Special Forces Father - By Mallory Kane Page 0,28

picked up the chair. “I never had a son—” He stopped and swallowed, looking down at his white-knuckled fist doubled around the back of the chair.

Dawson’s large hand squeezed Travis’s shoulder for a second. “We’ll get him back. I promise.”

Travis’s gaze snapped to Dawson’s. “Don’t say that if you don’t mean it, Dawson. Especially not to Kate. She’s fragile, barely holding it together. It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours yet.”

“And that’s good. I’m glad you didn’t wait to contact me. By the way, did you notice the man’s accent?”

“He had an accent?”

“Definitely Midwestern. I think he may be from Chicago.”

“That’s pretty specific.”

“Your brother Lucas’s wife has a brother who lives up there. His kids are picking up the accent. That means Dusty can narrow the search field. The sooner we get on this—” he held up the phone “—the better. I need to get going. My computer whiz is in Biloxi. I can do a little, but the kid’s a genius.”

Travis nodded.

“I’m going to put that tail on Stamps, too. So if you go to see him, give me a call first. Put my number in your phone.”

“I don’t have a phone.”

Dawson’s brows shot up. “Don’t have a phone? You’ve got to have a phone. Walk with me. I keep a few burner phones in my trunk, just in case. I’ll give you a couple of them. Give one to Kate, to take the place of this one.”

The two of them headed downstairs. When Dawson retrieved the phones and handed them to Travis, he looked at them and frowned. “How’s Kate going to get calls from the kidnapper?”

“Oh, that’s easy enough,” Dawson said. “Hang on.” He pulled Kate’s phone out of his pocket. “Give me that phone.” He pointed to one of the phones Travis held. He used his thumb to press buttons on it, looked at the display, then pressed buttons on Kate’s phone. Glancing from one device to the other, he nodded. “Okay,” he said. “Now any call that comes to Kate’s phone will be forwarded to that phone. Explain that to Kate when you give it to her.”

Travis nodded.

“As soon as I get back to the office, I’ll get Dusty to fix it so that we can listen in on any calls. Tell Kate that, too. Tell her anything that is said on the phone will be recorded. Tell her to try and get as many specifics as she can out of the guy.”

“That’s great, Dawson. Thanks,” Travis said. “I don’t know how to—”

“Hey,” Dawson said, grasping his shoulder briefly again. “Don’t worry about it. Just keep me up to date on what’s happening with the trial.”

“Right. That guy said the trial date’s been moved up. I’ll bet that’s why Kate called. I didn’t answer the phone because I didn’t want to listen to her yell at me for taking her phone and contacting you. She’s going to be so mad at me.” Travis ran a hand through his hair. “And I can’t blame her. When she finds out the kidnapper called, she’s going to panic.”

“Tell her I recorded that whole conversation. And tell her not to worry. He’s not going to hurt your boy. He’s going to call back at seven o’clock and he’s going to let Kate talk to him.”

“How can you be sure of that?”

“Because I told him to. The guy’s a pro. He’s got sense enough to keep her as calm as possible. If she’s too distraught, she won’t be able to do her job. That’s why I was careful to remind him that she wasn’t available to talk to him because she’s working on the case.”

Travis nodded again. “I couldn’t have done this on my own, Dawson.”

“Hey, kid, you’ve got a whole different set of skills. When you confront this kidnapper, you can take him down and beat the crap out of him.”

Travis was a little taken aback. “That’s not how we work,” he said.

Dawson’s eyes narrowed assessingly. “Sorry. I guess I still see you as a pissed-off kid, instead of a Special Forces operative. No offense.”

Travis held out his hand. “Thanks.”

Dawson took his hand and the two of them man-hugged again.

Then Travis looked up and down the street. “I better get going. If the town is like I remember it, someone we know will walk up before long.”

Dawson smiled. “It’s not easy being the grandkids of the most infamous politician in the state.”

“You got that right.” Travis headed toward his car.

Dawson opened his car door, then called out to Travis. “Kid,”