Chapter 11

Emily groaned and rolled onto her back, smiling when she felt Annie's warm body next to her. She felt grubby, and would kill for a shower. She was still a bit dizzy and generally felt like crap, but it was a hundred times better than the previous couple of days.

"Good morning, Emily."

The words were soft and definitely masculine.

Her eyes whipped open and she turned her head, only to see Fletch stretched out next to her. He had his head propped on his hand and was grinning at her. The T-shirt he was wearing stretched across his wide chest, and the stubble on his face looked sexy rather than unkempt. His hair was mussed, sticking up all over his head…and he looked absolutely delicious.

Looking to her other side, Emily saw that Annie was lying on her back, one arm over her head, snoring. She was wearing her favorite Wonder Woman pajamas and Emily could see some sort of dried food stuck to her cheeks.

She tried to remember what had happened the night before, but it was like watching a television that was going in and out in a storm. She'd get flashes, but they didn't make sense.

"What are you doing here?" she asked Fletch in a soft voice, so as not to wake up her daughter.

"You don't remember?"

"Only parts," Emily admitted.

"The short story is that Annie came over last night because she was hungry and worried about you. I checked in on you, you were well on your way to brain damage because of an extremely high fever. I carried you back here and got you fixed up. You were so comfortable, I didn't want to disturb you, so we had a sleepover."

"And Annie?"

"I thought you'd feel better if she was in here with you."

"Thank you. I do. And you ?"

Fletch smiled and reached over Emily to Annie's face and ran his free hand over her forehead and along the side of her head. "I was going to sleep in the other room, but Annie insisted I stay here with you guys."

Emily winced. Yeah, Annie probably did do that. She worshiped the ground Fletch walked on. "Well, uh, thanks. We'll just get out of your hair…"

He pulled his hand back. "We need to talk."

Emily bit her lip. Damn, she'd figured she probably couldn't get out of it, but she'd been hoping to postpone any kind of conversation about anything…maybe indefinitely. But finally, she nodded. She couldn't go on the way she was. Getting sick had made that point abundantly clear. If it was a matter of trusting Fletch, or the man who'd been blackmailing her, she'd choose Fletch.

Fletch eased back and stood up next to the large king-size bed. He was wearing boxers and a T-shirt with "Army" across it. If Emily thought he was good looking in a pair of jeans, it was nothing compared to how beautiful he was first thing in the morning. He held out a hand to her and waited.

Emily leaned over and kissed Annie, who didn't even stir, and rotated, throwing her legs over the side of the bed. It wasn't until she sat up that she realized she was only wearing her panties and bra.

She gasped and gathered the quilt, clenching it in both fists to her chest.

"Oh, shit, sorry, forgot about that," Fletch said in a completely serious voice, with not even a hint at lecherousness. He strode over to a brown dresser and pulled out some clothes. He came back to the bed with them, placed them on the mattress at her hip, and then kneeled down in front of her.

"They'll be big, but they'll do for now. We'll get you some of your things later this morning. I'll give you a few minutes to get dressed, but wait for me to come back and help you. You haven't eaten much for a few days and you'll be weak after the fever."

"I'll be fine," Emily protested.

"Of course you will," Fletch agreed immediately. "I'll be back in a few minutes." He put his hand on her knee and squeezed, then stood up and left her alone in his room.

Emily looked at the closed door for a moment, then the clothes he'd placed on the mattress. It was another Army T-shirt and a pair of workout shorts with a drawstring waist. They'd go down past her knees, but she'd be covered.

She twisted and looked at Annie and sighed. Emily might not remember everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours, or in the last couple of days, but the feeling of safety she'd felt last night when Fletch had taken her in his arms was something she recalled way too easily. And Annie…it was hard to think of Fletch as uncaring when she was looking at proof that he cared enough to make sure both she and her daughter were safe and comfortable.

Knowing she didn't have a lot of time, Emily stood, took one step—and almost immediately fell flat on her face. Only the hand she threw out to catch herself on the mattress kept her from crumpling to the ground. Lord, she was weak. Apparently Fletch knew what he was talking about.

