Rescuing Emily (Delta Force Heroes Book 2) by Susan Stoker Read Free Book Online Page B

And now he had all the information he needed to start on the second part of his plan.
    The asshole soldier and his entire team would rue the day they embarrassed him and his squad on the battlefield. No one fucked him over and got away with it. No one.
    When a car pulled into the long driveway toward the garage, the man silently and carefully made his way down the pavement, keeping to the trees as he went.
----
    E mily pulled into the garage and sighed wearily. It’d been a long day, longer than most for some reason. Maybe it was the gigantic sale they were having at the PX, and the craziness that ensued whenever that happened. Maybe it was because she was actually missing Fletch. It wasn’t that she’d spent a lot of time with him, and it had only been three days since he’d left, but it was comforting to come back to the apartment and know he was right across the yard.
    Or maybe it was the fact that Annie was being extra talkative today. Emily told herself a long time ago she’d never tell her daughter she was talking too much. She was just expressing herself, it was what kids did. But, not for the first time, she would kill for some silence right about now.
    “And then John told the teacher she was stupid!” Annie exclaimed, obviously shocked someone would talk back to an adult, and her teacher at that.
    “He did? What happened then?”
    “Well, Mrs. O told him to prove it.”
    Emily smiled. Mrs. O’s name was actually Ogliaruso, but that was quite a mouthful for six-year-olds, so she’d happily told her students to call her Mrs. O instead. Emily reached in the backseat for the two plastic bags of groceries she’d picked up at work. The granola bars and the loaf of bread had been marked down since their expiration dates had passed, and the six cans of soup were discounted because they were dented. “And could he prove she was wrong?” she asked, waiting for Annie to step outside the garage so she could push the button to close the door and run out herself.
    “No. He tried though, and when he couldn’t, he pouted and threw his pencil across the room.”
    “Oh, that sounds dangerous.”
    Annie nodded and hitched her GI Joe backpack higher up on her back. “It was. And that’s why he got sent to the principal’s office. Mrs. O told us that he was in trouble, not for telling her she was wrong, but for throwing things. She says that it’s okay to question…atority, but not to remort to violence.”
    “ Authority , and resort to violence,” Emily corrected automatically.
    “Yeah, that’s what I said,” Annie grouched at her mother.
    “Hello.”
    The voice surprised both Emily and Annie and they twirled around as the garage door closed behind them. A man was standing way too close to Annie for Emily’s peace of mind, and she reached out with her free hand and pushed her daughter behind her.
    Emily had never seen the man before. He held himself with the same sort of…conceit that she’d seen in Fletch, but it seemed different with this man. Fletch was confident, but in a protective way. He knew that he was stronger and more dangerous than most others around him. But not once had Emily felt as though he was dangerous to her or Annie.
    But this man was egotistical in the way bullies were. His lips were quirked upward in a smirk, as if he knew she was scared of him. His black tank top clung to the muscles on his chest, and Emily could see a black skull tattoo on his forearm. He wore camouflage pants, like she saw every day at work, and had a ballcap pulled low over his forehead, making it hard to see his eyes. It was obvious he was a military man. Emily concluded he must be there to see Fletch.
    “Fletch isn’t here.”
    “I know.” His answer was immediate and cocky. “I’m here to see you, Emily.”
    “Annie, go upstairs.” Emily used her “mom” voice, the one Annie had learned never to disobey. Call it a mother’s instinct, but everything about the stranger made the hair on the back of her