by Susan Stoker
“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.
Chapter 18
“I’m scared, Mommy.” Annie’s voice wobbled with the words.
“I know, baby. Me too. But you know what?”
“What?”
“Fletch will find us.” As soon as Emily said the words out loud, she felt better. She had absolutely no doubt whatsoever that Fletch and his teammates would find them.
She had no idea how much time had gone by since they’d been taken from the car, as someone had removed her watch, but it didn’t matter. As soon as Fletch knew they were missing, he’d be on the warpath to find her.
Jacks. She’d recognized him when he’d reached for her at her car. Fletch had sat her down one evening after Annie went to bed and laid the entire situation out for her.
Making her pay him every week was just the tip of the iceberg in Jacks’s “harass Fletch” campaign. Even being kicked out of the Army wasn’t enough to make him stop. He wanted revenge against Fletch and his teammates for embarrassing him, and he obviously would go to any lengths to get what he wanted.
Annie snuggled down into her mom’s arms and Emily looked around. It was impossible to tell where they were, but it seemed they were inside some sort of metal box. They’d woken up alone, with only a lantern burning in the corner to illuminate the area. There wasn’t any furniture, just the two of them and the small light.
It was a bit too much like a coffin for Emily’s peace of mind. But they couldn’t just sit around and cry.
“Come on, Annie. We need to explore.”
“Explore?”
“Yeah. We’ve been reading Nancy Drew and GI Joe books for a while now. We need information.”
Annie perked up on her mom’s lap. “Yeah, good idea. Truck told me a story the other night.”
“He did?”
“Yep.”
“What was it about?”
“He told me about a time him and his team were captured by the enemy. They were stuck, but Fletch was the one who found a way out. They all had to slither out through a tiny hole. Truck almost got stuck ‘cause he’s so big, but he squirmed and wiggled and finally he popped out. You know what else?”
“What, baby?”
“All his friends were waiting for him. They didn’t run away, when they could’ve. They waited for Truck to get out too. He said that’s what friends do.”
Emily’s heart swelled. She knew the story was probably a lot more harrowing than Truck had told her daughter, but she appreciated anything that could get Annie out of her own head.
“Well, if they could do it, we can too.” Emily wasn’t sure that was true, but it would keep Annie busy and not thinking about how scared she was. She helped her daughter stand up, then got herself up and off the ground as well. Emily held out the lantern with one hand and held on to Annie with the other. “Come on, Miss Annie Drew. Let’s find out exactly what we’re dealing with here.”
The giggle that escaped her daughter’s mouth was sweet sounding indeed, but didn’t do anything to loosen the ball of dread that sat in Emily’s tummy. They were in big trouble, and she hoped Fletch and the others would find them sooner rather than later. There was no telling what Jacks had in mind for his captives. Emily was terrified to find out.
* * *
Fletch glanced at his watch. Seven twenty-two. Time was going by too quickly, and they didn’t have the information they needed yet. It was maddening and frustrating. “Fuck this. Call Tex,” he ordered. “We can’t use Google Maps to scope out Old Home Road. The data is too old. We need current satellite data to see what those fucktards have set up and planned. I’m not going into this blind.”
Ghost nodded in agreement, but didn’t move. “Contacted him before we came in. I’m expecting him to call any moment.”
Fletch nodded and stood up to pace the room. He tried to keep his mind on the upcoming mission, but couldn’t help thinking about how Emily and Annie were probably feeling. They’d be frightened and worried, and he hoped Jacks would be smart and not hurt them.
It suddenly didn’t matter if he hadn’t physically hurt either one of them. He’d probably drugged them. Scared them. It was enough. Jacks was going to die.
As if he could read Fletch’s mind, the colonel growled, “I know y’all are pissed. I don’t blame you, I’m just as upset about this as you are. But under no circumstances will this become an incident if I can help it. Nonlethal ammunition only.”
“Fuck that!” Hollywood exclaimed before Fletch could open his mouth. “These guys are serious, there’s no way we won’t have live rounds if we go in there. You know they will most likely have real bullets.”
“There’s no way I’ll allow you to be armed with live rounds,” the colonel countered immediately. “Look, we all know you’re gonna kick their asses. The end of this is a foregone conclusion. I have no idea what these asswipes think they’re doing; they must’ve been given trophies every time they lost a little league game. They obviously think they’re fucking Olympic champions or something. But the bottom line is that they’re gonna lose. But in order to prevent the President of the United States from having to go on air and try to explain how one team of US soldiers killed another team of US soldiers, this is how it’s gonna go down.”
