by Susan Stoker
“I need to go and get your mom, but you need to get to home base.” Fletch turned Annie so she was looking back the way he’d originally come. “In just a moment, an Army Ranger will be here and you guys will head back to base. I cleared out the bad guys, but you still need to be careful as you make your way through, there still could be some out there. Listen to the other soldier, be stealthy, use what Nancy Drew and I taught you. Can you do that?”
Annie nodded solemnly and turned back to him, looking worried for the first time. “You’ll get Mommy? She didn’t want to let me go, but I squirmed out before she could change her mind.”
“I’ll get your mom.”
Fletch didn’t even need to promise. Apparently his words were enough for the little girl he ached to call his own. As soon as the words left his mouth, the Ranger appeared out of the darkness to escort Annie to safety.
“Okay.” Annie told him in a firm voice. “My soldier is here. Go. Time’s a-wastin’.”
Fletch smiled, having no idea where she’d picked up that saying. He kissed Annie on the forehead and hugged her quickly. “Ten-four. I’ll see you in a bit.”
He watched as the little girl flattened herself against the container at her back and side-stepped to where the Ranger was standing. He lost sight of them as they disapeared behind another Conex.
Thankful that half his worries were assuaged, Fletch concentrated on Emily. Nine minutes. He went back to where he’d seen Annie for the first time and calculated how many of Jacks’s friends were probably between him and Emily, and faded into the darkness toward his future.
Chapter 20
Emily gasped when the door of the container was suddenly wrenched open and a light shone into the darkness, blinding her. She threw up her hand to block the light, but was grasped in a firm grip and forced to her feet before she could scramble away. Two men had stalked into her prison and had obviously expected to see both her and Annie cowering in fear.
“Where the fuck is the kid?”
Emily knew it was Jacks who’d asked. She couldn’t see him that well, but would recognize his voice anywhere. She tried to pull her elbow out of the other man’s grasp, with no luck.
“Gone.”
“Fuck!” Jacks spat out, then shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. You’ll do. Come on.”
Emily tried to stay upright, but it was tough when she was dragged, none too gently, across the floor toward the door. “You might as well give up, Jacks, you know you can’t win,” she begged, knowing he wouldn’t listen to her, but needing to say it anyway.
“Fuck you. We already won. We stole you and the little bitch right out from under his nose. We could’ve done anything we wanted to you, and your boyfriend and all his friends know it. This? It’s just icing on the cake.”
“You can’t honestly think you’re going to walk away from this scot-free,” Emily hissed.
When Jacks didn’t respond, she turned to the younger man holding her so tightly she knew she’d have a bruise in the morning “What are you getting out of this? Because your military career is over. Kidnapping and drugging a woman and child isn’t going to go over very well. You’ll be spending time in federal prison, I’ve heard that’s worse than the regular jails.”
The smack came from Jacks, and Emily wasn’t expecting it. She wobbled, only the other man’s grip on her upper arm keeping her from falling.
“Shut the fuck up, bitch. Or I’ll knock you unconscious again.”
“Uh, Jacks…I’m not sure—”
“Shut up, soldier!” Jacks snarled at the younger, now nervous-looking man. “This is all part of the training. She’s not really gonna be hurt. You have to man-up. You think bitches won’t pull this shit in Iraq? Hell, ISIS uses women and children as shields in combat, and they’re just as well trained as the men. They’re playing a part, stupid. Acting, just like she is. I’m helping you get over any sympathy you might have for anyone in the middle of a life-and-death situation. So man the fuck up.”
Emily pressed her lips together, knowing Jacks was serious about knocking her out again. He was acting completely crazy, and she was getting even more scared than she’d been before…and that was saying something. She opened her mouth to tell the other soldier that she wasn’t doing anything voluntarily and that she really had been kidnapped, but Jacks grabbed her away from the younger soldier and pushed her out the door.
They went around the side of the container she’d been held in, and Jacks pointed to a ladder propped against it. “Climb.”
