Page 11 of Irons

We all agreed he would move on to the next phase.

Another man showed up on the screen. He was a staff sergeant and currently worked with the NSA. We moved him to the next phase as well.

“Now prepare yourselves for this one, who just might be today’s shining star. She and her partner popped up out of nowhere yesterday and I jumped into researching her. It was as if some angel magically placed her file into my hands.” Creed was smiling as he turned to look at the screen. When the image popped up, I felt like someone just kicked me in the gut.

“Lady and gentlemen, meet Special Agent Wrenly Carlson with the FBI. Former Sergeant Major Wrenly Carlson. She is Stone’s partner and has served six missions in the sandbox, has two purple hearts, and also served a full year in Syria while entangled with a special tactical unit by General Lewis, very similar to the one I just served with in Jordan. She crossed over to the dark side, just like me. Get this, she was an E-9 when she separated. I suggest we give her our platinum invitation. Think about it, she survived six missions in the sandbox and rose that high in rank putting men twice her size to shame. I can guarantee if she would have stayed in she could have been a Commandant sooner than later.”

Her image was fading in and out with each of my heartbeats. The room was closing in on me, and that tight feeling in my chest made me clutch it. I couldn’t breathe and needed air.

“I say hell yeah!” Magnus said.

“Is there even a question?” Axton asked.

I could barely push myself to my feet. I had to run away from that room. I couldn’t look at the photo any longer.

“She’s as gorgeous as Morgan.” Drakos whistled.

“Shut the fuck up, Drakos. That doesn’t even matter.” Magnus snapped at him.

My legs felt weak, and I pushed through it. My chair flew behind me and hit the wall as I headed straight for the door.

“Irons, what the hell?” Axton called out just before the door slammed shut behind me.

Old Friends

Wrenly

I was finally reunited with all my favorite things. At one time, I had an apartment in Oklahoma City, but when I got the Scorpions assignment, I gave it up and took all my things home to my parents. They stored it all in my childhood bedroom and I sold all my furniture. I also bought a few new things when I was in Oklahoma City.

Just because I was a Marine didn’t mean I wasn’t a girl that didn’t like beautiful things. I loved wearing summer dresses in warm weather, and I always kept a little black dress on hand.

I reached out to some old friends and was going to meet up with them at a local watering hole. I had been with my parents for several days and they kept me very busy. On my second night we had dinner with Paula Wells, Travis’s so called mother who now all the sudden wanted to find the other son. She had regrets, and wanted to let Travis know that his father passed away two years ago. He also lost his grandparents since he left town, and nobody knew if he was even aware. Hell, we didn’t even know if he was aware that Paula had a daughter and Robert had another son. They never found Bobby, and they never stopped looking, but after Travis disappeared therewere some regrets and a lot of reflecting. My dad never gave his mom his address. They had an agreement, and Travis never wanted to hear from either of his parents again. That was for good reason in my opinion. They always abandoned him, but the abandonment after the car crash was the cruelest of them all.

The next night, my dad took me to have dinner with my mom’s parents. They were okay, but I didn’t know them all that well.

Yesterday, we had lunch with my dad’s parents and Heather’s together. Tonight was my first free night, and I wanted to have a little fun.

I was looking through my walk in closet when I came across a very large preservation garment bag hanging in the very back. A smile formed on my face, because in that bag were a lot of memories, including my four prom dresses. Yes, I attended every prom in high school. It was all my formal dresses, so I took it out and laid it on my bed. I was excited as I unzipped it and saw my first prom dress. It was gorgeous and that night was a lot of fun. The next one didn’t strike me the same, it was bittersweet seeing it again. I pulled it from the bag and held it against me in the mirror. It wasn’t a prom dress, but it was the dress I wore to my very first high school dance.

Fifteen years ago

I had been a mess all week long. I hadn’t seen Travis outside of school since I walked in on him with that girl. He wouldn’t even look at me when I passed him in the hall. He was always walking the halls with that witch, Stacy. She was sixteen and it was totally gross that she was dating a fourteen year old. There should have been laws against it. I never would have dated a guy two years ahead of me as a freshman.

But I meant what I said. I was going to put my new dress on and wait for him. My dad took me to the salon, and I had my hair done in a beautiful braid that fell over my shoulder. The woman also did my makeup, and it was funny when dad saw me. He wasn’t too happy that I looked older than fourteen. I was almost fifteen, so he needed to get over it.

When I got home my friends met me there and I changed into the most beautiful dress I could find. I wanted Travis to see that I was just as developed and beautiful as Stacy.

He didn’t know how she set us up that night. I thought Stacy was my friend, but she sent me a text that night and told me to come over and hang out with everyone. She said there were other kids that rode with her and my dad said it was okay as long as I wasn’t alone with Travis, and I had to be home in two hours. When I walked in, they were all over each other and alone. That hurt so much, and it didn’t feel any better all week, but I’d show him when he saw me all dressed up and ready to go to our very first high school dance.

My dress was red, with sequence on the bodice and it was short, really short. It had spaghetti straps and fit my body like a glove. I even had my first pair of stilettos. They were red and I found them at the mall when I got my dress. I went shopping with all my friends and Jill’s older sister drove us.

It was exactly six o’clock when all the guys showed up. All together there was me, six girls and seven guys. Out of all them, only three were couples. My dad was downstairs entertaining the girls moms, but when I walked downstairs, my dad had a meltdown. One that was so severe, it took three moms to help him settle down. They even had him doing breathing exercises to keep him calm. Then he cried because I was growing up and all the women swooned over the big baby.

We took pictures inside, then we braved the cold and took some outside, but we really needed our coats. Every minute that went by broke my heart. The moms and my dad had food for us and punch as like a pregame to our dance. I waited and waited and that knock on the door never came.

Eventually, I sent everyone on ahead, but one person decided to stay. That was Matt Trenton, our future quarterback. He refused to get into any of the cars and sat with me in the living room. I fought my tears the entire time. My dad knew how heartbroken I was and was very disappointed in Travis. Dad gave us space, but patted Matt’s back and said he was a good kid before he went upstairs and left us alone, which was awkward. We sat in the awkward silence until Matt finally spoke up after messing around and texting on his phone.

“Fuck it and fuck Travis.” Matt stood and held his hand out for me.

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