Forged in Fire

by Jessica Scott

  He scanned the admin office until his gaze landed on his prey. She found herself wondering if Quetto knew that’s what he was right then.

  Bello dropped two packets on the counter in front of Quetto’s desk. “Hey, I need you to process these two packets for the lawyer like ASAP.”

  Quetto stood sharply. “Roger, sir. I’ll get right on that as soon as I get Firs’ Sarn’t Washington in-processed.”

  Bello’s eyes narrowed and he looked down at her. Literally looked down at her from a vantage point that was a good four inches above her.

  She felt the weight of his visual inspection and lifted her chin. He was going to make it easy, huh?

  “You don’t happen to be taking over the support company, do you?” he said.

  Holly raised both eyebrows, ignoring the question and focusing instead on the blunt rudeness of the way he’d just looked her up and down. She wondered if this was going to be the guy she got into it with to prove she wasn’t going to take shit from any of them.

  It was like prison rules: find the biggest, baddest dude and pick a fight. This guy looked like a prime candidate. She just wondered if he’d also be the guy to knock her teeth in.

  Maybe today. But she damn sure wasn’t going to take his looking her over like she was one of his soldiers. “Wow, are you always this charming or do you just have a bad case of the Mondays?”

  Bello scowled and wow was it a fierce look. Had she been a little bit younger or maybe a little bit wiser, she might have been intimidated. But she’d been around guys like this too many times. They looked like assholes but you just had to get past the sandpapery exterior. “It’s Wednesday.”

  She flattened her lips into a dry line. “Sense of humor AWOL?”

  Bello grunted.

  Oh he was special.

  “So is that your acknowledgment grunt or a fuck-off grunt? I’ll have to start writing down translations of the grunts, if this is your major form of communication.”

  He looked at her like she had a dick growing out of her forehead, then shook his head and turned back to the private who was pretending to type.

  “Let me know when those are processed? I need to meet with the lawyer before the end of the week.” His gaze flicked to the combat action badge over her heart before he turned his attention back to the unsuspecting Quetto. Quetto nodded quickly and went back to his typing. His hunting and pecking was all that much more peckish as he tried really hard to focus. “Are you the support company first sergeant or not?”

  “Maybe I am, maybe I’m not.”

  Bello sighed. "Jesus Christ, if you’re going to be a pain in the ass about things…”

  Holly bristled but kept her cool. “Wow, you really are cranky. Sarn’t Major was right.”

  Bello turned to go, paused, then turned back to her. “I need the damn ammo delivered to the range. I need your company to stop smoking all the goddamned weed in Killeen and do your damned jobs. Is that polite enough for you, First Sergeant?”

  Holly arched one brow. “Oh, aren’t you just a bright little ray of sunshine?”

  Bello ground his teeth and jammed his hands in his pockets but not before she saw him clench them by his sides. “I’m not really sure where you’re coming from, Top, but in case you missed the memo, you’re taking over a unit that’s going to deploy in less than six months.”

  Oh hell no, he didn’t just imply that she didn’t give a shit about the impending deployment. “I assure you that I am very much aware of the timeline.”

  Bello swore and stormed out of the office.

  Holly looked at the empty space where he’d stood a moment before.

  Working with him was going to be a real treat. And Holly was definitely up for the challenge.

  3

  It shouldn’t have taken long for Holly to finish in-processing except that it had ended up involving three different trips back to the division headquarters and the Copeland Center for various and sundry paperwork issues. Needless to say, by the time close of business on Wednesday rolled around, she was slightly irritated. Mainly because she’d been tempted to rip her patrol cap into tiny pieces when her frustration reached critical mass. So she made a command decision to fill out the paperwork for a second time and the adjutant was going to just have to read her handwriting.

  He’d get over it. She was confident he’d dealt with significantly more prima donna officers than he’d ever see on the enlisted side of the house. And she had shit to do.

  She realized she’d simply underestimated what exactly said shit was when she walked into her new company ops and saw a captain, who looked like she was about thirteen, going up one side of an even younger looking female and down the other.

