Chapter 10

"Where's Mommy?" Annie asked when Fletch went back outside. She was sitting on two thick books on a chair at his patio table. Her little legs were swinging back and forth and she had what looked like chocolate smeared all around her lips and cheeks.

"She's upstairs, sprite. She's going to be fine."

"She was sick." It was a statement, not a question.

"Yup."

"I won't get in trouble for coming over here, will I?"

Annie looked scared when she asked, and Fletch hated that. He pulled up a chair next to her and stole a piece of brownie from her plate, smiling when she giggled at him. "No, Annie. You will absolutely not get into trouble. In fact, you coming over here was the best thing that could have happened. You absolutely did the right thing. I told you if you ever needed anything you could come to me. You got your mom the help she needed tonight. Thank you for trusting me."

The little girl tilted her head to the side and regarded Fletch critically. Her eyes held a lot of worry, too much for a six-year-old. She broke eye contact and looked around at his teammates. Ghost was sitting back in the chair he'd originally been in, and Rayne was on his lap once again. The others were standing or sitting around the small patio, looking anything but relaxed. Annie looked at each one before meeting Fletch's eyes again.

"Your friends aren't like Mommy's friend."

Knowing who she was talking about now, Fletch tried not to leap up and find something to punch. He merely asked, "How so?"

"Everyone here has nice eyes."

"And he didn't?"

Annie shook her head.

"When did your mommy first meet him?"

Demonstrating her intelligence, Annie didn't immediately shrug her shoulders or say she couldn't remember. She looked up and to the right, trying to remember. Biting her lip for a moment, she rested her tiny elbows on the table, barely missing her plate. "You were on a trip. I think the first one you took after we moved in. Remember? I wanted to know if you brought me a present?"

Fletch nodded immediately. He'd thought that was it. How he'd misinterpreted that video, thinking Emily was meeting a boyfriend, was beyond him. He was an idiot and he'd let his heart overrule his training. "I do remember. He was here when you guys got home from school and work, right?"

"Uh-huh. Mommy made me go upstairs. After she came up to our apartment, she told me anytime I saw him I was supposed to go upstairs. I had to treat him like I did our old landlord."

Fletch knew a little about that asshole from what Emily had told him, and it made him want to have five minutes alone with him. If Emily had told her daughter to hide whenever she saw their old landlord, he was totally bad news. He forced his thoughts back to the issue at hand. "When did you see him last?"

This time, Annie did shrug. "It's been a while."

Fletch changed his line of questioning. If he was going to help Emily, he had to know as much as possible about her situation. He hated to use her daughter to find out the information, but he knew to the marrow of his bones, Emily wouldn't be forthcoming about anything. Shit, she'd kept silent about someone blackmailing her for the last four months or so. She'd probably try to blow this off like it wasn't a big deal and would continue to try to take care of it by herself.

"What did you have for dinner last night?"

Annie looked surprised at the question, but answered anyway. "Ramen."

"And the night before that?"

"Ramen. I always have noodles. Sometimes Mommy puts a hotdog in."

"And breakfast?"

"Sometimes toast, but lately I've been eating at school." Annie's voice dropped to a whisper. "The other kids make fun of me."

Fletch reached out and scooped Annie up and plopped her on his lap. Her sad tone was killing him and he wanted to comfort her. "Why?"

She shrugged. "They say I'm poor and only poor people have to eat breakfast at school. I know what poor is, but I don't understand why it's bad."

Fletch kissed the top of Annie's head. "It's not bad, sprite. Some people just have less money than others. It doesn't mean they're bad or good…it just means they have less money."

Annie looked up at him with big eyes, so he continued, "Starting next week you won't be eating breakfast at school anymore, I'll make sure you get a good breakfast here before you go. Is that okay with you?"

"Yeah. I like Puffy-O's." She yawned huge and snuggled against his chest.

"You can have as many Puffy-O's as you want. Tired, sprite?"

The little girl nodded sleepily.

Fletch met Beatle's eyes and motioned to the garage apartment with his head, even as he leaned down to tell Annie of the plans for the night. "Want to have a sleepover?"

Her head whipped up so quickly, Fletch barely got out of the way before he was beaned in the chin. "Yes!"

"You need stuff from your room?"

"Yes." This time the word came out as if she was saying "duh."

Fletch chuckled. "Okay, how about if you go back over to your apartment with my friends, Beatle and Coach. They'll help you carry back what you need."

"Can I bring my Army men?"

"Of course. Bring whatever you want."

Annie jumped off his lap as if she did it every day. "Yay!" She reached out for Beatle's hand and tugged at him. "Come on, bug man, let's go!"

Everyone chuckled at Annie's name for Beatle as the trio left to head over to the apartment above the garage. When they were out of earshot, Blade said grimly, "What the ever-loving fuck is going on?"