Emily quickly tugged the T-shirt over her head and sat on the mattress to pull the shorts on. She'd just stood to tug them the rest of the way up when Fletch opened the door again. He came to her and brushed her hands away and tied the drawstring with capable fingers. Without asking permission, he wound an arm around her waist and helped her from the room.

They went down the hallway and into Fletch's kitchen. She was surprised to see three other large, obviously military men already seated around the table. Fletch settled her on a chair at one end of the table. No one said a word, so neither did she.

One of the men was heartstoppingly good looking. Enough that he could've been a model. Another man was large and muscular, as Fletch was. The third man was huge, even next to the others. He had a nasty scar on his face that looked extremely painful. He was scowling, or maybe it was the scar that made it look that way. Whatever it was, he intimidated the hell out of Emily.

She jumped in surprise when Fletch placed a plate on the table containing a toasted bagel with heaps of cream cheese on it and a large glass of orange juice. Emily looked up in surprise as Fletch sat down next to her.

"Eat, then we'll talk."

The smell of the food made her stomach growl, loudly. One of the men smiled at her, but didn't mention it. Wanting only to put off the upcoming conversation, Emily ate, seeing the satisfaction in Fletch's eyes as she did.

"Emily, I'd like you to meet three of my teammates. The big man across from you is Truck. He might look mean, but he's probably the gentlest of us all. Annie had him eating out of her little hands the moment she met him. Hollywood is the pretty man to my right, and to your left is Beatle. These are my friends."

Emily didn't miss the emphasis on the word, but didn't comment. Fletch didn't give her a chance anyway as he continued.

"I'd trust these men with my life, and have on many occasions. But more importantly, I'd trust them with your life. Or Annie's."

Emily expected him to continue again, but he didn't. It was awkward sitting there eating while four pairs of eyes watched her, so she tried to break the tension. "It's nice to meet you all."

"You too."

"Same."

"Likewise."

When they didn't say anything else, Emily looked back down at her bagel and tried to eat as fast as she could. The sooner Fletch got out what he felt he needed to say, the better. Although, the longer she spent in his company, the less sure she was of her convictions about him, and what had been going on.

She finally finished the last bite of her breakfast and wiped her hands on the napkin Fletch had included.

"Good?"

Emily nodded at Fletch and pushed the plate away. "Okay, I'm done. Can we please get this over with?"

Fletch didn't beat around the bush. "I have never gambled a day in my life, Em. I have a pretty good idea who's fucking with you, but I have nothing to do with it. And I want to know exactly how much you've given this asswipe and you'll get every cent back—with interest."

Emily bit her lip in consternation. From the first day she'd met Fletch, she'd gotten "good guy" vibes from him. Then, after her conversations with him, it was harder to deny that he was involved with whoever was blackmailing her up to her eyeballs. Now she wasn't so sure. She ignored his statement about the money for now.

"He said you made my rent so low because you knew my payments to him would make up the difference."

"He lied."

"He said he worked with you, you guys were close, and that you talked about me all the time."

"He lied."

"He said if I paid every week that you'd be notified and Annie would be safe. But if I talked about all this with you or didn't make a payment he'd call CPS and get Annie taken away from me."

"Dammit, Emily, he lied . I don't gamble, I'd never do anything to hurt you or Annie, or any other woman either. What's this guy's name?"

Emily looked at Fletch without answering. She wanted to believe him. So badly. But she was confused. Hell, yesterday she'd thought Fletch was one of the bad guys; she couldn't just switch her feelings so easily…could she?

"Mommy?"

Emily whipped around at the sound of Annie's voice. She immediately scooted back from the table and held her arms open. Annie ran into them and snuggled in sleepily.

"Are you better, Mommy?"

"I'm better."

"I knew Fletch would take care of you."

Emily closed her eyes at her innocent daughter's statement. It was obvious she trusted Fletch down to her bones. Annie had seen evil, and was pretty good at recognizing it, but she had nothing but trust in her eyes when she looked at Fletch.

As if reading her mom's thoughts, Annie leaned toward Fletch with her arms out.

Emily allowed him to take Annie from her and swallowed hard at the affection in Fletch's eyes as he looked down at her.

"Hey, sprite. Sleep okay?"

"Uh-huh, but you snore."

