Special Forces Father - By Mallory Kane Page 0,62
of irreplaceable firsts. But he had to drag his thoughts back to the moment at hand. He had to get Kate and Max to safety. As he’d told her, that was priority one. Then he’d call Reilly and give him the signal to close in and take the kidnappers.
“Okay,” he said roughly, his voice hoarse from emotion. “I’m going to lift you up. You’ll grab the top of the window, slide out backward, then drop to the ground. Be prepared. The drop is about five feet, because the trailer is up on blocks. Then I’ll pick up Max and lower him out the window to you.” He took a step backward and eyed her, head to toe. “Where are your shoes?” he asked, and immediately remembered seeing a high heel on the floor of the living room.
She looked down. “I lost one in the house,” she said, “and I kicked the other one off so I could walk. It’s okay, Travis. I can do it.”
“Walk barefoot through the woods and on the road, carrying Max?”
She lifted her chin and eyed him defiantly. “Yes,” she said. “I can do it.”
Travis didn’t know what he could do. He couldn’t give her his boots. They’d just slide right off her feet. He nodded. “Okay,” he said. “Let’s get started.”
“I need to wake him,” Kate said, turning toward the sleeping child. “I need to explain who you are and tell him what’s going to happen.”
“No,” Travis said. “He’ll be half-asleep and I can have him out the window and into your arms before he wakes up. Will he cry?”
She shook her head. “No. He always wakes up happy. Or at least—” She paused and looked at him. “He did before all this.”
“Good.” He pulled her close. “Once you have Max, you need to run as fast as you can toward the north.”
Kate angled her head and he knew she was trying to figure out which direction was north.
“Listen to me,” he said urgently. “When you drop to the ground, you’ll be in dense woods, lots of trees and lots of underbrush. You’ll be facing the trailer. That’s east, okay?”
She nodded.
“Turn ninety degrees to your left. That will be north. Move straight ahead as quietly as you can. There are lots of vines and briars. It’s going to be hard without shoes, but push through. Scratches aren’t important. Staying alive is. Within about twenty feet you’ll be out of the underbrush. Look ahead. Slightly to your right, in the distance, is a tower with red lights on it. Head straight for that tower as fast as you possibly can, carrying Max. You’ll see a gas station on the other side of an asphalt road. It’s closed and dark. My brother Lucas will meet you there. If he’s not there when you get there, you’ll find a bathroom on the west side of the station. It’s unlocked. Go in there and lock the door from the inside and wait for him. Ask him who he is.”
He felt her head shaking side to side. Pulling away, he met her gaze. It was wide and frightened.
“Just stay there?” she said shakily. “In that bathroom? I won’t be able to see anything. What if something happens? What if—?”
“Kate, this operation is planned down to the second. Lucas will be there. I will see you in less than two hours, I promise,” he said, looking her straight in the eye. “I promise you, Kate. On my life. You can depend on me.”
She looked at him for a long time, not blinking, not speaking. Then, slowly, she nodded.
He pressed his lips against her forehead. “Kate,” he whispered softly, “I love you.”
Her gaze flickered, then met his steadily. “I know you do,” she murmured.
But in his head he heard the words she didn’t say. I just don’t know if that’s enough.
“Now let’s get you out that window.”
* * *
KATE WAITED, shivering, not with cold but with fear, for Travis to lower Max out the window and into her arms. The tangle of vines, tree branches and underbrush around and under the window was dismaying. She was balanced with one bare foot on a root and the other sank into what felt like a pile of leaves. Her feet already hurt, but like she’d told Travis, she could do it. Max was her number one priority.
Then through the window she heard, “Mommy!”
She jerked. Oh, no. Max had woken up when Travis picked him up. Probably, he’d instinctively known that it wasn’t his mommy