“Watch your back, Pretty Boy.”
Dante ground his back teeth before answering. “Got it under control.”
“I’ll keep you informed.”
Dante signed off, struggling to keep his cool between the Pretty Boy remark and the fact that their mother was keeping secrets from them. She’d never done that before, unless it was leverage to get him or his brothers to do her bidding. It had always been in fun, the Matthews family game, until now. He didn’t like it. Not one little bit. And he was sure his brothers felt the same way.
“You all right?” Eloise asked as she tentatively moved toward him.
He controlled the scowl he was sure would scare anyone away.
“Family drama.”
“Okay, well, the team is gathering for a pep talk before the race starts.”
He shook off his mood and strode toward her. “Lead the way.”
The group huddled together, speaking in low tones. Dante pushed forward, making room for Eloise beside him. He clapped his hands. “Are we ready?”
Everyone responded with a resounding yes, except Eloise.
“We’re going to follow one another in the staggered starts. Two each from our team at a time, as well as the other departments participating.” He glanced at Eloise. “There’s a chip in the wristband they gave you. At the end, we’ll see which team has the best time.”
He raised his hand, to which the team high-fived. “Good race, everyone.”
Eloise moved away, scanning the course set out before them. Her cute nose wrinkled in distaste. “Smells like soggy grass out here.”
“Makes the challenge more fun.”
The race announcer called the teams to the starting line.
“You’re running last,” Dante told Eloise. “You can watch us, get a feel for the course. If you have a hard time maneuvering an obstacle, one of your fellow runners will give you a hand.” He tried to read her face, but it had gone blank. “Ready?”
She looked at him. “Our team really holds the record?”
“So far.”
With a deep breath, Eloise squared her shoulders. “Okay. I can do this.”
Dante grinned. He couldn’t wait to watch.
* * *
THE ANNOUNCER PUMPED up the challengers with a rousing pep talk before lifting up the small, black device in his hand. A loud electronic beep sounded among the excited cries of runners, and they were off. Brandy stood beside Eloise as they watched, cute in a bright pink T-shirt and black running shorts, her thick hair pulled back in a high ponytail. Eloise had grabbed an old ratty shirt and a pair of baggy shorts she’d worn years ago when she was at the police academy. Hardly a fashion statement, but then...this was mud!
“I’m pumped,” Brandy gushed. “This is my second time in a mud race.”
“So it’s not awful?”
“Are you kidding? You’re going to have a blast.”
Eloise doubted it.
She’d studied the course description when she’d logged on to the race site online. Three miles, short by most mud race standards, with eight obstacles in all. They didn’t seem terribly daunting. The hardest part would be keeping her feet from getting sucked into a mudhole. Watching previous race videos to get an idea of what she’d encounter, she now stood before the real thing.
“What am I doing here?”
She had better things to focus on, like the details of her very first undercover operation. She’d made lists after the briefing, took care of personal business and started packing, even though they didn’t start until Monday. She would have liked to go over the official reports of previous car thefts today, try to find a pattern or similarities in the crimes, but that wasn’t happening. Even Lieutenant Chambers had been on board with her joining her fellow Palm Cove officers in the race. Being a team player would go a long way toward the promotion.
Glancing around, it seemed like everyone but Eloise was a competitor. If they’d entered a race on reading books, she bet she’d come in first every time.
The next group lined up, ready to take off. She caught sight of Dante, looking very athletic in a tight tank top and running shorts. His leg muscles, defined as he struck the starting pose, reminded Eloise that he liked to run. She shuddered. Running had never been her forte, her average times gumming her up at the academy, but she’d pushed herself because the goal of graduating was more important than the misery of running. Could she pull this off?
The beep sounded again and Dante, a mischievous grin on his face, took off. He cleared the first hurdle, hay bales lined up end to end along the width of the course, with very little effort, then sprinted. He reached up to grab the monkey bars at the next obstacle, swiftly moving hand over hand until he jumped off. After that, she lost sight of him.
Brandy turned to Eloise. “My group is up next.”
She ran off to join the others, leaving Eloise behind. Her heart quaked in her chest and she thought she might throw up. She should have stood her ground. Never let Dante taunt her into coming. But as much as she dreaded today, a part of her that had only dreamed of the opportunity was thrilled to be part of the group. After all the rejections in gym class growing up, years of hiding her embarrassment, being on this team meant the world to her. She had to do well, or they’d never ask her again.
Before she was mentally ready—would she ever be?—it was her group’s turn. She took her place, swallowed hard and, when the beep sounded, took off.
The hay bale wasn’t bad, a bit slippery since they’d been soaked with water prior to the race. Her team member reached the monkey bars before her. With an oomph, she jumped up and grabbed hold, dangling over the murky water below, wishing she had better upper body strength. She pulled herself, grunted—grunted!—and slowly made it across. So far so good, she thought.
She ran a distance before coming upon a large, shallow mud patch. Here, she would have to slither through the sludge on her knees and elbows, ducking under swinging plastic barrels overhead. Good Lord. Who came up with this torture?
She lowered herself, cringing when the cold mud slithered against her skin. She bonked her head, three times, but eventually made it through. Rising, she tried pulling the damp T-shirt from her skin, then decided to forget it. She had to keep moving.
“Hey, Eloise. Good job.”
She nearly tripped looking over her shoulder to see who’d called her name. Before she could find a familiar face, she ran right up to the next obstacle, walking over a single plank of wood that rather resembled a balance beam, above water.
“Center yourself,” she coached herself, stepping up, arms out to her sides for balance. She stopped once when she began to totter, throwing her shoulders back. Then she was off again.
The obstacles continued. She carried a long pole across her shoulders as she moved through a knee-deep pond, crawled through a dank-smelling tube and dashed over a hill with randomly placed buckets keeping her on a zany path, sprinting as fast as she could without losing breath between each obstacle. By now she barely noticed the warm, earthy smells, ignored her damp skin and clothing, not to mention her feet squishing in her sneakers. Then she came upon the final obstacle and stopped dead in her tracks.
An eight-foot wall, with cutout holes in the wood for the runners to scale up and over, loomed in her spotty image. She wiped the lenses on her glasses and gaped. No way.
“Get moving,” people from behind her yelled as they passed her. “You can do it.”
The chatter and hoots of laughter dimmed as she concentrated on the wall before