One of the guys around the table chortled, but Emily didn't take her eyes off the man holding her child.

"I do, huh? Well, I hate to be the one to break this to you, but you're a bed hog."

Annie giggled uncontrollably for a moment. "You're silly!"

"Hungry?" Fletch asked when she'd quieted down.

"Uh-huh."

"You like waffles?"

"Waffles?" Annie's eyes got huge in her face and she immediately looked at her mom for a moment, then back up at Fletch. "We only get waffles on special occasions."

"I think today is a special occasion…it's the first time you had a sleepover at my house. That seems pretty special to me," Fletch told her seriously.

"Yeah," Annie breathed.

"How about you and Beatle head into the kitchen and whip some up? And you should know, these guys eat a ton, so you'll have a lot of batter to stir."

"I'm a good stirrer."

Fletch lifted Annie and put her on her feet next to his chair. "I'm sure you are."

Annie ran over to Emily and threw her little arms around her. "I love you, Mommy. I'm glad you're not sick anymore."

"Love you too, Annie."

"Come on, Beatle. We have waffles to make!"

Emily watched as Fletch's eyes followed her daughter into the kitchen. Finally, they came back to her and he continued their conversation as if they hadn't been interrupted. "His name?"

"I don't know. He never said."

"But you'd recognize him if you saw him again?"

"Of course. He's expecting the weekly payment Friday."

"How does he usually collect it?" It was Truck who asked this time.

Emily shrugged. "If Fletch is out of town, he comes here. If not, he shows up at the PX."

"Fucker," Hollywood swore under his breath.

Emily jerked when she felt Fletch take one of her hands in his.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you. You don't have to worry about this anymore, Em. We'll take care of it. Here's the thing. We know who this guy is. He's a soldier on the base who's pissed that we made him and his squad look like a bunch of amateurs during a training mission."

"What? Really? Was it a competition?"

"No. Just a regular training thing the Army does. But he's taken it personally for some reason. He's got to be either mentally ill, or just an extreme asshole who doesn't like to lose."

"I bet he was a bully when he was growing up," Emily grumbled softly, but bitterly. "People like that don't just wake up one day and decide to be an asshole. He probably stole lunches from kids at school when he was little, and in high school he probably beat up nerds behind the bleachers."

Fletch didn't want to laugh, but Emily was so cute in her disgruntledness. She was also most likely correct. He didn't comment, so she continued.

"He said he was a sniper. That Annie wasn't safe, that he could find her, even at school."

Fletch's hands jerked in reaction at hearing the threat against Annie, but he didn't let go of her. "You've had a hard time of it, haven't you?"

His sympathy was almost her undoing. Emily felt tears in her eyes, but ruthlessly beat them back and didn't say anything.

"Here's what's going to happen," Fletch told her gently but resolutely. "Hollywood is going to go up to your place and get a few days' worth of clothes for you and Annie. I have a guest room you can move into, but I want you and your daughter here, in my house, where I know you'll be safe, and maybe more importantly, where you can feel safe. My team is going to take care of this for you."

"We can't stay with you!"

"Why not?"

" Because . It's not right."

"Em, this isn't the fourteenth century. No one is going to care."

She bit her lip in indecision.

"I'll keep you safe."

"He said he'd get Annie taken away. I don't want to do anything that might make me look bad in their eyes if he does call CPS because I told you about what was happening. I can't lose my daughter!"

"Look at me, Em." Fletch waited until she raised her eyes to his, then told her, "No one will take Annie away from you. You aren't doing anything wrong by moving into my house. There's been a threat against you and you're moving in so you can be protected. If he does follow through on that insane threat, the investigator will see that. I'll take care of you and Annie. And if he thinks he can get to you while you're under my protection, he really is insane."

When she didn't say anything, Fletch went on, trying to convince her. "You know I have an alarm. If anyone tries to break in, all my men will know about it and come roaring in here like they're storming the beaches of Normandy. No one will touch you or Annie. Not while I'm around to prevent it."

"I want to believe you."

Fletch turned to Truck and Hollywood, who had been quiet during his conversation with Emily, and gestured with his head to give them some space. They nodded and got up without a word.

