Forged in Fire Page 6

  He’d answered honestly and his answer hadn’t been good enough. And good lord did he hate feeling like this. This woman had him all twisted up inside and he barely liked her. She’d gotten under his skin and damn it, that shit needed to end right about now.

  A rumble started in the ranks behind him. It started low, a random cheer. Then another. And another. Until the entire formation erupted with a violent excitement that surged forward like a wave.

  He glanced over in time to see First Sergeant Washington with her guidon running down the side of the formation.

  He let that sink in for a moment. A female first sergeant had just sprinted past a formation of combat arms soldiers after they’d been running for over an hour.

  A slow smile spread across his mouth despite his irritation with her. Oh, she was good. Very good.

  In one sprint around the formation, she’d basically called every man in there a punk for getting outrun by a woman. The formation picked up the energy from seeing her running with the colors. Cadences were suddenly louder. Men who had fallen out of the run somehow made it back into the formation.

  She was devious, that was for damn sure. Nothing like using their fragile male egos to motivate the entire battalion.

  When they finished a few minutes later, walking across the abandoned parking lot, the entire formation was sounding off louder than Sal had ever heard them.

  He stepped out and looked back at the logistics company behind his own. Their commander was red in the face but she’d hung in there. First Sarn’t Washington was singing cadence at the top of her lungs and the formation echoed it back to her.

  “It’s all right, it’s okay,” she sang.

  “It’s all right, it’s okay,” came the response.

  Sal was more than a little impressed. But then again he always admired strong NCOs, and Washington clearly had been raised in that tradition. Sal was under no illusions that the men were instantly accepting of a female in their formation but it sure as shit helped that she’d just literally run circles around them.

  He looked away from the brilliance of Holly’s energy, no longer irritated with her. No, there was something else he saw in her. It was beyond the uniform. Beyond the sarcasm.

  It was her strength. Her willingness to sacrifice herself for her team.

  Her willingness to tell it to him straight instead of letting him believe his own bullshit.

  It had been a long time since anyone other than Sarn’t Major Cox had called him on it.

  The formation ground to a halt and the sergeant major took over from the battalion commander. "First sergeants, see me after this."

  Sal approached his truck and saw his missing soldier talking to the female that Holly was missing this morning.

  “I’m going to tell them,” she was saying. “You can’t get in trouble for this. If you get another Article Fifteen, they can throw you out.”

  Baggins shook his head. “My commander won’t do that.”

  “You don’t know that. You can’t trust officers. As soon as it comes down to his ass or yours, he’s going to throw you under the bus,” Sarn’t Freeman said.

  “You don’t know him. I trust him.”

  She scoffed softly. “You’re a damn idiot. Just let me get your sorry ass out of this situation for once.”

  What Baggins did next surprised him and Sal was not easily surprised. Baggins took a single step forward and cupped her cheek with one hand. “Trust me,” he said gently. “It’ll be okay.”

  She stepped away, swiping at her cheeks. “No it won’t. This is a stupid idea and it’s going to get you hurt.”

  “What’s going to get someone hurt?” Sal asked before they could sneak off.

  Baggins snapped to the position of attention. Freeman hesitated then followed suit.

  Sal returned their salutes but did not put them at ease. He left them standing there at the position of attention.

  “Nothing, sir,” Baggins said.

  “Nothing, my ass. Why the hell weren’t you in formation this morning?”

  Freeman took a step backward and Sal stopped her with a glare. “I don’t think you need to go anywhere just now, sarn’t,” he said to the petite blonde.

  She narrowed her eyes and stared at him like she wanted to slap him.

  “Sir, I’m not going to answer any questions,” she said.

  Baggins looked at her, his mouth hanging open, his eyes wide. But only for a moment; then he snapped his mouth closed.

  “Baggins?”

  Baggins shook his head, his lips pressed firmly shut.

