Protected by a Hero

by Susan Stoker, Cristin Harber, Cora Seton, Lynn Raye Harris, Kaylea Cross, Katie Reus, Tessa Layne

  Emily had no health insurance and no retirement plan, but Annie was loved and happy. It was worth it. But to be offered a reliable, secure, and quiet place to live for only five hundred dollars a month? It was as if Emily had hit the lottery.

  Even before seeing the ad in the paper for this apartment, she’d planned on leaving the scummy place she lived in before the month was up, even if she had to live in her car. She’d done that when she’d been pregnant, and had sworn to herself that Annie would never know that kind of life. But Emily had been losing hope of finding anything appropriate.

  The cheapest apartment she’d been able to find had been eight hundred a month, and it looked scarier than where she was now. Since the building was close to the Army base, Emily had thought she’d feel safe living with other soldiers, as the landlord had told her most of the other occupants were single men and women who worked at Fort Hood, but unfortunately, that hadn’t been the case.

  Annie’s father had taught her in more ways than one that just because someone was a soldier, it didn’t mean they were a good person. While she’d thought they were starting their lives together, he’d apparently just been in it to get laid. Somehow he’d arranged to get transferred to another base not too long after she’d happily told him she was pregnant with his baby, and informed her that he didn’t want her following him.

  Emily knew she could probably go to the Army and do a paternity test and force him to pay child support, but she didn’t want that for Annie, or herself. Years of relying on someone else to send her money made her stomach churn.

  She and Annie had been okay so far, and Emily knew she’d continue to do whatever it took to keep her daughter safe and happy…without help.

  Nodding at Emily, Fletch stood up. “All right, let’s go and check it out, then if you like it, we can come back here and do the paperwork, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  Ten short minutes later they were back at the dining room table in Fletch’s house. Emily had immediately said the small space was perfect, even though Fletch told her there were all sorts of things he should probably do to upgrade it.

  “I’ll need to make a copy of your ID,” Fletch told Emily, being as nonchalant as he could. He didn’t really need it for her to sign the lease, but there was no way he’d let anyone live on his property, no matter how fragile and lovely she seemed, without doing a background check. It wasn’t completely legal, but his friend, Tex, was discreet and could have it done within an hour.

  Tex was a medically retired SEAL living out in Pennsylvania. He used to live in Virginia, but had moved his entire operation after meeting a beautiful woman named Melody on the Internet. Tex was the eyes and ears behind the scenes for their Delta Force team, and several other Special Forces groups. The man was pure genius with a computer and could find information that someone would swear was locked up tighter than the money at Fort Knox. No one ever questioned how he was able to pull off some of the things he did, they were just grateful he was on their side.

  Fletch watched as Emily bent her head and pulled her wallet out of her purse. She handed her license over to him, saying, “If you laugh at my first name, I’ll have to hurt you.”

  Emily watched as Fletch looked down at the small plastic card she’d handed him and he tried to hold back his smile. His lips twitched, but he looked up and said with a mostly straight face, “Miracle?”

  Emily sighed, obviously used to telling the story about her given name. “Yeah. My parents were older. They’d always wanted kids and when I was born, they called me their little miracle.”

  “But you go by Emily?”

  She nodded. “Yeah. Definitely.”

  “Miracle is a pretty name.”

  Emily made a face. “Maybe, but memories of being made fun of throughout my elementary and middle school years made it not so pretty after a while.”

  “Kids are cruel.”

  “Yup.”

  “Your parents still around?”

  Emily didn’t really want to get into this with Fletch. He was still a stranger after all—but she didn’t want to be rude either. “Unfortunately, no. They died when I was in college.”

  “Tough.”

  That was the understatement of the year, but she merely said, “Yeah.”

  Fletch carried Emily’s driver’s license to the small printer he had off to the side of the living room and made a copy.

  “So, you’re not married?” Emily asked, deciding if he could be nosy, so could she.

  “Nope.”

