Irons 2

by Mj Fields

  “Johnny sent another message, says they switched vehicles three hours ago. The kid says she was a mess and that Irons should leave her the fuck alone. He said he didn’t know where she was going.”

  “What have I done?” I felt no more pain, I felt numb, “If something happens to her. Christ, what have I done?”

  Shadows looked back and held up his phone, “I sent a message to Frankie. She responded immediately that she was fine, safe, and exhausted. She asked that we allow her to sleep.”

  “Ask her where the fuck she is, then ask her why the fuck she went to him, then tell her she has made the top of my fucking shit list--.”

  “No.” Shadows said as he typed.

  “No? What the fuck--.”

  “She needs to figure this out.”

  “Do you hear yourself, Shadows? Do you know you’re making an enemy of me?”

  “Do you know I am looking out for the girl you love? My friend’s sister, and you can get pissed off at me, you can threaten me, you can swing on me and that ain’t gonna change shit.”

  “You don’t pull this on me.”

  “She isn’t giving up her location. She made damn sure we couldn’t find her. She says she’s safe.”

  I couldn’t even stand to listen to them anymore. I took out my new phone and looked at the pictures that had been saved in the cloud when my other was destroyed. She lay in bed, black locks everywhere, sated and sleeping. Absolutely stunning.

  I looked through more photos, one of a drawing, an angel hovering over a jar with something yellow inside, a bug, a firefly. I looked at the next photo. Another snapshot, I recognized this, a drawing of a tattoo. My tattoo. I flipped back. The angel without a doubt resembled Frankie. I must have designed a tattoo with her in mind. But what did the firefly represent?

  “Head home.”

  We pulled in a parking lot, turned around, and headed home.

  I hobbled my sorry ass in the house and grabbed my meds off the counter.

  “It’s a good idea man.” Shadows said and patted me on the back.

  I turned and grabbed the keys to the mustang.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Titan asked.

  “Going to Capron.”

  “You want company? I can drive you.”

  “No. I got this.”

  “You think she’s there?”

  “I know she is. But so help me God, Shadows, do not let her know I’m on my way. This is my wife, my marriage, my mess to deal with.”

  “What makes you think she’s there?”

  “A memory, then an alert from Maria. Stay out of this.”

  “You can’t drive that far, man. At least let us get you there.”

  I thought for a minute, I didn’t want them there. “Russ can drive me, then if my suspicions are correct he can return Joel’s car, get Mary’s and untwist this fucking knot.”

  ~

  An hour later and we were heading up the roadway. The Mustang was not made for roads like this. I opened up my water and swallowed down some pills. I was pissed off enough, add the pain I was in to the mix and I am sure I may come off as a nasty son-of-a-bitch. I wanted to be firm, make sure that shit didn’t happen again. But let her know how fucking much she means to me.

  “I’ll get the keys, Russ. No hurry in getting vehicles switched around. It’s pretty damn kind of us to do that after they placated this fucking mess Frankie masterminded.”

  “Yes, sir,” he said and handed me my crutches.

  I looked at my watch it was eight o’clock at night and I hadn’t eaten a thing. I was sure that was part of the reason I felt I was going to throw up. I looked at the front door and remembered carrying Frankie inside. We had come here the night we were married.

  I forced myself to the door. I unlocked it, went inside, and hurried to the security panel because the control tablet wasn’t on the entryway table. What was on the table were the keys to Joel’s car so I ran them out to Russ.

  When I was back inside I leaned against the wall looking for a reprieve from the stress I was putting on my right side.

  Once I had entered my access code, I armed the system again.

  I made my way to the stairs and realized there was no way I was going to pull that off, I sat on the step, leaned against the wooded wall and closed my eyes.

  Chapter 19

  Frankie

  How can I go on?

  I lay in bed looking at the ceiling. My stomach in knots as I worried about Jax but I knew he was in good hands. I just couldn’t be those hands right now. In sickness and in health. Although we had not used traditional vows, I knew that leaving without talking to him was wrong. But I also know that him going to the doctors without so much as a word was a blow to the high that his memories returning had brought.

  Then to know he had gone to her, Mimi, my tormentor, and the other woman in his life, well that was more than I could handle.

  I was in the darkness so deep right now that my heart literally felt like it was shattering inside of me.

  I picked up my phone and tried to will myself not to turn it on but I had to. There was a message from Jax. I pressed it and it opened.

  I love you. Do you remember what that means to me, Frankie? It means that it’s forever. It doesn’t come without fault, but I assure you that each day it will get better and I can promise each day it grows stronger. Does your love do the same?

  I held the phone to my chest willing Jax’s words to heal the brokenness beneath it.

  ~

  I woke to the tablet announcement, ‘Door one opened, access code accepted then a minute later, system rearmed.’

  I sat up, looked around and was immediately struck by fear. I looked over at the clock, it was after eight pm. I had slept for two hours. I looked at my phone, at the unreturned message Jax had sent.

  I tried to calm my fears and told myself over and over that only three people had access. Three people who I knew I could trust with my safety. I still had cause to worry. All the unanswered questions, the accident, the fact that I was jumped, the threat from Mimi, his mother’s distain for me.