“What? Up there?”
“Yes, up fucking there,” Jacks mocked.
Emily found herself shoved toward the wobbly ladder and looked up fearfully.
“And don’t try anything, or I’ll knock you off so fast your head’ll spin.”
The last thing she wanted was to fall from the ladder. Not seeing any other option, Emily began climbing. Jacks was right behind her, one hand on her calf, squeezing painfully the entire time. When she reached the top, she quickly scampered away from the edge, breathing hard.
There weren’t two shipping containers stacked on top of one another, as she’d thought—there were three. They were high off the ground, about thirty feet or so, and Emily knew if she fell or was pushed from that height, it could kill her.
Jacks and the other man came over the top and she looked on in horror as Jacks pulled the ladder up behind him. There was no way for anyone else to get up there now. She was trapped on top of crazy town with the absolutely last person she’d ever wanted to see again, nonetheless be stuck with.
Emily didn’t stand up, she stayed on all fours and crawled farther away from the two men. Jacks didn’t seem to care at the moment, feeling confident that she wouldn’t get away from him. And he was right.
She flinched when Jacks’s voice rang loudly out over the quiet night. “I’ve got your bitch, Fletch! You want her? Come get ’er!”
Silence followed his gruff words, but Emily had no doubt if Fletch and his teammates were out there, they’d heard him. Jacks stalked over to her and crouched down to her level.
“So, here’s the thing. We knew they’d come after you, we even told them where you were. But they think they’re smarter than us. Hell, they think they’re smarter than everyone. I recruited some privates from the base to act as the ‘bad guys’ around this city. They eagerly signed up to play paintball in the middle of nowhere with no rules to follow. If anyone from the base comes here, those guys are here to take attention away from what we really wanted.” He paused dramatically.
Emily didn’t want to fall in line, but did anyway. “And what do you really want?”
“Retribution.”
Emily didn’t even know what that meant, but she kept quiet, as Jacks obviously liked to hear himself speak.
“They cheated when we played this game the first time. We weren’t ready and they had us beat before we knew we were starting.” Jacks paused then nodded his head as if agreeing with something someone had said. But Emily hadn’t heard anyone say a word, and the younger soldier on top of the containers was looking on in disbelief, so he certainly hadn’t said anything.
“But wouldn’t terrorists do the same thing? Cheat to win?” Emily couldn’t help but ask. Fletch had told her the story about the training exercise a few months ago, about how embarrassing it had been for the infantry squad to get beaten so quickly and so badly.
“Shut up,” Jacks growled, standing and swinging the .22 rifle from behind his back and putting his finger on the trigger. “They fucking cheated and made me and my squad look like incompetent assholes! Fucking with you was fun, but ultimately it was just buying us time. We used the money you gave us, along with our own, to create this masterpiece. When your boyfriend gets here, the real show’ll start.”
“The real show?” Emily asked.
“Yeah. I know you’re fucking Fletch. So killing you in front of him while he’s helpless to do anything about it will show him exactly what it feels like to fail.”
> Emily gasped in horror at the same time the other soldier on top of the container did.
“I’m here, asshole.” Fletch’s deadly voice rang out in the dark night.
Emily gasped and tried to stand up, but Jacks was there before she could get fully upright. He dropped the rifle, pulled out a pistol from the small of his back, put one arm around her shoulder, diagonally across her chest, and pulled her back into him. She staggered and clutched his arm to steady herself.
“Look what I found,” Jacks taunted.
Flinching as the barrel of the pistol was shoved against her temple, Emily didn’t dare move otherwise. Jacks was just pissed off enough to pull the trigger. He wanted revenge against Fletch? Killing her would certainly do it.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing, Jacks?” Ghost’s was loud and clear and came from the other side of the container.
Daring to look around, Emily could see several dark shapes moving around the outer perimeter of the containers they were standing on. It sucked, but it was obvious Jacks had the upper ground. The way upper ground. He’d positioned himself well, tactically, and everyone had no choice but to wait to see what the hell he wanted.
