Page 5 of Her Faithful Protector

I crushed it!

“Great job, Nic!” Cullen yelled.

He practically slid down the netting and did a full-speed run to try to catch up with Raiden. He knew that Raiden was faster, so Nic would have to give it his all. Maybe carrying the weights at the next part of the obstacle course would give Nic some leverage.

It started to rain. More mud to look forward to. But only a couple more obstacles.

He was right; he did gain on Raiden a little bit, but still not enough to really make a dent on the man’s lead.

Shit, at this rate, I’m still only going to come in third!

When Nic looked up he groaned. It was the ship boarding obstacle. A flimsy ladder, eight inches across and twenty feet high. You had to climb the damn thing, ring the bell, and come down. Raiden was going to nail this one. He was the most nimble of all the Night Storm team members.

Damn. Damn. Damn.

Nic did what he could, but with his size-twelve boot, he was screwed. The good news was that Cullen had the same damn problem. The bad news was that Raiden was already up the ladder and had rung the bell.

Asshole.

Raiden grinned at him as he basically slid down the ladder.

“Gotta up your game, Kid,” Raiden said as he jumped off the ladder and hauled ass toward the next obstacle.

Nic went up the next ten feet and rang the bell, then he slid down. He didn’t care about the pain in his palms, he was bound and determined to beat Raiden. He was sick and tired of being called Kid. He was twenty-fucking-four years old for fuck’s sake.

The next obstacle was partly to Raiden’s advantage and partly to Nic’s. Being the ballerina that Raiden was, he could easily tiptoe up the logs to the steel wall. The asshole also had the upper body strength to lift himself up and over, but Nic had the height advantage, so…

Suck it, Raiden!

Nic didn’t sweat as he went up the logs. His big feet kept him steady, if not fast. He easily went up and over the wall, even though it was narrow.

He raced down the log on the other side and jumped down two steps ahead of Raiden. Hell, he didn’t even see Ezio ahead. There was no chance of beating him, but still, he intended to beat Raiden with authority and leave Cullen sucking wind like the old man that he was. Hell, he was almost thirty-one!

Now it was more logs, and he was home free. He ran toward the obstacle full tilt and took a running jump. He was almost on top of the first one, then he took the momentum to rocket up to the second higher log. The third one was a Hail Mary, so he took a power jump and caught it, then hefted over and hit the ground, keeping his knees bent.

Now he could finally see Ezio. He was on the other side of the finish line, with a shit-eating grin on his face. Asshole. Nic would bet anything that he’d broken the course record.

He put his head down and ran.

Ran hard.

He saw the chalk line as he crossed it, and started to slow and circle back.

“’Bout time. What took you so long?” Ezio shouted out. “I thought you were young and healthy? Is your social life finally taking a toll?”

Nic ignored him and went over to the rucksack that held bottles of water. God, he was thirsty. He looked up as Raiden crossed the finish line, so he pulled out two more bottles. Nic chuckled when Cullen shouted out a ‘Goddammit, I didn’t even podium.’

Ezio laughed the hardest.

“I saw what you ate for dinner last night, man. There wasn’t a chance in hell that you were going to place in the top three today. Unless of course Nic here didn’t get a wink of sleep, drank a quart of whisky, and smoked three packs of Camels.”

“Fuck you, Ezio. I didn’t eat that much,” Cullen protested.

Ezio let out an easy laugh. “Samantha cooked a brisket and all the trimmings and you guys fell on it like ravening wolves. You can tell that Carys and A.J. don’t cook.”

“We would have got in trouble, except for the fact that Carys and A.J. plowed in just as much as we did,” Cullen laughed.

“I don’t get it,” Nic said. “Samantha’s cooking is great, so why did you win, Ezio?”