  I sent him a text. Simple and truthful. I love you, Jax

  A return came immediately. I need you, Angel. I need you now, I’m here at the cabin.

  I jumped out of the bed and ran down the hall.

  “Jax?” I looked down over the banister. He was slumped against the wall. “Jax!”

  I ran down the stair and knelt in front of him.

  “I’m not doing too well.”

  “Have you been drinking?”

  He closed his eyes and shook his head no.

  “Do you need pain meds?”

  “Took them half an hour ago.”

  “Can you stand up?”

  He shook his head no, “Crackers, water. Fuck, I’m sorry.”

  “Okay, okay.” I ran into the kitchen and found crackers and peanut butter. I grabbed three bottles of water out of the fridge and ran back out to him.

  I knelt down and opened the jar of peanut butter and ripped open the cracker sleeve with my teeth. I dunked it in the peanut butter and then held it to his mouth. He chewed slowly and then I offered him water. He drank down the water and finally looked up at me.

  “Feeling better?”

  “If I said yes, I’d be lying.”

  “Want more?”

  “Peanut butter was a good call. So was marrying me, Frankie. I promise.”

  “Okay, just eat. Just feel better.”

  “Say it, Frankie.”

  “Jax, you know I do.”

  “You ran from me.”

  “I ran from…” I closed my eyes. “Please, not now okay?”

  “Say it. Damn it, Frankie.”

  “I love you, okay?”

  “No, that’s not enough.”

  “What more do you want, Jax, you have it all. You have --.”

  “I will cherish it, protect it, make it stronger--.”

  “Just eat, okay?”

  “I want
to go to bed. I want to know you aren’t gonna run.”

  “I’m tired too.”

  “You’re gonna have to help me up those stairs.” I nodded. ”In sickness and in health.”

  I helped him up and he leaned on me. He held the railing and very slowly we made it up the stairs.

  Sweat glistened his forehead and he wiped it off. “I am out of shape.”

  “You aren’t. You’re recovering,”

  “Right. I’m recovering and tearing you down in the process.”

  “We can talk tomorrow.”

  “No. Tonight.”

  We got into the room and he stopped. “I need to use the bathroom. When I come out I want you to be here.”

  “I’m not going anywhere.”

  Jax came out in his boxers. His hair was wet, and his body was too. “I needed to clean up.”

  I pulled the covers over me, “Do you feel better?”

  “Peanut butter did the trick. Good call.”

  His eyes were guarded and jaw tense.

  “You got new casts,” my voice caught.

  “Should have taken you with me, let you pick out the color. What do you think?”

  “Black works.”

  I moved over to the side as he sat down and pulled his leg up. “You’re on the wrong side.”

  “Am I?”

  He looked over at me, “How am I gonna hold you if you’re on my bad side?”

  “Jax--.”

  “Frankie, either you move or I do. I won’t sleep otherwise.”

  “I thought we were gonna talk.”

  “Yeah, but I want you here.”

  I moved to the other side of the bed and he immediately pulled me into his side.

  “She knows something that I don’t know, something I don’t remember.”

  “You went to see her the night before you came to me. The night before we got married.”

  He held me tighter, “So she says.”

  “What did she say was the reason?”

  “Frankie--.”

  “You want me to trust you, trust me.”

  “She said we have an unbreakable bond. She won’t tell me. Says if I don’t remember it’s better for everyone. She says you and I will never work.”

  “Why did you go there the day before we got married?”

  “She said I came to tell her I was going to marry you. That it would be a cover.”

  “Is it?”

  He rolled to his side and gripped my chin forcing me to look at him, “Don’t ever ask me if I married you for any other reason than what I said in front of everyone important to me.” I felt my lip quiver. “Why the hell do you fight what you know, Frankie?”

  “Why did you go to her?”

  “I need answers. My parents, Mimi, the accident, and you getting jumped. The world didn’t stop turning the day I fell out of the sky. It may have even gotten worse.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you trust that I would trust you?”

  “Frankie, we got married just about two weeks ago. Almost half of that my brain was fucked inside out. That night you topped me. Things aren’t exactly how I want them to be. So wanting to keep some ugly shit from you is gonna happen from time to time.”

  “Then expect me to get pissed, Jax. I need to know things too.”

  “And what does that make me?”

  “A man, Jax. It makes you a man.”

  “Doesn’t feel right,” his rough hand skated under my tank top and across my stomach.

  “Well, it doesn’t feel good to make love to a man who lies to you either.” I held my hand over his stopping it from moving.

  “Point made, and taken.” He tried to move his hand again.

  “Jax, I’m tired.”

  “Me too, Angel,” he leaned in and kissed my neck, then my mouth.

  “Jax. No.”

  He leaned back and looked at me. “I know you have cramps, does that mean no anything?”

  “I am exhausted, hurt--.”

  “You hurt me too, Frankie, by taking off on me. You took off.”

  I rolled to my side facing him, “I’m sorry for what I did. I just needed to be alone. Can we sleep?”

