The strain of the bench led the small talk, Zane’s carefully measured breaths the pretenses, letting the whirring of the vents overhead fill the gaps in-between.
“You didn’t go home for break,” Lee said in between sets.
“I didn’t,” Zane ground out, confirming Whistler’s suspicions. He finished another couple sets of reps, breathing heavy, before he sat up again, resting his palms on his legs. “You wanna...?” He motioned for Lee to take a turn.
“Yeah, I’ll…” Lee rolled his shoulders a couple more times before settling against the warmed bench. “Let’s go eighty.” He motioned for Zane to reset the kilo weights for a warmup.
Lee had started in on his reps before Zane spoke again, quietly. “Dad and I got into an argument, weekend before.” His voice took on a darker undertone. “He just got a promotion and wants to make it very clear where the esteemed ‘Accetta loyalty’ lies. As if the General gave two shits about our family name while we were standing out there onboard Segura.” Zane straightened his shoulders, adjusting his posture as if shaking off the memory of that conversation.
Lee finished that first round of reps, taking a few breaths while his lungs caught up to his head, again remembering Zane’s father had a direct line to the AMG. But even so, wasn’t that what they’d been doing this last month? Putting their heads down to prove themselves to the Commander and the rest of the Academy? If their present rankings were anything to speak of, they’d done well applying themselves.
“How much did he know?” Lee asked, mentally gearing up for another go.
“Enough,” Zane said tightly. And with the way he gripped the weight stand, it had been more than Zane had banked on. But he shook his head. “It wouldn’t matter if I had been holding General Narron’s damn hand, he’d still find something. Good old Dad, looking to find fault in his son.” He shot Lee a sharp look. And Lee understood. This wasn’t a conversation to be shared around with anyone. He was telling Lee as a confidant—maybe even a friend. And one of few who might understand his circumstances.
This wasn’t a burden Lee had ever personally had to carry. Tonya was easy to please. And with his dad, as long as Lee worked hard and had plans to eventually pay the bills and support himself, he was satisfied. But Lee was intimately acquainted with another cadet who’d never received thesupport she deserved from a loved one, and the accompanying desperation to do anything he could to help lessen that burden.
They’d washed their hands of everything to do with that raid. And still it haunted them.
Zane’s latest haircut with the Academy’s prismatic presence made more sense now.
“Thank the void it’s behind us,” Lee said, offering the bar up to Zane to increase. It was the only thing he could offer. Solidarity and a friendly hand.
“Thank thevoidfor that.”
Kat was waiting for him in the Hideaway when he and Zane finally emerged from the training levels later that afternoon.
“Hey there, stranger. I was looking for you.” She set her green drink down on a table as he approached with Zane.
“Zane.” She nodded at him.
“Kat,” he replied. The stilted silence that curried between them was awkward at best.
“You look like you’ve been busy,” she said, nodding to the backpack he carried over his arm.
“Some of us don’t just lay out for a week,” Zane muttered. Lee narrowed his eyes at Zane. He seemed to catch his mistake, too. Zane sighed. “It’s been a long day. I’ll catch up to you guys again later.”
Kat studied her hands and wrists where they peeked out from her all-terrain suit. “I’m not even that tan.” But she tuckedthem under her arms and left them there until the Hideaway’s doors had slid open and closed again behind Zane.
“So, I take it that went well?” she asked, still tugging at the cuffs of her sleeves.
Lee spared her the trouble, threading her fingers through his. “He just needed to let off some steam.”
“Are you sure that’s all it is?” she pressed, squeezing his hands. “Let me guess, Daddy Accetta is not pleased about something?”
He shot her a look, amusement and wariness warring inside of him. She’d just guessed that? “It’s probably best that Zane doesn’t hear you speak of his dad in that way.”
Kat rolled her eyes, shooting him her own look, one that said only too clearly,I knew Zane well before you did.
Lee held her pale grey gaze pointedly.Don’t remind me.
Except, really, they didn’t need to go back there. Ever. “Is this going to become an issue?” he said aloud, half teasing, half dead serious.
But Kat just laughed, merriment replacing the worry lines in her face. “Not at all. I just find it entertaining how similar you two can be. It’s like I was telling Tonya. Best buddies, remember?” Her eyes positively gleamed with the mischief.
Lee could feel his eyes rolling to the back of his head.
There was no alligator on the menu for dinner tonight. But both he and Kat ate enough food to fill the stomachs of a couple of those creatures before slipping up to Lee’s dorm. He wasexhausted. Maybe Zane had been right; maybe he and Kat had taken things a little too easily over the past week.
