Page 7 of Irons

We were all standing with our t-shirts pulled up over our noses, except Creed. He shrugged. “I’ve become immune, that shit happens all night long now. One minute you’re having a good dream and the next you’re in a nightmare, except you already woke up. Look, I don’t even cry anymore.” He pointed at his eyes. “The doctor said it should subside after she gives birth.”

“Her doctor is a fucking liar! I get it when it’s still fresh and she uses it to her advantage all the time!” Melissa gagged again. “You never do it to Addie, you save all your best ones for me.” Melissa’s eyes began watering.

“Somebody pull the fire alarm!” Someone else gagged.

“Oh, quit being such babies or I’ll have Addie kick all your asses.” Morgan rolled her eyes as she popped a pretzel in her mouth.

“I’m out, there’s no way in hell I’m sticking around for anymore Rossi bombs. I’ll see all of you in the morning.” I was tired and just wanted a quiet night.

“You’re just jealous of my pregnancy super powers.” Morgan popped another pretzel in her mouth. “I bet your missions would end faster if you took me with you.” She spoke with a pretzel in her mouth.

I rolled my eyes. “When we go on a rescue that means gaining the victims trust. It’s kind of important. Nothing breaks trust faster than one of those damn Rossi bombs.” I looked at Melissa. “Don’t put up with any of their bullshit, and keep Morgan in line.”

Melissa smiled. “Always do.”

I turned and walked toward the exit. Both those women were two of the good ones. Neither of them had problems making friends at Creed’s Lake and they were loyal to us. That mattered more than anything. When I walked outside my eyes landed on my bike and I took in a breath of fresh air. It was once my Uncle Tony’s Fat Boy, and it has always been my prized possession. Thinking of him brought back one of my worst memories though.

Fifteen Years Ago

I woke in a hospital bed and had no idea what happened to land me there. I opened my eyes, and like usual I was alone. My eyes shut again when I realized I was in pain. My head waspounding and my ribs hurt. Slowly I started to remember what happened the night prior.

I remembered being at a party, but I was pissed off at the world. It started with a few beers, then I smoked a fat one with a few of the seniors. Then I remembered doing shots with the same guys. Everything seemed like a blur after that point. Then a face came into my memory. It was a freshman like me, a girl named Shelby. She was cute, but I just remember she took a pill from someone then gave me one. After that I was laughing a lot, then someone mentioned Uncle Tony.

I tried to open my eyes again, but the pain was too much. I pulled the hospital sheets over my head then there were flashes of me getting pissed off, finding a set of keys, pushing the unlock button and a car flashed its parking lights. I got in but wasn’t alone, Shelby got in the car with me.

After that came nothing else. I couldn’t remember what happened. Fuck, why couldn’t I remember what happened?

I laid under those sheets until I remembered something else, and a shocking pain shot through my chest. Uncle Tony, the funeral…shit!

Present Day

I pulled into my garage then shut off the engine. I was thankful for my place. Although, we typically referred to our home as rustic cabins, they were far from rustic. I put down the kickstand then shut off the gas before swinging my leg around and standing. I hit the button to shut the garage door, then stepped inside my house. The first room when coming from the garage was my laundry room, then I stepped in the kitchen and put my keys in the bowl. I then placed my wallet next to the bowl and went toward the steps. We had several plans to choose fromwhen we built our log homes. I chose a two story home that was about three thousand square feet. It had cathedral ceilings in the living room and the main focus was the stone fireplace. There was a bedroom downstairs on the other side of the living room, a dining room behind the stairway that led to a loft area with a bedroom at each end. My place was nice, but nothing compared to Creed’s. His place was where we all lived as our homes and other buildings were under construction. All of the Originals had houses on the lake with docks, but the operatives lived in subdivided streets organized by their units.

Some homes in the subdivided areas were family homes, some were duplex style for the single junior operatives, and there were also smaller one bedroom homes for single operatives in command of their units. Over by the community center was an apartment building for our undercover operatives that were gone most of the time, and they were also for guests that needed short term housing. There were also a few bedrooms at the community center but that was a whole other story.

I went straight upstairs to the master bedroom and took a shower. I was beat because the returning units were mine and I was in the command center for almost twenty four hours.

The next day, we had our usual meeting with all the Originals. Since Creed developed a domestic violence program, we needed more operatives. We also needed people with investigative skills for our private investigator division. Creed felt we needed to add more to the MC for our cover. The motorcycle shop wasn't quite enough to explain why there was such a private community in the area. We had aircrafts going in and out and a few people in the counties around us learned of our bunkers. That meant more domestic businesses to hide our international affairs.

Creed’s Lake never accepted an application from higher ranking operatives. We only hired upon invitation, and we were in the research stage of our hiring process. The military and government had been working with us since the beginning, so when members of the armed forces separated, we would get a print out of who would be a good fit for us. We would research each name then come together and discuss the ones that might be worth looking into a little further. At times we were sent discharging special ops to become prospects, but what we really needed were operatives that we would bring in at a higher rank. People to command missions and take roles as vice presidents. That was what our meeting was about on this particular day.

Bolton and I got to look at the Navy Seals and the Air Force Special Warfare. Creed and Drakos did the Marine Raiders, Magnus and Jenson were assigned to the Green Berets and Delta Force. Since Axton was taking a bigger role as our Senior Executive VP and Creed gave him more responsibility because the twins were coming, he got to look at Space Force squadrons to work in our command center. It didn’t take up as much time for him. The program was pretty new and not as many were separating at the same rate as the other special op teams.

It was going to be a long meeting and would probably take up most of our day. Their photos showed on the big screen as we went over their accolades. That wouldn’t stop us from our lunch ride though. We always got on our bikes and invited a few operatives to ride with us to have lunch at Mrs. Hoffman’s general store in Cold Springs.

One of our main focuses was to bring on more female operatives. We only had a handful, and they would be especially useful for our domestic violence program. The problem we hadwas that there already were many even in special forces, but then their desires to settle down and have families were also a problem. We got turned down more than anything. That was why we decided to work with federal agencies for veterans working in law enforcement. We would look at members of the Secret Service, FBI, NSA, Homeland Security, and the CIA.

Axton only had one candidate, and she looked promising, but she wouldn’t work outside the command center. We decided to look into her past and possibly move her on to the next stage. Then it was Magnus that presented Delta Force candidates. He only had one woman and two men. The woman was pregnant when she separated but we would still look into her further. She looked promising. Then only one of the men would move forward. He had a lot of the skills we needed. Drakos moved on with four Green Berets, but they were all men, and we moved two into the pile for further research.

We broke for lunch and took a few operatives with us on our daily ride. I left Tony’s bike at home and was on my custom bike I built at the shop. After one of our prospects crashed his bike, we all decided to ride with helmets. We all got on our bikes and put on the helmets before we left.

Cold Springs was a lot different than my hometown. Where I grew up we weren’t far from Tulsa, so we had more stores and a few restaurants. Cold Springs didn’t even have a gas station. It was just a church, a bar, a general store, and a VFW hall.

I missed my small hometown on some days, and on others I hated it. That was why I never went back after the day Clint handed over the keys to Uncle Tony’s house and bike. He left everything to me, and it was handed over on my eighteenthbirthday. Thinking of those days reminded me of one of the worst days of my life.

Fifteen Years Ago

I would never forget the way Wrenly looked at me that day. It had been a few days since my accident and Uncle Tony’s funeral. Wrenly was standing in the corner of the hospital room when I was read my rights. Clint was pacing outside the room and of course my parents weren’t around. They got another tip on Bobby through their hotline and took off right away for Oklahoma City.

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