Love and Wargames: A Bad Boy Hacker Romance Read Online Free Page B

the four cots at the back.
    I pull my eyes away from the girl and make eye contact with the other three — one I recognize as the soldier who gave me water. The others I also recognize but only because one kicked me to the ground while the other handcuffed me.
    Pricks.
    All four of them stand up and Rhys steps to the side. “This is Rogers,” he says, pointing to The Kicker, a muscular man with buck teeth and black hair. His hand moves down the line to The Cuffer, yet another muscular guy except he’s got red hair and a cleft chin. “This is West — Fitzpatrick — and Fawn.”
    Fawn. That’s cute.
    “Sup?” I greet.
    “Carson is going to be joining our unit from here on out,” Rhys explains.
    The girl blinks with confusion. I don’t notice if the others do the same as my eyes are pretty much locked on her. Her hair is trimmed short, auburn in color. The tent blocks plenty of light but I can easily see green irises shining out from behind her long eyelashes. Pointed cheekbones, concave cheeks. She’s fucking gorgeous and I can’t for the life of me figure out what the hell she’s doing out here.
    “In what capacity, sir?” she asks.
    Rhys shrugs. “I don’t know—” He looks back at me. “A civilian… intelligence freelancer. That sounds official enough. Basically, he broke our equipment and he’s gonna fix it for us.”
    “Well, it’s not really broken ,” I say. “It’s just shitty…”
    “Either way, he’s part of our unit and we’ll treat him like it from here on out. Sound good?”
    “Yes, sir,” they all say in unison. I flinch slightly at the sudden bark of voices. I guess I’ll just have to get used to that if I’m going to be hanging out with the cast of Platoon.
    “Fawn—” Rhys says. “I’m sticking him with you. Keep an eye on him.”
    Her posture sinks. “Sir—?”
    “Show him around. Teach him the rules. Keep him from getting shot at.”
    She steps forward, trying very hard to keep her cool. “Sir, I’m not—”
    “As you were, boys,” Rhys says, spinning around and darting down the aisle fast enough to dodge her questions.
    I turn back to the team, my eyes once again falling on her. “You can call me Boxcar,” I say. “No one calls me Carson.”
    Fitzpatrick steps forward as The Kicker and The Cuffer wander back to their cots again to ignore me. He holds out his hand. “Fox,” he says.
    “Rabbit,” I say, shaking his hand.
    He chuckles. “It’s my name.”
    “Cool. I figured, but then again, why give up the opportunity to list off cute, woodland creatures, am I right?”
    Fox’s hand drops to his side and he gestures to the girl. “This is Caleb.”
    Caleb.
    She stands still, ignoring the hand I extend out to her. Only her eyes move, darting to look past her little button nose at my dirt-covered fingers. “Excuse me.”
    As she darts past, I catch a quick whiff of her scent — one far more pleasant than I ever thought possible in this area of the world. I can’t imagine she has perfume stashed in her footlocker but I detect flowers in my nose for a brief, wonderful moment. I turn to watch her exit and my eyes fall to her perfect, toned ass as it sways back and forth with anger.
    I look at Fox. “Was it something I said?”
    “ Rabbit , probably,” he nods.
    “Ahh…”
    Fox pats my shoulder and shifts around to plop back down onto his cot. “She’ll adapt… always does.” He gestures for me to sit down on the cot next to his — Caleb’s cot — and I’m not about to pass up the opportunity to smell her again, so I lower myself down.
    I gaze over my shoulder, meeting the suspicious eyes of the other soldiers scattered about the tent. I lean forward to whisper. “Am I gonna get a code red in here, or…?”
    He chuckles, running his hand over his buzzed, brown hair. “Nah… tensions are just a little high right now.”
    “Why?”
    “War.”
    I smile. “Of course. Silly me.”
    Fox’s attention draws behind me and I turn again to see