Fletch scooted closer to Emily, his knees touching hers, and put one hand on the back of her neck, forcing her to meet his eyes. "I'm going to tell you something I've never told another woman before in my life. In fact, the only people who know this are the men you met today, and a couple others—the rest of my team, who you'll meet later. That asshole who was lying to you definitely doesn't know this, and if he did, he wouldn't be bothering you right now." Fletch paused, letting the seriousness of the moment sink in.

Finally, he told her, "Me and my friends are Delta Force."

Emily's eyebrows came down in a frown.

"You ever heard of Delta?"

"In the movies."

Fletch snorted. "Fucking actors. What it means to you is that we're the best of the best. Nothing gets past us. Nothing . There is no one who can protect you and Annie better than me and my team."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why would you?"

"Because you need it. Because the asshole who has been threatening you is doing it because he's jealous of us. Also, because Annie is the sweetest, cutest, most wonderful child I've ever met, and she should live a life full of new toys and as much food as her belly can hold. But mostly because when I look at you, I see a woman who has put her daughter first, no matter if that hurt her. A woman who would try and protect a man she thought had done her wrong. And if you aren't freaked out enough already, you should know that I'm also doing this because I want to get to know you better. You have no idea how destroyed I was when I thought that asshole was your boyfriend. I thought I'd lost my chance."

"Your chance?" Emily was confused. She liked what he'd said about Annie, but she didn't understand the look in his eyes. It was…interest. She wasn't so clueless as to not be able to recognize when a man found her attractive, but she was currently wearing a T-shirt three sizes too big and a pair of baggy shorts. She needed a shower, like yesterday, and she hadn't even been very nice to this man since she'd met him.

"My chance to win you."

"Is it a contest?"

"I don't know. I hope not. I have no idea where Annie's father is, but it's obvious he's not a part of her life, or yours. But wherever he is…he's an idiot for letting you both go. I like you, Emily. I like that you'd bend over backwards to give your daughter everything she needs in her life, even if it means you go without. I like that you've taught her to be careful. And I love watching you two interact. It's obvious she loves you very much and she's flourished in her short six years…and I know that's all because of you.

"You probably don't remember this, and I'm not bringing it up now to embarrass you, but last night you told me that you'd fantasized about me. Well, the feeling's mutual. You've been driving me crazy since the day you moved in. I have made love to you in my mind more than I'm comfortable admitting. But it's not just about sex. I want to take you out. I want to tuck Annie into her bed at night and read her a bedtime story. I want to sit across from you at the table and watch you smile at something I've said. In case I'm not making myself clear, I want to date you, Miracle Emily Grant. You and your daughter."

"Oh." Emily blushed a fiery red, but didn't comment further.

Fletch pulled back and gave her a little bit of room. "Oh? That's all you have to say?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"One more thing."

"Oh God."

"Nothing bad, promise. But please, when I say me and my team will take care of this for you, believe me."

"I want to."

"Good. So you believe that I had nothing to do with this asshole?"

Emily nodded. She didn't really have a choice but to believe him. He'd made his case very clear. When she'd thought he'd been talking about the man who was blackmailing her, he'd been talking about his Delta Force teammates all along.

The relief she felt must've shown in her eyes because Fletch nodded and remarked, "Yeah, you see it now. He won't come near you again. I can't wait to get to know both of you better."

"It's ready!" Annie's little voice rang out from the kitchen, breaking the intense connection they had going on.

The little girl ran into the room, sliding on the laminate floor. "Come on! Truck says everyone has to serve themselves…like a boo-fey."

"A buffet?" Fletch asked, catching Annie up in his arms.

"Yeah, that's what I said. Come on, Mommy! We even put cimamin on yours!"

"Cinnamon? Oooh, that sounds yummy, but I already ate, baby."

At the crestfallen look on her daughter's face, Emily quickly added, "But I'm sure I can eat at least one."

"Yay! Come on!"

Fletch stood with Annie and held out his hand to Emily. "Ready for your second breakfast?"

"I guess I am." Emily put her hand in Fletch's and marveled at how much lighter she felt, knowing she wouldn't have to come up with two hundred dollars this week.

Annie was safe…and being fed. The rest she'd figure out later. For now, she had a cinnamon waffle to eat.