by Susan Stoker
“Yes, Sir,” she smart-mouthed.
Chase leaned over and kissed her, and they both fell quiet.
Sadie eventually drifted to sleep with Chase’s heartbeat echoing in her ear and his words rattling around in her brain. I don’t want you to go back up to Dallas.
Chapter Eleven
Sadie was woken up sometime later by an earth-shaking boom.
She had no idea what time it was. Instantly alarmed, she felt for Chase in the bed next to her, but the sheets were cold. Without thinking, she leaped out of bed and raced to put some clothes on. She pulled on the Army T-shirt of Chase’s she’d been wearing earlier and ran into the bathroom to grab her jeans. She shoved her feet into her sneakers and raced to the door.
Just as she opened it, another explosion rocked the house.
She was thrown backward and slammed into the wall across the room, hitting her head before sliding down to the floor. Stunned, she sat there a moment before crawling back toward the bedroom door and peering out into the hallway. There was a lot of dust floating in the air, making her cough as she looked to her right.
The roof above the stairs had collapsed, cutting off one floor of the house from the other.
“Chase?” she called, coughing as more dust got into her lungs.
“Sadie? Is that you?” a feminine voice called from down the hall directly in front of her.
She carefully got to her feet, feeling tender after being thrown backward by the blast. “Emily? Rayne?” Sadie asked.
“It’s me. Rayne. Are you okay?”
“I think so,” Sadie told her.
Rayne eventually came into view, crawling down the hallway on her hands and knees.
“Where’s Emily?”
“I’m here,” a voice said from behind Rayne.
Both women turned and saw Emily limping toward them. “Do you have Annie?”
Sadie was somewhat shocked at how well both women were handling the fact that it sounded, and looked, like a bomb had just rocked the house.
“No,” Rayne said.
As if on cue, all three women turned to look at Annie’s bedroom door—the one closest to the stairs. The doorframe was crooked, the door itself hanging off center. They all raced toward it at the same time.
Sadie helped the others tug at the debris blocking the bedroom door.
“Annie?” Emily yelled.
“Mommy?” the little girl shouted.
Sadie pulled more desperately at the chunks of drywall and wood that were keeping them from Annie. She sounded scared, and it reminded Sadie too much of how the little girls had to have felt at Bexar.
“It’s me, baby. Hang on, I’m coming!” Emily told her daughter, obviously trying very hard to keep her composure.
They cleared enough to reveal a small hole in the wall, but no matter what they did, they couldn’t remove any more of the debris. Emily carefully lay on the ground and peered through the hole. “Annie? Can you come here?”
“I can’t, Mommy,” Annie whined. “My leg’s stuck under something.”
“Shit, why can’t Kassie be here?” Rayne muttered. “Or better yet, Bryn…Fish’s woman. They’re both smaller than we are.”
“I can fit,” Sadie said with no hesitation. She began to slither through the small hole. The only thought in her head was getting to the little girl, making sure she was safe. To reassure her.
She had the awful suspicion that whatever had happened to the house was undoubtedly Jonathan’s doing.
The hole was a tight fit. Sadie felt something dig into the skin on her back as she pressed her way into Annie’s room, but she ignored it. A couple scrapes and bruises would go away.
Finally, just when she thought maybe she wouldn’t fit after all, her hips popped through the hole and she was in Annie’s bedroom.
Crawling on her hands and knees, Sadie made her way over to the bed, the mattress askew.
The little girl wasn’t on it.
“Annie?”
“Here!”
Turning, Sadie saw Annie on the other side of the room. Whatever caused the explosion had thrown the child ten feet away from the bed.
Sadie crawled over to the little girl and put her hand on her forehead. Her hair was a tangled mess and her GI Joe pajamas were dirty and torn in places, but Sadie didn’t see any major wounds, at least nothing that was bleeding.
“Where do you hurt?” Sadie asked.
“My leg.”
Sadie saw that one of the wall studs was lying across the little girl’s lower legs, held in place by her dresser.
