Make Mine a Ranger (Special Ops: Homefront Book 4) (7 page)

Tyler reached for a washcloth and wetted
it in the sink. He wrung it out, and pressed it against Bess’s forehead as he
sat next to her on the ground.

“So Dan Wils is not a nice guy,” he concluded.

Bess knew an answer was unnecessary. Lucky
for that, because she still couldn’t form words.

“Are you with me, Bess? Do you need to
lie down?”

Dan
. He knew where she was. But how? Had he contacted her
parents? Had they said something? She felt a chill of betrayal from the
possibility. She had never told her parents how Dan had beaten her, and hadn’t
dared to admit to them that Abby was his child. But she had specifically told
them that she never wanted to see him again.

“How did he find me?” she heard herself
say out loud.

Tyler frowned. “In the age of the
internet, anyone can find anybody if they try hard enough.” He paused, probably
waiting for her to offer something more. But when she said nothing, he asked,
“Old boyfriend?”

In an instant, sitting on the bathroom
floor, she was transported to another moment in time. When Dan had come home
drunk from a night out with his friends, and he had accused Bess of going out
someplace without him. She hadn’t left the apartment at all that night,
wouldn’t have dared to. She had known by then that jealousy was one of his
worst triggers. She denied it, and went to the bathroom to get ready for bed. He
had followed her in and pushed her into the wall, calling her a string of
obscenities, punching her and then knocking her down to the floor, kicking her
in the stomach before he finally walked away.

Sitting on the floor now, her hands shook
convulsively at the memory.

“Abusive old boyfriend,” she heard Tyler
clarify for himself. “Fucking bastard,” he added, his fists clenching.

A biting chill swept over Bess as she
finally found her voice. “I have to get out of here.”

“What do you mean?”

“I have to get out of Annapolis.”

“You can’t leave the life you have here
just because some old boyfriend has come back to cause trouble. You’ll be running
your whole life, if you do that.”

“You don’t understand.” She could barely
see Tyler behind the film of tears forming in her eyes.

“I
do
understand. And I know that
I’m
living in this house and he won’t lay a hand on you without having it ripped
off first by me.”

“You don’t understand,” Bess repeated,
keeping her voice quiet. Please stay upstairs, she silently willed her
daughter.
Please give Mama a little time to figure out what to do.

Tyler stood and extended a hand to pull
her up. “Okay, so enlighten me.” He walked her out to the back porch, probably
thinking the same thing she was—that Abigail didn’t need to hear what was
going on.

Sitting in the cushioned chair, she
leaned forward, still pressing the cool washcloth to her face to dull the pain
behind her eyes. After a few deep breaths, she set it aside and looked out to
the Bay to soothe her soul. “Dan is Abby’s father.”

Tyler shut his eyes. “Shit. Does he
know?”

“No. I left him the day I found out I was
pregnant. I had already distanced myself from my friends and family in
Pennsylvania. Dan didn’t like or trust any of them. He liked keeping me to
himself, you know?”

“Trait of an abusive man.”

“Guess so. So anyway, it was the summer
before my senior year. We had been living together for a few months. I don’t
know why I stayed with him,” she felt compelled to add. How could anyone
understand why someone would stay with a man like Dan? Even going home to her
rotten parents for the summer would have been a better option than shacking up
with that bastard. “It’s so embarrassing.”

“You shouldn’t be embarrassed. You should
just be proud that you finally left. Guys like that are masters at
manipulation, Bess.”

Finally looking at him, she nodded. “That’s
it. That’s it exactly. I kept feeling like the abuse was my fault. That if I
could just be a better girlfriend, it would all work out.” Bess thought of her
parents and saw the pattern. If she could just be a better daughter. If she
could just be a better girlfriend. She had stepped from the frying pan into the
fire.

“But it didn’t.”

“No. Definitely not. The day I did the
pregnancy test, suddenly nothing else mattered except protecting my child from
him. I realized that I couldn’t fix Dan. So that day when he went to work, I
packed my bags and left.”

“He had no idea where you went?”

Bess shook her head. “I left a note
saying I was leaving town for a few months. I told him he’d be better off
without me—you know—so I wouldn’t enrage him too much.”

“What did you tell your parents?”

Bess actually laughed a little—probably
not the reaction Tyler was expecting. “I told them I was going to Europe with
some friends from college for the rest of the summer.” Shaking her head, she
rolled her eyes. “They never asked any questions, like where I was staying or
how I’d get the money to survive. And when the summer ended, I didn’t hear a
word from them either. They’ve never given a damn.”

