The Soldier Who Taught Her To Trust (#2 The Soldier Series)

Chapter One - Let's Get This s**t Started Then.

Chapter One -    Let’s Get This s**t Started Then.  

Taking a deep breath, Cigs turned away from watching the water as it crashed around the shore, walked over the small grassy verge and headed to the gravel road and opened the door of the waiting black SUV, climbing inside, he looked straight ahead, ignoring everyone, especially the blonde haired beauty who sat behind him.

“Let’s get this s**t started then” Cigs said, his eyes never leaving the road ahead, resisting the monumental urge just to turn around and see those big baby blue eyes, the rosebud mouth that screamed at to him to kiss it before shooting him down in flames.

Tank drove silently, he did not miss the strained atmosphere that had suddenly arrived with Cigs, as a leader of this crew he needed to find a way for Cigs and Izzy to at least tolerate each other else the next couple of weeks were going to be tough for everyone. Everyone knew it was s****l tension, even un requited love, but they both needed to find a way to work together without it turning into a battle zone.

“So, Girls, you two are going to have too bunk with each other, as there are only three rooms for instructors, and we will need two in each room once Stan is outed as the mole” Tank said

“f**k that!” Kermit growled immediately, not wanting to be separated from his fiancée.

“I think it will be good Kermit, Izzy and I can share, you can share with Stan, Tank and Cigs can share, then we can meet up at our wall for contraband again” Kyla giggled

“What the f**k! contraband?” Cig’s growled

“Oh, come on your not that f*****g stupid, she used to escape from the barn nearly every night for at least an hour to meet up with him” Izzy groaned rolling her eyes.

“f**k you” Cigs growled out to Izzy, not wanting to deal with her put downs,

“No thanks” Izzy shrugged nonchalantly

“Right! you two, listen in.” Tank bellowed

“f**k I forgot how you give tinnitus when you shout” Izzy said, pulling at her ear.

“Seriously, we all have to work together, and get on, so you two need to sort your s**t out” Tank continued un phased

“Or he will unleash his secret weapon” Kermit chuckled

Izzy notice Kyla giggling like crazy at Kermit, as he lent in and placed a quick kiss on her lips.

“Secret Weapon?” Izzy questioned

“Yeah, can level a person quicker than a nuclear strike, trust me I know” Kermit chuckled again.

Izzy looked at Kyla with a questioning frown

“Vicky” she mouthed smiling, yes Tanks wife was definitely the matriarch of this band of brothers and their significant others, and she was not one to be messed with.

Izzy laughed, as Cigs huffed in the front seat.

Cigs knew his brother in arms was right, they did have to gel together as a team, but Izzy being, well, Izzy he could not see a way forward. His emotions were ebbing a flowing, to look at her you would see nothing but the perfect sweet blonde bombshell, but her put downs were cutting, and she like to aim it all at him.

It hadn’t always been that way, in the last series when she was a contestant and Cigs was the mole, they had got on really well, he was friends with her, Kyla and Stan. They had helped and supported each other, and she seemed to take the fact he was the mole okay in the beginning. But then when they finished the show, she became distant, he knew she was playing a game, wanting him to run after her, and he had refused to play by her rules, and so the arguments started. It had only worsened after that fateful night at Kyla and Kermit’s home, sharing a bedroom, they both had given into temptation that night, and ended up making out for hours, touch of her skin, the electric buzz that some might call tingles when their lips met, etched forever in his memory. Only Izzy had suddenly froze and push him away, saying something about him only being after one thing, so he never even got passed first base before he was kicked out the bed and slept on a roll mat on the hard floor left more than a little frustrated and angry she had played him.  

Even after going on the run together for months, it just got worse, so how Tank thought they would sort there s**t out before the show started tomorrow, was beyond him, but he could attempt to be civil to her, if nothing else.

“Izzy, for the next two weeks we call a time out” Cigs said, looking round at her.

