Special Forces Father (13 page)

Stopping on the side of the road, he slammed the steering wheel with the heel of his hand. “Damn it!” he
shouted, then pressed his palms against his eyes. He knew there was no way the van could have ever caught the sedan, but still he felt as though he’d failed his son. As though he’d failed Kate. All he could do now was head back. As he drove, he mentally cataloged each exit, and pinpointed the spot where he’d lost sight of the kidnapper’s car. He had driven almost thirty miles by the time he reached
the swamp, where he decided it was useless to go farther. He doubted the hideout was in there, so it had to be one of the exits after the point where Travis had lost him.

He drove to the warehouse and parked the van, then went upstairs to use Dawson’s computer. Using Google Maps, he marked the exits that the kidnapper might have used, then forwarded a copy to Dawson and printed a copy for
himself.

Within a couple minutes, Dawson called him. “So what am I looking at here?” he asked.

“I followed the kidnapper this afternoon. He went out Airline Highway. Of course I lost him around the Highway 51 exit, since his car was a whole lot faster than the van.”

“Did he get off at 51?”

“No. He was still going. That was the point at which I lost sight of him. I drove on
until I entered the Maurepas Swamp, but after a few minutes of driving and not seeing a single side road, I figured if he was hiding in there, I’d never find him. I guess I could have gotten off at every exit and searched for his car, but that’d be like a needle in a haystack, so I thought it might be better to get this information to you.”

“I’m glad you did. Dusty’s almost ready to make
the call. But we’ve got to get everything coordinated. We can’t afford to waste our only chance,” Dawson said. “We’ll coordinate from the warehouse.”

“Okay,” Travis said. “When?” He was ready, but he needed Kate to be involved. She was furious with him for going behind her back, but if she knew they were ready to close in on the kidnapper, she’d want to be there. She’d really hate him if
they went in and she wasn’t there for Max.

“Preferably tonight. Then we can make our move at daylight tomorrow, hopefully while they’re still asleep.”

“You’re sure you can pinpoint the location that closely?”

“I hope so. I think your map is going to help, plus I’ve got my best agent, MacEllis Griffin, standing by in a helicopter.”

“A helicopter?”

“He’s going to do a flyover
of the triangulated area and try to spot the sedan.”

Travis was impressed, although he should have known Dawson would think of everything.

“I need to let Kate know what we’re doing. I know she’ll want to be there for Max.”

Dawson paused for a split second. “Now, Travis, Ryker and Reilly are going to be handling the ambush and taking the kidnappers into custody. This is off the books,
but Ryker is arranging to have a female officer there to take charge of Max.”

“That’s not going to work for Kate,” Travis said with a wry laugh.

“Well, how you handle Kate is up to you. And trust me, I understand completely about a woman who won’t sit by and let you do the rescuing. But we don’t know anything about this guy. I doubt Ryker is going to want either you or Kate on the scene.”

Travis thought maybe his cousin could convince Kate that she should wait until the danger was over, but he’d be damned if they kept
him
from being there. He might not be a cop, but he was probably better armed barehanded than they were with their weapons.

“Oh, and I heard from Lucas,” Dawson went on. “He got some information from his friend in Chicago. It seems that a woman named Shirley
Hixon shares an address with an ex-cop named Bentley Woods. He was fired several years ago for taking bribes and protection money. Since then he’s been a suspect in a couple murders that seemed to be
gun for hire,
but in both cases the ID was weak, so they couldn’t prosecute. He said that Woods claims to be doing private-investigator work, but that word on the street is he’ll do just about anything
if the price is right.”

“He sounds dangerous. I don’t like it.”

“We think the Hixon woman is taking care of your boy. She and Woods have shared the same address for nine years. If they’ve been doing kidnappings for hire for that long, I’m amazed they’ve never been caught.”

“Yeah, well, that’s going to change this time.”

He heard Dawson sigh through the phone. “Just don’t forget
what I said. Ryker’s not going to want you there for the takedown.”

“Ryker and I will have to have a conversation about that,” Travis said.

Chapter Nine

By the time Kate got home that evening, it was after six o’clock. She’d spent all morning at the bank. She’d gone straight to the bank manager and asked him for a loan of two hundred thousand dollars. She offered the house she’d inherited from her folks as collateral and when that didn’t work, she tried to mortgage it.

When the manager insisted on knowing what
the money was for, Kate told him she wanted to remodel the house. He lectured her about the struggling housing market and the dangers of mortgaging a house for more than it’s worth.