“How did you end up here?”

Bess squeezed the knotted muscles in her
neck. “I drove down to Annapolis—it was literally one tank of gas, I
remember—and I stopped at a station to fill up the car. I didn’t know
where I was going. I had pulled out all the money I could from bank machines in
Pennsylvania before I left, just in case Dan figured out a way to get
information out of the bank, you know?”

“Smart thinking.”

“I got a room at that motel off I-97 and
stayed there for a couple weeks while I answered some ads for people needing
housecleaning. That’s how I heard about Maeve’s house. I cleaned a couple of
her neighbors’ homes and they vouched for me. So I was living with Maeve within
the month.”

Tyler leaned forward. “And you haven’t
heard from him? Up till today, that is.”

“No. I was kind of off the grid for a
while there, and I’ve tried to keep it that way as much as possible. Even now,
with Maeve gone, I still keep all the electric bills in her name. But it’s
harder when you have a kid, you know. When she started day care, there were a
lot of forms to fill out. Maybe something got online that way.”

“We can find out easily enough. I’ll Google
you tonight and see what pops up.”

Bess sighed. “Or it might have been my
parents. That’s what really scares me. Because about a year after Abby was
born, I decided to contact them. I don’t know why. They sure hadn’t wanted to
be in touch with me. But there was part of me that just felt like they might
want to know they had a grandchild.”

“You’d think.” Sarcasm laced his tone. “I
take it they didn’t turn into the grandparents of your dreams?”

“No. They thought I was going to ask them
for money. Told me that I had made my own bed, and now I had to lie in it.”

“Wow, tough love at its worst.”

Bess heard a call from upstairs. “Mama,
I’m naked!”

Bess almost grinned from the sound of her
little girl’s voice. Almost, but not quite, as a fresh crop of tears filled her
eyes.

“I’ll be right up for bath time, honey.”
Bess’s voice cracked with emotion as she tried to stand, wavering a little,
still lightheaded.

“I’m walking you up there. Can’t she skip
bath tonight?”

Forcing a small smile, Bess sighed.
“She’ll love you for life if she hears you suggest that.”

Tyler took her face in his hands and Bess
felt an unexpected surge of warmth that tamed the icy clutches of fear that had
been clenching her heart. “You’re not going anywhere,” he said. “Understand? Let’s
get Abby to bed, and we’ll talk more after.”

“You have a date,” she reminded him.

“
Had
a date. I’ll cancel. This is
more important.”

“You don’t have to,” Bess protested.

Tyler cocked his head to the side. “There’s
no way I’m leaving you and Abby alone tonight. If Janette doesn’t understand,
then she’s probably not the right girl for me.”

Bess stared at him a moment, almost lost
in eyes that seemed to offer her such hope, before turning to go back inside.

Whoever
was
the right girl for him
was a damn lucky woman.

Mick leaned back in his chair in the
windowless office at the Pentagon, his eyes deadly at the news. “Did you figure
out how he might have found her?”

Tyler gave a curt nod. “Cell phone. Bess
uses a burner phone, and the number’s unlisted. But she puts it on her credit
card, so one of those people-finder services has her listed.”

“Still, it could have been her parents.”

“That’s just it. We don’t know. And most
importantly, we don’t know if he knows about Abby.”

Mick narrowed his eyes. “Where are they
now?”

“I told Bess to take the day off work and
keep Abby out of preschool today. They went to Edith’s house.”

“Good idea.”

“I did a little research online and it
looks like he just started a job up in Gaithersburg. So moving to the area
might have been the push for him to show up on Bess’s front stoop now as
opposed to a couple years ago. I found his address.”

“Apartment or house?”

“Apartment. Drove by it this morning.”

Mick folded his hands in front of him. “What
kind of security?”

“Nil. No doorman or intercom. I can waltz
right up to his door.”

“Handy.”

Tyler nodded. “He’s got a police record. Looked
it up last night. Seems Bess wasn’t the only girl he knocked around.”

“Good,” Mick said, and clarified when he
saw Tyler’s eyes widen in response. “Good that he has a record. Bess never went
to the cops. And if he does try to get some kind of custody of Abby, we can use
that against him.”

“Exactly. But right now, I just want to
find out more. Like does he know about Abby? And if he does, does he know that
he’s her father?” Tyler pressed his lips together thoughtfully for a moment. “If
he doesn’t know about Abby, I might be able to just scare him away. From the
look on his face, he had no idea I was living with Bess. He looked like he was
going to shit his pants when I opened the door.”