  Someone glanced over and called “at ease” when they recognized that Holly was indeed a first sergeant and not some random Joe standing in the doorway.

  She looked at the captain. “I take it you’re my new boss?”

  “Please tell me you’re my first sergeant,” Captain Reheres said.

  “Roger that, ma’am.” Holly glanced at the young female in civilian clothes who was still standing at the position of attention. “So what happened here?”

  Captain Reheres gestured palm up at the young female. “Go ahead, Sarn’t Freeman. Feel free to get the first sergeant up to speed.”

  Holly shifted and studied the situation. The female was an NCO and she was getting yelled at for getting arrested? Oh, hell no.

  But Holly bit her tongue and waited for an explanation.

  “I got caught by the cops playing my music too loud, Firs’ Sarn’t.”

  Her words were jumbled together and mumbled. The explanation was meant to come off as humble and contrite but Holly caught the edge of defiance beneath the young female’s words.

  “And this is related to you being in civilian clothes after lunch during a duty day?”

  “Because I was caught by the police with my boyfriend.”

  Holly made a disapproving noise. “What’s your name?”

  “Sergeant Freeman, Firs’ Sarn’t,” the female said.

  “Sergeant Freeman, how long have you been a noncommissioned officer?”

  “Six months, First Sergeant.” Again, a defiant edge to her words.

  Apparently Captain Bello wasn’t the only one who needed to be reminded of how things worked in the Army.

  “Well, Sarn’t Freeman, congratulations, you just earned yourself corrective training for the rest of the week. You’re going to stand at the corner of Battalion Avenue and our parking lot with a sign that will be clearly readable from the road. It will say in large black letters ‘turn the music down or you can join me’.”

  Sarn’t Freeman’s jaw dropped to the floor. “Firs’ Sarn’t, you can’t do that. It’s demeaning and embarrassing.”

  Holly folded her arms over her chest. “Oh? Enlighten me. According to whom?”

  “The IG, Firs’ Sarn’t.”

  Holly paused for two-tenths of a second. Then she opened her notebook and scribbled quickly. Ripping out the page, she handed it to Sarn’t Freeman. “Here’s how to spell my name. By all means call them. And explain what you did. Oh, and for the record, we can do corrective training or I can start handing out Article Fifteens for being a dumbass.” She looked at Freeman. “Do you know how many Article Fifteens it takes to throw you out of the army?”

  Freeman turned red and shook her head. “No, Firs’ Sarn’t.”

  “It takes two Article Fifteens to establish a pattern of misconduct. So I highly recommend that you take the corrective training and turn the damn music down so we don’t have to have this conversation again.”

  Freeman hung her head. “Roger, Firs’ Sarn’t." Finally the defiant edge was gone.

  Or at least hidden really, really well.

  Holly glanced at her commander, then back at the young troublemaker. “Is there more?” Sarn’t Freeman shook her head. “Then I recommend you get that sign started.”

  “Firs Sarn’t?”

>   Holly glanced at Sarn’t Freeman. There was a sharpness about Sarn’t Freeman that Holly was going to need to watch. “Yes, Sergeant?”

  “Where do I get the supplies? You can’t make me buy the paper and the marker.”

  Oh this place was special all right. “You’re right, I can’t, Sarn’t Freeman. But I promise you that if you are not outside doing your corrective training, I’m going to start practicing my penmanship on you. Do I need to spell things out for you, Sergeant?”

  Freeman’s lips pressed into a belligerent, flat line and for a moment, Holly half expected her to argue more. “Roger, Top.”

  Sarn’t Freeman cleared out, leaving her alone with Captain Reheres.

  “Would it be wrong if I wanted to hug you, Firs’ Sarn’t?” Captain Reheres asked mildly.

  Holly smiled. “Let’s not get all touchy-feely, ma’am. It’s day one.” She stuck out her hand. “Firs’ Sarn’t Washington. Nice to finally meet you, ma’am.”