“What am I doing?” Jacks repeated. “Showing you that I’m not the fuck-up you thought I was.”
“No one thought you were a fuck-up,” Coach called out.
“Bullshit! My platoon leader did. The captain and colonel did. And now the general does too, no thanks to you! You guys all think you’re undefeatable, but I know for a fact that you fail all the time. I know you went on some hush-hush mission the other month. How many people were killed in it? Huh? Wasn’t it two?”
“Not sure where you’re getting your information from, kid,” Blade taunted, “but the only people killed were the terrorists.”
“Shut up!” Jacks yelled, incensed. “I have sources that say you ran like pussies when the bullets started flying!”
Emily tried to shift in his grasp, but Jacks pushed the barrel of the pistol harder into her temple. “Don’t try anything,” he hissed. “I swear to God, I’ll put a bullet in your brain so fast, no one will have time to take a step before you’re dead.”
Emily would’ve reassured him she wasn’t trying to get away, but he continued his tirade against the others.
“All my life I’ve looked up to E-7 soldiers, thinking they were the best the Army had to offer, that if you made that rank you were the shit. But it’s all a crock of bull! You guys are nothing but thugs. When push comes to shove, all you want is the limelight. Well, today it’s my turn. My turn to show the world what real bravery is.”
“What, kidnapping women and children? That’s what you think bravery is?”
Emily wasn’t sure who said it, but she felt Jacks stiffen behind her. She didn’t know why in the world Fletch’s friends felt the need to taunt the obviously mentally unstable man, but she wished they wouldn’t. She really wished they wouldn’t.
“What I want the world to know is that I bested you! The enemy doesn’t care about the lives of kids or bitches…they set them up to be suicide bombers all the time. Women are expendable. They were put on this earth to bear children. They’re only good for fucking, cooking, and cleaning. I’m sick of the namby-pamby, watered-down Army. You guys think the world should play by your own set of pansy-ass rules. Fuck that! There aren’t any rules in war.”
“We’re not at war with you, Jacks.” Emily heard Fletch’s voice again.
“The hell we aren’t! You started this that day months ago. I’m finishing it.”
“What are you doing, Jacks?” the other man on top of the container asked nervously, in a quiet voice. “This wasn’t the plan.”
“Yes it was, Brown. You were just too stupid to realize it,” Jacks told the other soldier, laughing manically. “All of you were too stupid to realize it.”
“Fuck this,” Brown murmured, pulling the ladder toward the side of the container, obviously planning on getting the hell out of Dodge. “I thought this was all a game. You said they were in on it, but it’s obvious that’s not the case. I’m not cool with kidnapping women and children and especially not killing anyone, and I certainly don’t want to get in a turf war with other US soldiers. If you have a beef with them, it’s your beef. Not mine.”
Emily dropped to her knees as Jacks suddenly shoved her forward then stalked toward the other man. She watched in horror as he shoved him hard enough that he had to take a step backwards.
Jacks pointed the pistol at him and pushed again. The other man took another step back, then another, until he had nowhere to go because he was standing at the edge.
“Fuck you, Brown!” Jacks shouted before pushing the man one last time. It was just enough to knock him off balance.
Emily shut her eyes, knowing she’d never forget the look of terror on the young soldier’s face as he windmilled his arms, trying to get his balance back. She heard his screech of terror, then the sickening thud as he landed on the ground below them.
“What the fuck, Jacks!” Emily thought it was Truck who called out that time.
A loud bang rang out in the dark night and Emily flinched, ducking without thought. She heard a thud against something, and then Jacks’s pained grunt.
Jacks rushed away from the ends and back over to Emily. He pulled her against him again, even though she put up a fight, trying to keep him away from her. He replaced the pistol right back against her temple. “You guys can hit me with all the fucking beanbags and nonlethal rounds you want, it won’t make a lick of difference. I’m still gonna win. I know you won’t shoot me. I know it, and you know it…why bother denying it? I can do whatever the fuck I want, and you can’t do anything about it. Nothing. I know how the government works. You probably got the lecture about using nonlethal tactics to take me and the others down, didn’t you?” He answered his own question. “Yeah, I know you did. So…here’s the conundrum…what are you going to do now?
