“Hey, man. Thanks for stopping by.”

“Welcome to Texas, brother.” Cormac “Fletch” Fletcher held out one beefy paw and nearly crushed my hand with a firm shake.

Fletch was an intimidating man to those who didn’t know him. He stood about inch taller than me, but where I was toned and fit, he was bulk and brawn. Everything about the man screamed “scary motherfucker” until you got to his brightly colored tattooed forearms. Then you wanted to razz him about the cartoonish looking ink. Not that many people had the balls to say much of anything to the Delta Force Operator.

“I see you still haven’t taken my advice and found a laser removal center,” I said, poking fun.

“Yeah, when you find a plastic surgeon to fix your ugly mug, I’ll remove my juvenile indiscretions. Besides, Annie loves them.” The man’s face transformed from deadly operative to loving father at the mere mention of his daughter. “You gonna invite me in or are we gonna stand on the porch sweatin’ our balls off?”

I moved out of the way and allowed Fletch to enter the familiar house.

“Like what you’ve done with the place.” His gaze searched the room. “I wasn’t sure I agreed with the architect when in the rebuild they suggested taking out the wall to the kitchen. But it opened the whole space up. I like it.”

I’d bought the house from Fletch only a month prior, and this would be my first time staying here. He and his family had decided to sell after the house had been severely damaged by an RPG. They’d rebuilt with the intention of staying but, in the end, they couldn’t move back in. Not that I could blame them. Fletch had almost died when his liver had been nicked by the two by four that had punctured his side in the explosion. It was his teammate Ghost’s quick thinking that had saved his life. Then there was Rayne’s brother, Chase; he, too, almost died trying to protect his woman, Sadie. It had been a bad situation all the way around.

“So do I. When I heard you were selling, I couldn’t pass it up.”

“The security system up and running?”

“Oh, yeah. You had a great set-up, I didn’t change anything. I thought Zane Lewis was an over-the-top bastard, then I met you. There’s not an inch of land that’s not covered.”

“After what happened when I first met Emily, I upgraded to cover the street in front of the house, too. You’ll be good here. Has Tex found anything new?”

John “Tex” Keegan was the go-to man for anything information related. If it was out there in the cyber world, he could find it. Hell, even if the intel was locked away behind the most encrypted system, he could still find it.

“The team is combing through security footage and traffic cameras now. Tex is also looking into it.”

“Have you thought about asking Beth? You know she’s the one who found that asshole Jacks when he took Em and Annie.”

I’d heard of Beth, she was making quite the name for herself here in Texas. What she hadn’t known before she’d met Tex, he’d made sure she learned. I didn’t know all the details of what Beth had done to find Fletch’s then girlfriend, Emily, and her daughter, Annie. But from what I’d heard, the intel had come in the nick of time. Annie had already escaped the shipping container Jacks had locked the two in and she’d been making a run for it.

“We asked Tex about it, but he said she has her hands full. He didn’t elaborate, just said there was a missing child.”

“Shit, I hope she—” Fletch stopped talking, and I looked to the stairs to see Erin had come down.

“Erin, this is Fletch. Fletch, this is President Anderson’s daughter.”

“Nice to meet you, ma’am.”

I almost laughed at his formal greeting, Erin was anything but proper. I was sure it drove her mother, Clarissa, crazy. Mrs. Anderson was a well put together, elegant woman. Erin was pretty much the opposite.

“Hi, Fletch. Please call me Erin.” She pasted a fake smile on her pretty face and made her way over to us. “Sorry to interrupt.”

God, I hated the phony persona she put on around people she didn’t know. I much preferred the real Erin. The one I’d gotten to know before the night I found her naked in the guesthouse at the charity event. Since that night, I’d done my best to keep things professional with her.

“You’re not,” Fletch reassured her.

“I invited Fletch over so we could go over the security protocol while we’re in Texas. Fletch and his team all live nearby and have offered to keep their eyes open for anything suspicious. We also need a contingency plan in place in case something happens to me, so you’re covered.”

“Don’t you think that’s a little overboard? I mean, no one even knows we’re here.” There was the snarky Erin she reserved special just for me.

“No, I don’t think anything I do, when it comes to your safety, is overboard. And just because you think no one knows we’re here doesn’t mean that’s actually the case.”

“Come on, Colin. When we left D.C., you drove all the way into Pennsylvania before turning back into Maryland to fly from there. Not to mention, you drive like a lunatic, it’s impossible someone could’ve followed you through all your speeding and weaving in and out of traffic. I thought I was going to die before we made it to the airport.”

“You’d be surprised what people can and will do when they want something badly enough. And for some crazy reason, someone seems to want you. Though if they actually got their hands on you, I suspect they’d return you quickly once you started bitching.”

“God, you’re annoying.”

“Right back ’atcha, doll.”

Fletch’s chuckle reminded me he was still in the room, witnessing my stupid squabble with Erin.

“Damn, you two sound like an old married couple.”

“Did you get the email I sent with the new login info for the cameras?” I asked, ignoring his comment.

“I did. I passed it along to the team as well. They’ll only be alerted if the alarm is triggered so don’t forget to set it. You didn’t say, has Tex found anything?”

“Not really, a side profile of the man, and not even a good one. Whoever was in Erin’s apartment knew where the cameras were. What he was able to confirm was that the man entered using a key and had a toolbox. Gerard did a sweep, and it was bugged for audio but no video.”

