When you become a parent, it’s a no-brainer that you’ll do anything and everything in your power to protect your children. Throughout most of your child’s life, that time never comes (except in certain situations, of course), and you pray it never comes, because you want to keep your child safe no matter what the price. Unfortunately, some families are unlucky, and the child gets injured to the point of seeking emergency treatment, or worse, the family loses the child.
Incidents like that can be avoided sometimes, but, for the most part, shit happens at a split second. A car driving at 50mph can’t stop in time, and hits a kid who ran into the street, a school bus crashes, ending in fatalities. This is a cruel world, so much happens that you think could’ve been prevented, but in reality, it can’t be. If it’s meant to happen, it will. Craig learned this the hard way. Craig is a forty-seven year old male, with an average body type. Muscular, with some fat, and a few gray hairs. Craig’s wife, Angie is only two years younger then he, and even in her mid forties, can easily turn heads of those younger than her.
Craig and Angie had met during college when their professor made the class pair off in groups of two. Originally, Craig hadn’t cared much for her, and wanted to get the work done and improve his grade. Their paring lasted a few weeks, which resulted in them talking on a personal level, and getting to know each other. By the time they had finished the class all together, they had already been together for several months. It was their 6th month of being together that Craig proposed to Angie, which she teary-eyed accepted.
Together, they have a thirteen year old daughter, Grace. Grace looks like a mini version of her mother, beautiful blond hair, and blue eyes, with a body that made Craig cringe. Now, Craig wasn’t a pedophile in any way shape or form. He had no desires to sleep with his daughter, but he couldn’t hide the fact that she was beautiful and sexy. Body wise, she had long legs, perfect c-cup breasts, and an ass that could easily attract eyes to it.
Craig knew once she started hitting puberty, he’d end up kicking a lot of boy’s asses off his property. He’d stress to Grace several times that boys her age wanted only one thing, sex. Grace seemed to understand, and promised she’d never do anything stupid. Craig just hoped she could keep that promise.
“Morning dad.” Grace called, walking into the kitchen.
Craig was snapped from his train of thought, and looked at his daughter. “Morning. Didn’t we talk about you wearing more to bed?” He asked, observing his daughter’s sleep wear, or lack thereof. Her sleep wear of choice? T-shirt and panties. Maybe this would be okay if she was a child, but at thirteen, and with a body like that? Fuck no! Not even Angie walks around like that (unless it’s just me and her. hehehe).
“Sorry, it was just so hot last night! Be glad I didn’t sleep naked.” She teased at him, smirking.
‘Trust me, I am’. He thought to himself. He’d never do anything sexual to his daughter, but he still couldn’t control the raging hard on he’d get seeing her sexy body, especially now with just a t-shirt and panties.
“I see someone lost their clothes.” Angie teased her daughter, walking into the kitchen.
“I see someone woke up later than usual.” Shot back Grace.
In any other household, that would be considered disrespectful. In our household, it was called joking around. Grace respected both of us enough, because we raised her to, and we raised her right. “Am I going to have to get the hose on you two?” Craig just laughed at the squabbling ladies. “Grace, you may want to start getting ready for school. I’ll throw in a pop-tart in the toaster if you’re hungry.”
“Thank you daddy!” Grace said cheerfully, and skipped off to get dressed.
Craig almost facepalmed. Her skipping sent her ass swinging like a swing set. Damn teenage girls! Looking back to the clock, Craig grabbed a donut from the counter, and kissed his wife goodbye. Angie worked all day like Craig, except she got off later than he did. The day seemed to go smoothly up until Craig was in a meeting. A secretary entered the room, telling him he had a phone call he should take.
With a bit of annoyance for being interrupted, he hurried to the phone. “Hello, this is Craig.” He said in a bit of an angry tone.
“Mr. Smith? This is Miss Heim, the truancy officer at your daughter’s school.”
Truancy officer? Now she had his attention. “How can I help you, Miss Heim?”
“Your daughter didn’t check into school this morning, and we didn’t get a call from Mrs. Smith stating she’d be staying home.”
Craig was baffled. Did she really skip? No, that wasn’t like Grace. “That’s because she was supposed to be going to school. I’m very sorry, I’ll call my wife, and my house, and find out what’s going on. Thank you.” He quickly hung up the phone, and called his wife. “Angie, have you heard from Grace?”
“No I have now, why?”
“I just got a call from her school, they said she didn’t show up today.”
“What? Do you think she skipped?”
“I sure as hell hope not. I’ll call home.”
