Chapter 21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Addison was so grateful for the help she got from her friends in the days after the girls’ kidnapping. Wren took Yana to school and picked her up. Remi took over carpool duty for the boys, taking them to and from school when they said they didn’t want to take the bus anymore. They were worried someone would try to steal them away, which was a fear Addison and Ricky hoped would fade. They’d enjoyed riding the bus, and she hoped they’d relax enough to love it again soon.
And the day after the abduction, Addison and Ricky accompanied Ellory to the police station.
Sitting there and listening to her daughter tell the detectives everything her own father had done made Addison sick to her stomach. She wondered if he ever had any desire to get to know his daughter, but in the end, she decided it didn’t matter. He was where he deserved to be, behind bars. She had no illusions though—he’d eventually get out. But he was barred from ever contacting his daughter again, and if he did, Addison had no doubt Ellory wouldn’t hesitate to let the authorities know.
Now, a few days later, Addison wanted to see where her daughter’s head was at. Make sure she was dealing with everything that had happened. Ricky was at the base, the younger kids were at school, and Addison had taken some time off from work. She needed to spend time with Ellory.
“How are you doing, El? Really?”
“I’m okay, Mom.”
“You know you can talk to me about anything.”
Ellory rolled her eyes, which surprisingly made Addison relax a little. Her daughter was getting back to normal, and nothing felt better.
“You sleeping all right?”
“Uh-huh.”
She was playing with a little frog, rolling it around in her fingers as they spoke. She’d gotten it from the container where she’d been held hostage. It was in one of the many boxes she’d opened.
“I’m worried about you.”
At that, Ellory looked up. “Why?”
“Because you’re my daughter, and I love you. And you went through some pretty awful things. I’m concerned about that frog,” she admitted, nodding at the little toy Ellory was playing with. “Why did you keep it? Doesn’t it remind you of being stuck in that box?”
Ellory stared at the toy for a long moment, then met her mom’s gaze. “It reminds me of what happened, but not in a bad way. I was scared, that’s not a secret. But when I found that box of stuffed bears and realized they were flashlights of a sort, it gave me a kind of confidence I’d never felt before. I had done that. I climbed to the top of those boxes and found something useful to the situation. The box of frogs wasn’t useful at all, except it gave me the drive to keep searching. That’s when I found the tools.” She shrugged. “Looking at this frog reminds me that I’m more than just what people see. More than the sick kid. The puny one who hasn’t grown any boobs yet. More than the disgusting daughter that Brady saw. I’m resourceful and smart. I got Yana and myself out of that box. I saved us. The bad guy didn’t win. That’s what I see when I look at this frog.”
Addison pressed her lips together hard, attempting not to cry.
“Jeez, Mom. You aren’t going to cry again, are you?” Ellory asked with another roll of her eyes.
That was what Addison needed. She laughed. “Maybe. And you’ll just have to get used to your mama crying now and then.”
Ellory smiled at her and put the frog back into her pocket. “Ricky told me he was proud of me,” she said out of the blue.
“He is,” Addison agreed.
“When he saw how that stupid ‘Jingle Bell’ song in Yana’s bear bothered both of us, he took me to the garage and we figured out together how to turn it off. We did a bear-ectomy.” She grinned. “Took out the box that played the song, then rewired it so the lights still work. I love how he doesn’t offer to play dolls and talk makeup with me just because I’m a girl. He also told me that his team gave me a nickname!”
“They did?” Addison asked, knowing all about her daughter’s new nickname. Ricky didn’t keep anything from her. They talked every night when they went to bed. About the schedule for the next day, school, the adoption process, and about his work—what he could share, that was. He’d let her know that his friends now called their daughter “Little Mac”—impressed by how she’d used the skills he’d taught her to MacGyver her way out of the Conex container.
“Yeah. Little Mac. Like little MacGyver.”
“How do you feel about that?” Addison asked.
Ellory smiled again. “I cried when he told me. I can’t think of anything better than being MacGyver’s daughter. Of being a little MacGyver. Of him being my dad.”
“It’s a high honor for sure,” Addison told her, hanging on to her control by a thread.
“He said he wanted to adopt me…if I was okay with it.”
Addison couldn’t stop the tear that fell down her cheek. “And you said?” she managed to croak.