Instantly he felt the knot in his stomach, she looked so much healthier than the last time he saw her, laid in the hospital bed. Her skin was like peaches and cream, her hair shinney once more, and the black circles gone from her eyes. She literally took his breath away, but he could not, would not, allow himself to think like that about her, he could not let her f**k with his head or his heart again.

“Okay, but try not and say something dumb, and I will try not to retaliate” Izzy sighed

“Dumb, what the f**k Izzy?” Cigs growled

“Yeah dumb, like telling a ex drug addict to just take the pain killers the hospital offered, way to go dumb ass” Izzy shook her head, the annoyance oozing out of her every pore.

Cigs took a deep breath, he had done that, but her had never thought something given at the hospital would cause her to relapse, in the moment he was just feeling helpless watching her suffer with the pain in her head. Hanging his head, he nodded

“I never thought, Izzy” he all but whispered, having a better understanding now of why she had fought with him that day.

“that’s the problem, you never do” Izzy retaliated

“Oh, for f**k sake, I am f*****g trying here” Cigs shouted

“Yeah, you are trying all right” again Izzy’s sharp tongue lashed through his heart like a thousand blades stabbing him repeatedly. Why did she have the effect on him? He had never reacted like this to anyone, only her, but then again, he had never had someone who was in all his thoughts no matter what he tried to do to stop it.

“Right Izzy, stop it right now, TIME OUT” Tank bellowed

Izzy bowed her head, and swallowed the lump in her throat, she was hurt, and unable to control her tongue. She had fallen so hard for Cigs, but she could never trust him, or ever let him know, something inside her was broken beyond repair, she was a screw up.

 A former drug addict who had nearly fallen off the wagon just a few short months ago, the person who was responsible for causing her family so much misery, the stress and strain causing her father a fatal heart attack, Cigs was so much better off without her, he deserved the best, and Izzy firmly believed she was not the best, and she knew he would dip his wick inside her, then the next morning have the revelation she was nothing, and not worth it. Izzy firmly believed this, because deep down, she would always be the person who was fighting the world, and she could not trust anyone, other than Kyla and maybe her other best friend Stan.

Kyla reading her best friends body language, and knowing she was struggling reached out and squeezed Izzy’s hand. Izzy looked up, blinking away the tears in her eyes, and nodded that she was okay. She would fight this attraction with every last ounce of herself because Cigs deserved someone nice, not her, no matter how much she hurt herself in the process.

They pulled up at the old farm buildings that served as the base, the familiar stone buildings with moss growing up the bottom of the walls, the old barn doors, Izzy smiled as she looked at the largest barn with the number 4 on it, that had been her home last time around, and despite all the physical pain and emotional torture she had been happy, accepted by Kyla and Stan for who she was, including her deepest darkest secrets that she held deep inside her soul.

“It is strange being here and not staying in our old bunks” Kyla sighed

“Yeah, God we are two very f****d up individuals Kyla, because we were so happy, both of us accepted by each other” Izzy sighed

“Yeah, who would have thought the girl I was back then, hiding my violet eyes from everyone, would end up being a model for the largest eye care company in the UK, damn, I used to hate my eyes, I actually love them now” Kyla giggled

“So you should! they are f*****g gorgeous” Izzy smiled at her friend, she really was a stunningly beautiful girl, wide hypnotic Violet eyes, skin so pale, but framed with chocolate brown hair.

“And so are you, inside and out Izzy, you need to forgive yourself, because nobody here, including Cigs thinks anything bad about your struggles… well other than your fiery tongue, but we all understand that is your defence against the world”

Izzy looked over to Cigs, his hair so short, but what was apparent was a dark blonde colour, he was not the quintessential good looking man, he was muscular, but did not have the washboard abs of Kermit, but he had something about him that was truly gorgeous to Izzy, yet she could not put her finger on what it was exactly.

 But he was not for her, and so she would try and be civil, for the sake of the others, whilst still protecting her fragile broken heart.