Chapter 18

Emily smiled as Annie babbled in the backseat on their way home from school. It had been an amazing month. Not only were she and Fletch getting along—well, more than getting along, if she was honest with herself—Annie was blossoming under the attention of not only Fletch, but his teammates as well.

They did have to get creative in order to spend time with each other. Emily still wasn't completely comfortable having sex with Annie in the house, but since her daughter slept like a log, she was feeling more at ease with each day that passed.

Emily had fallen hard and fast for Fletch. He seemed just as happy lying in bed with her, cuddling, as he was making love. He didn't push if she was feeling uneasy, but the times they had made love were unforgettable.

Emily had woken up one night, she wasn't sure why, but she hadn't been able to resist waking Fletch by sucking him off. Within minutes, he'd been pounding into her from behind while she muffled her moans in her pillow. He was creative and giving, and Emily couldn't be happier with how their relationship was progressing, both physically and in general.

It wasn't often she and Annie were alone in the house. If Fletch couldn't be there for some reason, he'd send one of his teammates over to be with them. The other men had spent quite a bit of time listening to Annie talk about what she was learning in school, or reading to her. For some reason, she loved it when one of the guys would read out loud to her. Emily would've been jealous, but, if she was honest with herself, she loved hearing their deep voices as they "acted" out the scenes in the books they were reading.

After they'd read a chapter in Nancy Drew, Annie would want to discuss it. The guys had been very patient in letting her talk out what Nancy had done, and what maybe she should've done to keep herself out of trouble. Everything spy and self-defense seemed to fascinate the little girl. Emily might have been worried, except the guys had all kept what they'd taught her age-appropriate.

It was all very touching for Emily, since Annie had never had any kind of long-term positive interaction with men in her life. There had been too many people like Jacks and her former landlord.

Peeking in on Annie one night and seeing her sitting on her little bed with Truck had almost made her lose it. Truck was way too big for the little girl's bed, but he didn't seem to care. Annie was lying next to him, watching the book as he read, but her arm was across his broad chest and her hand was resting on his cheek. She was unconsciously rubbing his scar with her small thumb, as if trying to soothe him. Emily had backed away from the room, leaving the two alone, before she could burst into tears and embarrass Truck, and herself.

Rayne was also a very nice surprise. Whenever Ghost came over to the house, Rayne came too. She was down-to-earth and funny, and Emily could see them becoming very good friends in the future…at least she hoped they would. She hadn't seen Mary since the time she and Rayne had looked after Annie, but Rayne promised to bring her over again soon.

All in all, Emily was very happy. She hadn't planned on living with Fletch indefinitely, but she felt safe and content in his house, and especially in his bed.

They were almost home, and Emily couldn't wait to see what Fletch thought of the picture Annie drew for him. The little girl had shown it to her the moment she'd gotten into the car. It was of a crudely drawn man hiding in some bushes. Under it, Annie had written, "Daddy Fletch." Emily knew Fletch would love it. He said he was hoping to get off work early today and should be home by the time she and Annie got there.

"…and then Mrs. O said it was time for math, and Crissy cried. She actually cried because she didn't like math! I said I'd help her, but—"

Annie's words were cut off abruptly when a car, seemingly out of nowhere, slammed into them from behind.

Emily felt herself being flung forward, and the sound of her head thunking against the steering wheel as the other car made contact with her bumper was sickening. The seatbelt did its thing, but not soon enough for her to not whack her head against the wheel.

After taking a few moments to gather her wits, Emily's first thought was for Annie. The little girl had screamed when they were hit, but hadn't made a sound since.

The sound of a window breaking made her spin around in her seat to look back at Annie to make sure she was all right—and she couldn't believe what she was seeing.

A man she'd never seen before, dressed all in camouflage, literally from head to toe, had reached through the broken window he'd just smashed toward Annie, and was holding a white cloth over her nose and mouth. With his other hand, he was unbuckling her seatbelt, clearly intending to lift her out of her seat.

Annie's eyes were huge, and her fingers were trying to pry the man's hand away from her face, with no luck.