Fletch stood up and paced the small patio. "From what I can gather, Emily has been blackmailed into paying someone money every week. He told her I owed him money because of gambling debts and threatened to get Annie taken away from her or to hurt her. Emily and I have obviously had our wires crossed in our conversations…when I talked about my friends—you guys—she thought I meant that asshole. So she got the impression that I knew about it, and condoned it."

"The boyfriend?" Ghost asked quietly, obviously remembering some of their previous conversations.

Fletch nodded grimly. "Yeah, that's my guess. I thought she was dating that asshole, instead he was destroying her sense of safety and making her worry for her daughter. I have no idea what he threatened her with, but I bet it was something horrible happening to Annie. She mentioned something about Annie being shot."

"You still have the surveillance tapes?" Truck asked, knowing how Fletch kept a close eye on his property and tenants.

"Of course."

"Good. Send 'em to me. We'll take a look and see if we can't nail down this bastard. This'll get escalated to command. No fucker gets away with this on our watch."

"I'm pretty sure it's Jacks."

"Richard Jacks? That pansy motherfucker from the botched training exercise?" Truck exclaimed.

"Yeah. I hadn't put two and two together before. We know him and his friends have been doing the petty shit to our cars, but even with the hat he had on when he first confronted Emily outside her place, I bet it'll be clear it's him."

The guys nodded as if it made perfect sense. "I can totally see him doing this," Blade ground out. "Those guys don't give a shit about anything other than making themselves look good."

"Agreed," Fletch sneered.

"Send me the tapes anyway," Truck demanded. "We'll need them for evidence when we go to the colonel. No one, I mean no one, threatens to take a little girl away from her mother. Especially not when that little girl is as sweet as Annie.

Fletch breathed easier for the first time since finding out Emily was sick. His team would help take care of this for him. While one part of him wanted to be at the front of the line to crucify Jacks and whoever else was behind blackmailing Emily, the other part wanted to stay right by her side as she came to terms with him being around.

Staying by her side won out.

"Definitely send all this to Tex. If the Army won't do anything, Tex will get us the intel we need to take care of it ourselves," Fletch ordered in a deadly voice. "We all know how slow the government works. If they won't move on it fast enough, we will."

"Done," Ghost agreed. "Now, who do you want to stay tonight?"

Fletch wasn't surprised they were on the same wavelength. "Truck, Beatle, and Hollywood, I think."

"No problem," Hollywood said immediately.

"On it," Truck replied.

"As much as I hate doing it, I need one of you to search her place, see what you can find," Fletch told Truck.

The large man nodded. "If there's anything in there that points to this asshole, it's yours."

"Thank you."

"No need, brother."

An hour later, Fletch settled into his king-size bed next to Emily. Annie had snuggled up next to her mom, then demanded he stay too. Not able to refuse her anything, Fletch had agreed, intending to get up once the little girl was asleep and then spend the rest of the night in the guest room.

He thought about what Truck had reported when he'd come back from Emily's apartment. Annie hadn't been lying, there wasn't much food in the house at all. Some condiments and a loaf of bread. That was about it. Not only that, but there weren't a lot of belongings in the house either. The things that Fletch had supplied her were there, but not much else. It looked as if Emily had sold as much as she could to try to keep her daughter fed.

As much as that pissed him off and saddened him at the same time, the fact that Annie still had the Army men he'd given her all those months ago, still in the packaging, devastated him. He'd known how pleased the little girl had been when he'd given them to her, but for them to still be packaged up proved how much they meant to her.

Fletch knew Emily could've sold those toys and made a few bucks, but instinctively he realized she'd never hurt her daughter like that. The entire situation made his heart hurt for both Emily and Annie.

Emily had done the best she could in a shitty situation to protect her daughter. She'd gone without eating to make sure Annie could. She'd sold anything she could get her hands on, but most importantly, she'd suffered in silence. That would end here and now.

It was astonishing that, even though Emily seemed to hate him, she'd been protecting him at the same time. It proved that, deep down, she didn't dislike him. If she had, she would've sold the toys he'd gotten Annie, told Jacks to fuck off and immediately moved out. But she hadn't.

It could've been because she was scared for her daughter and what Jacks had threatened to do to her, but he hoped a small part of it was also because she had feelings for him.

Fletch thought about her words when she was in the tub tonight. She'd thought about him. Had gotten herself off while thinking about him. Just as he had. They hadn't had the best start, but the attraction was obviously there. He could work with that.

The sacrifices Emily had made for her daughter, and him, humbled and awed Fletch.

Looking over at the two females sleeping soundly in his bed, Fletch made a promise to himself…and them. He'd stand between them and anything, and anyone, who wanted to hurt them in the future. Never again would Emily or Annie go without. Ever. Emily's actions had solidified his resolve. She would be his. He'd fallen for her courage all those months ago, but seeing it up close and personal put his feelings in a new light.

Emily and Annie Grant were his . His to feed, protect, and love. They just didn't know it yet.