“I’m up here, out of your grasp. You can’t sneak up behind me, because you can’t get up here without me hearing you since I pulled up the ladder. You probably have backup coming, but what are they going to do? I’ve got a loaded weapon pointed at my hostage—and you’ve got nothing.”
“What do you want?”
Surprisingly, Fletch didn’t even sound pissed. Resigned was a better word. Emily wasn’t sure what to make of that. Did he think that they were going to lose? Did all his friends realize that she was going to die?
Sweat beaded on her forehead. No. She didn’t want to die. Not now. Especially not like this.
“You know you’re not getting out of this,” Ghost’s voice rang out.
“I don’t have to get out of this,” Jacks taunted. “Poor little Emily is the one who has to get out of this. Here’s the thing. I know I’m going to jail—and I don’t give a shit. My two brothers are there, and shit, maybe I’ll be lucky enough to be put in a cell next to them. But you know what? If Em here dies…I win. I win, because Fletch—you’ll suffer for it. I’ll lie in my bunk at night knowing I beat you. That you’re crying in your Wheaties every morning wondering what you could’ve done differently.”
There was silence as Jacks’s words carried out into the night. The lack of any response seemed to bother him. It was obvious he expected an outcry from the soldiers below.
Emily squirmed in his grasp. The hell she was going to make it easy for him to shoot her. Shit, she’d rather fall off the edge of this fucking container and have a chance at living than get shot in the head.
“What? You don’t believe I’ll do it? You don’t think I’ll blow her brains out right here?” Jacks jeered, having lost any remaining composure he had. “I’ll fucking do it! Then I’ll throw her down for you to see what you did to her. Who’ll be the winner then, huh? I’ll—”
Emily had been silent up until then, but let out a shriek of terror at the sound of a shot echoing in the night.
Jacks’s grip on her loosened as he fell to the ground and Emil
y felt something wet splatter across her face.
For a moment she thought he’d done it, that he’d shot her in the head, but she wouldn’t still be standing if that were the case.
“Emily?” Ghost’s voice was frantic as he called up to her.
“I’m okay. At least I think I am.” Her voice shook, and wasn’t very loud, but she was alive and in one piece. She quickly took a step away from Jacks and looked at him fearfully. The last thing she wanted was him jumping up and grabbing her again. He lay still on the metal rooftop, a puddle of blood forming underneath his head. She took another step away from him and bent over, resting her hands on her thighs, trying to catch her breath.
“Em.”
That was Fletch’s voice again—and he sounded so close. She whirled around and gaped. It was Fletch. How had he gotten up there? She had no idea how he’d appeared behind her all of a sudden, but didn’t care. Emily glanced at Jacks again, he hadn’t moved from the last time she’d seen him. She had no idea if he was dead or not, but at the moment, she couldn’t really care.
Instead of coming to her, Fletch moved towards Jacks, securing both his rifle and pistol before turning toward her.
“How, what—” Emily didn’t get anything else out before she was engulfed in Fletch’s arms. Everything else faded away. She inhaled deeply, smelling Fletch’s unique scent that never failed to soothe her. Safe. She was safe. Everything else didn’t matter.
She felt herself being carried away from the edge of the container, and Jacks’s body. Fletch’s arms were tight around her, holding her to him as if he never wanted to let go. She’d never felt anything more reassuring in her life.
Remembering her daughter, Emily pulled back a fraction and frantically asked, “Annie?”
“She’s fine. I ran into her playing soldier and she’s safe, far away from here,” Fletch reassured her in a choked voice.
“Thank God. I didn’t know if I should let her go by herself or keep her with me.”
“I’d say you made the right decision.” He loosened his hold on her just enough so her feet could touch the ground, but he didn’t let go.