  “You too, Top. You are very, very long overdue.”

  “I got here as soon as I could. Is there something going on with Diablo Company and a range we need to get sorted out?”

  “We’re trying to get numbers for the ammo draw but their XO isn’t answering any e-mails and the commander is being a pain in my ass,” Captain Reheres said.

  “Got it.” Holly pulled out her notepad. “So do we have a database set up of all the soldiers’ personal data? Can I get a printout so I can get up to speed on the company?”

  “Ha ha ha. You’ve got jokes,” Captain Reheres said, grinning.

  “Usually, yes but that was actually a serious question.” Holly raised both eyebrows when her commander didn’t say anything. “You’re serious? You have no company database?”

  “Top, when I tell you I have never encountered a more dysfunctional unit in my entire military career, I am not exaggerating. I’ve been here for three weeks. I’m court-martialing the former ops clerk for selling social security numbers to Russian hackers, my supply clerk was under investigation for child porn, and my armorer got rung up for something to do with missing sensitive items and selling them downrange. And that, First Sergeant, is just for starters.”

  Holly blew out a deep breath. “Are there any pockets of competence we can exploit?”

  “I haven’t found them yet.”

  Holly paused. “Well, it looks like we certainly have our work cut out for us.”

  * * *

  Sal wasn’t in the mood to deal with people at the moment. Actually, he knew exactly the cure for what ailed him and unfortunately, the duty day wasn’t even remotely close enough to ending for him to get to the gym.

  He really wasn’t in the mood to deal with the frustrating first sergeant from the support company but damned if she didn’t step out of her company operations office the moment he walked by.

  Karma hated him. He must have kicked puppies in a former life.

  And damn it, she apparently wanted to talk to him. “Can I help you, First Sergeant?”

  “You want me to unscrew the ammo, sir, I need to know how many soldiers you’re going to have firing at the range. We can’t calculate ammo draw on the back of a napkin with lipstick.”

  Sal shifted, watching the first sergeant carefully, trying to figure out what her deal was. If nothing else, she was one ballsy NCO. “My XO has given that information to yours six times.”

  “Apparently not,” Washington said. “Or I wouldn’t be wasting both of our time asking you for it.”

  He felt her studying him. Felt her gaze on him and felt as though he’d been measured and come up lacking. It was not a feeling he was used to and he resented it instantly. “I’m not going to get into a pissing contest with you, First Sergeant.”

  “Good. Then I’ll be by in a few minutes to pick up the numbers,” she said.

  “Jesus you’re frustrating.”

  “Pot, meet kettle,” she said dryly. “You don’t have to be such a pain in the ass. I asked you for information I need to help you out. Help me help you, sir.”

  “Fine,” he said finally. He felt her follow him into his company and it took Clark, his ops sergeant, all of three seconds to pull his head out of his ass and realize that the female behind him was a first sergeant.

  “At ease!”

  The soldiers jumped to their feet smartly.

  “I need a count of everyone going to the range next week,” he told his ops clerk.

  “The platoon sergeants have that information, sir,” the ops clerk said.

  Sal lifted one brow and made a mental note to explain to his ops sergeant for the fifteenth time that when Sal asked for information, his job was to get said information, not explain why he didn’t have said information. “Well, then go round up the platoon sergeants and platoon leaders.” He felt like swearing but he was working on being the good cop to Delgado’s bad cop.

  They couldn’t both be bad cops. They’d break the company.

  “Sir, First Platoon is out at North Fort Hood on post police duty picking up trash. And Second is over at the Battle Sim Center pulling 100 percent security for the last stand down.”

  Sal ground his teeth. How in the hell could his battalion commander sleep at night knowing his men were going downrange without being trained? Pulling security guard and policing up trash? Christ, it got his blood pressure up. “Get First Sarn’t Washington the numbers, ASAP. No one goes home tonight until I have confirmation that she has the information she needs.”

  The ops sergeant nodded eagerly. “Roger, sir.”