  Sal swore under his breath. “Sarn’t Freeman, report to your commander immediately. As in right now. Do not report to the barracks. Do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars. Am I clear?”

  “Roger sir.”

  She took off as fast as her thin gladiator sandals could carry her.

  Sal turned back to Baggins. “Want to tell me what’s going on here?”

  Baggins had the decency to flush and look away. “It’s not mine to tell, sir.”

  Sal looked at his former gunner. Baggins was skinnier than he’d been downrange. He was clearly worried about Freeman but it was the lack of trust in Baggins’ answer that stung the most.

  Sal ground his teeth and breathed deeply, yanking back on his disappointment. “Stand by my office and wait for First Sergeant Delgado.”

  Baggins trotted off, leaving Sal alone. He leaned against the hood of his truck for a few minutes, staring at his empty hands. Wishing he had the lighter to keep them busy as his thoughts raced around a track with no answers.

  “Look, just because you got beat by a girl in the run today doesn’t mean you have to go all emo and depressed and everything.”

  He looked over at the woman whose voice was rapidly becoming familiar. “It wasn’t a race.”

  “I noticed you didn’t grab your guidon and follow me there, Mr. Infantry.”

  He snorted. She was goading him. Maybe this was her idea of a peace offering. “So you can run. So can most of the formation.”

  “Clearly we were in two different formations,” she remarked, “because the half of the formation that was behind me was not actually doing what I would call running. More of a half-assed shuffle while trying not to puke up last night’s hot wings.”

  He almost smiled at the visual. “Found your missing shithead, by the way.”

  Holly leaned against his truck, bracing one knee on the front tire. “Oh yeah? Did she happen to turn up with your missing shithead?”

  “And she got it in one, ladies and gents.” He glanced over at her. “Sent her to stand by your office and wait for your commander.”

  “Good call. Well, I hope they have a good story, if nothing else.”

  Sal frowned at her. “You’re never serious, are you?”

  She lifted one shoulder. “It’s a survival skill. If I took all of this as seriously as you, I probably would have died from a heart attack and given up trying to make a difference a long time ago.”

  He studied her silently. “Do you still believe that? That you can make a difference?”

  She hesitated. A moment, maybe longer. Then finally she nodded. “With everything that I am.” Quiet words, laced with the force of belief.

  He looked at her then, her face flushed from the run, her hair clinging to her neck. “What do you do away from work?” he asked suddenly.

  She looked up sharply. “What is this ‘away from work’ you speak of?”

  He snorted quietly. “Yeah, I guess that’s fair.”

  “I don’t have much by way of hobbies,” she said. “Didn’t actually plan on it that way but it just kind of happened.” She was watching him now and he forgot his previous irritation with her and just took in the way her skin looked. He had the sudden, blinding desire to see if the flush traveled down her neck to the rest of her.

  “What are you looking at?” There was an edge of her voice now. A warning, maybe. Or something else.

  �
�You.” A simple, loaded answer.

  She smirked. “I figured that out already, smart guy.”

  They were alone in the parking lot but that didn’t make what he was about to do any less stupid.

  She went still the moment he reached for her. He felt the stillness in her despite his fingers not touching her skin. He suddenly wanted to know what it felt like if she came apart beneath his fingertips.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Something stupid,” he whispered.

  “Again with the obvious,” she murmured. Her voice hitched and it did something to him that he could unnerve her without even touching her.

  “Am I crossing the line?” He would stop if she asked him to.

  “All kinds of them.” Her voice was thick. Warm, like melted honey.

  He curled his fingers next to her face and lowered his hand. “That’s a shame.”

  Her chest rose as she sucked in a deep breath, then another one. “I’ve got to go,” she said after a moment.

  She turned and started walking away then paused, looking back at him over her shoulder. “You know, if you ever want to start a hobby…”

  She left him standing there, his body hard and aching at the possibilities in that single, hanging sentence.

  He hadn’t read her wrong. The want was mutual.