“Ok, let me know.”
Craig quickly dialed home, and didn’t get an answer. He redialed several times, still nothing. With a bit of panic, Craig told his boss he was on emergency leave, and sped home to an empty house. “GRACE?!” Craig yelled, not getting a response. Not even a cleaning crew could inspect the house as thoroughly as Craig did. After searching the entire house, Craig cursed loudly. No sign of her.
Craig whipped out the phone book, and began calling every single one of her friends he could find, and all of them led to dead ends. With real panic setting in, he called his wife, and told her she needed to come home now, and he’d explain when she got here. After talking to her on the phone, he called the police, and was told an officer would be sent to his house to get info about Grace.
A knock at the door made Craig jump a little. He was so preoccupied with his thoughts, he hadn’t even noticed the police cars in his driveway.
“How long has your daughter been missing?” asked one of the officers.
“Since this morning. Her school called, said she never showed up. I called all of her friends I’ve got the numbers for, they said she wasn’t there. This isn’t like our daughter, she’d never skip school, and she certainly wouldn’t just vanish.”
“Does she have a cellphone, or anything we can contact her with?”
“No, my wife and I forbid it.”
“Honey?” Angie called, walking into the house. “Why are the police here?”
“Grace is missing, she’s not at her friends, she’s not here, I’ve no idea where she is.”
Angie couldn’t even think up words, she just broke down crying.
Craig quickly wrapped his arms around her. “We’ll find her, we will.”
“We’ve put out an alert, but we’ll need a current picture of her.”
“We can do that.” Craig said, getting a pic from his wallet.
“We’ll do everything we can, don’t worry.” Said one of the officers, who raced back to his car.
With nothing else to do but wait, Craig and Angie sat in their living room, holding each other. “Where…where do you think she is?” Angie asked.
“I wish I knew, baby. We will…” Craig was cut off by the phone, and quickly answered it. “Hello?”
“We have what you’re looking for.”
“What? Who is this?”
“Your precious daughter, we have her. If you call the police, we will kill her.”
Craig froze, almost dropping the phone. “Don’t…don’t you fucking hurt her, or I swear I’ll kill you.”
Upon hearing this, Angie cried, knowing what had happened.
“We know you have a nice little bank full of money. Bring it to us, and you can have your daughter.”
“Where?” Craig sighed, and wrote down the location. This wasn’t going to be good. The area was an abandoned warehouse in a part of the city that was rarely visited. With no police presence, he’d be walking into a possible trap, and something he couldn’t get out of. “If you hurt her, I promise it’ll be the last thing you do.”
“We’ll see.” Click.
What this guy didn’t know, was that Craig was an ex FBI agent who still had some buddies at the bureau to help him. With some quick calls, he managed to trace the location from where the kidnapper called to a country-side house. “Baby, I’m going to get her back.”
“What? How? Shouldn’t we call the police?”
“I’m doing this alone. Any sign of police presence, Grace dies. I can handle it.” He said, kissing her lips, and went into the garage, fishing up a small safe. Opening it, he pulled out a black Beretta, and a Colt .25 Getting some spare magazines for both weapons, he put the Colt into his pocket, and the Beretta in the back of his waistband. Reaching behind his work bench, he got his trusty M4, a ‘retiring’ present from the FBI. Packing it in a weapon’s bag, he jumped into his truck, and sped off to the house.
Along the drive, Craig couldn’t help but think bad things. What if they raped her? What if she’s already dead? Not wanting to even think of it, Craig forced his mind elsewhere, and continued driving. After a bit more of driving, he stopped, and parked the truck out of sight, and grabbed the M4. He slowly approached the house, which looked about medium sized, and could see there were guards outside. Two in the front, three in the back
So much for this being easy, he thought. With his M4 loaded, he brought it up to aim, and aimed toward the front of the house. The head of one of the guards was in plain view, and with a quick aim and trigger pull, he went down. Then the firefight began. The remaining three guards opened fire at Craig’s location, which did nothing since Craig slowly crept toward the south side of the house.
With the guards still shooting toward his last location, he shot the two guards who were behind the house, and used the house as cover as the final guard unleashed round after round of an AK-47. When the bullets stopped, and he knew the guy was reloading, Craig dived out, and shot the guard several times, killing him. The fact that there was only a few of these guys made him wonder if more were waiting inside. If that was the case, his M4 would come in handy, but if he was using Grace as a shield, his carbine could only cause more problems.
