Society Girls: Sierra (8 page)

“She said it’s her dream to work for the
Foundation. She’s not moving.”

“You’re not thinking of quitting?” he asks
suddenly, looking alarmed.

“No, and she’s already told me she wouldn’t
ask me to. No matter what happens.”

“Are you in love with her?”

“I’m on my way there, yes.”

“Then good luck. It sounds like leaving her
is going to be a real bitch.”

I nod. “I can’t imagine anything worse.”

Sierra

“I’m sure you all know at least one of the
reasons why I’ve gathered you all together today,” Reina says.

“Greta,” Camari offers.

“Yes. Greta. I want you to know that this is
not the first time that someone who looked perfect on paper didn’t
pass training here. As I tried to tell her, and all of you, your
friendships with each other, and with all of us mentors, is more
important that anything we can train you to do. Shooting a gun
won’t help you when you’re outnumbered, and knowing how to hack
into a communications tower isn’t beneficial unless there’s someone
on the other side to hear you. None of us would have survived the
things we have without each other. You don’t have to be BFFL like
Stella and Tegan, but liking and respecting each other makes what
we do that much easier. The girl next to you is the one who will
pull you up on the obstacle course when you think you’ve had
enough, or hold your hand the first time you get shot or stabbed.
She’ll bring you ice cream when the man you love acts like an ass,
and help him pick out your bouquet when he comes to his senses, and
realizes you’re his everything.

“Between us, your mentors
have been through almost every heartache and happiness you can
imagine. We’re here for you now, and we want you to be here for
each other. I’m going to give any of you the option to leave right
now if you don’t think you can be that kind of a friend to the
women in this room. I should have done it on the first day,
although I doubt Greta would’ve left. She felt she deserved a place
here, and not only physically injured Sierra over a
man
, but also showed no
respect for Isa. I can tell you right now that I won’t stand for
that. At all. Your mentors are all different, and that’s what makes
us strong. We
are
strong, stronger than most people could ever hope to
be.

“Isa may be quiet, Jade may get up in your
face and cuss you out, and Tegan may blast that God awful country
music out into the hallway, but deep down they’re all equally
strong. Any one of them could take down the worst of the worst. We
want you to be ‘you.’ No one here is a carbon copy of anyone else.
There’s no mold to fit into. Yes, you need to pass your classes,
because we’re giving you the skills to save yourself as well as the
people we’ll be sending you out to protect. But I need to stress
again that we can teach you so many things, but you have to want to
be here, and want to support each other. Does anyone want to leave
now?”

I look around at everyone. They’re all
shaking their heads, and telling her that no, they don’t want to
go. Jen knocks my shoulder, and I knock hers back. We both look at
Neveah in front of us, and pull her back for a hug and kiss on the
cheek. She’s like our little sister, and we love the hell out of
her, even though we’ve only known her for a few weeks.

“I’m glad to see that none of you want to
leave. Isa’s going to be assisting those of you who need extra help
until we find a replacement for Greta. Which brings me to the other
thing I want to address.”

“Can I say something first?” Tegan asks
her.

“This is about the music, isn’t it?”

“Damn right it is. You always gotta complain
about my country.”

“Only because I know it riles you up,” Reina
tells her with a smile.

“I like country music,” Harlow yells
out.

“Of course you do. You’re good people,
Harlow.” Reina rolls her eyes, while Tegan sticks out her tongue at
her. It’s cool to see this fun side of them together. “You can
carry on now, Mrs. C.”

Reina lifts up her right hand, and flicks
out her middle finger at Tegan, waving it back and forth a few
times, before turning back to us. She smooths down her dress, and
tries to hide her smile. The other mentors are cracking up behind
her, but we’re doing our best to hold our laughter in. “Oh, go
ahead,” she tells us, busting out with her own laugh. Tegan and her
hug as they laugh into each other’s shoulders. It takes a few
minutes, but we all calm down enough for her to continue.