  What the hell was he supposed to do about it?

  6

  It wasn’t often that Holly felt completely out of her league. She’d been an NCO for so long that she sometimes forgot her own name.

  But as Sergeant Freeman left to stand outside her office at parade rest, Holly was at a loss.

  Captain Reheres nudged the door closed behind her and sat down across from Holly. “So what do we do, First Sergeant?"

  Holly kicked her feet up on the desk and rocked back in her chair. “I honestly have no idea, ma’am. I’ve seen a lot of crazy in my day but this doesn’t make any damn sense.” She motioned toward the door. “Technically, she wasn’t even AWOL. She wasn’t gone for twenty-four hours. For all intents and purposes, she missed first formation. I have my doubts that Sarn’t Major is going to let us give her an Article Fifteen for this.”

  “So we’ve got an NCO who is basically doing what she wants and we can’t do anything?” Captain Reheres didn’t bother to mask the frustration in her voice.

  “Oh, I didn’t say that, ma’am,” Holly said with a grin. “I’m just trying to figure out what’s going on first.”

  Reheres frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “We’ve got plenty to start building her packet with. Last night, she’s getting into a very public pissing contest with Sarn’t Pizarro from Diablo Company. Today, she misses formation with Private Balboa, also from Diablo Company. Noticing the pattern?”

  “So Diablo Company has NCOs that are leading her into poor decision making?”

  Holly shook her head. “Oh hell no, ma’am. She’s not some helpless victim here. She’s perfectly aware of the decisions she’s making. She looks like she wants to stab me in the throat every time she’s in my office and I haven’t even been here a week yet.”

  “Nice visual.” Reheres grimaced. “Again: what are we doing here?”

  “We’re going to give her an Article Fifteen. It may just take some finagling with the boss to make it happen. I’ll go talk to the sergeant major and have him prep the boss. We need to get this shit cut off at the knees right now. Have you got the paperwork for a no-contact order?”

  “I’ve got it saved to my desktop. Who am I keeping her away from? The entire Diablo formation?”

  “Ha,” Holly said. “Not likely. At this point, she needs to be restricted to the barracks and forbidden from contacting Balboa or Pizarro. Let’s see if she’s willing to follow orders or if she opts to self-select out of the Army.”

  Reheres sighed. “Have I mentioned yet how glad I am to have a first sergeant?”

  Holly smiled flatly. “Don’t start thanking me yet. There’s a good chance we could get shot out of this whole deal.”

  Reheres stiffened. “Huh?”

  “Never mind,” Holly said, instantly regretting her words. Her suspicions were just that—suspicions. She didn’t need to get anyone stirred up until she had more than a hunch to go on. But she had a feeling that Pizarro was more violent than anyone was tracking. Call it her finely tuned spidey senses but that guy was no stranger to interpersonal hostility or actual violence. And not the kind of violence that was only directed at the enemy, either. “I’m going to talk to the sarn’t major. Have the XO in the room when you give her the no contact order.”

  “Roger that,” Reheres said.

  Holly grabbed her headgear and headed for the door, but was damn near bowled over by First Sergeant Delgado.

  “I need to talk to you and your commander.”

  She glanced at her commander, who was looking at Delgado like he was the head of an invading army. Oh this shit had to cease. “Come on in,” she said dryly. She stepped back and he closed the door behind him.

  “Your Sergeant Freeman is apparently stringing along both Pizarro and Baggins,” Delgado said.

  Holly braced her hips against her desk, watching the other first sergeant carefully. His tone was…sandpapery at best. “Well isn’t that a lovely little dead bird to drop into the middle of the office like it’s some kind of prize. Did you kill it yourself?”

  Delgado shook his head and mirrored her stance, ignoring Captain Reheres completely. “I’m not amused, First Sergeant.”

