Sixteen fucking days. As the plane descended, Ron itched to turn on his phone to check on his girls. His girls. The words came so easily it was almost embarrassing, but he didn’t care. When it had become clear the op wasn’t going to be quick or easy, he hadn’t known what to do. He never brought his home life on missions with him, but Sam wasn’t Bobbi’s responsibility and though he wasn’t worried about her health or safety, he wondered if this unexpectedly long absence would be the straw that broke the camel’s back for Bobbi. She’d put on a brave face for him, but he’d sensed she still wasn’t thrilled with him getting called away. He’d thought it would be a few days, a week at the most. When they hit 10 days he’d resigned himself to coming home to bad news, and he couldn’t even conjure up a ballpark figure for the level of Bobbi’s annoyance at 16 days.

At least it was daytime. They’d be landing around six local time and it wouldn’t take him long to get to her apartment. Maybe he’d even convince her to play hooky from work tomorrow so they could spend the day in bed. He almost snorted at the thought; he’d be lucky if she was still talking to him after more than two weeks of being stuck with his kid.

He’d just stowed his gear when there was movement behind him. Wolf had just come skidding around the corner, calling out his name.

“Hey, man.” Ron straightened up in confusion. “What’re you—”

“Just heard from Benny.”

“What’s wrong?” Ron’s sixth sense told him something bad was going on.

“Some lunatic’s taken the preschool hostage. Jessyka, Sara and Bobbi are inside.”

Ron’s gut clenched. “Sam?”

Wolf hesitated. “Yeah. Sam too.”

“Fuck!” Ron started to run, Wolf on his heels.

“My SUV’s right here!” Ron yelled, yanking out his keys. Wolf got in beside him and Ron tore through the gate towards town.

“Jessyka managed to send Benny a text but all she managed to type was ‘trouble at school.’ He knew she’d been on her way to pick up Sara from daycare so he headed over there and assessed the situation. Unfortunately, the guy set explosives at the back and side entrances and has some kid at gunpoint in the front. Benny called to tell me what was going on and I saw the plane landing so I figured I’d call Abe and Mozart while I waited for you.”

“Shit,” Ron muttered as he hit the gas.

Bobbi and Jessyka huddled together on the floor against the wall with the receptionist, Barb, and a handful of kids. Sara was curled against her mother’s side, her face buried, and Sam was on Bobbi’s lap. There were only four other children left and three of them were sitting against the wall also, sniffling quietly as Bobbi tried to keep them calm. The fourth, an eight-year-old boy named Eli, was crying loudly as the man who’d taken them hostage grilled him about Vinnie.

“I don’t have any friends named Vinnie!” the boy sobbed.

Bobbi’s stomach was in knots as she watched the man ask him about Vinnie over and over. She wanted to scream at him to shut up, that there was no Vinnie at this school and if there was, he was probably under a different name. She opted to remain quiet for now, studying the situation and looking for ways out. Jessyka had whispered that she’d sent her husband a text and had no doubt he would be arriving shortly with reinforcements. Until then, however, there was nothing they could do but wait and try to keep everyone calm.

Her biggest concern was Julian. She hadn’t seen him since the siege had started and luckily no one had mentioned him. He’d been hanging out here for as long as she’d been working here and knew every nook and cranny. He had hiding places and often skulked about like a thief in the night just to annoy her. Today she was grateful for that and fervently hoped he’d seen a man with a gun and hidden.

“Tell me what name he’s using!” The man with the gun still hadn’t identified himself and now he turned back to Barb menacingly.

“I don’t know,” Barb whispered. “If you’re going to shoot me, go ahead, because I can’t know something I truly don’t know.”

Bobbi winced as the man slapped her. Things were escalating and she had to do something before he got too out of control.

“Tell us your name,” she called out weakly. Her voice was quiet but it carried and he spun around.

“What did you say?” he demanded.

“I just asked your name,” she said, a little louder this time. “Maybe we can figure out who he is.”

“My name doesn’t matter!” he snapped. “Just tell me where my boy is.”

Bobbi resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “How can we help you if you’re not willing to tell us the situation? Did you get divorced? Did his mother remarry? Unless you help us, we can’t help you.”

“Shut up!” he snarled, spinning around and holding his head. “You’re giving me a headache.”

Bobbi shrank back, unsure what else to do. Eli was the son of a two-star general and his wife. She knew them personally and the boy looked so much like his father there was no doubt in her mind General Isaacson was his biological father. The other remaining children were girls, which meant whoever Vinnie was—if he actually attended the school at all—he wasn’t here now. She saw through the window that the authorities had arrived, so no one else was getting in or out, which meant that little boy, whoever he was, was safe. If this guy would keep talking, it might give Benny and the police time to come up with a plan. The phone had been ringing incessantly but they hadn’t been allowed to pick it up, leaving her with no option but to attempt to get him talking.