  Emily waited and when he didn’t elaborate, she pushed. “This place looks like you’re married.”

  Fletch barked out a laugh. “It does, doesn’t it? I actually hired someone to decorate it. I didn’t give her much assistance, and this is what I got when she was done.”

  “She did a good job,” Emily observed, looking around.

  “Yeah. Apparently it’s fun to spend someone else’s money.”

  Emily didn’t smile, but continued to run her eyes over every inch of the room she could see. “I bet it is.”

  Fletch leaned against the wall next to the printer and watched Emily check out his house. He wondered what she saw. He looked around to try to see it from her eyes. He had two leather couches that looked stiff and formal, but when you sat in them, you melted into the cushions. He had a large flat-screen television on the wall and a coffee table that looked perfectly normal, but had a secret compartment under it that currently held a Sig Sauer 40 caliber handgun. He was always prepared for the unknown. But thinking about the various weapons lying around the house made him realize that he needed to make certain they were all secure. If there was going to be a child in his house he wanted to be sure to protect her.

  Not that her daughter would be hanging out with him, but if she came over with her mom to bring in the mail, the last thing he wanted was for her to find one of his weapons and accidentally set it off. He shuddered at the thought, and vowed to move them all way above kid level as soon as Emily left.

  There was a pair of boots lying on the floor next to one of the couches; he’d left them there the day before when he’d gotten back from the base. Other than that, everything else was in its place and there were no stray papers or magazines or any kind of “stuff” that could be seen.

  “I’m a bit of a neat freak,” Fletch told Emily unnecessarily as he came back to the table to sit next to her.

  “Yeah, I can see that,” she laughed, turning her eyes back to him. “But it’s nice. She did a good job. It’s formal without being fancy. Comfortable without being stuffy. I hope you don’t expect mine to look like this,” she teased. “Annie and I are not neat freaks.”

  Fletch laughed and handed her license back to her. “No, I don’t give a shit what your place looks like, as long as there aren’t mice and cockroaches.”

  Emily shuddered. “Oh no. We might not be neat, but we’re clean.”

  “Then we’re good.”

  They smiled at each other. Fletch pushed the lease papers over to her. “Take these home. Read them over, get them looked at by a lawyer if you want, but I want to make sure you completely understand everything and agree before you sign.”

  Emily looked at him in confusion. “Did you hide anything weird in here?”

  “Weird?”

  “Yeah, weird.”

  “Weird how?” Fletch asked.

  “I don’t know. Like my car only gets four-point-two feet of space in the garage and if I violate it, I’m out. Or weird like if you see Annie after four in the afternoon, I owe more on the rent, or weird like if I’m late one day on giving you the rent money, I’m gone.”

  Fletch started out smiling at her, but was frowning by the end of her comments. “Fuck no. Look, Emily, I’m a lot of things, but I’m not an asshole. If you’re having issues paying the rent, just talk to me and we’ll figure something out. I already told you that I don’t care if your daughter is around. I might get upset if she plays with something inappropriate in the gar
age, but only because it could hurt her, not because I care about anything out there. It’s all just stuff. Stuff that can be replaced. The lease is a simple one, I printed it off the Internet. There’s nothing weird in there.”

  “Okay. Thank you.” Emily’s voice was low, but she didn’t break eye contact. “I just wanted to be sure.”

  “Good. Look it over, make sure it’s amenable to you. Bring it back and you can move in whenever you’re ready. Today’s the twentieth, if you want to move in before the first, feel free. I won’t charge you for this month, consider it a gift.” Fletch narrowed his eyes. “If someone is giving Annie a hard time for asking questions, I’m okay with you getting out of there and moving in here now. No kid should have to feel bad for being herself.”

  “Again, thank you.” Emily had no idea how she’d gotten so lucky, but she’d never been so glad in all her life that she’d seen the ad in the paper about the apartment. She’d been actively looking, and had found the Sunday paper in the recycle bin behind her current apartment. She usually looked over the paper when she was at the PX, but since she wasn’t working that Sunday, she’d grabbed it from the recyclables.

