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And with that, he stormed back up the porch steps and inside, leaving Nico standing on the lawn, feeling like a prized asshole.
“You’ve gotta be shitting me.”
Three hours into his second day of work, Nico wobbled precariously on the stones beneath his boots, his arms flailing until they found anchor on whoever was standing next to him. By the immature snicker, he guessed Frank.
“What’s the matter, Lieutenant?” West asked from somewhere behind him. “Can’t swim?”
“Dude,” Seth laughed. “That’s just bad planning. You’re aware islands are surrounded by water, right?”
Nico angled his head in the hopes of seeing something—anything—beyond the blindfold they’d tied to his head before stuffing him in the cruiser and bringing him here—wherever here was.
“Go easy on him,” Zoe said, her voice barely audible over the crashing waves and thrashing wind. “He’s never done this before.”
“You mean jump off a cliff without the gift of sight?” Nico clarified. “No, I haven’t.”
Even to his own ears, he sounded mildly hysterical, but given what his new crew was currently putting him through, Nico felt it was warranted. They all chuckled—all except Cora who’d volunteered to stay behind and man the station, saying, “I have no interest in being an accomplice to manslaughter.”
Nico had blanched a little at that.
“It’s a rite of passage,” West said, far too gleefully. “Consider it your official welcome to the team.”
“Doesn’t feel very welcoming.” Nico’s hair whipped wildly around his face. “You’re seriously telling me you all did this?”
“Of course,” Seth said.
“Absolutely,” said Zoe.
Liars.
Frank squeezed his shoulders. “Relax, LT. You really think we’d bring you all the way out here to kill you?”
“At this point, I’m not sure,” Nico replied.
“See, Nico, it’s all about that trust we talked about,” West called. “If you can’t trust your fellow officers, who can you?”
Fuck.
This had probably been all his idea.
Nico considered his options. He could rip the blindfold off, tell them all to shove their idea of a haze up their asses and walk away with his life—and body—intact. Or he could have a little faith and jump.
While his survival instinct argued that the former was a better choice, his logical brain pointed out that it was highly unlikely they would let him die. Unintentional maiming, however, still felt very much on the table.
Sending a silent prayer skyward, Nico muttered, “Christ. Alright, I’ll do it.”
Whoops and claps followed, then Frank was positioning him further forward, presumably as close to the edge as he could get.
“Hands crossed over your chest,” he instructed. “This is very important; you want to make sure you go in feet first and bend your knees, so the impact of the water doesn’t hit you too hard.”
“Jesus, how far is this fucking drop?”
“Just far enough to make you feel alive. But don’t worry, we’ve been diving off this cliff since we were kids. It’s completely safe.”
“Right.”
Sea water misted Nico’s face as he stood alone on the verge of possibly the worst mistake of his life—and there was some tough competition. Frank had backed off, warning Nico to propel himself as far out as possible to avoid the rocks close to the shore.
Nico took three deep breaths, huffing them out in fast succession to build up the nerve. Then with an almighty roar, he pushed through his feet with everything he had, and leapt. He was airborne for all of a second before gravity took over, and suddenly he was free-falling to whatever fate his comrades had planned for him. He locked his arms to his chest like Frank said, bent his knees, and held his breath. When he hit the water, he told his body to relax and let it take him under. Except it didn’t. Because he wasn’t in the water—not completely, anyway. His body let out a reflexive “Oof!” and he realized his lower half was, indeed, submerged in the sea, but the rest of him remained dry. Pain shot through his thigh at the impact while up above, the jeering sound of his subordinate’s laughter and applause rang out, and Nico knew he’d been had. Removing his blindfold, he turned to see the lot of them cheering on a small rocky embankment no higher than a Ford F-150, while his one superior stood off to the side, a pleased grin on his face.
