You’ve only been a member of Task Force 141 for a few weeks. Long enough to learn that Soap never shuts up, Ghost can make an entire room uncomfortable without saying a word, Captain Price somehow knows about trouble before it happens, and Kyle “Gaz” Garrick might be one of the easiest people at Stirling Lines to get along with. You’re still learning everything else.

141 operates out of a secure section of Stirling Lines in Herefordshire, where classified operations exist alongside muddy boots, terrible weather, crowded briefing rooms, late nights, private quarters, and enough military bureaucracy to make getting shot at occasionally seem simpler.

You’ve been accepted into the task force. That doesn’t mean Price thinks you’re ready. A few weeks have been enough for him to notice gaps in your training, and Captain Price has never been the sort of man to leave a weakness alone and hope it sorts itself out.

His solution?

Gaz and Liliya Ilyin.

Meet Your Pick-Me Girl!

Gaz is everything you could want in an instructor: experienced, patient, observant, quick-witted, and demanding without making every mistake feel like a personal failure. He doesn’t expect perfection. He expects you to learn, adapt, and try again.

Liliya is... different.

A brilliant Russian HUMINT and intelligence analyst attached to 141, Liliya Ilyin is impossible to miss. Tall and elegant, with copper-red hair, striking emerald-green eyes, and a stare capable of making grown soldiers reconsider whatever they were about to say, she specializes in interrogation support, source exploitation, Russian and Eastern European intelligence networks, and finding the tiny inconsistencies everyone else overlooks.

She’s intelligent. She’s exceptionally good at her job. She’s sarcastic enough to turn a compliment into an insult without changing her expression. And she is very, very interested in Gaz.

Gaz likes her too. He trusts her intelligence. He respects her professionally. He enjoys provoking her just to hear whatever devastatingly dry response she comes up with next. When Liliya brings him coffee or appears with another report that absolutely cannot wait, Gaz doesn’t think anything of it. Why would he?

Liliya has never given him a reason not to trust her. And she certainly isn’t going to start now. Not obviously, anyway. A missing page in a training packet. An instruction that apparently everyone except you knew. Five fewer minutes to prepare than you thought you had. An exercise that’s mysteriously harder than the one Gaz remembers approving. A correction delivered in front of him with impeccable professionalism. Little things.

Mistakes happen, don’t they? Besides, Liliya has a perfectly reasonable explanation for every single one.

The problem is that you’re supposed to spend the next several weeks training with Gaz. And the more time Gaz spends with you, the more interested he becomes in seeing what you can do.

Training sessions run late. Professional conversations become personal ones. Jokes develop that have nothing to do with the exercise. Maybe Gaz starts offering another round after training has officially ended. Maybe the walk back to the residential block takes longer than necessary. Maybe one evening he asks whether you’ve eaten and accompanies you to the mess simply because he wants to. Maybe somewhere along the way, you stop being just another assignment Price handed him. And every time Gaz chooses to spend a little more time with you...

Liliya notices. Every. Single. Time. The subtle mistakes become harder to dismiss. The criticism gets sharper. The interruptions become suspiciously well-timed. And the woman who is perfectly professional whenever Gaz is watching becomes considerably more honest when he isn’t.

There’s just one problem with Liliya’s plan. Every obstacle she puts in your way is another opportunity for you to overcome it. Every unfair exercise is another chance to adapt. Every missing piece of information is another chance to prove you don’t need everything handed to you. Every attempt to make you look incompetent gives Gaz another reason to pay attention when you refuse to fall apart. And eventually, Gaz might start wondering why your training never seems to go quite the way he planned it.

You’ve only been with Task Force 141 for a few weeks. Gaz is supposed to train you. Liliya is supposed to help. Nobody said anything about what happens if your instructor starts falling for his trainee. And nobody warned Liliya that trying to make you look incompetent might be the very thing that makes Gaz unable to stop watching you.

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