  “Can I drop this by after work tomorrow?” Emily wanted to have her boss look it over. She couldn’t afford to take it to a lawyer, but Jimmy liked her and he’d be able to tell her if she’d missed anything.

  “Of course. I’ll leave a key under the mat by the stairs that go up to the apartment.”

  “Uh, you know that’s the first place burglars would look for a spare key, don’t you?”

  Fletch barked out a laugh. If someone did manage to somehow get on to his property undetected, his face would be recorded from so many different angles, he’d be caught before he could get too far away. “I think it’ll be okay for a day or so, Em.”

  Emily smiled shyly at Fletch, teasing him. “Okay, but if I come back and someone has stolen the couch up there, I’ll expect you to replace it.”

  “Deal.” Fletch smiled back. Maybe having another renter wouldn’t be so bad after all. After the last one he’d thought long and hard about trying again. Fletch would make sure Tex got the background check done on one Miracle Emily Grant before she returned the signed lease the next day. It’d be child’s play for the man.

  Fletch would sign it after making sure she was everything she seemed to be. He didn’t think he had anything to worry about. The woman seemed open and honest, and relieved to have a place for her and her daughter to live, even if it was a small, barely furnished hole in the wall.

  Being safe trumped material things, and he understood that in a way not a lot of other men would. He’d seen too much in his ten years in the Army, and five years in Delta Force. People would lie, cheat, steal, and kill to feel safe. He’d seen it over and over. Mothers who did whatever the local terrorists and bullies ordered them to, simply to protect their children. Kids who joined gangs, just to feed their families. The horrors of the world went on and on.

  But Fletch could tell that the woman sitting in front of him now was a completely different person than the one he’d invited into his home thirty minutes ago. She was more relaxed and at ease, whereas before she was tense, cautious, and suspicious. Simply because she’d been offered a safe place to live for her and her daughter.

  Fletch liked that he could give that to her. It felt good. He’d helped too many people to count in his lifetime, but he could feel the relief emanating from the woman all the way to his gut. “Go tell Annie she has a new home and I’ll see you when I see you. Yeah?”

  Emily nodded. “Yeah.”

  They stood up and Fletch walked her to his door. He stood in the entryway with one arm braced on the doorjamb and watched as Emily walked toward her car. She stopped when she was halfway there and turned to him. “Thank you, Fletch. I know you’re totally giving me a break on the security deposit and rent, and I appreciate it. I’ll do what I can to help around here, you just need to let me know what you want me to do. I can rake, mow, sweep and—not that it looks like you need any help—I can even clean your house if you wanted me to.”

  “You’re welcome, Emily. But I didn’t hire you to be my maid or groundskeeper. I’m actually getting as much out of this arrangement as you are. I have a responsible tenant living on my property who isn’t interested in robbing me blind or throwing crazy parties. It’s a win-win situation. I’ll see you later.”

  Fletch mentally rolled his eyes at her offer. It was sweet, but there was no way he’d ask her to do manual labor. She could look after his house when he was on a mission, but other than that, there wasn’t much needing to be done that he couldn’t do himself.

  “Okay. See you later.”

  Fletch closed his front door and heard her car start up, complete with the muffler backfiring. After turning on the security monitor, he watched as her car backed out of his driveway and disappeared onto the road next to his house. He picked up the piece of paper with Emily’s information on it and called Tex. He was ninety-nine-point-nine percent sure Emily was just who she said she was, and what she looked like—a woman who was down on her luck and wanted a quiet place for her and her daughter to live.

  Suddenly, he was looking forward to meeting her daughter. From the little bit Emily had said, she sounded precocious and fun. Fletch hadn’t ever really thought about having children, or even been around many, but it occurred to him that it might be fun to teach a child things like how a garage door opener worked.

