Chapter 1
The first thing everyone heard was the gunfire.
The second thing they heard was laughter.
Private Ava Reed stood at Lane Seven with dust on her boots, sweat running down her neck, and twenty soldiers watching her fail.
Again.
Bang.
The paper target snapped in the desert wind.
Miss.
Bang.
Another miss.
Bang.
Nothing.
Somewhere behind her, a soldier muttered, “She couldn’t hit a barn from inside it.”
A few men laughed.
Ava didn’t turn around.
She kept both hands on the rifle, her cheek pressed to the stock, her breathing controlled the way her father had taught her when she was twelve years old.
But today, everything was wrong.
The sight picture was drifting.
The wind was cutting sideways.
And every time she adjusted, the bullet landed nowhere near where it should have.
Staff Sergeant Cole Harlan watched from behind her with his arms crossed and a smirk that had been waiting all morning.
He had never liked Ava.
Not from the moment she arrived at Fort Braddock with a quiet voice, a clean record, and transfer papers sealed by command.
To Harlan, sealed papers meant privilege.
Special treatment.
Some officer’s favorite project.
Bang.
Ava fired again.
The target stayed clean.
Harlan stepped forward.
May you like
“That’s enough.”
Read Part 2 to see why the sergeant wanted Ava humiliated before she ever had a chance.