Emily thought about slamming on the gas, but quickly dismissed the idea, not wanting to risk the man dropping Annie onto the ground as she sped away. She fumbled with her seatbelt and opened her mouth to scream bloody murder, when a hand came in from her left and covered her own face with a cloth.

She struggled against the tight hold and her gaze lifted to see Jacks, also dressed in camo, standing by her door.

"Don't fight it, bitch."

His words seemed to come from far away, but Emily didn't listen. Like hell she wouldn't fight. She struggled against his hold but slowly, whatever was on the material did its job, and she lost the battle against consciousness. Her last thought was for her daughter.

Fletch put a couple of slices of apple on a plate for Annie, as he did every afternoon that he beat Emily and Annie home, which unfortunately wasn't often. They usually arrived a little after three, and most of the time he wasn't done on base until at least five-thirty. But today, after he and Ghost spoke with the colonel about the situation with Jacks and the infantry squad, the colonel told them to take the rest of the day off.

It seemed that even though Jacks was being processed out of the Army for his asinine blackmailing scheme, he wasn't letting the matter drop. He continued his junior high school games of taunting Fletch and the team with vague threats, and even following the members of the team home every now and then. He wasn't doing anything illegal, per se, but Ghost made sure everyone reported every single incident.

They couldn't prove that Jacks was working with some of the other soldiers in his squad, but it was likely. He'd probably convinced them it was some sort of game and they'd all just gone along with it because they thought it wasn't real.

The colonel was getting sick of dealing with the bullshit as well, and had escalated the feud to the general in charge of the post. The best case scenario was that all of the soldiers involved in the petty jealousy shit, whether they were doing it out of maliciousness or as practical jokes, would get moved to another post, the worst was that all they'd get was a note on their officer or noncommisoned officer evaluation that they didn't play well with others, which could derail their promotions for quite a while.

Neither was acceptable to Fletch. Jacks had scared Emily. He'd caused her to not eat , for Christ's sake, because she didn't have enough money to buy food. He'd threatened to take a six-year-old little girl away from her mother. Jacks and his friends had made Fletch lose out on months of being with Emily—and that sucked most of all. When he thought about how he could've had her in his bed, and Annie in her room down the hall all along, he got pissed.

Fletch still hated that he'd thought Jacks was her boyfriend, when in reality the man was terrorizing Emily right under his nose. That was on him. He'd never assume anything when it came to her again. He'd ask her right out.

Looking at his watch, Fletch realized for the first time that Emily was late. He could almost set his clock by her. He vaguely wondered if something had held her up at work or at Annie's school. His phone rang just as he'd closed the refrigerator after putting the apples back inside.

"Fletch here."

"Is Emily all right?" Coach asked in an urgent tone.

"What do you mean?" Fletch asked.

"I'm by your driveway and Emily's car is sitting here, pushed off the road into the dirt on the other side of the shoulder, her door open, the back smashed in."

Fletch was on the move before Coach had finished speaking. He didn't know why his teammate was on his street in the first place, but ultimately it didn't matter. "Em's not there? What about Annie?"

"No, man. There's no one. I looked around the trees a bit and didn't see them."

"I'll be there in three." Fletch clicked off his phone and raced out his front door, for once without bothering to reset his alarm. He ran full speed past the garage apartment and toward the street. He paused at the end of the driveway to see which way he needed to go, and turned right after seeing Emily's old Honda next to Coach's pickup.

Fletch tried to take in the scene as he ran up to the car. The driver's side door was open. Without touching anything, he looked inside. Em's purse was on the floor of the passenger side, as if it had been flung there by the impact of whoever had hit her. He looked down and saw a set of footprints in the dirt. The car had been pushed all the way off the road so it mostly came to rest in the dirt. The prints came up to the door, then led away again. One set. Fletch clenched his teeth at the implications.

He walked around the front of the car and to the other side. The back passenger side door was still closed, but the window was broken. Annie's seatbelt was unbuckled and glass lay on the seat as well as the dirt by the door. Again, there was only one set of prints in the dirt leading up to the car and then back the way they'd came.

But there was a piece of paper folded up and lying on Annie's booster seat.

"Gloves."

