Chapter 12

Just outside Harm and Mac's house

He remained still, crouched low in some dark corner like a thief in the night. It was a quiet night, and so he made sure to match that silence. He was a thief, and he was eyeing his prize, methodically planning how to make her his own.

And Jamie was fuming that at that moment, she, who should have been his, was in the arms of another man. Even after a month, he still couldn't believe that she would go ahead and marry Harm. She deserved someone so much better. He has been watching them for a month now since she cut him out of her life. He knew almost everything about them. What time they woke up, what time they ate, what time each one of them left during the day, what time they came home, even when, where, and how many times they had sex.

That last bit of knowledge made him sick to his stomach. They were at it almost every night. It was almost enough to make him vomit. Yet, he found himself to be a glutton for punishment. He couldn't bring himself to take his eyes off them. He wanted to gouge his own eyes out as he watched her cling to him with everything she had as passion shook her to the very core. He wanted to barge in there and throw him off of her. But he had to be patient. His time would come. He would get her back and she would end up thanking him for it. All he had to do was figure out how to make her willingly come to him.

Next morning

Harm and Mac's house

In the kitchen

"You know, Mac, you didn't have to get up early too you know. I could have made breakfast and I can also drive Mattie to school," Harm said.

"Harm's right, Mac. You know if I didn't have to wake up at 6:30am to go to school I sure as hell wouldn't!" Mattie chimed in.

"You guys don't expect me to sleep my life away do you? Just because I'm not back to work yet it doesn't mean I'm going to become useless. Besides, I enjoy spending the time with you two," Mac said. "Not to mention it would be easier if I drove Mattie to school since it's out of your way, Harm. Anyway, I need to feel useful... Needed."

"We'll always need you, Mac," Mattie said.

"Yeah, I just meant that since you didn't get much sleep last night that you'd take today to catch up," Harm said, a knowing grin on his face.

"Oh, and whose fault was that?" Mac asked, flirtatiously.

"Well… I do recall a certain Marine who just refused to call it a night…"

"Oh my God, I am not hearing this!" Mattie said, as she covered her ears in an exaggerated gesture.

Harm and Mac had the decency to blush, forgetting they had an audience. "Alright, alright, you can take your hands off your ears now, young lady. We'll spare you the details."

"As if you could ever share them, Harm you're such a prude!" Mac said, giggling uncontrollably.

"I think I'm going to have to agree with Mac on that one, Harm. Did you know that last year Harm had to ask Jen to make sure I knew about the birds and the bees before I went to my school dance?" Mattie said to Mac. "As if I've never heard of it at that age!"

Mac was laughing uncontrollably now, "I guess then it'll have to fall on me to give our children that lesson, huh Flyboy?"

"Ha ha, laugh it up, Marine. If our mini Harm or Mac ever comes up with such an inane question such as where do babies come from… You can be sure I'm passing it on to you!"

"We'll see about that… It'll all depend on whether or not I need a good laugh!"

"Oh yeah?" Harm asked, as he proceeded to tickle Mac within an inch of her life. "I can arrange for a good laugh."

"That's… not… fair!" Mac said in between her uncontrollable fits of laughter.

Mattie could only shake her head and smile at her parents' obvious signs of affection. She's never before seen two 'old' people go at it like Harm and Mac. Although she would always roll her eyes at their antics, inside she couldn't help but feel incredibly happy that they had finally ended up on the same page, so to speak. She had seen each one without the other at one point or another. 'Miserable' didn't even begin to describe them.

"Alright, kids, playtime's over. We're running late," Mattie said, in her best imitation of Harm.

"Oh my god, it's almost eight, I've lost track of the time!" Mac said, looking at the kitchen clock.

"You, lose track of the time?!" Harm asked, mocking Mac.

"Don't even start, Sailor," Mac said, wiggling out of Harm's embrace. "You finish your breakfast, Mattie?"

"Yup, I'm all set."

"Alright, let's get going, then," Mac said. "Bye, Harm. I'll see you tonight, I love you."

"Drive safely, I love you too," Harm answered, giving Mac one last kiss.

A couple of hours later

Mattie's high school

Jamie had followed Mac as she dropped Mattie off to school. Jamie however, did not follow her back. He stayed behind at Mattie's school. He believed he had the perfect plan, and it involved this one bothersome stage.