“Oh Lord, there goes the crying again,” Ellory said with another roll of her eyes. “Of course I said that would be awesome. I asked if I could call him Dad, and he got all emotional and said he’d love that…if it’s okay with you, of course.”
“There’s nothing I’d like more. Ricky and I talked about it already, and we both agreed that it would be up to you. But I’m so happy that you’re open to it.”
“Why wouldn’t I be? He’s awesome,” Ellory said. Then her smile faded, and she said in a very serious tone, “Can I ask you something?”
“Of course. You can ask me anything.”
“Are the SEALs going to get in trouble for killing that guy?”
Addison stiffened. She really didn’t want to talk about this with her twelve-year-old. But she couldn’t hide it from her. She’d been through hell, and she wanted to be as honest as she could be. Wanted to respect her need for answers.
“No.”
“I overheard the detectives talking about it. They said he was stabbed. In the heart. That it happened when everyone tackled him but they don’t know who did it.”
Every time Addison thought about that day, it made her feel sick, but Ellory was growing up quickly. It was her right to know about the man who’d tried to kill her, the man who’d shot Ricky.
“That’s true. Somehow, when the guys were trying to disarm him, he was stabbed.”
“I’m glad,” Ellory said bluntly. “I know that probably makes me a horrible person, but I don’t care.”
“It doesn’t make you a horrible person, it makes you human. He wasn’t a good man. He did very bad things, all in the name of money.”
“He shot Ricky.”
“Yeah.”
“He was aiming for me .”
Addison didn’t agree. Even if it was true, she couldn’t bring herself to admit it.
“He wasn’t even beat up or anything. Just had a knife sticking out of his chest, right over his heart. Those SEALs…they’re pretty badass,” Ellory said.
“Yeah, they are.” Now that was something Addison could agree with.
“Mom?”
“Yeah, sweetie?”
“I love you. I think you’re pretty cool.”
That was high praise coming from a preteen. She was wrong, Addison wasn’t cool at all, but she wasn’t going to contradict her daughter. “I love you too, and I think you’re pretty cool yourself.”
Ellory rolled her eyes yet again. “I’m not. But I don’t care. I am who I am. Crohn’s patient, nerd, theater geek, and Little Mac.”
“Yeah.” The stupid tears were back.
“Seriously, Mom? You’re so hormonal.”
Addison frowned. She had been crying more than normal lately. It was true, her daughters had been through something horribly traumatic, but still…
Could it be because she was pregnant?
She had no idea, and as much as she wanted a baby with Ricky, things were so darn chaotic right now. It wasn’t the best time. But then again, was any time ever going to be the “best time?” Things with the kids would only get busier as they grew up. And she wanted Ellory to have some time with her new little brother or sister…didn’t want to wait until she’d gone off to college before having a baby.
“Mom? You okay?”
“I’m okay,” Addison reassured her. “Just thinking.”
“I’m ready to go back to school,” Ellory said, seemingly out of the blue.
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure. What happened sucked, and I learned my lesson. Never go with anyone who isn’t on the official pick-up list. Which now includes many more people,” Ellory said with a laugh.
It was true. She and Ricky had added his entire SEAL team, all their women, Wolf, Caroline, and even Julie and Patrick Hurt.
“I told you before, it’s your decision on when to go back. I know you’ve been keeping up with your schoolwork.”
“Yeah. But my theater teacher is going to announce the new play we’ll be doing tomorrow. I want to be there. I think I’m going to try out for stage manager this time.”
Addison was so proud of her daughter, she could burst. She was strong as hell, something she’d always known based on how she dealt with her Crohn’s diagnosis and the symptoms that still flared up from time to time. But now, seeing how she’d bounced back after such a terrifying experience as being kidnapped and sold for her organs was almost humbling.
“Okay, hon.”
“I’m gonna go to the garage and work on that thing Ricky and are doing together. I want to show him how much I got done when he gets home tonight.” And with that pronouncement, Ellory stood and headed for the garage with a smile.
Addison sat on the couch for a long moment. Ellory was moving on from what Brady had done; it was time for her to do so as well. She had plenty of people emailing and inquiring about cake and cookie orders. Life was officially back to normal.