The colonel didn’t seem to care that he had seven pairs of irate eyes on him. He’d been around the men long enough that he knew them to the core. They were upset and angry, but they were never out of control. Ever. It’s what made them such good special forces soldiers. The best of the best. The kind of men he’d want to come and find him if he was ever kidnapped.
He continued as if he hadn’t been interrupted. “I know you’re pissed, and I don’t blame you, but I talked to the captain in charge of Jacks’s squad. He said the men he works with are stand-up good guys. He claims that there’s no way they’d purposely put any woman or child—or even fellow soldiers—in danger. He thinks, and I agree, that Jacks has been lying out his ass to them to get them to do what he wants. You know as well as I do that rubber bullets can be just as effective as real o
nes. Hell, you guys can use your hands just as effectively as a bullet.”
“I’m not willing to risk Emily or Annie’s life on a hunch,” Fletch insisted in a low, hard voice. “Whether the infantrymen out there know anything about civilians being involved in this clusterfuck is a moot point. They are involved and I won’t risk one hair being harmed on either Emily or Annie’s head because of Jacks and his insane sense of retribution against me or my team.”
Ghost’s phone vibrated, and everyone in the room looked over at him as he answered it.
“Ghost. Hang on, putting you on speaker.” Ghost clicked a button and placed the phone on the table in the conference room. “Okay, you’re on.”
The voice that rang out through the speaker wasn’t the masculine, southern-accented voice everyone was expecting. It was female, and the owner jumped right into what she wanted to say without bothering to waste time on pleasantries.
“So I checked out the address you gave Tex and it looks like there’s been a lot going on there over the last month or so.”
“Who are you?” Fletch interjected before she could continue.
Everyone heard the woman sigh before she huffed, “I’m Beth. And before you bitch about me not being Tex, you should know he put me on this because his wife fell down a flight of stairs. She’s fine, but he’s taking her to the emergency room to make sure. Now, if you’ll let me continue, I’ll tell you what you need to know to get Emily and her daughter out of their situation.”
“Fuck,” Fletch swore violently. “Excuse my French, but I don’t know you. I know Tex. I need his expertise. We’ve only got an hour and a half and don’t have time to deal with this.”
“Guess what, Ranger Rick?” the woman on the phone broke in, sounding just as upset as Fletch. “You got me. Tex knows how important this is to you, that’s why he called while he was on the way to the hospital with the love of his life and begged me to shut this shit down. If you’d close your hole for one second, I’ll give you the information you need to find Jacks and his fucking minions and to get that woman and kid out of the middle of a massive clusterfuck and back home where they belong.”
There was silence in the room for a heartbeat, before Coach chuckled. “She’s got you there,” he noted, smirking.
“Go on,” Fletch demanded unapologetically.
“Well, thank you, your highness,” the woman griped, but then went on as if she hadn’t been interrupted and insulted. “As I was saying, it looks as though these assholes have built themselves an entire city made out of freight containers, you know, the ones they pile high on ships—”
“We know what freight containers are,” Fletch barked, knowing he was being an asshole, but not able to stop himself.
“You got pictures?” Beatle demanded impatiently.
“Do I have pictures?” Beth asked rhetorically. The team’s phones started vibrating one by one, as if on cue. “You’ve all just received the photos that I took from the satellite. I don’t know how in the hell they got their hands on as many of those damn containers as they did, but it’s a moot point right now. They’ve done a good job setting up a defensive position, but there are several obvious holes. They must not’ve been able to recruit enough buddies to cover the entire thing. All the more lucky for you.
“The northwest and the southeast are where it looks like they’re expecting you to breach their little town. They’ve left them relatively open for you and are most likely lying in wait for you there. Along the north side, they’ve put concertina wire, thinking that would force you into the town where they want you to enter, but they’re idiots, so of course that’s what they’d think.”
Fletch’s respect for the woman on the other end of the line increased as he examined the pictures she’d sent and she continued to break down the town Jacks and his friends had built. She was right on every single item. She really didn’t need to point any of it out to the Delta Force soldiers, but no one interrupted her, as they were all making their own mental plans.
“Now, I’m not one hundred percent sure where Emily and Annie are in this fucked-up scenario. The satellite didn’t catch Jacks arriving with them, but I’m thinking they stashed them right in the middle. See the three containers stacked up? I’m betting they think if you guys have to come all the way into the center of their town, they’ll have a better chance at coming up behind your six and taking you out. From what I can tell, they aren’t planning on playing fair.”
“We didn’t think they would,” the colonel clipped out.
“Of course not. Anyway, I’m sure I’m not telling you anything you haven’t already figured out. Just don’t give them a reason to grab the girls and use them against you.”