Jamie watched the high school kids during the break, most of them just sat around or walked around, talking. He kept his eye on Mattie who was chatting with a couple of girls on a stairwell. He wasn't sure how much Harm and Mac had told her about him, so he made sure that she didn't see him.

After a few more minutes, the school bell rang signalling the end of their break. The kids started heading back towards the school. Because Mattie was in a wheelchair, she fell behind the rest of the kids. Jamie was about to approach her from behind when he realized that he didn't need her at all. Mattie was making her way back to the school having completely forgotten the sweater she took off and left hanging on the stairwell. Jamie grabbed the sweater and left before anyone noticed him.

Half an hour later

Harm and Mac's house

Mac was sprawled on the living room couch, covered in the afghan Harm's mom had knitted for her, and completely engrossed in the new Nicholas Sparks novel she had bought on the way home. She never used to enjoy such sappy romance novels before, partly because she often found herself jealous of the heroine of the novel who always found true love. But now, instead of feeling jealousy, she found that she could relate to the characters.

Her reading was interrupted by the doorbell. Placing her bookmark in the book, she put it down and went to open the door. She looked through the peephole first and was surprised to see Jamie standing there. She cautiously opened the door.

"Hi, Sarah… you uhh… you look well."

"I am… thank you. Umm… Jamie, what are you doing here?"

"I came to speak to you. May I?" Jamie gestured with his hands if he could come in.

"I don't think that's such a good idea…"

"Please, Sarah… I need to talk to you."

"I have nothing to say to you, Jamie. I told you, I can't see you anymore," Mac said, as she started closing the door.

Jamie stopped the door with his foot. "Oh, I think you'll want to know what I've got to say," Jamie said, showing her Mattie's sweater that he was holding behind him.

"That's… that's Mattie's… she was wearing it this morning when I dropped her off at school," Mac said, taking the sweater from him.

"Yeah, I know… you see, I have her, and if you don't let me in… you will never see her again."

Mac quickly stepped aside to let him in. After settling himself comfortably in the living room, he began explaining to Mac his conditions.

"You see, Sarah, I've got Mattie. I've got someone watching her right now, and if he doesn't get a phone call from me, then he's got orders to kill her. So you'd better do exactly what I tell you to do…" Jamie said.

Mac no longer recognized the man in front of her. He was talking as if he was discussing the weather. It frightened her that this man who was once so dear to her was capable of something so evil.

"Please, Jamie. She's just a kid, she has nothing to do with this…"

"Oh, I know, she's merely a means to an end."

"What do you want?"

"Well, that's simple… you," Jamie said, leering at her.

"I… I don't understand…"

"You're going to come with me, and when we're far enough away, I'll make a phone call to my buddy to let your kid go."

"How will I know you'll keep your word?"

"You don't, but you see, you have no choice. Do you really want to test me, Sarah? Can you imagine what it would do to Harm if Mattie died? He would hate you, Sarah. He would hate you knowing that his daughter was killed and you were in a position to do something about it," Jamie said, talking to Mac as if she was a little child.

Mac knew that Jamie was right. She couldn't take the chance that he might be bluffing.

"What exactly do you want me to do?" Mac said, accepting defeat.

"Simple, I want you to put your shoes on and come with me."

"That's it? You just want me to get up and leave? Harm and my friends will come looking for me."

"They can try, but by the time they realize you're missing we will have been gone a few hours already, that's quite a head start. I'm not worried about them."

"How do you know I won't just leave you after you release Mattie?"

"Because I won't let you," Jamie said, as if it were so obvious.

"Yeah, well Harm's definitely going to notice Mattie's missing. He'll have the whole of San Diego looking for her."

"No he won't," Jamie said, confidently.

"What do you mean?" Mac asked, confused.

"Never mind that, come on," Jamie said as he waited for Mac to get her shoes on. "And remember, no funny business, if I so much as think you're doing anything sneaky, I'll have Mattie killed. If you try to take me out, my buddy won't get that phone call that he's expecting to get from me, and again, Mattie's dead. Don't even think of trying to outsmart me, Sarah, because you can't."

As Mac and Jamie made their way to his car, Mac's kind neighbour in her fifties, Mrs. Chen, called out to her from across the street, "Hello, Sarah, beautiful day isn't it?"