“The second thing I want to discuss is the
training. Although you’re all training together, you’re also all
training differently. I wanted to address this, because while we
told all of you that you’d be learning at your own pace, I’m hoping
you talk to each other because some things may be confusing. Some
of you are working intensely on the area that’s hardest for you,
some of you are fully mastering the areas you’re strongest in, and
the rest of you are working more on the things you’re just okay at.
We didn’t decide this randomly. Isa and Ainsley analyzed your test
scores and determined separately which areas each of you should
focus on. Both of them came up with almost the exact same results,
so that’s how we decided what you’d be doing. We’re expecting your
training to last over a year. You’ll be helping out with some
missions during that time, and in fact, mission work will be your
final exam in some areas. Again, those areas will not be the same
for all of you.

“We could’ve just put you all in the exact
same classes, and had you work together on everything, but I meant
what I said about you all being different and unique from each
other, and even from us. You need to work in the way that is best
for you, and yes, we used your tests, as well as other things we
know about you, to decide how you we could help you learn in the
best way possible. I can’t tell you it’ll always be the easiest,
but I promise you, your leaning plan is the best suited for you,
and what you need to learn.

“You all have some classes
together, because you can’t build friendships if you’re a lone
island out there on your own. You’re still on your own path in
those classes, even when you’re working together. I don’t want any
of you worrying about what your fellow recruits are doing, or if
they’re learning something faster than you are. Because I can
guarantee you that each of you is picking up something quicker than
everyone else in one subject or another. How fast or slow you pass
your training doesn’t matter to us. What we want to see is the
woman who keeps trying, not matter how hard something is for her,
until she overcomes the obstacles she’s facing. Every one of us
believes that every one of you is that woman, and I want you to
believe it, too. No. That’s wrong. I
need
you to believe you’re that
woman. It’s the only way you’ll make it through
training.”

“Damn, that was hot,” Matt Corrigan says
from the back of the room.

“What are you doing here, Matteo?” Reina
asks, trying to look stern, but failing.

“Watching my wife rally the
troops better than Mel Gibson did in
Braveheart
. Or anyone else has
probably ever done, ever. And like I said, it was hot.”

“Reina’s getting lucky tonight,” Stella
sings out.

“Reina always gets lucky,” Matt replies with
a smirk.

“I love it when you all
talk about me like I’m not here. No really, I
don’t.
Can I finish my meeting
now?”

“I think we got it. You can go have wild sex
with your husband if you want, Reina,” Matisse tells her.

Her mouth opens and then closes again. We
all smile at her and nod. “You’re all going to fit in perfectly
here. My office now, Matt.”

“You know I love it when you’re bossy,” he
says, swooping her up into his arms as she tries to walk past
him.

She yelps, but then buries her face in his
chest as we all clap and yell. I want that, what she has with Matt.
I want a man who will respect me, but also tease me, and carry me
to my office for afternoon sex.

I don’t want it with just anyone, though. I
want it with the man I’ve fallen in love with. That sexy Brazilian
baseball player who cooks for me and helps me learn Portuguese
while blowing my mind in bed. The one who’s going to be leaving
town, and me, in a little over a month. I should’ve never agreed to
that deal, even though we didn’t stick to the terms. I thought he
was trouble, but now I know he’s so much more: everything I can’t
have.

* * *

Joel

“Thanks for letting me come by,” I tell
Miles when he meets me in the lobby of Corrigan & Co.

“I can’t believe your therapist dropped you
just because you did some hitting last night.”

“I can. I knew he was an ass, but I let it
go since I was making progress.”

“Still. You said you didn’t hurt anything
and you were able to hit for hours. He should be happy.”

“If he’d been the one to get me off the ass
and into the cage, he would’ve. That was you, though, and I need to
thank you for that, too. I owe you lots of thanks.”

