Irons (Norfolk #1) (21 page)

“I’m pretty tired, too. Let’s nap. Then when we wake up I’ll cook you lunch.”

“Perfect.”

I reached over and grabbed her phone.

“Hey,” she said, grabbing for it. “Give that to me.”

I held it higher and thumbed through her playlists.

~Jax~

“Jax, that’s a little embarrassing.”

“I’ve seen it, added a song to your other playlist remember? And get over the embarrassment, Frankie, because when this is over, I am going to make sure everyone in the world knows you’re mine and I am yours.”

I found the song I was looking for and put an ear bud in her ear and one in mine and pressed play.

“Listen and go to sleep.”

She smirked and covered her face and laid her head on my chest.

*     *     *

I woke an
hour later. She was still asleep and she still had a grip on me that I knew if I moved would wake her up. I wanted her to sleep. I wanted her to sleep through this election and only wake when I could slip away to meet her.

I knew I could be strong. I always had been. But Frankie was so soft, so vulnerable, and so emotional that I was afraid of what this may do to her.

But there was not a damn thing I could do about it. I loved this girl, truly, madly, and deeply. I couldn’t walk away if I wanted to. I was a selfish son of a bitch, literally. But I would spend the rest of my life making it up to her.

Frankie

I
opened my
eyes as he was sliding out from beside me. “Back to sleep. I’ve got to cook something.”

I nodded and yawned. He stood up and I watched his magnificent naked body. He bent down and grabbed his boxers. I moaned out loud and he looked back and shook his head with a sexy smirk on his face.

“It’s beautiful, Jax.”

He turned as he pulled them up, slowly. His dick hung low and beautifully. “And that’s a masterpiece.”

He grabbed it and stroked once. “This?”

“Absolutely.”

“It’s all yours, sweetheart.”

*     *     *

Our late lunch
was perfect, chicken parmesan on angel hair pasta. He fed me, like he said he wanted to. Kisses between bites, laughs over conversation that had nothing to do with what was going on outside of this place, it was perfect. Just like I knew life could be with Jaxson.

After we ate, he read over my report and I told him about all the others I had spoken to that lost loved ones in as equally a horrible way as we lost Will.

“You are honoring his memory by doing this, Frankie. He’d be so proud of you. I’m proud of you.”

There was a knock on the door and Jax looked at his phone and groaned.

He stood up and walked to the door. “Jax, be careful.”

“It’s Shadows.”

He opened the door and Shadows walked in with an overnight bag in hand.

“You’re not staying?” I asked Jaxson.

“Sorry. I can’t. It won’t work that way.”

I felt my heart beating harder and harder.

“Frankie, I’ll see you in the morning on base.”

Shadows reached in his bag and pulled out two cell phones and handed them to Jax.

“We talk on these, text on these, we get new ones every few days.”

I shook my head no and fear started creeping in.

“Just until we know, Frankie, it’s the only way.”

“I’ll be here with you.” Shadows smiled.

“It’s not safe here, it’s not—”

“It’s not safe for you if I stay here, Frankie. This is about me. I will say it one last time, if you want me to walk—”

“You don’t walk when you love someone, Jax!”

“I couldn’t agree more. We have to be smart.”

“Who is going to stay with you? Who will protect you?”

“I’m fine—”

“No. No, I won’t—”

“His place is safe. Security is in place and Titan is staying with him, Frankie.”

“I don’t need him—”

“Tough shit, Irons. Deal with it,” Shadows said as he set his bag on the couch. “You need to get going.”

Jax took a step towards me and held my hips. “You love me, be strong for me.”

I nodded, talking would have evoked tears so I didn’t. I knew he sensed it in my eyes.

“I love you, Frankie. I will text you in a few hours.”

“Are you going to her again?”

“No.” He shook his head and his eyes bore into mine. “But I do have this list of events. You sure you can do this, Cruz? You sure you can be what I need you to be so I can be what you need me to be?”

I nodded and he kissed me and then whispered, “See you tomorrow?”

I nodded again.

“It’s a date?” He winked and then turned around, shook Shadows’ hand and walked out the door.

