Special Forces Father by Mallory Kane Read Free Book Online Page B

college, when he’d walked out on her to join the army, she’d figured it was an empty threat. She had thought he’d come back, apologizing for blowing up at her, as he had so many times. But he hadn’t. He’d not only joinedthe army, he’d qualified for the Special Forces division.
    And now, looking at him, she knew he’d been captured or injured, and not long ago. He had not even recovered. She also knew he’d walked out again—this time from the hospital, against medical advice. She realized she was staring at him when he raised his gaze to meet hers. She blinked and looked down at her mug.
    “So what are yougoing to do this morning?” he asked.
    Suddenly the beautiful caramel color of the café au lait was about as appealing as mud. She pressed her knuckles against her mouth, hoping to quell the sobs building in her throat. Max was gone. Nothing else mattered. “I don’t know,” she said in a small voice.
    Travis sent her an assessing look. “You need to go in to work,” he said.
    She immediatelyshook her head. “No. I couldn’t concentrate. I couldn’t talk to anyone without breaking down—” Her throat closed on the last word. She swallowed and blinked against the sudden haze in her eyes. She gestured toward her face. “See? Everybody would know that there is something very wrong with me.”
    “You’ve got a full schedule?” he asked.
    She shook her head. “No. I cleared my schedule soI could prep for the trial. It starts in ten days and I haven’t even finished reading the witness statements, much less interviewing the senator and whoever else I feel I need to talk to.”
    “Then that’s what you should do. You go in and work on the trial. Isn’t that what the kidnappers want you to do? You can’t get your son back until the trial is done and it goes the way they want it to go.It would be good for you, make you feel like you’re actually doing something to get him back. If you sit around here, you’re just going to make yourself crazy.”
    Kate thought about it. What Travis said made a lot of sense. It was exactly something she’d have told a patient if the situations were reversed. But they weren’t. She couldn’t think like a shrink right now. She was thinking like amother whose child was in deadly danger. “But—what if something happens? What if they call me?”
    “You’ve got your cell phone—” He stopped, a thoughtful look on his face. “Your office number is published, right?” he asked.
    She nodded. “Of course.”
    “What about your home number?”
    “No. I don’t like to publicize it or my cell.”
    “But the kidnapper called your cell, right?”
    Kate thought about dropping the phone and having to scramble around to find the battery and the back. “How did they get my number?”
    “Good question. Although I guess a lot of people have it.”
    Kate pressed her lips together. “Yes. Too many. I’ve probably been too lax with giving it out. It’s just so much easier than trying to juggle the office and the home phones.”
    “So, are yougoing to go into work?”
    “I don’t—” She pushed her fingers through her hair. “I can’t decide. All I can think about is Max.”
    Travis watched Kate. She’d always been the most levelheaded, together person he’d ever known. He’d loved that about her. His childhood had bordered on chaos, until his dad had suffered his first stroke. If his dad and mom weren’t yelling at each other, one of themwas yelling at the kids. And occasionally his older brother Lucas and Dad would get into it. Those fights were legendary—and terrifying to Harte and Cara Lynn, the two youngest. Travis had long ago appointed himself as their guardian, but he knew he hadn’t been a good one. He’d always had too much of his dad inside him.
    During the time they’d dated in college, Kate had taught him that lifewasn’t about bouncing from one argument to the next. She’d always represented quiet and security to him, until that night