When she’d been able to get a word in edgewise, she’d asked him, “Are you telling me that there’s no way I can get any type of loan for that amount of money?”

“That’s right, Dr. Chalmet,” he’d told her. “It
would be virtually impossible, no matter where you went.”

So she’d withdrawn the sixty-eight thousand dollars in her savings account—in cash, despite the manager’s disapproving expression.

After leaving the bank, she’d gone to the credit union, but they were less helpful than the bank had been. She’d thanked them and withdrawn the five thousand she had allowed to accumulate in her checking
account.

Then she’d gone to her office for a few hours to work on her findings for court, although she wondered whether there was any need for her to continue with her determination of Stamps’s state of mind when he’d shot Paul Guillame, now that the kidnapper had decided to target the Delanceys for ransom for their first grandson.

Back at home, she wearily took her cell phone out of
her purse and set it on the kitchen counter next to the day’s mail, then glanced at her watch. She figured she had about an hour before the kidnapper called. Kate had no idea if seventy-three thousand dollars would be enough to tempt him. She hoped she could tell him it was only part of the payment and she’d be able to get the rest within a week. She had a sinking feeling that he was not going to
be impressed with her small offering, given what he might be able to get from the Delanceys, but she had to try. She was desperate. It was her only chance to get her little boy back.

Rubbing her temples, where a headache was starting, she realized she hadn’t eaten anything since morning. She opened the refrigerator and stood there, staring at the spaghetti sauce, the fruit and the soft drinks
she’d gotten for Travis, but none of it appealed to her. Sighing, she poured herself a glass of milk and picked up the Oreo cookies.

She sat down on a kitchen stool and took one cookie out and twisted the top half off just like she’d shown Max, then used her teeth to scrape the filling off the bottom half. But she had no appetite. She left the two halves sitting on the counter and made herself
drink about half of the milk.

For a few seconds she was lost in a memory of Max licking filling off the cookies then dunking them in his milk. Oh, dear God, she missed him so much. Swiping tears off her cheeks, she stood and rinsed her glass. She wished she hadn’t sent Travis away. It had been a stupid impulse, fueled by her anger at him for all the things he had done without consulting her.
She’d known what he would do—the exact same thing he’d done when she’d told him not to call her again after their one fateful night together five years ago. And he’d done just that—exactly what she’d told him to do.

Why hadn’t he refused to leave? Why hadn’t he fought to stay with her? Did he not love her enough to defy her and stay, even if she was stupid enough to tell him to leave?

She set the wet glass on the drain board, and picked up the mail and glanced through it. Nothing but bills and flyers, as usual. When she looked at her watch again, the minute hand had only advanced by nine minutes. She blew out a breath in frustration. She wanted a shower, but she didn’t dare take the chance of missing the kidnapper’s call. She started pacing. Every time she turned and paced back
across the living room toward the kitchen, she eyed the phone and checked her watch. The minutes crawled.

Then, at eleven minutes to seven, the doorbell rang.

“Oh, Travis, don’t. Not now. I’ve got to deal with the kidnapper,” she muttered. The bell rang again. She swung it open, prepared to tell Travis that he couldn’t come in.

As soon as she turned the knob and pulled on the door,
it slammed inward, banging her jaw and her right shoulder. It knocked her backward, onto the floor.

A huge man rushed inside and slammed the door shut behind him. Light glinted off a big gun he was holding in both hands. Kate wanted to scream but the blow had knocked the wind out of her and it was all she could do to force small gulps of air past her spasming chest.

The man glanced down
at her then turned his attention to her house. He surveyed the kitchen, the living room, and the hallway to the bedrooms and the hall bath.

“Who’s here?” he asked, stepping a heavy booted foot on her left hand. He didn’t put his weight on that foot, but Kate had no doubt that if he did, her bones would crush like a bird’s.

“Noh-nobody,” she gasped. With his foot on her hand, she couldn’t
move. She lay there, on her back on the hardwood floor, still trying to get a full breath and watching him in abject fear. It was the kidnapper.

“Where’s your boyfriend?” he growled, digging in his back pocket. He pulled out a set of metal handcuffs and tossed them down on the floor near her. Then he took his boot off her hand. “Put those on.”

“Are...you...?”

“Don’t talk. Put the
cuffs on. Your right wrist first.”