“Save it until we see if Reina will help you
out,” he advises, ushering me into an elevator

I seriously hope she will. When I called
Miles to vent about my physical therapist dropping me, I had no
idea that he might have a solution to my problem. Apparently, the
Foundation has a full medical team, including a physical therapist,
on staff. Miles said it’s because the people they help sometimes
need to be hidden while receiving medical attention. I’m pretty
sure that’s where Sierra was, too. I still hate that I couldn’t
visit her while she was recovering, but I think I made up for it
last night—and this morning.

“Hi, Xandy,” he greets his wife as we walk
into the Foundation lobby. I still think it’s crazy that she’s a
billionaire, yet works as a receptionist here. Miles insists that
she loves it.

“Hi, King. Hi, Joel.”

“Hey, Alex. Is Reina available?”

“Umm…not really.”

“Is she in a meeting?”

“No.”

“Then what…oh, shit! Matt’s in there, isn’t
he,” he says, moving towards the double doors down the hall. He’s
already yelling for them to open up before he starts banging on the
door.

I look at Alex, and she shrugs. “He can’t
get in unless she lets him in, but he’s going to make a scene. It’s
a brother thing.”

“I don’t have brothers. Or sisters.”

“Me neither, but I do have uncles. They’d be
doing the same thing. In fact, I’m sure they do it to each other
frequently.”

“I’ve met your uncles, so I’d say you’re
probably right.” The Griffin brothers are super loyal to each
other, but they give each other shit every time I see them.

I walk down the hall just in time to see
Matt swing open the door and punch Miles. “Shut it, Kilo.”

Miles recovers and lunges for his brother. I
stand at the door as they wrestle on the floor. Reina twists her
hair up into a bun, and smiles at me. “I’m guessing you came here
with Miles.”

“Uh, yeah. Should we stop them?”

“No,” she says, waving her hand at them.
“They’ll get tired eventually. What can I do for you, Joel?”

“My physical therapist dropped me today, and
Miles said you might have someone who could take over.”

“Why did you get dropped?”

“His ego was bigger than his muscles.”

“Some would say the same about you.”

“I used the batting cage at your apartments
last night. It was the first time I practiced hitting since I got
hurt, even though I’ve been doing rotator exercises for months. I
did it for hours, and was only a little sore after. He was mad that
I did it on my own.”

“You’re healing. That’s good.”

“Yeah. Spring Training starts in about a
month. I just need someone to keep me progressing until then.”

“What if she tells you to ease up on the
hitting?”

“She? Of course you have a female physical
therapist.”

“I’d tell you about our male doctor to make
you feel better, but if you have a problem with a woman telling you
what to do, you’re in the wrong place.”

“She’s right about that,” Matt says as he
comes up next to her and kisses her cheek.

His hair is a mess and he’s got cuts and
bruises on his face. Neither one of them seems to think it’s
anything unusual, and when I look over to Miles, he seems unfazed
as well. I shake my head and tell them the truth.

“I’m fine with taking orders from a
woman.”

“Okay, then. We still owe you for helping us
out last year. I’ll give you access to our medical floor, but you
need to understand that we keep it private for a reason. You will
be met by one of the medical staff as soon as you get off the
elevator, and your clearance will only allow you into the PT room
with Waverly. Private patient rooms are off limits to you.”

“I understand. Thank you.”

“Don’t make me regret this, Joel.”

“I won’t.”

She picks up her phone and makes a call.
From her side of the conversation, I know she’s talking to the
therapist. When she hangs up, she writes something on a slip of
paper and hands it to me.

“Have your records send to Waverly. She’ll
review what she can, and meet you here tomorrow at ten sharp. When
you get here, someone from security will put you in an elevator and
send you down. Don’t be late.”

“I’ll be early. Thank you again. I mean
it.”

Miles and I walk back out to the lobby and I
stop short. My girl is there with her girls, looking hot as hell.
She has a dark blue sports bra on with a loose black tank over it.
Her long legs are in cropped leggings, she’s got tennis shoes on
her feet, and her hair in a ponytail. I can tell they just came
from working out, and damn, I want to lick the sweat from her
neck.