  “Can you kiss me goodnight?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Make me a promise first?”

  “Sure.”

  He cupped the back of my head and pulled it to his. His nose rubbed across mine, “We don’t ever go to sleep pissed.”

  “I’m still upset with you.”

  “But not pissed.”

  “No, not anymore.” I admitted.

  “And we don’t go to sleep without saying I love you.” Jax kissed my neck.

  “Those are the rules?”

  “Yeah.”

  I rubbed my lips against his, “I love you.”

  “”I love you.”

  After he laid on his back and pulled me against him he looked down, “What does firefly mean?”

  “I don’t know, why?”

  “I designed the tattoo Will and I got together. I found a picture in my new phone, must have been stored up in that digital cloud. It was an angel and a jar with a firefly. I’m sure the angel is you,” he yawned. “Why I put you with a firefly is beyond me.”

  ~

  I couldn’t sleep. I kept thinking about what firefly would mean to me, to Jax. I went to use the bathroom and get a drink, hoping that would help me fall asleep.

  When I came out I saw Jax’s phone and picked it up. I used the letters F R A N for the password. Then I tried A N G L and it worked. I thumbed through his messages. The ones from Mimi were always started by her, they were desperate cries for attention, and pathetic at best.

  I sat there feeling like hell about looking through his phone, but I truly felt better. I got up and put his phone back where I had gotten it from and looked down the hall.

  His office. I remembered him putting something in his desk drawer, a file that he was looking at. I decided to have a look.

  I found the key lying in the middle drawer. I unlocked the drawer and pulled out the file. Inside was a drawing, just like the one Jax had described to me, an angel and a jar with firefly in it.

  I flipped through the file and saw an address in Canada. There was obituary’s and newspaper clippings of a murder. It was a cousin of Mimi’s and apparently she was there when the shooting happened.

  There was a timeline from Jax and Will’s graduation until the shooting.

  What was he trying to figure out?

  I opened the drawer to see what else was hidden inside. There were keys, and a couple phones. I reached further back and felt around, nothing.

  I looked through the file again and nothing clicked.

  Something was missing. Something more that would piece together this puzzle. I opened the drawer and saw the bottom move. I pushed it up and saw a crack. I opened the middle drawer of the desk and found an envelope opener. I used it to pry opened the false bottom of the drawer. Inside was a passport. I opened it revealing a photo of Jaxson and the name Henry Johnson. The dates stamped on it were the week before our wedding. That wasn’t the only thing under the false bottom. There was a photo of a beautiful little girl. She looked just like Jaxson.

  “Oh god, Jax.” I covered my mouth to stifle the sobs I knew were ready to escape.

  I grabbed one of the phones and sent a text to Shadows from it.

  One word, Firefly.

  Within seconds the phone rang, I pushed answer but I didn’t say anything. I held the phone to my ear.

  “Who is this?”

  I sniffed loudly and cleared my throat.

  “Shit,” he sputtered, “Not a damn word. Get some sleep. I will be there in five hours.”

  I put everything in the drawer where I had gotten it from and then locked it back up.

  I walked back into the bedroom where Jax lay sleeping.

  The light from the hallway shone on his body. He was beautiful. His bruises were fading. The casts that replaced the first were
black. The one on his leg was shorter, below the knee, so he could now bend it. The cast on his arm was far less bulky.

  He had kept things from me, lied to me, left the country assumingly to seek answers, yet when he got them he still didn’t tell me. I married Jax, who knowingly held back the fact that he had a child.

  I hoped to have answers in five hours, until then I would sleep next to a man with secrets that even he didn’t know.

  Chapter 20

  Jax

  How can we recover?

  I woke and Frankie was not next to me. I started to panic, thinking she took off again.

  I reached over and grabbed my crutches and made it to the doorway. I smelled something, eggs. She must be in the kitchen. Frankie didn’t cook. Frankie didn’t cook, I laughed to myself.

  “Hey, Angel,” I yelled down the stairs. “You trying to burn another pan?”

  I heard her feet pad across the floor and she looked up the stairs.

  “Need some help?”

  “I do, but I don’t want you to burn the place down.”

  She walked up the stairs, her hair piled high on her head, a complete mess and absolutely beautifully. It was wet and I could smell the body soap before she got to me.

  “I remembered the breakfast and the burnt hand,” I took her hand and looked at it, “Healed nice.” I turned her hand to kiss it and noticed the laceration on her hand. “You get hurt?”

  “You hungry?”

  “I am, but my breakfast escaped the bed this morning.” I leaned in and kissed her quickly on her plump lips. “What happened to your hand?”

  “Nothing important. Let’s go,” she smiled and stood on my left.

  “Frankie, you got hurt, it’s important.”

  “You worry about getting better and I will do the same.”

  “Frankie,” I stopped at the bottom of the stairs, “Say it.”

  “I love you, Jax.”

  We walked in the kitchen and I saw Titan and Shadows sitting at the table.

  “Good morning, Irons,” Titan nodded.

  I looked at Frankie and she shrugged, “I didn’t know what else to do.”