I stood in the same spot staring at the door until Shadows came up and hugged me tight. “Tell me I wasn’t hearing things, did Jaxson Irons just tell you he loved you?”

“Yes,” my voice squeaked and he chuckled.

“How long have you been waiting to hear that?”

“A while.”

He stepped back, took my hand and pulled me behind him to the couch.

We were watching a movie that I can’t even name, because I wasn’t paying any attention. I was thinking of Jax when Mary walked in.

She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Shadows.

He grinned and shook his head. “The Little Lamb has returned.”

She forced herself to look away from him and at me. “Are you all right?”

“Yes, thanks. There’s leftovers for dinner if you’re hungry.”

“Is he staying again?”

He laughed as he stood up and brushed against her as he walked into the kitchen. “Little Lamb, I’ll warm dinner up for you.”

She scowled. “Don’t go out of your way.”

“I’m hungry, babe, don’t flatter yourself.”

The look on her face was a sad for a moment as she looked at me and back at him.

“Come, sit and watch—” I paused and looked at Shadows.

“It’s the Goonies,” he and Mary said at the same time.

“Right the Goonies.” I rolled my eyes and Mary sat next to me.

“You okay?”

“Yes. And I know you need an explanation to what is going on around here. But I don’t have one yet. I’m sorry. Mary.”

“So that’s why he’s staying. I mean,” Her voice lowered, “you aren’t, like, with both of them?”

I couldn’t help but laugh and she looked mortified. I closed my mouth and leaned into her. And she giggled and shook her head.

Shadows walked in and handed her a plate. “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing,” we said at the same time and smiled at one another.

*     *     *

I saw Jax
at work but just by his look, I knew he didn’t feel comfortable talking to me. He had been pulled off the research committee and I still didn’t know why. He never answered that question when I answered him in text. He sent me the name of a song to listen to. Another dinosaur rock ballad. It made me laugh and swoon at the same time. Whitesnake,
Is This Love.

The days I was on campus, I was under strict instruction to stay with Mary or Renee and I did. I was playing by their rules in hopes it would make the time a part worth it and make it so we could be what I knew we both wanted when it was all over.

It had been four days since I had held Jaxson, touched him or even heard his voice. His texts were cryptic at best and he signed his texts with
wings
. The more I spent time on base, the more I realized Jax’s cockiness was something they handed out when a pilot earned their wings. That must have been what the wings were all about.

I was looking down as I turned a corner and ran into someone. I looked up and it was him. His eyes immediately darkened at the contact and my insides clenched. I wanted his touch, wanted it so badly that it sent a quake through my body.

“Fuck, Frankie,” he whispered in a groan.

“Jax,” was all I could manage.

His eyes focused on my mouth and I swallowed hard.

“Jesus. Lunch, two blocks down. I will take care of you, sweetheart.”

“Please.”

He closed his eyes and then opened them, his jaw clenched.

“Outside, take a left. Walk two blocks. I will be waiting. Look for Titan’s Jeep.”

I watched the minutes pass by knowing the next hour and a half were going to seem like a year.

When an hour later I heard someone talking about a rescue mission outside in the hall, I stood to see what was happening. People were running to the equipment room just outside of the hangar. I saw Jax and, as if he sensed me, he turned and looked out the door as he threw his flight suit on.

Shadows grabbed my hips from behind and moved me. “Chopper down. Duty calls, little lady. You wave goodbye and have lunch for us when we get back, got it?”

“What do you want?” I yelled and everyone looked out at me. “For lunch?”

The room full of pumped up alpha man erupted in laughter. “Pussy,” someone yelled.

My mouth fell opened and Jax looked up with a smirk on his face. He was ready before the others. “Let’s fly, girls, no time to get all prettied up.”

He walked by and winked. “I get that, no one else in there.”

“Promise?” I whispered and he shook his head and kept walking.

I stood and watched as two helicopters took off out over the Atlantic.

As instructed, I was to wait until Shadows left and he was to follow me back to my place. I sat in the parking lot for thirty minutes until I decided to call Mary and see if she was home. She was so I sent Jax a text letting him know Mary was home and was going to meet me in the parking lot.

