Sophia Sasson - The Sergeant's Temptation

Rodgers took Parrino’s hand and predictably used her weaker position to pull downward while sliding his leg across the floor to kick her legs out from under her. Classic. Can’t believe she fell for it.

“Don’t go easy on her ’cause she’s a girl,” the colonel hooted even though the sparring soldiers couldn’t hear him through the cube.

Luke resisted the urge to make a smart-aleck comment. He was on thin ice as it was. Parrino jumped a millisecond before Rodgers’s leg would have connected and used the downward momentum her rival had created to bend her arm and bring her elbow down on the other soldier’s solar plexus.

Nice!

Both Luke and Colonel McBride flinched at the look of sheer agony on Rodgers’s face.

Luke slapped the Plexiglas wall, opening the door. “All right, Parrino, you’re done.” The last thing he needed was for one of his men to end up in the hospital. The unit was less than a month away from being fully operational. That meant he’d get to take his men and fly to an undisclosed location, far away from Colonel Pain-in-the-Neck, who would stay here at Fort Belvoir in Virginia, kissing up to the Pentagon.

Parrino released her grip on the soldier’s throat and stood. Her eyes still alert for another attack, she walked toward Luke and stepped outside. She stood in front of Luke and the colonel and saluted. Barely five foot four, Parrino had short dark hair pulled neatly into a ponytail, golden-brown eyes and cream-colored skin tinged pink around her cheeks and nose. Her breathing was even and her expression relaxed. A shiny forehead was the only indication that she’d broken a sweat.

“Well done, Parrino.” Luke acknowledged.

She nodded curtly. They stared at her, and to her credit, her face remained impassive, back straight with a stance worthy of a recruitment poster. Luke tilted his head toward his office. “Wait there.” He didn’t offer her water or a chance to go to the bathroom; he needed to see her mettle.

“Rodgers, you’re done. Go get cleaned up.” The man would never live down this exercise. It was the first one he’d lost, but the unit members wouldn’t let him forget the fact that he’d been taken down by a woman half his size.

As soon as Rodgers was out of earshot, the colonel placed a hand on Luke’s shoulder. He wanted more than anything to smack it away. “Williams, I think it’s a bad idea to take the girl. She’s trouble with a capital T.”

“Parrino’s the only qualified candidate I’ve seen.”

“What you talkin’ about? There’s a stack of good soldiers on your desk.”

Luke had gone through all the applications in the folders on his desk and auditioned ten other guys, all of whom Rodgers had wiped out. The colonel knew this; he’d been there for every test. Not that he was micromanaging Luke. No, the colonel was there to “lend support.” Luke was supposed to have the authority to hire whomever he wanted. Technically.

That was the point of this unit, Ethan’s brainchild. Luke’s twin brother had convinced the brass that the only way to deal with their current problem was to create a nimble unit that could operate without the usual hierarchy. Each of the unit members had been hired for a particular skill set and they worked as a team, regardless of their army rank. The whole idea was not to work the usual way, so their moves wouldn’t be predictable. None of the soldiers who had been handpicked by Ethan had known each other, served together or had any commanding officers in common. They were a good group of men. But they were his brother’s men.

“Sir, we need a woman on the team. Men and women are regularly separated in the Sandbox, and I don’t want to be in a situation where we don’t have eyes where we need them.”

“Have you thought about the influence she’ll have on your men, your unit?” He motioned toward Rodgers, who was staring at Parrino through the glass doors of Luke’s office.

Luke raised a brow, though he understood full well where the colonel was going. “Oh, I’ll tell them I told Rodgers to go easy on her so they don’t give him a hard time.” It was a cheeky comment, but the colonel took it at face value.

“That’s not what I mean. Unit cohesion is everything, and given her history, I worry she’ll be a distraction. She has trouble with boundaries.”

Look who’s talking. The only boundaries McBride respected were the ones that suited him.

Luke resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He didn’t have a good grasp on how to manage the colonel. How would Ethan handle this? Now more than ever he wished he’d kept in touch with his twin brother. They’d been inseparable until they graduated West Point. A rift had grown between them after they both began active duty. The last few times they’d spoken, it had been to argue over Luke leaving the army. Ethan had taken command of this unit a year ago, but Luke had hardly paid attention. He’d been too focused on getting out. The news of Ethan’s death four months ago changed everything.

“Sir, no one knows for sure what happened, and she wasn’t disciplined.”

“Yeah, but her commanding officer still had to face an Article 134. That man will never get promoted. All it takes is the hint of impropriety between a soldier and a commanding officer, and you...” The colonel wiggled his eyebrows and pinned Luke with steel-gray eyes. “Son, I have great respect for your father—we’ve served in combat together—but I have to say that given your reputation, I wasn’t entirely comfortable giving you command of this unit.”

That’s a shocker. The uptight colonel was as old-school as they came, and Luke was far from a model officer. But McBride also wanted to get his first star, and going up against Luke’s four-star general father was not the way to do that. That said, Luke was on a short leash. He had command of the unit on a trial basis. A big screwup and he was out.

That couldn’t happen.

Luke gave him a hard look. “Sir, this unit meant a lot to my brother, and I plan to make it a success. For his sake.”

“Then I suggest you think carefully. This is your first major decision as unit commander. Pick your battles. Would your brother have wanted her?”

Luke didn’t have to think about what Ethan would’ve done. There was a reason why his brother had made captain while Luke was still first lieutenant. Luke hadn’t earned command of this unit. His father had pulled some strings, and if he hadn’t, Luke would be the last man in contention for the job. The colonel knew it, and so did Luke’s men. Every decision he made would be judged, and he would be blamed if anything went south.

“Sir, I know my reputation precedes me as well, which is why I’m more willing to give Sergeant Parrino a chance. The army has a way of blowing rumors out of proportion.”

“All rumors have a basis. Now, you’re a smart boy—” the colonel drawled “—you know what’s at stake here.” He patted Luke’s shoulder in a fatherly gesture that was anything but. “I’ll leave it with you. I’m sure you’ll make the right choice.”

As soon as I know what the right choice is.

“Yes, sir.” The colonel walked away and Luke was left starting after him. He didn’t need to be reminded of the stakes. The army was Ethan and his father’s thing. Not his. He hadn’t cared about climbing the ladder. He was supposed to be out by now, starting a new life. Then Ethan had died. Well-known for his shenanigans, Luke would have to work twice as hard to prove he was capable of commanding the unit. Without it, he had no chance of finding out what really happened to his brother.

* * *

ALESSA TOOK SEVERAL deep breaths so she’d be prepared to be neutral and deferential when Luke Williams—excuse me, Lieutenant Williams—returned to tell her she couldn’t have the job. She’d seen it all over the old colonel’s face when she’d pinned her opponent to the ground. He wasn’t the first officer to give her that look of disbelief and disgust. She was a woman; how dare she show herself to be stronger and more capable than a man? It was just as well. The unit was a long shot. She’d known that coming in.