Setting the carbine against the house, Craig pulled the Beretta from his waist, and cocked it, slowly entering the house from the back door.
“Please, please, don’t do this, I don’t want to.” Cried Grace.
Hearing his daughter, Craig secured the part of the house he was in, and walked up the steps until he found the room with his daughter. There were two men, one who was undoing his pants, and the other who was holding Grace down. With anger filling, he refrained from killing both of them on the spot. “Freeze! If either of you move, I’ll kill you both.”
“DADDY!” Grace cried happily.
The two guys turned around, the one pulling up his pants, and grabbing his AK. The other grabbed Grace, wrapping his arm around her throat, using her as a shield.
Damnit, he thought, and retreated to the hallway. The one guy continually fired his weapon, forcing Craig to hide behind a wall. When the firing stopped, Craig assumed he was reloading, and moved from his spot to shoot the assailant. The second he came into view, the man opened fire. Two bullets ripped through Craig’s body, one going through his chest, the other his stomach.
Craig hid behind the wall again, cursing silently. He could feel himself bleeding, but didn’t have time to care. Grace was only on his mind. How can I hit this guy? Then it dawned on Craig to do a move he saw on a movie. Craig dived down on the floor, and pushed himself out towards the hallway, and fired three rounds at the man, hitting him. He fell hard, leaving Craig to assume he was dead.
Cautiously, Craig entered the same room, and found the final guy holding a Glock to Grace’s head. “Let her go, or you’ll end up like your crew.”
“Funny you’re making demands when I have your little girl. Drop the weapon, now!”
“Not a chance. Drop yours, or I will kill you before you even get a shot off. You may be using her as a human shield, but I spent years with the FBI, I’ve been in situations like this before, and in every single one, the idiot hostage taker died.”
“Final warning, drop it or she dies.” The man cocked the trigger, causing Grace to cry uncontrollably.
“Alright, alright.” Craig said, remembering he had the Colt in his pocket. He tossed the pistol aside. “Now let her go.”
“Nah.” He laughed, and shot Craig in both legs.
“Ahhh, fuck.” Craig cried, collapsing.
“Daddy, daddy?”
“Call him all you want, you’re stuck with me. After I kill this pathetic father of yours, I’m going to let you experience sex, something you obviously need.”
Craig snapped. The thought of his daughter being raped sent him over the edge. Without thinking, he reached for the Colt in his pocket. Grabbing it, he aimed at the man’s shoulder, which was exposed, and shot him two times. The impact of the bullets forced him to let go of Grace, which gave Craig the opportunity to shoot the man two more times, killing the hostage taker.
Craig slowly tried getting to his feet, his daughter helping. “Are you okay, Grace?”
“Yes, daddy, thanks to you. Here, let me help.” She held him up, helping him to walk.
The colt was still in one of his hands as he walked weakly. They had just left the room, making their way to the stairs when something caught his eye. The guy he thought he killed was still alive, and was reaching for the AK. Craig pushed Grace back into the room, and attempted to aim at the wounded man. Craig never even had a chance to dodge the bullets. With legs that had an injury, he was slow and weak. The bullets from the AK added new holes to his body, causing him to cry out again.
Craig tried to fight falling long enough, and got off a few more shots on the wounded man before Craig collapsed completely, the gun sliding away from him, blood pouring the floor.
“Dad? Dad? Talk to me.” Grace cried, and shook him. Even if she could call 911, they were too far out, no one would get there in time. “Dad, stay with me.”
“Grace..” Craig said weakly. “You are going to be an amazing woman. I love you..always remember.”
“Daddy..” Grace sniffled. “Stop it, you’re going to live.”
“Don’t..don’t ever let yourself be drawn into bad situations that you can’t get back out of. You have…you have a bright future ahead of you, there’s so much you can do.”
“I love you, Dad, please don’t leave me, you can hold on.”
“My darling, sometimes parents have to make the ultimate sacrifice for their child. I have always told myself I’d do anything for you, anything to keep you safe, anything to keep you alive, anything for you. As long as you’re alive, I can die happy knowing society still has an amazing young woman like you. ” He coughed roughly, indicating he was fading faster.
“Tell..tell your mother I love her..” He said, closing his eyes, fading away. “And, I love you..”
“Daddy? Daddy no..Daddy!” Grace shook him repeatedly, checked for a pulse, checked to see if he was breathing, and got nothing. Grace lay her head on Craig’s chest, crying, cuddling to him. “I love you too..” She cried harder, her hands still lightly shaking him, not wanting to accept his death.