The King (Gentlemen Rogues 2)

LACHLAN

I watched Saff intently.My new trainerwho refused to train me.

She and Tabatha were sitting in front of our current training class, which included myself, Saint, Robert, Maxim, and Rook.

And now it looked like we were all about to get the training of a lifetime.

Tabatha stepped forward. "We are going to test your tracking ability, your ability not to lose a target and to stay on point. We will be trying this on the Rogues campus first and then in the real world. In the real world, there will be a lot more obstacles. But that does not mean that you can believe everything you see on campus. Saff here will be your rabbit. Your job is to find her before your fellow competitors. While you are allowed to engage in hand-to-hand, you will not be getting live weapons. No real knives or guns, but you will have tranq darts and"—she held up one of the plastic knives that we often used—“these. You'll each return and then your markings will be tracked with this." She held up what looked like a light scanner, which she turned on, and we could see that she was completely marked up with pop song lyrics. She had one across her back that read Give me more. Next to her, Saff snickered but mostly kept her composure.

Tabatha continued. "There's no pretending you weren't hit or marked. You just better hope it wasn't fatal, because you will be docked points. The goal is to catch the rabbit, bring it back safe and sound, alive and unharmed. Saff's directive is to make sure you don't catch her, but if you do, to take herself out. So you will need to sneak up on her and restrain her."

Why did my blood hum at that?

Rook asked, "And what if we're captured by her?"

Tabatha grinned at him. “I like how you think. She is very, very good. If you are captured by her, that's an automatic dock. If she comes back with you in restraints, it's an automatic extra month of training."

We all groaned at that. There was no fucking way she was bringing me back. Saff's gaze flickered to mine. Was that a smirk?

Jesus Christ, she thought she was capturing me? The hell she was. I just had to be smarter than yesterday. She’d caught me by surprise. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, never going to happen.

Tabatha was still talking. "Saff will get a head start of ten minutes. Remember, Saff is one of the most well-trained Rogue agents. If she doesn't want you to see her, you won't. So beware of the path that looks too easy. I'll say it again… Beware of the path that looks too easy. She is very, very good."

Saff grinned. She packed on her gear and turned. “Don't worry gentlemen, I'll take it easy on you."

Maxim and Robert were laughing. Maxim said, “You're going to beg me to take it easy on you."

The urge to throw my fist through his face was overwhelming. Tabatha turned around to sneer at them. “I hope she hands you your balls."

I couldn't help the chuckle that escaped, and her gaze snapped to me. And then her eyes went wide and she had the same confused look that Saff had gotten the other day when she first saw me. But unlike Saff, she didn't say anything. She just gave me a sharp nod and handed us all our weapons.

I generally had no problem with Maxim and Robert. They were lad's lads. Generally good blokes, but I didn't like how they talked about Saff, so I was going to have to watch out for them.

Stop watching out for her and watch out for yourself.

We were all watching the timer. Saff had headed east on the property toward the tree line, and Jesus, she was fast.

Tabs stood back with a smile. "Did I mention she holds Britain's under-seventeen record for the half mile? I should probably have warned you. She's going to be long gone by the time you lot get after her."

Next to me, Saint rocked on the balls of his feet as he watched the clock. Two minutes. I double-checked my pack and then grabbed an extra bottle of water because she might need one when I found her.

Isn't that sweet?

I didn't fucking know. I packed it anyway.

Saint smirked at me. “You think you'll be out of breath, do you?"

"This is a test. I don't know how long it lasts, but it’s probably always a good idea to have an extra water. I'm sure there's water to be found in there, but I don't know if it's drinkable or not, so I'm planning ahead."

Saint watched me with renewed interest then. As if it had just suddenly occurred to him that I might be good at this. “You said you didn't have any training, right?"

I shook my head. “No, it just seems to make sense. Besides, everything I’ve learned so far while being here has taught me that it never hurts to be overprepared.”

The clock buzzed, and we all went running. None of us stupid enough to go really fast except Rook. He ran straight ahead of us. Sprinting really. Which concerned me. Did he know something we didn't?

I didn't have to be the first in, but I did have to be first to her. Which I planned to be. I just needed these other jokers to stay the fuck out of my way.

Saint matched my pace and tempo, so we reached the woods together. He searched the ground and frowned when he found footprints.