various items — boxes, sandbags and a medical stretcher — into different configurations to test the recruits’ mental agility.

They had to disassemble the objects and carry them to a remote area on the base, where they would engage in a range of different team tasks before then working together to assemble the configurations as they originally were.

“It smells like green today.”

Eva turned to see Sergeant Billings striding towards her. Her heart sank as she wondered what he was doing there so early in the morning. “Good morning, sergeant.”

“I see that you’re very formal in the mornings, Sergeant Bailey.”

“What can I do for you, sergeant?”

“I’ve come to ask you the same question. I saw you moving things around and thought I would come to offer my help.”

Eva put her hand on her hip and cocked her head. “Right. Because I’m just a weak woman who needs your help with heavy lifting.”

His smile disappeared instantly, and his face fell. “No, actually, that wasn’t it at all.”

“Well, thank you, but no thanks, sergeant. I can manage.”

“Are you setting up today’s boot camp?”

“That’s right.”

“Well, in that case, I insist on helping. It’s for my squad too.”

Eva frowned. She didn’t want to tell him that part of the reason she was out here setting up so early was so that she could build in an advantage for her squad.

It was usual for the new recruits to go head-to-head, and of course word would get back to the senior officers about which squad was the best. It had to be hers.

“You can check the obstacle course,” she said. “I gave it a once-over, but it could use a closer inspection.”

“I’ll do it. But first, can I help with whatever you’re doing?”

“No, thank you.”

“You wouldn’t be trying to prevent me from seeing something that would help me prepare my squad, now would you, Sergeant Bailey? Maybe so that your squad has the advantage?”

“I’ll thank you not to disrespect me, sergeant.” Eva’s voice was icy, even though that was exactly what she’d been aiming for.

Billings held up his hands. “I apologize. I shouldn’t have thought it, never mind said it.”

“Apology accepted. Now go and inspect the obstacle course.”

Eva kept her eye on him as he carried out the inspection, wanting to be sure that he wasn’t covertly watching what she was doing.

But he was focused on the task at hand, carrying out a thorough inspection of all of the equipment.

As she watched him, she found herself wondering how he could look so completely delicious this early in the morning.

She knew she had dark circles under her eyes from lack of sleep, and he looked like the perfect physical specimen of manhood.

“Everything’s in good shape,” he said, striding back to where Eva stood.

“Good.”

“Breakfast?”

The last thing Eva wanted to do was go and have breakfast with Pete Billings, but she couldn’t come up with an excuse fast enough. And then it came to her. “You go ahead. I’m going to run the course first to check that everything’s working as it should be.”

He gave her an appraising look. “Great idea. I’ll join you. That way, we can triple-check it. And we can see who finishes first.”

“Is everything a competition with you, Sergeant Billings?”

“Is that fear I see in your eyes, Sergeant Bailey? Surely not, given that you’ve no doubt run this course before, giving you a distinct edge.”

“When I beat you, it won’t be because I’ve run the course before.”

“Let’s see,” Billings said, his eyes twinkling with the challenge she’d set out for him.

When Eva strode into the dining hall, she carried herself as she imagined the great Roman emperors did during their victory parades. Billings, on the other hand, carried himself with the air of a man being paraded through the streets of Rome like a spoil of war. Or so she liked to think.

“Would you like to make the announcement, or should I?” she asked, enjoying digging in the metaphorical boot.

“Oh, you go ahead. I wouldn’t want you to miss this opportunity to publicly shame me. Just maybe, when you do, tell them you beat me by one-hundredth of a second.”

“Hey, a victory is still a victory,” Eva said. She had no intention of sharing the news that she’d beaten Billings’ time, but she enjoyed seeing him squirm.

“Attention, new recruits!” she called out to both of their squads. “Boot camp will start at oh-nine-hundred hours. Sergeant Billings and I expect you to have completed your warm-up exercises by then and be ready to start. That means it’s time to make a move.”

As they were served breakfast, Billings said, “Why didn’t you tell them you beat me?”

“That’s between you and me, sergeant. Consider it the first of your many losses to me.”

Boot camp started well for Eva’s squad. Well, for all but Private Sully, who had the slowest time at the hell wall and the least troubled attitude about being the slowest. Eva pulled him aside once he’d finished the obstacle course and told him he’d be running the course again later, after team activities.

He looked less than happy about it, and she had to remind him again that he had a choice: up his game or leave, either of his own free will or by being kicked out.

Eva divided each squad into two teams so that four groups carried out the team activities. She reminded her squad to look carefully at the equipment configurations, to take mental pictures or use whatever memory aids had worked for them in the past to remember complex information.