Mac did her best to plaster a smile on her face. "Yes it is,"

"By the way, thanks again for lending me your rice cooker. I just bought a new one, wait, let me go get yours."

"No, really Mrs. Chen, you can return it later. I'm in a little bit of a hurry," Mac said, looking at Jamie.

"Well, who is this handsome fellow?" Mrs. Chen said, noticing Jamie.

Before Mac could answer, Jamie interrupted, "Hi, ma'am my name is Adam. I'm one of Sarah's clients."

"I see, well it's very nice to meet you. You two enjoy the beautiful afternoon. Later, Sarah."

"Bye Mrs. Chen," Mac said, with a heavy heart.

2200 local

Harm and Mac's house

Harm was worried out of his mind. He's spent the last two hours calling all their friends if Mac was with any of them. After he and Mattie got home at around 1700, he noticed that Mac's car was still in the garage. He expected her to be home but she was nowhere to be found. At first, he assumed that maybe she had gone for a walk or maybe had stopped by at the grocery store. She didn't usually take her car for that. But then at around 2000 hours, he still hadn't heard from Mac.

"Harm, I'm worried… it's not like Mac to be gone for so long and not leave a note," Mattie said.

"I know, I know. It's not like her at all. I mean, she couldn't have been planning to go far without her car. Also, she didn't bring her cell phone, which isn't exactly weird in and of itself…"

"You don't think something bad happened to her, do you?" Mattie asked.

"God, I hope not, Mattie," Harm said, shuddering at the thought. "But something's definitely not right. Mac would know that I'd be going out of my mind by now, if she could she would have called by now… I'm going to call Detective Summers."

Harm could see just how scared Mattie was and he didn't want to add to her fear by panicking. But Harm was in panic mode. Something happened to Mac, and he was scared that whoever had attacked her a month ago was back to finish the job.

"Detective Summers," the police officer said on the other end of the line.

"Detective, it's Harm, I'm sorry to call so late, but Mac's missing."

"Ok son, calm down, and tell me what happened."

Harm proceeded to tell the detective everything that's happened since he got home. The detective listened patiently until Harm was finished.

"Alright, Harm, usually we don't consider someone of your wife's age missing until after seventy two hours, however, because I personally know the two of you and because of what happened to her last month, I'm going to take this very seriously. I'll have every available officer on the lookout for her. Stop by my office and drop off a picture of her, I'll make sure it makes it to tomorrow's newspaper," the detective said.

"Thanks Detective Summers. I'll be over in about twenty minutes," Harm said, hanging up the phone. "Mattie, get me the most recent picture we have of Mac."

Harm was putting on his shoes, when there was a knock on the door. It was Mrs. Chen.

"Harm good evening, is Sarah in? I just came to return the rice cooker she lent me. I could have returned it to her earlier, but she seemed to be in a real hurry with her client," this got Harm's attention immediately.

"What client, Mrs. Chen? Mac's not working right now."

"Oh she was with this man… what was his name… Oh yeah, Adam."

"Adam? What did this man look like? Please, Mrs. Chen it's very important."

"Well, he was about your height, about mid thirties, blonde hair, blue eyes… very handsome if I may say so. You must be quite the secure husband letting your wife spend time with such a man," Mrs. Chen said, jokingly.

"Umm… yeah. Mrs. Chen, did my wife mention where they were going?"

"No, she didn't, only that they were in a hurry."

"Did they take a car?"

"Yes. Harm, what's the matter, you're looking rather pale."

All of a sudden, Harm remembered that Mattie took a picture of Mac and Jamie the night he had dinner with them. He asked Mrs. Chen to come inside while he grabbed Mattie's digital camera. She hadn't yet gotten around to developing the pictures, but thankfully, digital cameras nowadays allowed you to preview a picture.

"Mrs. Chen, was the guy you saw this man?" Harm asked, showing her the preview on the digital camera.

"Yes, that's him! That's Adam."

TBC in chapter 13

Sorry for the delay in between chapters. I had a bad case of writer's block, on top of the already busy schedule I have. But thanks so much for sticking with me. There's not too much left to go. I have an idea of how things are going to end, but if you have any suggestions, please feel free to let me know. And thanks again for all the feedback. It motivates me to keep on writing! Stay tuned for the next chapter.