“How is she?” Emily called from the hole near the door. “Can you get her loose?”
“She’s good,” Sadie yelled back. “I’m gonna move the piece of furniture off her legs, then use the fire ladder and get her out through the window. It’s mostly broken and it’ll be easier to get her out that way.”
“We’ll go back down the hall when you’re clear and see if we can’t get out the window in the guest room,” Rayne said. “We’ll meet you at the back of the house. Okay?”
Sadie worked on clearing Annie’s legs, and at the same time shouted back, “Okay! Have you heard from the guys?”
There was a long pause before Emily responded. “No. I sent Rayne to yell for them down the stairs. But so far they haven’t answered.”
Sadie closed her eyes in despair. If any of them were hurt—or God forbid, dead—it would be her fault.
She shouldn’t have let Chase talk her into coming here. She knew what Jonathan was like. He liked causing pain. Got off on it.
A light touch on her arm brought her head around, and she stared into Annie’s blue eyes. “My daddy’s fine. He’s a hero.”
Her words were said with such conviction, Sadie actually believed her. She smiled. It was a weak effort, but it was more than she would’ve been capable of a couple of minutes ago. “How about you and me get out of here?” she asked.
Annie nodded, then looked around the room. “Can we bring my Army man? I can’t leave without him.”
“I don’t think—” Sadie began, but Annie interrupted her.
“I need him! I can’t leave him behind. He should be fine, he was in his special case my friend gave me. Please, Sadie, please!” Tears poured down Annie’s cheeks as she pleaded with her.
For the first time, Sadie heard real panic in the little girl’s voice. From all that she’d heard about Annie from Chase, and from what she’d seen the night before, she knew that she wasn’t one to freak out. She wasn’t a whiny child at all. So for her to be this upset, Sadie knew the doll was important to her.
“Okay, Annie, don’t cry. We’ll find him and take him with us.”
Sadie shoved one more time at the surprisingly heavy dresser and it finally shifted. “Scoot back, Annie. I can’t help while I’ve got hold of this. Pull your legs out. Slowly though, in case something’s broken.”
Annie did as she was told and pulled her little body out from under the debris. Once she cleared it, Sadie dropped the mangled dresser and went straight to Annie’s side. Using the first aid she knew, she felt her legs to make sure they weren’t broken. The little girl flinched a couple of times but didn’t scream out in pain.
Sighing in relief, Sadie turned her head to the door. “Emily?”
“Yeah! I’m here. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Annie’s free. As far as I can tell, nothing’s broken. Go on, meet us outside.”
“Thank God,” Emily said. “Rayne tried to remove some of the debris at the top of the stairs to get the guys’ attention. Ghost finally answered. He says they’re okay. Annie?”
“Yeah, Mommy?” Annie answered, her voice stronger now that she knew her precious military doll wasn’t going to be left behind.
“Go outside with Sadie. Stay by her side. I mean it. Right by her side. Okay?”
“I will, Mommy. Is Daddy really okay?”
“Of course he is. We’ll see him once we get outside.”
“Are y
ou scared, Sadie?” Annie asked quietly.
Sadie looked down at the small child. She sounded like someone twice her age at that moment.
“Yeah, baby. A little.”
“Being scared means you’re about to do something really really brave. Remember, Mommy? You said that to me when we were in the metal box.”
Sadie didn’t know what Annie was talking about, but she loved her optimistic attitude and how she was trying to comfort her mother.
“I remember, baby. Now, go on. Get outside with Sadie. Your dad and I will be there as soon as we can.”
“I love you, Mommy.”
“Love you too.”
Annie’s gaze roamed the room and she pointed in the opposite corner. “There he is!”
Sadie turned toward where Annie was pointing and saw a plastic doll the size of a Barbie inside a protective case. She hurried over and grabbed it, along with a pair of shoes that were miraculously still sitting right where Annie probably left them after taking them off. She brought both the shoes and the doll back to Annie’s side.
The little girl hugged her precious doll and beamed up at Sadie.
“Quick, Annie. Put on your shoes and we’ll go.”