Fletch barely spared Coach a look as he held out his hand to his friend, taking the black leather gloves Coach held out to him. He pulled them on as fast as he could and reached for the paper.

Rematch.

Our city.

Old Home Rd.

9pm.

Mission: rescue the hostages.

Fletch wanted to kill those motherfuckers.

The likely scenario was that Jacks had drugged Em and Annie and was using them as bait for his sick game. That would be the only reason they were nowhere to be seen, and only one set of footprints led up to each side and away from their car. They certainly didn't disappear into thin air.

It was utterly outrageous that Jacks and his friends were taking this as far as they were. But they'd made a mistake. Fletch didn't know what "their city" was, but it didn't matter. The team had six hours to get their game plan set.

He just hoped like hell those assholes didn't hurt Emily and Annie in the meantime.

Unfortunately, Fletch knew he needed to bring the colonel in on this one. It was bigger than him. The Army couldn't have soldiers going rogue on each other. And he needed the legitimacy that the commander would give the mission.

And he knew without a doubt, this was a mission.

Rescue the hostages.

If he'd hurt one hair on either Emily or Annie's heads, Jacks was a dead man.

That's why they needed the colonel. Fletch knew Jacks wanted to ruin his career, but the Army wasn't going to go lightly with kidnapping on top of blackmail. The Deltas had the might of the US Army behind them on this one, and Fletch knew it.

He looked up at Coach. Their eyes met and the other man nodded once. They both knew this would end with the careers of the men involved being ruined, but neither gave a fuck. No one messed with the Deltas…or those they loved.

"I need to change," Fletch told his friend in a surprisingly normal tone.

"I'll meet you at the house," Coach assured him. "I'm going to take a few pictures first. I'll be right there." He already had his phone out and was documenting what he'd found.

Fletch didn't bother to nod, he simply turned around and ran back the way he'd came, his mind going a million miles an hour with what needed to be done.

As he raced back to the house, flashes of Annie's face as she left that morning tore through his brain. He'd kneeled down as usual to hug her goodbye and she'd put her little hands on his face and leaned into him.

"I love you, Fletch." Her words were whispered, and she had looked scared to death. Typical Annie, however; like her mom, she didn't hold back the words even if they scared her.

"I love you too, Annie. Very much."

The smile she'd gifted him with spread across her face and had warmed him from the inside out.

"I'll see you when you get home today, squirt."

"Okay, Fletch. Have a good day!"

He'd smiled at the little girl as she'd skipped out of his house. He stood and looked at Emily. The tears shining in her eyes said more than words ever could. He'd taken the three steps to her and wrapped her in his arms. The words came from his soul.

"All my life I've been about serving my country and being there for my teammates. I never thought the true meaning of my existence would come up to my door and knock all those months ago. Thank you for trusting me with Annie. Thank you for giving me a chance. Thank you for trusting me ."

Emily had eased out of his hold and looked up at him. "I still think we should be thanking you." It was now a running joke about who should thank who.

"No way. If I hadn't snatched you guys up, some other guy would've stepped in there, and I wouldn't know this deep satisfaction that you belong to me."

Emily had merely shook her head in exasperation, not realizing he was one hundred percent serious. "You're the best thing that ever happened to Annie."

"And you?"

"And me. I love you, Cormac. We'll see you after work and school."

Fletch pushed the memories from that morning aside, trying to concentrate on what was ahead. He opened the door to the house and headed to his bedroom for his fighting clothes, but as much as he wanted to block out his memories, he couldn't. He thought back to the kiss he'd given Emily when she'd left that morning. It was supposed to be short and sweet, but with her words of love echoing in his brain, they had a mini make-out session in his doorway. It had taken Annie honking the horn impatiently to break them apart.

"Drive safely. I'll get home as soon as I can tonight. If I'm lucky, it'll be a slow day and I can get out of there early."

"Yay."

"Go on, you know Annie hates to be late."

"Whose fault is that?" she'd said as she backed away toward her car.

"Love you."

Her face had softened. "Love you too."

As Fletch pulled on a pair of black cargo pants and a black T-shirt, his lips pressed together in fury. Emily and Annie had to be scared to death. Jacks and his minions would pay.

No one fucked with his family. No one.