She eased her eye to the sight and slipped her finger through the trigger guard. She reached up with her left hand to insert the wind adjustment. Everything else fell away from her, leaving her in a bubble of silence and stillness. It was just her and the target, linked by her weapon and its hair-thin crosshairs.

She squeezed gently.

The weapon bucked on its tripod.

“Dead center,” Kettering announced, peering through binoculars. “Nice shot, Tate. Keep it up.” Kettering strolled away to stand behind Lily at the other end of the firing line.

“Hark. Was that praise from the block of ice?” she muttered.

“Aww, Cal’s not that bad. Wait till you meet the instructors at BUD/S.”

“You always assume I’m going to be the one who gets sacrificed to BUD/S.” She propped herself up on an elbow to stare at him. “Why is that?”

He shrugged. “You would be the worst-case scenario for the teams.”

She spied Kettering heading back in their direction and flopped back down beside her rifle, muttering. “Add that to the agenda for our conversation later.”

What did he mean by that? Worst case? Her? Was she that hopelessly not cut out to be a SEAL?

Chapter 6

Later came well after dark that night when Kettering finally declared them done for the day. Griffin and the other guys had just spent hours chasing the women around in the dark, using NODs—night optical devices—and teaching them how to erase their own tracks. They were at least a mile from camp in a thick stand of brush and towering pine forest.

The women had caught on fast to stealthy movement. Really fast. As if it came naturally to women in a way it didn’t with men. It almost made a guy wonder if there were certain skills and tasks women were more suited for than men.

Nah. Men were better than women at all things physical.

Except even as he had the thought, he knew deep down in his gut it wasn’t true.

It was an unsettling revelation.

As the others tromped loudly back toward beers or beds, Griffin touched Sherri’s arm and gestured for her to stay behind with him. They sank down slowly into the bushes until the others had moved out of sight.

When silence had fallen around them and the night creatures were starting to chirp tentatively once more, he said quietly, “We need to talk.”

“Duh, Einstein,” she retorted.

He laughed under his breath in spite of himself. He did enjoy her sense of humor when she cut it loose. Most of the time she was too polite to say what was really on her mind. Pulling the NODs up on top of his head, he stood up. She did the same.

“You go first,” she surprised him by saying.