Annie did as ordered, slipping her tennis shoes on without a word. When she was done, she grabbed her Army man and looked up at Sadie. “I’m ready to go now,” she announced.
“Go ahead and see if you can stand. We’ll go from there.”
Annie stood and wobbled for a moment before gaining her equilibrium.
“Does anything hurt?” Sadie asked.
“My head a little, and my legs where they were stucked under the dresser. But I’m okay.”
Sadie was constantly amazed at the child. She was scared, but she was holding it together.
Annie clutched her doll with one arm and took Sadie’s hand with her free one. They walked over to the destroyed window. Sadie knocked the loose glass out of the way with a piece of wood from the floor and peered out.
It was dark and quiet. Almost eerily so. The loud explosions should’ve woken up the neighbors, even though they weren’t exactly close. The nearest house was about a mile away. Hopefully the police and fire department had already been called.
Sadie shivered. Suddenly, she did not want to leave the house. She knew without a doubt that Jonathan was lying in wait in the darkness. Waiting to snatch her away. He’d take her where no one would ever find her and do horrible things to her. She’d probably end up in a cage in a basement somewhere, having baby after baby that he’d take from her the second they cleared her womb.
“Sadie?” Annie asked in a small voice next to her. “Aren’t we leaving? I wanna leave.”
“Yeah, baby, we’re going,” Sadie reassured the seven-year-old. She unfolded the rope ladder that was lying under the window. “Stay here while I climb out. Once I make sure it’s safe, I’ll help you.”
Carefully, Sadie stepped over the ledge of the window and climbed down the ladder. Once she was outside, she looked around once again. She couldn’t see much from where she was standing near the back porch, but a quick peek around one corner revealed orange flames wrapping around the side of the house to the front.
She hadn’t realized there was a fire. Refusing to panic and blocking out everything but making sure Annie was safe, Sadie called out for the little girl.
“Catch, Sadie!” Annie yelled from above.
Luckily Sadie was paying attention, because without any other warning, Annie had dropped the plastic case with her Army doll inside. She caught it and immediately put it on the ground. Sadie didn’t bitch at the girl for her actions. The sooner the doll was safe, the sooner Annie would follow.
And she did. Within seconds, Annie had shimmied down the rope ladder and was in her arms. Sadie clasped the little girl to her chest and sighed in relief. Awkwardly, not wanting to put Annie down, she leaned over and grabbed the doll. Annie held the box under one arm, the other staying around Sadie’s neck.
Not knowing where to go, and seeing no sign yet of Emily or Rayne, Sadie shifted away from the side of the house that was on fire. Once they rounded the opposite back corner, Sadie saw that the garage was intact. Ironic, really. She and Chase had stayed in the main house to be safe. Although, she realized that Jonathan must have known exactly where she was. If she and Chase had been in the garage, she had no doubt it would currently be burning right now.
She stood with Annie at the back corner of the house, keeping an eye out for the women who were supposed to be meeting them. As the seconds ticked by, Sadie felt more alone than she ever had before. Jonathan wasn’t going to give up. He’d destroy whatever he had to, hurt whoever he had to, in order to get his hands on her. The oppressive weight of the danger she was in, and the danger in which she’d put everyone around her, threatened to strangle her.
“Look! Someone’s here!” Annie said suddenly, pointing.
Sadie forced herself to pay attention, turned to where Annie was indicating. Sure enough, there was a set of headlights coming down the long driveway at a high rate of speed. She shielded her eyes from the bright lights and when she got a good glimpse of the car, Sadie wanted to both laugh and cry.
She should’ve known her uncle wouldn’t wait until a normal time in the morning to show up. He probably thought about waiting, but decided he’d come down tonight, just in case, and Ian could come in the morning as usual. Thank God he decided not to wait.
Sadie would’ve recognized his car anywhere. He loved that 1972 Scout. It resembled a Bronco, but in a retro way. It was a hardtop convertible, and Sadie knew Sean had put in a lot of hours making it perfect.