“What?” Erin shrieked. “When were you going to tell me?”

“I wasn’t.”

The less Erin knew the better, I shouldn’t have been discussing this with Fletch in front of her, but I felt better when she was in my line of sight. The woman was practically Houdini the way she ghosted her security detail. I wouldn’t put it past her to try to sneak away and go back to D.C. on her own.

“And why not?”

“For a lot of reasons, one being, you’re not taking the situation seriously.”

“Maybe I would if I had all the facts, but I don’t. So, I think my father is being overprotective and I’m tired of being treated like I’m some national treasure that needs to be under lock and key.”

“Do you have any idea how valuable you are?” Fletch asked. Erin’s eyes widened in shock at his question. “You and your mom. If someone got their hands on one of you, they’d have the most powerful man on the planet in their back pocket.”

“The US doesn’t negotiate with terrorists.”

“The US might not. But a father will. Your father may be a good president and have the American people’s best interest always in the forefront, but he’s still a man. A husband and a father. And knowing him the way I do, he’d do anything to get you back. So if you don’t want to be the reason your father starts the next world war. I suggest you begin to take this seriously and listen to me when I tell you something is unsafe.”

I could tell she wanted to argue more, but she wouldn’t, not in front of Fletch. Sure, she’d throw me attitude with him present, but she wouldn’t let me have it, both barrels, like she did in private.

“Please, thank your team for me, it might not sound like it, but I appreciate you all keeping an eye on me. I think I’ll go back upstairs and read.”

“Remember, no cell phone.”

She was halfway to the stairs when she spoke. “Not my first rodeo, cowboy.”

Fletch let out a slow whistle once she was out of sight. “Damn. You’ve got your hands full.”

“You have no idea. Tex had to refit all of her jewelry with tracking devices. She’s good at giving the secret service the slip. The first few times I was pissed and actually called them incompetent. Until she did it to me at an event. The girl is a pain in the ass. I can’t wait until this fucking op is over and I can dump her ass back in her apartment.”

“Right.” Fletch chuckled.

“What did the colonel say about me taking Erin on post to the firing range?”

“You’re cleared. He’ll leave a pass at the gate for you.”

“I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all your help.”

“No thanks needed.”

“You got a minute for a beer?”

Fletch looked down at his watch before he answered, “Yeah, just one.”

I grabbed us two brews from the kitchen and joined Fletch on the back patio. Seeing him sitting, staring out over his old backyard made the hassle of having the new outside furniture delivered worth it.

“Lots of good memories in this house,” he mused. “First time I met my daughter was in the front yard. I was working on my Charger.” He chuckled. “And I’ll never forget the first time Annie met Truck, it was right here on this patio.” Fletch had a faraway look, as if he were replaying the actual moment in his mind’s eye. “Em was sick. The guys and I were out here having a barbeque and Annie wandered over. She took one look at Truck, climbed up on a chair, palmed his face, and poked at his scar, before she asked him if it hurt. I think it was then, Truck, Hollywood, Blade, Beatle, Coach, me, and Ghost all fell for her. God knows, she’s had Truck wrapped around her finger since then.”

The story about how Emily and Annie had come into Fletch’s life was widely known, but the tale about the barbeque was legendary. Truck was a big man with a gnarly scar that pulled one side of his face into what looked like a grimace. The fact that sweet little Annie had made her way to him said a lot about the goodness she had in her.

“She’s something special,” I agreed.

Annie also had to be one of the smartest kids I’d ever met, and pretty, too. Both inside and out. The girl had an old soul. Fletch was going to have his hands full with her when the boys start coming around.

“Then one asshole ruined it. Turned all the good into shit. My house was on fire, my wife and daughter were trapped upstairs, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it.” Fletch turned to me and pinned me with his stare. “Do me a favor, yeah?”

“Anything.”

“Make this place great again. Fill it with happiness and laughter. It fucking guts me our last memories are of smoke and carnage.”

“I will. I promise. And when you’re ready, we’ll have a barbeque, just like old times.”

“Damn, man, I must be getting old, sitting here waxing poetic about some old house.”

He tried to laugh it off but he couldn’t hide the pain. Now, more than ever, I was happy I was the one to buy this house. Even if Fletch and his family would never live here again, I could give them back some of the happiness they’d lost.

“So tell me about this epic wedding we missed.”

Fletch went on to tell me all about the quadruple wedding his teammates had. What was supposed to be a double wedding between Ghost and Rayne and Truck and Mary had turned into a foursome. Blade and Wendy and Beatle and Casey had gotten married the same day, too. My team had missed the wedding when we were called away on an op. From the sound of it, we’d missed one hell of a party.

My mind momentarily wandered to Erin, and I wondered how she’d get along with Ivy and Violet. I knew she missed Olivia but for some reason she held herself back from rekindling their friendship. The women of Fletch’s teammates, Rayne, Mary, Wendy, Casey, Harley, Kassie, and Emily were all as close as sisters. I’d never paid enough attention to know if Olivia, Ivy, and Violet were the same way. I supposed they were, but I’d missed a lot since I’d been spending most of my time in D.C. trying to keep one very exasperating, sexy woman out of trouble. I hoped like hell this was over soon. The faster we were away from each other the better.