Ronnie, where are you? she thought sadly, holding Sam close to her side.

Parking down the street from the daycare center, Ron and Wolf got out of the SUV and took in the immediate area. There was a police barricade, and about a million cops, keeping anyone from getting in or out of the daycare center’s parking lot.

“Where’s Benny?” Ron asked Wolf under his breath.

“Probably up in a tree or something, getting the lay of the land,” Wolf murmured, checking out the buildings on the other side of the street.

Ron followed his gaze, eventually settling on the front doors of the preschool building. The circular driveway where parents drove up to drop off and pick up their kids had been cordoned off, yellow tape and police cars at either end. All kinds of law enforcement vehicles lined the street and a SWAT truck had just pulled up. This was turning into a huge circus and he didn’t know what was going on. Without giving himself time to change his mind, he headed towards a policeman who seemed to be in charge.

“Ron!” Wolf hissed under his breath, grabbing for his arm.

“This isn’t our mission,” Ron said impatiently. “We have no intel, no details, nothing. The only way we can be helpful is to find out what’s going on.”

“They’re not going to tell us what’s going on,” Wolf protested.

“Anything they tell us is more than we know now.” Ron kept walking and Wolf followed behind him just as Mozart and Abe fell into step with them.

“They won’t tell you anything,” Mozart pointed out. “Benny’s across the street on—”

“My kid and my girl are in there,” Ron ground out. “They’ll tell me something.”

“Sir, this isn’t—” the officer began.

“My daughter and my girlfriend are in there,” he said levelly. “You want to tell me what this is about?”

“If you could just—”

“I can’t just anything,” Ron said in a steely voice. “United States Marine Corps, Force Recon. There’s nothing going on here I haven’t seen times ten. So tell me what the situation is.”

The two men locked eyes but it was the policeman who backed off first. “We don’t know. He’s not answering the phone and we can’t reach anyone inside. We’ve had no information of any kind.”

“So you don’t know if they’re alive.”

“We’re trying to get eyes inside but—”

“Fuck this.” Ron turned and headed back towards his truck.

“Hey!” The policeman called after him but Ron kept moving.

“What are you doing, man?” Wolf jogged up next to him.

“I’m going to come up with a plan to get in there.”

“Hang on, Benny’s motioning to us.” Wolf grabbed his arm and Ron turned, squinting in Benny’s direction. He was on the roof of a building across the street on the backside of the preschool, using binoculars to assess the situation.

Wolf’s phone rang and he picked it up. “Yeah…okay…right. Got it.” He disconnected. “He said the back door’s wired up with C4 and he can’t tell what’s on the side door, but it looks homemade.”

“We should be able to disarm it,” Abe reasoned.

“We need Cooper,” Wolf said, sending a text.

“Cooper?” Ron frowned, unfamiliar with the name.

“Faulkner Cooper, explosives expert. He wasn’t at the barbeque the other weekend; he and the wife had something going on.”

“What’s that?” Abe asked, staring at something at the back of the building.

“What?” Ron looked up, his eyes narrowing as he tried to focus on the movement. Was that a person? A kid? There appeared to be someone crawling out of a basement-level window.

“What the—” Abe looked baffled.

Julian. Ron hissed under his breath. “Jesus, tell them that’s one of the kids!” he yelled to Wolf as he took off running in that direction.

He heard Wolf’s muttered curse but kept moving; there wasn’t a chance in hell he wasn’t getting to Julian before anyone else.

“Ron!” Julian’s voice reached him just as he got free of the small window. He hadn’t completely straightened up yet but launched himself into Ron’s arms. “There’s a bad man with a gun and he’s going to hurt my mom and Sam! You have to do something!”

“I am, buddy.” Ron held him tightly and carried him over to the police officers, who would undoubtedly want to talk to him about what was going on inside.

“Son, what can you tell us?” They barraged him with questions, and Julian answered them all, far calmer than Ron would have imagined. Ron stood at his side, though, listening intently for any clues he and his SEAL team friends could use to help them get inside.

“You don’t remember any name other than Vinnie?”

Julian shook his head. “No, I crawled away, so I could get to the lower level and escape.”

“What’s the plan?” Ron asked the man in charge.

“We’re still trying to establish contact,” he replied. “We have a negotiator standing by, but until he answers the phone…”

“You stay here with the policemen, okay, buddy?” Ron ruffled the boy’s hair, though his stomach clenched with fear and impatience. He refused to wait around like this; he had to do something.

“Where are you going?” Julian asked worriedly. “Are you going to get my mom and Sam?”

“You bet I am.”