  “Appreciate it,” Washington said. She nodded toward Clark. “You have a specialist as your ops sergeant?”

  Sal glanced over at her, trying to figure out the subtext to that question. “So?”

  “Lot of work for a specialist.”

  Sal’s smile was flat. “You go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you wished you had, right?”

  “I hate that quote.” She sounded genuinely irritated and it almost made him like her a little bit. The former secretary of defense had used that quote as an excuse for why they were unprepared for the war and yeah, it was a shitty comment.

  “Doesn’t make it less true,” Sal said after a moment.

  “No, I guess it doesn’t,” she admitted. “I’ll have the ammo unfucked as soon as you get me the numbers.” She paused near the door and he found himself watching her, waiting for whatever she was going to say next. There was something exciting about being around her—he had no idea what would come out of her mouth. The unexpected…it made him curious about what forged the woman standing in front of him. Being a senior leader in the Army was tough enough—being an enlisted senior leader and a woman? Sal couldn’t imagine the shit she’d put up with over the years.

  “There is more to being a commander than leading men in combat, sir,” she said softly.

  Sal stiffened and just like that, the brief admiration he’d felt for her dissipated like CS smoke on the breeze. “Never asked your opinion, first sergeant.”

  “No, you didn’t. But then again, in my experience, officers never seek out answers to questions when they don’t want to hear the answers.” Washington braced her hand on the door.

  Sal stood for a moment and said nothing. The lighter was suddenly a lead weight in his pocket, weighing him down.

  Taunting him that he had become the thing he’d feared most: his father.

  He swallowed hard and stared at her, trying to find something, anything to say. He wasn’t used to having someone call him on his shit and he damn sure wasn’t used to that someone being a female first sergeant.

  She smirked and tipped her chin at him. “Do I have chocolate on my face or something?”

  Sal shook his head, still tender and raw from her comment the moment before. It was like a heavy, wet wool blanket around his shoulders, pressing on him. Smothering him.

  He sucked in a deep breath, unable to look away at the Artemis in ACUS standing in front of him. “You’re something els
e, you know that?”

  She made a noise that could have been disbelief or disrespect. Sal wasn’t really sure. He wasn’t a man drawn to flighty women. He’d never thought much of men who went hunting for trophy wives or young women they could control.

  Which explained why he was still single. Any woman married to the Army gave up a life of her own.

  And a woman like the one standing in front of him was a master of her own fate.

  “What’s your first name?” he asked suddenly. He needed, badly, to know her name at that moment. The vulnerability in that need stunned him. It wasn’t a need that came around very often. Until that moment, he’d thought it had died from lack of care and feeding.

  The Army was his life.

  But right then, she reminded him, with one comment, that it hadn’t always been that way. And it didn’t always have to be that way.

  “First sergeant,” she said. “You’re not about to make things awkward so I have to threaten to unman you to make you behave, are you?”

  Sal almost grinned. If he wasn’t careful, he could find himself drawn to this woman. And she was off limits. “No ma’am, I’m perfectly capable of behaving myself.”

  “Good to know. I’d hate to have to resort to violence to keep a big guy like you in line.”

  Sal held up both hands, glad to be back on even footing with her. The moment of weakness was gone, replaced by what was rapidly becoming normal between them.

  Things were going to get interesting with her around; that was for damn sure. “I’ll be a good boy.”

  Her lips twitched. “Good. Because bad boys are a pain in the ass.”

  Sal said nothing as she left.

  There was more to First Sergeant Washington than met the eye.

  Which had Sal curious. And for the first time in as long as he could remember, he found himself distracted by something not related to work.

  He wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not, but one thing was for damn sure. He couldn’t get her out of his head.

  4

  Holly always hit the ground running when she arrived in a new unit, and this time was no exception. Holly was at her desk, waiting for the automations soldier to get her computer up and running. She wasn’t leaving tonight until that was set up and neither was the computer geek. She’d never get caught up if she didn’t get a handle on things immediately. At the rate they were going, she was already really far behind.