  As far as he was concerned, the sooner Emily and Annie moved in, the better he’d feel. They’d be safe in the small apartment above his garage. He’d make sure of it.

  * * *

  Get the next book in the Delta Force Heroes Series, Rescuing Emily NOW! :)

  BLACK DAWN

  Cristin Harber

  PROLOGUE

  Matt Pindon threw back another shot. Only live once. Yup. That was his motto for the weekend. Hell, for his life. He and his boys were kicked back, shouting at the ladies and throwing a party for one of their buddies’ farewell to bachelor-dom. It was all good.

  He stood and swayed, trying to remember if he’d eaten the meal he’d ordered at the bar earlier or if somewhere in this place sat a lonely burger and fries. He faltered when leaning to look for the food, thought better of it, then slid back on his barstool. Screw food anyway. It’d just kill his buzz.

  “Matt, man, you gotta make it through tonight.” Parker shook his head, drinking a beer. “Enough, maybe?”

  Matt slapped him on the back. Parker Black was a solid dude, one of his best buds. They had nothing in common anymore but could still sit around, share some war stories—though Parker’s were often classified, the asshole—and drink a good drink to have a good time. It worked out.

  “Enough? Nope. Matter of fact”—he ran his numb tongue over the roof of his mouth, his gauge for just how plastered he was—“I need another beer.” Life was too good to him. He knew it. Owned. Played it. Another drink, another broad. It was all a game, and he lived to win. The odds were in his favor almost every time, so who was he to complain? He threw his arm up, flagging down the bartender. “Hey, another round.”

  Parker shook his head again as he’d done so many times before. That shit grated on Matt’s nerves, but they were boys from the beginning. They came from nothing and nowhere together. Parker more than Matt, so as much as Matt needed Parker, he thought that Parker needed him too. He was Parker’s family. And that meant Matt wouldn’t tell Parker to quit the responsible guy routine.

  The bartender arrived with a beer and a rag, wiping up and switching out the old for new. Matt grabbed the longneck and slugged half of it back.

  “Seriously, man, you doing okay?” Parker asked.

  “Always.” No way would Matt ’fess that he’d been fired—again—from another security job. If he didn’t watch his ass, he’d be slinging a Taser at the mall to catch shoplifters. Then again, if his fuckin’ douchebag bosses ever opened their damn eyes and saw that he had other shit going on, t
hey might not make the mistake of firing him.

  “Right.” Parker chuckled as though he didn’t believe him. “I’m out. Got a work thing I have to hit up sometime tonight.”

  “See ya.” They bumped fists, and his buddy walked away.

  That was Parker. Always working. The guy could’ve done half the crazy shit Matt had in high school, but he’d worked on breaking the mold for geeky nerd guys by clocking gym time. Then he could’ve done the real world alongside Matt, but nope, Parker chose a paid ride to a fancy college. And shit, now the dude was at a bachelor party and dipping out of a bar to work. What the hell?

  Matt didn’t get it. Didn’t want to get it. What he wanted was a motherfuckin’ blow job from a pretty girl, to do another shot with his boys—where were they anyway?—then he wanted to pass out in his hotel room.

  “Hey, is anyone sitting here?”

  Matt shifted on his barstool and saw gorgeous. She was the kind of cool that rocked his world. Beautiful with a style that screamed sexy and confident, and that kind of scream he wanted in his bed tonight. Blond hair that was a shade darker than platinum and blue eyes that shone so light and bright in a bar of fussed-up, boozed-up women. This woman was out of his league, and that kind of challenge was a rarity. Hell, challenge accepted.

  “Seat just freed up.” He could throw down a line. Could try for something she hadn’t heard before, but she was the best of what New York City had to offer. Maybe she was a model. An actress? “How’s the night treating you?”

  She smiled, took the seat, and paid no attention to him. Still, he didn’t feel a hard-to-get vibe. Nor did he get the too-good-for-you attitude. He got… nothing. She was just there, waiting to order a drink. How about that?