Page 69 of Viking Unchained

“Oh, he’s not there,” Geek said, following after her. Geek had been one of the youngest men to ever join the SEALs, in addition to being the smartest. With his baby face, he’d always given the impression of being such an innocent, but somehow over the years, without anyone noticing, he’d turned into quite a hunk. He still had a kidlike expression on his face, but it was belied by the twinkle in his dancing eyes.

“Where is he?” she asked.

“Oh, Ian and some of the guys gave him a good practice workout this morning, but the PST test didn’t start ’til thirteen-hundred,” Geek told them. “Finn did the five-hundred-yard swim in ten minutes, thirty seconds . . . one minute under the minimum, and he was okay on the forty-two push-ups and fifty sit-ups in two minutes, each, but he struggled with the six pull-ups that immediately followed. Right now, the gang is doing a one-and-a-half-mile run in boondockers.” He checked his wristwatch. “They should be coming in any minute now.”

At that moment a guy walked by, then came back with a double take. “Hey, y’all.” It was Justin LeBlanc . . . Cage. Like Geek, he wore shorts, a T-shirt with the Navy SEAL emblem, and the heavy boondocker boots. Walking into the room, he slapped Geek on the back, almost knocking him over.

“You were supposed to be spotting me, dipwad.” Then he turned sweetly to Kirstin and said, “Darlin’, you look hot, as usual.”

Kirstin rolled her eyes at what everyone knew as the Cajun’s usual pickup line.

Then he gave Lydia a big hug. “I haven’t seen you in ages, sweetheart. You are a sight for sore eyes.”

Still holding her, he leaned back and pretended to give her a lascivious once-over. “Talk about!”

Cage had been a teammate and good friend to Dave. She hadn’t seen him much the past few years, but suddenly, she wondered why she’d avoided him. “You’re not looking bad yourself, hot stuff,” she replied, hugging him in return.

“Whatcha all doin’ here?” Cage asked. With an arm looped over Lydia’s shoulders, he looked out the window to see what they were all looking at.

“We’re waiting for new guys to come in from their run. The ones taking the PST,” Geek explained.

“I heard there are only fifteen left,” Cage reported. “They started with thirty.”

“Is . . . is Finn . . . I mean, Thorfinn . . . still in?” Lydia asked.

Cage looked down at her with surprise. “Ah, so that’s how it is, darlin’?” He squeezed her shoulder.

She thought about protesting, but just then the runners were approaching from the beach. Staggering would be a better description. Finn wasn’t at the head of the line, but he wasn’t at the tail end, either. He looked beaten down and pushed to his limits, but still standing—rather, running.

One by one the guys sank to their knees, panting with exhaustion. They were covered with sweat and sand. Probably the result of “sugar cookies,” a SEAL brand of torture that involved running, taking a quick dip in the ocean, rolling in the sand, running, then repeating the process over and over. Two of the guys rushed to the side and threw up.

For some reason, Lydia felt inordinately proud of Finn. A strange country. A strange time, if he was to be believed. And still he’d managed to survive.

“Did he pass?” she asked.

“This part, probably,” Cage answered.

“Well, he’ll pass the verbal test next week if it kills me ,” Geek added.

“Assuming he gets through each of these hurdles, when will the next BUD/S class start?”

“Not ’til the fall,” Geek said. “They have a new WEALS class to launch first.” WEALS was the female version of SEALs that had been started a year or two ago.

“That means you might have a few weeks of hanky panky with lover boy down there,” Cage told her with a grin.

She gave him a playful slap on the arm, then hugged him spontaneously for no reason other than renewed friendship and possibly the hope he’d given her that things might resume with Finn.

Unfortunately, it was at just that moment that Ian alerted Finn to the fact that they were up here. And when he glanced their way, it seemed that she was in Cage’s embrace.

He glared at her with disdain. “Faithless wench!”

Then he turned his back and walked away.

Men are all the same, really . .

.

Thorfinn sat in the Wet and Wild once again.