That night, when she and Ricky were in bed after a chaotic evening with the kids, Addison rolled toward him and straddled his hips.
He looked up at her with so much love in his eyes, she could’ve melted on the spot. She was the luckiest woman in the world, and she was suddenly speechless. Didn’t have the words to tell this man how much she loved him.
So she showed him instead, peeling her T-shirt over her head and smiling when his hands immediately lifted to cover her breasts. She leaned down and fed him a nipple. He took it into his mouth, sucking hard, making her pussy gush with need.
It didn’t take much foreplay for her to be ready for him. It was a little comical, the contortions they both had to endure in order to get the rest of their clothes off, but before long, she was once again straddling Ricky, this time with both of them completely nude.
Lifting up, she took hold of his hard cock and lined it up with her pussy, sinking down in one quick movement.
They both gasped at the feeling of bliss when he bottomed out. Their lovemaking was hard and fast. Ricky helped by grasping her hips and lifting and slamming her down on his cock. Then he moved a hand between her legs and firmly stroked her clit as she took him.
After she exploded in ecstasy, he rolled them until he was on top. He put her ankles on his shoulders, leaned in, and fucked her hard, fast, and deep. Addison loved seeing the expression on his face as he took her. The intensity in his eyes. He never looked away as he made love to her, which made what they were doing all the more intimate.
She squeezed her inner muscles around his cock, loving the moan that escaped when she did it. He pushed himself as deep inside her as he could get, then ordered, “Do that again.”
She did.
He twitched deep inside her body.
So she did it again. And again. Fucking him solely from the inside. She reached down and began to masturbate as he held himself still inside her. She always thought men needed the friction of movement to come, but her husband proved her wrong.
When she flew over the edge for a second time, every muscle in her body tensed, especially those in her pussy.
He grunted and shoved his hips against her, obviously coming hard inside her. And the satisfaction Addison felt was overwhelming. The love she had for this man all-encompassing.
When he was finished, he lay over her, not pulling out. Staying deep inside her body. He’d eventually slip out when he softened, but she enjoyed the feeling of being full of him as long as she could.
“Ellory accused me of being extra hormonal today,” she said quietly.
Her husband wasn’t a stupid man. His head flew up, and he looked down at her with an inquisitive stare. “And?”
“And nothing.”
“Did you take a test?”
She wanted to make a joke about a math test or something, but didn’t. “No. I don’t want to be disappointed if it’s negative.”
“So you’re what…? Just going to ignore it? Be surprised in nine months when you suddenly go into labor?”
Addison chuckled. “No. But…it’s so early. I just…I want to wait for a while. Enjoy you. My family. Get back into the swing of things.”
“What if you pee on the stick and don’t look at the results? Only I will.”
Addison burst out laughing. “As if you’d be able to keep a secret like that.”
“Hey, I keep secrets all the time,” Ricky protested.
“I know you do. But you wouldn’t last a day with this. You’d be all like, ‘I think you should start taking some vitamins, hon,’ or, ‘Are you tired? Maybe you should sit.’ I’d know in a heartbeat if you knocked me up.”
Ricky smiled sheepishly. “Okay, you might be right.”
“I am right,” she countered.
“I hear what you’re saying, but I want to make sure you’re healthy. That everything is okay with our baby. What about this—one month. We’ll carry on as normal for a month. Then you’ll do the test and we’ll go from there.”
Addison thought about that for a moment, then nodded. “Okay.”
Ricky leaned in and kissed her. His hips flexed, then he rocked them a fraction. “A baby. I never dreamed asking you to marry me would make me the happiest man on earth.”
“We don’t know if there’s a baby yet,” she warned.
“We don’t,” he agreed. “But I have another month to do my best to make sure there is.”
“Again?” Addison asked, as he began to slowly move in and out of her body.
“Again,” he confirmed. “I’m going to want to come inside you as much as I can in the next month. Make sure my seed takes root.”
She giggled. “Who says that?”
“Me,” Ricky said with a huge grin.
He was a dork, but he was her dork. Addison wouldn’t want him any other way. “Then you better get on it, because there’s no telling when one of our kids is going to knock on our door and want something.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said with a smile. Then proceeded to make Addison forget everything except the way her husband made her feel.