Fletch had thought the same thing, but hearing it out loud made his blood boil all over again. The thought of Emily or Annie being used as a human shield almost made him lose his cool.
“Thank you, Beth. Not sure who you are or how you know Tex—”
“I work for him. He hacked into my computer and recruited me. I’m friends with Penelope Turner.”
Ghost had obviously not been expecting an explanation, and it wasn’t much of one, but it made as much sense as anything else did when it came to Tex. “Tell him we hope Melody is okay. And say hey to Tiger for us, and thanks for the intel.”
“I will. Thank you for not calling her the Army Princess. She hates that stupid name. And you’re welcome. Get those fuckers. It’s a sad day when we can’t trust our own soldiers anymore.”
“You can trust us,” Fletch told her in a serious voice. “These guys don’t even deserve to be called soldiers.”
“Amen to that. Go be the quiet professionals we all know you are. Over and out.”
There was silence in the room for a beat, before Ghost snorted out a laugh after hearing the unofficial Delta Force slogan come out of Beth’s mouth. “Figures she knows we’re Delta when no one on this base does. Tex knows how to pick ’em.” Then he got serious. “Okay, we’ve got the intel we need. The colonel says we can’t kill the fuckwads, so let’s plan this.”
The seven teammates, and the colonel himself, sat down at the table, pictures in hand, paper in front of them, ready to figure out how to not only safely extricate Emily and Annie, but how to shut down Jacks and his crew once and for all.
* * *
“Mommy, look. The metal is flaking in this corner.” Annie’s voice was soft and excited. She’d taken her job seriously, examining every inch of the shipping container they were being held prisoner in.
Emily stood behind her daughter and kneeled down. She reached out and ran her hand over the rusted metal. Annie was right. “Stand back a sec, baby.” Annie did as she requested and gave her mom some room.
She pulled hard on one of the chinks of flaking metal, and let out an “oof” when she fell backwards on her butt. Looking down at her hand, Emily saw she’d taken a chunk of the wall with her. “Turn off the light!” Emily said urgently, breathing a sigh of relief when Annie immediately did as she’d asked.
“You did it, Annie!” Emily told her daughter. “The metal is weak over here. If we can get enough of it off, maybe we can squeeze out. But we need to keep the light off as much as possible. We don’t want to announce our plans to anyone who might be able to see. It’s dark outside, we’ve been here for a while.”
As a measure of how mature Annie could be sometimes, she merely said, “Long enough for Fletch to find us?”
Emily stopped yanking at the rusty side of the box and pulled Annie into her arms. Then she took Annie’s head in her hands, much as the young girl had done that morning to Fletch. “Yes. Long enough for Fletch, and Ghost, and Coach, and all the others to find us.” Moving one hand to Annie’s chest over her heart, Emily went on, “And I know here, with all my heart,” she patted her hand to make her point, “that Fletch is doing everything he can to get to us.”
Emily heard Annie sniff once. “I love him, Mommy. I’m trying to be a good soldier, but I’m scared.”
“What?”
“That being scared means you’re about to do something really really brave.”
“I’m brave.”
“I know you are, baby. I’m so proud of you.” Emily held back her tears by pure force of will. She wasn’t scared for herself; she’d go through whatever she had to in order to protect Annie. Rape, gang rape, being beaten, stabbed, shot…it didn’t matter. Whatever it took, she’d protect her daughter at all costs.
Emily had an epiphany at that moment. She suddenly “got” how Fletch must feel about his job…about her. She knew without a doubt that he’d stand in front of them and protect her and Annie from anything life threw their way. Jacks, bullies, bullets. When he went on a mission, she imagined he felt much the same way. When he set out to do his job, he did it with all his heart.
Suddenly she felt bad for him…he was probably freaking out, wondering where they were. And that hurt her heart. She actually had the better end of this situation at the moment. Yes, they’d been snatched out of her car and, yes, she’d been scared, but she didn’t remember anything other than that brief moment in her car, thanks to whatever drug had been on the cloth. She and Annie had woken up alone and relatively unhurt.
Imagining what Fletch was going through made Emily feel sick inside. She vowed right then and there to do whatever it took to help him. Not only did she want to have a future with the man, she desperately wanted to ease some of the angst he had to be going through.
“Come here and help me, Annie, but be careful, don’t cut yourself. Some of this metal is sharp.” Keeping her daughter busy seemed to be the best way to keep her mind off of what was happening.
Finally, after several minutes of pulling at the flaking metal, Emily sat back on her haunches in defeat. They’d cleared a hole, but it didn’t seem big enough for either of them to fit through. She leaned down and peeked outside.