When Shadows got home he looked whipped.

I had made lasagna; Jax had promised he would see me tonight.

“Is Jax okay?”

“Well, isn’t that a fine welcome for a guy who’s slept on a couch for five of the past seven nights.”

“Sorry. I mean, I know you’re okay I see you. But I wondered if—”

“Jax is back. He has reports to fill out. He is also pretty damn pissed that you took off like you did and he will be even more so when he knows I saw a black car on the side on the road, just like the one from Sunday. Don’t pull that shit again, Frankie. Go have dinner on base or something.”

“What car?” Mary asked.

“Yeah, what car?” Renee asked, taking out her headphone.

“Speculation, never mind. What’s important is everything is fine now.”

Not ten minutes later the alarms were going off and I looked out the window as people vacated their apartments.

Mary and Renee immediately started walking toward the door.

“Stop!” Shadows yelled. “Each of you pack a bag.”

We all stopped and looked at him.

“Now!”

When we were finished, we all walked out together leaving our bags by the door. None of us asked why, we just did as instructed.

“Renee, where are you parked?”

“The back lot, why?”

“Give me your keys.”

Once we were all in the car he told me to text Jax and tell him to meet him at Hops Hoes.

“Hops Hoes?”

“He’ll know what I’m talking about. Reach in my bag and grab me a new phone, text Titan 767-7737, tell him bags by the door and Hops Hoes.”

We drove out of town taking back roads. To be honest I had no clue where we were and I had lived here for two, almost three, years now.

In an hour, we were pulling into the woods on a dirt road. After another thirty minutes we were pulling into a clearing and in the middle of it was a pretty large log home.

“Home, sweet home,” he said as he pulled up in front of the house.

We all got out and looked around. It was quiet and beautiful.

“What’s this place?”

“The home of a friend.”

“It’s beautiful here,” Mary said, walking around the yard.

“There’s no cell service,” Renee groaned as she walked up and sat on the porch. “What the hell is going on? Who the hell do you think you are, bossing us around? Jesus, Frankie, don’t you think we deserve to know what the fuck is going on? I mean God—” she stopped when she started crying. “This is so fucked up and now we’re in the middle of the woods where no one can find us and—”

“Safe, Renee, you are safe here. How about we think of this as a vacation, huh?”

Shadows patted her back as he walked past her on the stairs. He lifted what looked like something where mail would be placed and punched in a code.

I heard a click and then he opened the door. “I promise you’ll like it, come on.”

We all walked inside and he was right, it was beautiful. The exposed beams on the inside were beautiful. The entire space was opened and although you wouldn’t know it from the outside, the place was very modern.

“Make yourselves at home. There are four bedrooms upstairs, pick one. I think we will be here for the night.”

“I’m hungry,” Renee mumbled.

“Let’s hope the boys bring dinner,” Shadows smiled at me.

“The boys?”

“Yeah, I am pretty sure you’ll be seeing Irons tonight. Don’t bother picking out a room, he has his own.”

Two hours later, Jax and Titan walked in, both carrying bags. I was so excited to see him and the worry in his eyes was immediately gone and a smile replaced his near frown.

“Honey, I’m home.”

I ran up and hugged him tight as he chuckled.

“I love you.”

“I love you.”

“Do we get to know what the hell is going on now!” Renee snapped.

“Weekend getaway,” Jax answered, his eyes never leaving mine. I smiled. “They think your place has a gas leak. They’re working on trying to find it and then they will fix it. So there are about thirty displaced civilians.” Still, his eyes never left mine. “Well, twenty seven. You three are taken care of.”

“There is no cell service here,” Renee whined.

“Why don’t you act grateful that you have a place to stay,” Titan asked as he walked in. “How about a thank you.”

“My parents will worry,” she snapped at him.

“How old are you?”

“Twenty two.”

“They stopped worrying at eighteen. Time to grow up, princess.”

“Screw you,” she hissed under her breath.

He dropped our bags and walked up to her, “Before or after dinner?”

Her jaw dropped and she spun around and ran right into Shadows. “Eenie, meenie, miney, mo?”