The relief she felt that her uncle had arrived almost brought her to her knees. Instead, she ran with Annie to meet him—just reaching the front of Fletch’s home when there was yet another loud boom, causing Annie to yelp in surprise.
And Sadie watched in horror as a fireball came out of the woods beyond the far side of the house, straight toward her uncle’s car.
She screamed “No!” as whatever it was hit the back of the Scout and flipped it.
The car rolled several times and ended up lying on its roof next to the garage. She saw movement inside, and her hope rose that since whatever had hit the car had only grazed the back end, maybe Sean was all right.
“Oh my gosh,” Annie said softly. “Who’s that?”
Sadie turned her attention from the wreckage. Her head couldn’t keep up with what was happening. She looked to where Annie was pointing and gasped. A man was walking toward them. She could make out a smirk on his face in the light coming from the fire at the house.
Jonathan.
She should’ve been scared. She should’ve been freaking out. But suddenly, Sadie was just mad. Furious. How dare he blow up Fletch’s house? How dare he try to kill her uncle? How dare he scare Emily, Rayne, and Annie? He had no right. No right.
Quickly, she leaned over and put Annie’s feet on the ground. She turned the little girl and pushed her in the opposite direction from where Jonathan was slowly and steadily sauntering toward them. It was obvious he thought he had all the time in the world to get to her. Asshole.
“Run, Annie! Go through the trees to your neighbor’s house. No matter what you hear, don’t stop. Understand?”
Annie immediately nodded, then turned on her heel and ran into the woods. She was limping a little, but she soldiered on.
Without looking at Jonathan again, Sadie ran toward her uncle’s car. She wasn’t going to docilely be kidnapped. Nope. She had no idea where Chase was or if he was injured. If he wasn’t, she knew without a doubt he’d do everything in his power to make sure she was safe.
But first she had to help herself…and that meant getting her uncle out of his wrecked car.
Chapter Twelve
Chase coughed and tried his best not to pass out. He’d been talking to Ghost and Fletch in the living room about the plan for the morning once Sadie’s uncle arrived, when the world around them had exploded.
One minute they’d been standing there, and the next he was lying on the ground trying to catch his breath.
He sat up, momentarily confused, but quickly figured out they were under attack when he saw the hole in the side of the house and Ghost and Fletch lying motionless across from him.
His first thought was for Sadie, but from what he could tell, the missile, or whatever it was that had come through the house, had hit the side opposite the upstairs bedrooms. He turned his head to look toward the stairs and gasped in horror when he saw they were cut off by a pile of debris.
Fletch moaned then, and Chase turned his attention from the blocked stairs to his friends. He crawled over to Fletch, wincing with every movement. His side hurt, bad, but he ignored it for the moment.
“Fletch, wake up, man.”
Fletch’s eyes opened then closed again. Chase saw a large piece of wood sticking out of his side. He was bleeding profusely. Swearing, he looked over to Ghost. The other man was sitting up now and shaking his head as if trying to get his bearings.
“Ghost, Fletch is hurt,” Chase told him. “I need your help.”
As if his words were a switch, Ghost turned his head and immediately crawled over to where Chase was kneeling over Fletch. “Shit. That doesn’t look good.”
“I know, but we’ve got to get that out.”
“Fuck.” Ghost looked around as if searching for something. “We’d be better off leaving it in place, but I don’t think we’ve got a choice. We need to stop that bleeding.”
“Right, that’s what I was thinking,” Chase agreed. “If he wasn’t bleeding so heavily, we could leave it in, but if we don’t stop the blood, he’ll bleed out before help can get here.”
Ghost nodded grimly and quickly took off his T-shirt.
Chase reached for the wood. “I’ll pull, you get ready to apply pressure. Ready? One, two, three!” On the last count, Chase pulled and the wood easily slid out of Fletch’s side. He moaned but didn’t open his eyes.
Ghost was there to immediately apply pressure to the hole in his teammate’s side. Using his T-shirt to help staunch the blood flow, he leaned on the wound and turned to Chase. “The women?”
