Special Forces Father - By Mallory Kane Page 0,7

to tell anyone he was home. Then in a few days, he’d figure out what his next step should be. The one thing he knew was that there was no way he’d go back to Walter Reed or to any other hospital.

He walked up to Kate’s front door, thinking it was probably a good sign that the only car in the driveway was the Accord, the same car she’d had five years ago. If she had a man in her life, it appeared he wasn’t here.

Travis squeezed his hands into fists, flexed his fingers, then knocked on the door and waited.

Nothing happened. He glanced at the windows. He didn’t hear any movement, didn’t see any lights flash on. The one dim light, which looked like a lamp in the living room, remained the only light on in the house.

He knocked again, his brain suddenly filled with all the reasons why she wasn’t answering the door. Why hadn’t he thought of all this earlier?

There was a man and they had gone out in his car.

She was asleep, although at eight-thirty that didn’t seem likely.

She was in the back of the house and hadn’t heard him knock.

She’d recognized him through the window and didn’t want to open the door.

Then he heard something. He took a step back, his hands at his sides like a schoolboy, and waited to see the face that had kept him from losing his mind during those five long months in captivity.

* * *

KATE STARED AT the doorknob through blurry, tear-swollen eyes. Her first thought when she’d heard the knock was that the police had found Max and brought him home. She’d almost fainted with relief. Then it occurred to her that the young woman from the day care might have seen through her desperate lies and had called the cops to report her child missing.

“No, please. Just don’t be the police,” she whispered as she opened the door, praying for the best but bracing herself for the worst. She clung to the knob as she tried to see who was standing in the shadows beyond the dim porch light.

Suddenly, a third possibility rose in her brain. This could be Max’s abductor, here to tell her what he wanted her to do. Her breath hitched. Maybe he’d have Max with him.

She pressed a palm against her chest and stared at the dark figure that stood just beyond the light. She blinked, but she still couldn’t see into the darkness. “Who is it?” she asked, trying to sound confident, but hearing the hoarse fear in her voice.

The figure moved forward so that the light played across his features. Kate frowned, trying to make sense of what she saw. “H-Harte?” she stammered, taking in the familiar hard edge of the man’s jaw. “Is that you?”

“Kate?”

The voice was ragged and hesitant. Kate frowned and squinted. The body was whipcord thin with long, sinewy muscles. No, it wasn’t Harte—but everything about the figure was so familiar. Who could it be? Her brain whirled, trying to make sense of what her eyes saw. There were two older Delancey brothers who were cops. Was this one of them, come to tell her something about Max? Terror ripped through her heart. The police rarely came to the door with good news.

The figure took another step forward, enough so that the light caught his dark, intense eyes.

“Oh my God,” she whispered. There was no mistaking those eyes. “How—? Where—?” Suddenly she couldn’t breathe. She clutched at her chest. She felt light-headed. Then her knees collapsed. “Travis?”

* * *

TRAVIS CAUGHT KATE as she swayed. He staggered under her weight. Not that she was heavy. He was just so damned weak. He half carried her to the couch and sat her down. There were drops of sweat on her forehead and she was pale as a ghost. But that didn’t make sense. Kate had always been the epitome of control. She wouldn’t faint. She wasn’t the type.

He sat on the coffee table and looked at her closely. He’d noticed how pale she was as soon as she’d opened the door. Now he saw that the skin around her eyes was puffy and red. She’d been crying, and that wasn’t like her, either. Something was desperately wrong with her. And the one thing he was sure of was that it had nothing to do with him.

She stirred and opened her eyes. It didn’t matter how red and swollen they were. Those aquamarine eyes were stunning. She stared blankly for