Chapter 2 - Adam Knew Exactly Who Would Be Watching Me
I followed Adam into the hallway.
Pierce followed us.
I turned.
“No.”
He stopped.
“This isn’t finished.”
“I know.”
“Rachel—”
I stared at him.
He did not know me well enough to use my first name.
He understood.
“I’ll be in the gym,” he said.
“Great.”
He went back inside.
Adam kept walking.
I caught up.
“You lied to me.”
“No.”
I almost laughed.
“Your name.”
“Vale was my mother’s name.”
“That was not my question.”
He stopped beside a row of lockers.
“No. I never told you Nolan Pierce was my father.”
“Four years.”
“Yes.”
“How many times have I talked about this program?”
“A lot.”
“How many times did I mention him?”
Adam looked down.
“Three.”
“And you said nothing.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because he wasn’t part of your training.”
I stared at him.
“Apparently he was.”
“No.”
“Then why were you standing outside that gym?”
His jaw moved.
Small.
There.
“Adam.”
“I wanted to watch.”
“You've never watched one of my military blocks.”
“No.”
“Why today?”
He said nothing.
I felt something cold settle in my stomach.
“You knew he was observing.”
Adam looked at me.
“Yes.”
That hurt more than the last name.
“How?”
“The evaluation schedule is available to civilian training partners.”
“You checked.”
“Yes.”
“For him.”
“Yes.”
I walked away three steps because remaining still felt too much like permission.
Adam said:
“Rachel.”
“No.”
“I didn’t know Mercer would do that.”
“You knew Pierce would be here.”
“Yes.”
“You knew I would be here.”
“Yes.”
“You asked me last week if I had been practicing the outside counter.”
His face changed.
Good.
I remembered.
I had not used that particular counter often.
Adam taught it to me six weeks earlier.
He spent more time correcting my balance on that movement than anything else we had worked in months.
At the time, I thought he was being obsessive.
Now I knew better.
“Why that one?”
Adam looked toward the gym doors.
“You’re making a connection that isn’t there.”
“Then look at me.”
He did.
“Why that counter?”
Silence.
I almost walked back into the gym.
Then he said:
“Because he would recognize it.”
I stopped.
Not because I was surprised.
Because some part of me had still hoped I was wrong.
“Recognize it from what?”
“Me.”
“Obviously.”
“Rachel.”
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“You did not spend six weeks teaching me something because it was best for my training.”
“It is good technique.”
“That isn’t what I said.”
“No.”
“Why did you need him to recognize it?”
Adam stared at the floor.
“Because I wanted to know what he would do.”
“With what?”
“Seeing something of mine again.”
I laughed.
It sounded ugly.
“So I was what?”
“No.”
“Your message?”
“No.”
“Your experiment?”
His face tightened.
“I thought he might see it and ask.”
“He did.”
“I know.”
“And then you answered.”
“Yes.”
“You planned that.”
“I hoped for it.”
That distinction made me angrier.
“You hoped I would use the counter in front of him.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
He didn’t answer.
Of course.
I had been placed in a combatives class.
Eventually somebody would attack.
Adam had not ordered Mercer to shove me.
He had not asked Tyler to overpower me.
He had simply put a specific tool in my hands and waited for a room he knew his father would be watching.
Maybe nothing happened.
Maybe something did.
Either way, the choice had been mine only at the smallest level.
I stared at him.
“You used my training to talk to your father without talking to your father.”
Adam looked sick.
“Yes.”
That answer came quickly enough to stop me.
At least he knew what he had done.
“Why?”
His eyes moved toward the gym.
“Because I didn’t know if I could walk up to him.”
“So you let me do it for you.”
“Yes.”
I had never heard Adam sound ashamed before.
I wanted that to matter.
It didn’t yet.
“What happened between you?”
He shook his head.
“That conversation isn’t fifteen seconds long.”
“Good. Neither was my training.”
“I know.”
“Then start.”
Before he could, the gym door opened.
Mercer came out.
He looked less angry now.
More careful.
“Hayes.”
“What?”
“Senior Chief wants everybody’s statements before they leave.”
Adam immediately said:
“She doesn’t need to—”
I turned on him.
“Stop.”
He shut his mouth.
Mercer noticed.
I looked at him.
“You threw my gloves, put Boone against me, then entered the ring angry.”
His jaw tightened.
“Yes.”
“Did Pierce tell you to test me?”
Mercer looked toward the door.
That was enough.
“Cole.”
He hated hearing his first name from me.
Good.
“What did he tell you?”
Mercer stayed quiet.
Adam moved closer.
Mercer looked at him.
Something strange crossed his face.
Not recognition.
Resentment.
“You really want to know?”
“Yes.”
Mercer looked at me.
“Pierce saw your registration yesterday.”
“And?”
“He saw who signed the civilian-training verification.”
Adam went still.
“Vale,” Mercer said.
Then he pulled out his phone.
Opened a message.
Held it toward me.
One sentence from Senior Chief Pierce.
No special handling for Vale’s trainee. I want to see what she does when he isn’t in her corner.
I read it twice.
Then looked at Adam.
Then through the glass door at Pierce.
One man had trained me to send a message he was too afraid to deliver.
The other had decided I needed to be tested because he didn’t trust the man who trained me.
And Staff Sergeant Cole Mercer had apparently decided “no special handling” meant he could turn me into entertainment.
May you like
Before I entered that gym, all three men already knew what I represented to them.
I was the last person to find out.
Related Stories