“That’d be my guess, too. What’s the
build on this guy?”

“Nothing I can’t handle.”

Mick raised his eyebrows. “Assholes like
that have weapons. Don’t get too cocky.”

“I’m a Ranger. I’d take him down before
he could grab anything and you know it.”

“Did you talk to Bess about going to the
police?”

“Yeah. She doesn’t want to yet. And I
kind of agree. He hasn’t done anything yet.”

“He only beat up his girlfriend multiple
times,” Mick responded with sarcasm.

“Four years ago and in a different state.
If we get the police involved, he’ll probably find out about Abby.”

“That’s what it all comes down to. If he
doesn’t know about Abby, we should keep it that way.” Mick leaned back in his
chair, eyes still locked on Tyler. “So you’re suggesting a little
reconnaissance mission?”

“Yep. Needed your input though. I don’t
want to go off half-cocked. You’ve got a few missions under your belt,” Tyler
said, glancing at the ample medals pinned to Mick’s chest. “To say the least.”

“I think you’re right to confront him.
Catch him off guard. Get the info we need. Scare the hell out of him. And
leave. I’m coming with you.”

“No, Sir.”

Mick angled a look at Tyler that would
make any other man turn to ice.

“Respectfully, Sir. I need to do this
alone. If I show up with you, he probably won’t even open the door. Plus, he’s
never seen you. We can hold that card to our chest and maybe use it another
day.”

“You’re good at this.” Mick glanced away
thoughtfully, his eyes resting momentarily on the picture of Lacey he had on
his desk. “Okay, I’ll just drive you. If I don’t see you come out of his
apartment in, say, four minutes, I bust the door in.”

Tyler cracked a smile. “That’d fix the
guy.”

Mick grinned back. “Yeah, but also would
attract too much attention. So just get out of there in four minutes, okay? Bess
would have my hide if you got hurt. She says you’re a great housemate and
really good to Abby.” Mick took a sip from the coffee mug that had been sitting
on his desk, grimacing slightly from the taste. “Thanks for that, by the way.”

Tyler shrugged in response. “She’s good
to me. I’ve never eaten better in my life. And Abby? Hell, that little girl’s a
peach.” He paused a moment, then added. “Not planning on letting anyone hurt
them. Not on my watch.”

Mick set down the mug. “So have you
thought about how you’ll get the information out of him without him slamming
the door in your face?”

“I’ve got a plan.”

“I’m all ears.”

***

Logic told Tyler that he should feel an
adrenaline rush from the prospect of confrontation. Yet after facing armed
terrorists and insurgents, Dan Wils hardly registered as a blip on his radar
screen.

“You’re sure this is where he lives?” Mick
asked, doing a full circle around the perimeter of the apartment complex, eyes
searching, probably for security cameras.

Tyler spotted Dan’s Lotus parked outside
one of the two-story buildings. “Yep. That’s his car.” He jotted down the
license plate number, in case it might come in handy down the road.

“The guy drives a Lotus and lives in a
place like this?” Mick shook his head, probably picturing the same thing Tyler
was—massive monthly payments for a car that was begging to get vandalized
in exposed parking.

Dan Wils was a stupid as he looked. Which,
Tyler thought, could only work to their advantage.

“Okay,” Mick said, pulling into a space
just barely within sight of the apartment door Tyler had been eyeing. “Let me
see your watch.” He synchronized his with Tyler’s and set the alarm on his own
for four minutes. “I’m pressing the start button the second you walk in that
door. So don’t get chatty with the son of a bitch. Find out what we need to
know and get out. And no beating the shit out of him, Tyler. We don’t need the
police showing up on your doorstep. Got it?”

“Okay, Dad,” Tyler grumbled, hoping to
God that the guy took a swing at him so that he’d have the excuse to defend
himself. Just one punch is all it would take to hopefully scare this guy out of
Bess’s life.

Tyler stepped out of the car and walked
up to the door, glancing to both sides of him before he knocked. Not a soul
around or a security camera in sight. So that he couldn’t be visible through
the peephole, he stepped to the side of the door. As expected, Dan opened it.

Tyler slipped his foot against the frame
of the door. There was no slamming it shut on a steel-toed Army boot.

Dan’s eyes were wary at the sight of
Tyler in uniform. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

Tyler smiled. “You were nice enough to
pay me a visit at my place. Thought I’d return the favor.”

“What do you want?”

“A few minutes of your time. I think we
have something in common.”