  “Neither am I,” she said. “You come in here like you own the place, scare the piss out of my commander, and then act like we’re supposed to fall all over ourselves at your genius pronouncement. So unless you’ve got proof that our NCO is sleeping with either of your men—and oh by the way, nothing you’ve said is much beyond contrary to good order and discipline—then get the hell out of my office and take your shitty attitude with you.”

  Delgado’s mouth actually dropped open. For a moment he looked stunned, then his expression shifted back to full asshole. “So you’re not going to do anything?”

  “Nothing much to do at this point, First Sarn’t,” Holly said.

  Delgado turned to Captain Reheres. “You need to get your NCOs in line,” he snapped. “They’re distracting my men from preparing for their deployment. I don’t need them fighting over the females.”

  Holly tapped her finger to her top lip. “See, here’s the problem with your logic, First Sergeant. You seem to forget that your men should be perfectly capable of restraining themselves. If they’re walking hard-ons, it’s because they choose not to be fucking responsible for their own actions. Don’t blame the females for your men’s inability to control their dicks.”

  She was reasonably certain there was smoke coming out of Delgado’s ears. Good. The fucker.

  “If your females weren’t cockteases, we wouldn’t have this problem.”

  Holly bristled but kept her voice level. Screaming at this mouth breathing Neanderthal wasn’t going to accomplish a damn thing. “You’re right. Your men would be doing this with civilian women who we could ignore, right? But because they’re doing all this chest beating macho bullshit with another soldier, we’ve actually got to deal with it, don’t we?”

  “Don’t give me any of that feminist bullshit. Keep your NCOs under control,” Delgado snapped.

  “Sure. I’ll just go sign for some burkhas while we’re at it. Do you think they have them at CIF? I can get that along with their body armor?” Any chance of a working relationship with Delgado was about to be burned to the ground and she was too pissed off to care. “Go fuck yourself, First Sergeant. Get the hell out of my ops office.”

  Delgado looked like he wanted to snap. “All this feel good female bullshit is going to get my men killed.”

  “Keep telling yourself that.”

  He slammed the door behind him and Holly didn’t miss Reheres jumping damn near out of her skin. Holly looked at her commander and let just a hint
of her irritation show. “You are going to have to get over this scared of the big bad infantry guy bullshit, ma’am. They eat their young out here and you’re about to be on the menu.”

  Reheres swallowed and sat up straight. “I can’t believe you just went at it with him.”

  “What’s he going to do? Punch me? He’s just a bunch of hot air. Unfortunately, he’s got influence over a whole formation of soldiers who will take his hot air to heart.”

  “So what are we going to do?” Reheres asked.

  “We’re going to give Freeman a no-contact order and I’m going to talk to Captain Bello about his first sergeant. After I talk to the sergeant major.” She grabbed her patrol cap and headed for the door, needing some space at the moment to put some emotions back in the box where they belonged. Because they damn sure didn’t belong out in the open where they could be seen and used against her later.

  “How are you not afraid of them?”

  Holly paused near the door, hating the uncertainty she heard in her commander’s voice. It was the fear of the inexperienced. “Once you’ve had your two front teeth knocked out, you tend to lose the fear of it happening again.”

  Holly left before her commander asked any more questions that brought her closer to a bound and terrible memory at the bottom of the abyss that was her past.

  * * *

  “You don’t have a foot to stand on, kid.”

  Holly sighed and sank into the old couch in Cox’s office. “I was afraid you were going to say that.”

  “There’s not a single counseling statement in Freeman’s file. Nothing. If we give her the Article Fifteen, you can bet your ass that some barracks lawyer is going to tell her to appeal. And when the brigade sergeant major sees that there isn’t a single counseling statement other than her failure to report? Yeah, she’s getting her rank back.” He slid the nearly empty folder across his desk to her.

  “So what do I do?”

  “You build the packet. You make sure you counsel every Tom, Dick and Harry in your formation. Set the standards. Let them know what the expectations are. Then when they screw up, you can nail their asses dead to rights.”