“Both teams can’t come first, but make no mistake — this squad will come in first and second places. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, sergeant!”

The teams had less than a minute to memorize the configuration of the equipment before Eva ordered all four teams to load the boxes and sandbags onto the stretchers and carry them the full two miles to the activity station.

After unpacking and stacking the boxes and sandbags, she announced the first activity.

“Each team will build a bunker, and the first team to do so correctly will win. Each bunker will be nine sandbags in width, eight sandbags tall, and four sandbags deep. Go!”

She and Billings stood watching their teams as they worked to build the bunkers.

The first activity was always the most chaotic, with fatigue, nerves and stress affecting the recruits’ ability to concentrate and work together.

Eva enjoyed seeing true leaders emerge, taking charge and ensuring the task was executed accurately, especially when the leaders were female.

Private O’Malley, who had been the one to help Private Sully when he’d slipped in the mud the day before, was the natural leader of the orange team.

Smart and decisive, it was clear that she was well-respected by her team members.

Private Sully, on the other hand, was on the brown team, and he was a chaotic mess. His team members were having to undo his errors and correct them, and they made no bones about the fact that they weren’t happy about it.

Eva was more than pleased, and not at all surprised, when the orange team won, a full minute before the blue team. Although half of her squad had won first place, it was one of the teams from Billings’ squad in second place.

Eva glared briefly at Private Sully before announcing that all of the non-winning teams would get their “rewards” — fifty push-ups.

“Corrective training,” Billings said as they watched the recruits. “Very effective.”

“If they don’t like it, they should come in first next time,” Eva said sternly.

The rainstorm that had been threatening all morning rolled in with a vengeance just as the recruits were doing their push-ups.

“What happens in the case of lightning?” Billings asked.

“We take shelter in the tents or, if it’s more severe, we go back inside the base.”

Billings nodded, appearing unfazed by the driving rain, and watched the recruits.

Eva announced the next task, which involved carrying a stretcher loaded down with sandbags equivalent in weight to a two-hundred-pound human across the activity field to the makeshift infirmary.

When the blue team beat the orange team to victory, once again Eva announced that the losing teams would be punished, with full-length lunges.

The third and final activity was the reassembling of the equipment configurations, which saw the orange team victorious again.

The storm had become practically biblical by that point, and the rain acted like water cannons, forcing many of the recruits to the ground.

They looked miserable, but not one of them complained.

Eva ordered them to carry the equipment back to the storage rooms and told Private Sully to stay behind.

“You’re running the course again,” she told him.

“In this storm?” he asked, looking like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“You heard me, private. I told you that your poor performance earlier meant you needed practice. Storm or no storm, you need to do the course.”

Eva saw Billings look at her out of the corner of her eye and silently willed him not to challenge her in front of this recruit.

He didn’t, and instead he supervised the others as they returned the equipment, then came back to where she was standing, watching Private Sully attempt to scale the hell wall.

“He’ll never get over in this rain,” was all he said.

“He should have done better the first time,” Eva said coldly. “He’s got to try.”

As soon as she’d spoken the words, Private Sully slipped from where he was dangling precariously halfway up the hell wall. With a sickening thud, his body hit the ground. Eva and Billings raced over to where the recruit was lying, immobile.

As Eva watched in horrified silence, Billings took charge, asking Private Sully where the pain was and delicately probing his arm.

“It’s broken,” he said to Eva. “Can you get something for a sling?”

Eva ran to get the first aid kit and handed Billings a roll of thick elastic. She watched as he adeptly made a sling for Private Sully’s arm, helped the young man to his feet, and supported him as they all trekked through the driving rain to the infirmary.

Once she and Billings were back at base, they received word that Major Aston wanted to speak with them. Billings was called in first, and after a few minutes, Eva was asked to join them.

“Sergeant Billings tells me it was his idea for Private Sully to scale hell wall again, despite the inclement weather. Even though I understand his motives, it was a reckless move, given the storm. I want to make it clear that you are partly responsible, Sergeant Bailey. You should have stopped it from happening.”

“Sir, yes, sir.”

“And Sergeant Billings, this kind of careless leadership will not stand here on my base. Do you understand?”

“Sir, yes, sir.”

“You’re both dismissed.”

As they walked away, Eva was speechless. By the time she’d found her words, Billings had disappeared, leaving her wondering whether she’d just experienced an act of collegiate honor, or if it was all part of a clever ruse to get her to lower her guard.