“I don’t have shit in common with you.”

Tyler cocked his head. “Really? Then you
were looking for a different Bess when you showed up on my doorstep?”

“Fuck you.” He tried to shut the door, and
it stopped on Tyler’s boot.

“That’s fine, chickenshit. We can talk right
here,” Tyler said, raising his voice. “Air your dirty laundry out so that your
neighbors can enjoy it.”

Dan stared at him a moment, glancing
briefly over Tyler’s uniform, no doubt wondering if he had some kind of weapon.
You bet I have a weapon.
Two actually, Tyler thought, willing his fists
to not form yet. Can’t scare the guy too much if he wanted an invitation
inside.

Dan opened the door. “Get in. I’ll give
you two minutes before I’m calling the cops.”

Yeah, right.

Tyler stepped inside and looked around. Pretty
much looked like a typical apartment for a single guy, with a brown sectional that
was likely older than its present owner, and a papasan chair. The mismatched, second-hand
furniture, though, seemed inconsistent with the state-of-the-art widescreen TV
that could barely fit the wall. Between the TV and the car, Tyler was starting
to suspect Dan might be leading a lifestyle he couldn’t afford.

“What do you want?” Dan said, shutting
the door behind Tyler.

“Simple. I want to know why you were sniffing
around my house and my woman.” Tyler answered possessively, playing the role of
the protective boyfriend, which he figured would be the best way to keep the
guy away from Bess.

“I was in town. Wanted to see how she
was. We had a thing a few years back.” Dan stalked backwards a few steps from
Tyler, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Yeah, and I know you beat her when you
were together. You have to know, I don’t like people who do that, Dan-Dan.”

Dan leaned casually against the back of
his couch. “Is that what she told you? You’re a fool, man. You can’t believe a
girl like Bess. She’ll say anything for attention. She likes it rough, you
know. Then she can cry about it later.”

“So if she’s such a lying bitch, why’d
you look her up?”

Dan shrugged. “You’ll do the same when
she screws you over like she did me. I just wanted to scare her a little. But
if you want her, she’s all yours. Now get the fuck out of my place before I
call the cops.”

Tyler couldn’t resist the laugh that
escaped him. “You’ll call the cops? I wonder whose side they’d take. Some
lowlife with a police record, or a decorated Soldier?”

Dan looked uneasy, probably from the
mention of his police record. “So what do you want?”

Stepping toward him, Tyler angled him a
deadly gaze. “I want you to stay away from my house and my woman. You got that?
If I see you sniffing around again, they’ll never find your body.”

“You’re fucking crazy.”

Tyler scoffed. “I’m a Ranger, asshole. It’s
a whole special brand of crazy. And we get a little pissed when guys like you hurt
women. You just keep remembering how fucking crazy I am the next time you get
the itch to find out what Bess is up to.”

Turning toward the door, Tyler knew Dan
would try to strike him when he wasn’t looking. Guys like this were so
predictable. When he felt him close in, Tyler ducked his head, spun around, and
kicked him in the gut right before planting his fist in Dan’s face.

Dan fell to the floor.

“911, buddy. Call them right away,” Tyler
advised Dan, knowing damn well he wouldn’t. “You remember what I said, Dan-Dan.
You’re being watched. I called a friend with the police. They’ve got your plate
number. They’ll be looking out for you. Anything weird happens within a five
mile radius of Bess and it’ll be pinned on you, believe me.” He stood, pinning
his boot against Dan’s chest much more lightly than he would have preferred. “You
go on with your life, and I’ll let you live. You come around Bess again, and I’ll
seriously fuck you up.”

After walking away, Tyler shut the door
behind him, pain radiating from the fist he had acquainted with Dan’s face. It had
been overkill. He could have sent him to the floor with lesser a blow. But damn,
it had felt good to feel the guy’s cheekbone crunch against his hand.

Climbing into Mick’s car, the questioning
happened fast. “Does he know about Abby?”

Tyler grinned. “Nope. He didn’t mention
her at all. And believe me, he would have.”

Relief washed over Mick’s face, making
Tyler realize the Commander cared as much about that little girl as Tyler did.

“Call Bess right away,” he said, handing
him his cell.

Tyler winced a little when he took the
phone in his grip, his hand already swelling slightly from the impact.

Mick narrowed his eyes on Tyler’s hand.
“I told you not to beat him up.”

Tyler shrugged. “What could I do? He hit
my fist with his face.”

Pulling out of the parking lot, Mick
laughed.