Special Forces Father - By Mallory Kane Page 0,31

rubbed it as if he’d had on tight handcuffs.

“By the way, where would I find your two buddies this afternoon? Do you have any idea?”

Stamps shook his head again. “I—I think Whitley is in Baton Rouge. But Sills? You—you can c-call my secretary. She’ll track him down for you.” He gave Travis the number.

Travis stored it in his phone, pocketed it, then pointed at Stamps’s wrist. The senator stepped backward. “Remember,” Travis said. “Just between us. Got it?” he asked, smiling.

Stamps nodded, sending his jowls quivering in an entirely new direction.

Chapter Six

Travis got to Kate’s house at fourteen minutes until seven. He’d called Stamps’s secretary and found out that Darby Sills was scheduled to attend the same dinner Stamps and the mayor were attending. He wasn’t above confronting the senior senator there, but by the time he found out where Sills was, it was after five-thirty and he was facing driving across the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway during rush hour. Just as he’d figured, it had taken over an hour to get back to Kate’s house.

He breathed a sigh of relief as he closed the front door behind him. Then he saw Kate. At the same time, she saw him and cried his name. She was barefoot and she’d obviously been pacing the living room.

He met her gaze as her expression, frantic with fear, turned to anger and her pale cheeks flushed. Then the anger morphed into a cold stare that could have flash-frozen hot coffee. “Give me my phone,” she snapped.

“Kate, listen to me. We don’t have much time.”

“Give—me—my—phone. How dare you take it from me?”

He took a deep breath. “I don’t have your phone,” he said quietly. He rose to the balls of his feet, bracing himself for her to explode, fully expecting her to come flying at him with her fists doubled. But she surprised him.

She stood perfectly still, her back ramrod straight, her expression eerily calm and composed. But Travis saw the tracks of tears on her cheeks. More than that, he saw the brittle tension that was holding her together. One tiny crack in that fragile facade and she would shatter. Sadly, he knew that his next words would be like a sledgehammer to her very frail shell of calm.

“I left it with my cousin Dawson.” He held up his hands, palms out. “He’s not a cop. He’s a private investigator.”

Her expression didn’t change, but her face turned pale and her hand fluttered to her chest. “Your—cousin?” she said, swaying slightly. “Why did you do that? You promised me.”

Travis watched her carefully. Was she going to faint? He stepped close to her and placed a hand on her elbow. She went rigid at his touch. “I’m going to explain. Okay?”

She didn’t answer, but she let him lead her to the couch and urge her to sit. He sat beside her. Her gaze was so full of betrayal and desperate fear that it made his heart hurt.

“I didn’t go to the police,” he said. “I promised you I wouldn’t.”

She looked at him for a long moment, then down at her hands. “Now I can’t talk to the kidnapper. He’s going to hurt Max.”

Travis reached for her hands but she clenched them together in her lap. “It’s okay,” he said. “Dawson’s got a computer guy that can hack into your phone. He’s going to trace the kidnapper’s call. Figure out where the signal originated, where the guy bought it—everything he can.”

“He’ll know, the kidnapper will know—and then he’ll—” Her breath caught on a sob.

“No, hon. No. He probably won’t find out, but even if he does—he’s not going to hurt Max. Dawson said the same thing I did. These people need Max. He’s the only hold they have over you. If something happens to him, they’ll have nothing. They’ve got to keep him safe and healthy.”

“But—”

Travis put a finger against her lips. “Shh. Let me tell you what Dawson said.”

She turned her head away from his fingertip and clenched her hands in her lap again.

Travis hated what he was doing to her. He’d known that going to Dawson was a good idea. He’d also known it would be difficult to explain it to Kate. But this was harder than he’d expected. The bewildered, betrayed expression on her face nearly broke his heart. He could only pray that he’d done the right thing.

“Dawson gave me a phone for you to use. As soon as he finished talking with the kidnapper, he programmed your phone to forward all calls to