She did as he said. The cuff fastened with a loud metallic click. She sat up and started to slip the other cuff around her left wrist.

“Hey!” he yelled. “No. Not in front. In back.”

“In back? But—”

“Shut up and just do what I say.”

She caught the dangling cuff in her right hand and put her hands behind her back, then tried to slide the
cuff onto her left wrist, but she kept fumbling and dropping it. The chain that held the two cuffs together was not very long.

“I can’t,” she said truthfully. She wished she were smart and brave enough to trick the man by pretending not to be able to fasten the cuffs, but unfortunately, her fumbling was real.

The man spewed out a string of curses. “Don’t try anything,” he warned. “Do
it!”

By some miracle, she managed to get her wrist inside the second cuff and fasten it. It made a flat metallic sound as it locked.

“Now sit over there.” He gestured with the gun barrel. “On the floor next to the TV.”

Kate went over to the TV and knelt on the floor.

“I said sit.”

She rolled sideways, pulling her legs out from under her, then tried to sit up. It was hard
with her hands cuffed behind her back. She wiggled around until her back was against the TV cabinet, and watched the man as he disappeared down the hall to search her bedrooms and bathrooms.

As soon as she heard him enter her room, she tried to stand, but again, she was surprised and dismayed at how hard it was to move without the use of her hands. By the time she got to her knees again he
was back.

“I told you to sit. What the hell are you doing?”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “My hands are falling asleep.”

“No, they’re not. You haven’t had the cuffs on two minutes yet. Stop horsing around or it won’t go well for the kid.”

With a huge effort, Kate pushed herself to her feet. “Where is Max?” she asked, trying to sound imperious and demanding, but knowing she wasn’t
pulling it off. “Did you bring him with you?”

“No,” he said and laughed shortly. “That’s not how it works. You’re going with me. I’m going to do this on
my
terms. I’m not about to give you any kind of chance to sic the police or your baby-daddy’s family on me.” He let his gaze run from her head down her body to her toes and back up again. “So, Doc, how much money were you able to get?”

“A lot,” she said eagerly. “You’re going to be really happy.”

“Where is it?”

She nodded toward the kitchen. “In my purse,” she said, swallowing the panic that was pushing its way up her throat. For a man like this, who kidnapped people for a living, was $73,000 enough? She felt her throat fluttering with the need to scream or run or do something other than just wait pitifully, while
this ghoul held the decision of whether or not she could see her child.

“In there?” He looked at her purse, then reached over and picked it up. “It’s not very heavy, considering. How much can you have in there. Gotta be less than a hundred thousand, right?” He grabbed her phone from the counter. “We’ll take your phone in case I want you to tell your baby-daddy something.”

“You’re not
going to check it?”

“Nope.” The man shook his head. “We gotta get out of here. Besides, I’ll be able to squeeze five times that out of the kid’s grandparents. I’m hoping they’ll be willing to pay more for you and the kid together.” He gave her the once-over again. “Then again, maybe not.”

His flat words and the leer in his gaze chilled Kate to the bone. What had she been thinking, trying
to handle this on her own?

He grabbed her arm and pulled her over to the kitchen counter. “Okay. Here’s what we’re going to do.” He unlocked the cuff around her right hand. Then he pulled something out of his shirt pocket, while he picked up the glass she’d left on the drain board. “I want you to swallow this. Here. Get some water.”

“What is this?” she demanded, studying the small tablet
the kidnapper showed her. She couldn’t identify it.

“You don’t know? It’s a sedative. A very fast-acting one. About five or so minutes after you take it, you’ll start feeling really drowsy. You should just go with it. You’re not going to get to find out where we’re going, anyhow. But if you swallow the pill, you can ride in the backseat. If you won’t, I’m going to put you in the trunk. Do
you understand?”

For a brief instant she considered refusing. He’d have to force her out to the car. She could fight and maybe attract attention from the neighbors. Maybe one of them would call the police. But as soon as that thought entered her head, she rejected it. She didn’t dare do anything that might put Max in danger. She looked at the tablet in his hand. “I don’t want to be drowsy
when I see my son,” she said. “Can’t you just blindfold me?”

He shook his head. “No way. I can’t risk someone seeing you with the blindfold on. Now take it or I’ll put you in the trunk.”

“No, you won’t. Somebody might see that, too.”

His face flushed. “Then I’ll shove the pill down your throat. Nobody’ll see that, will they?”

She shook her head. She picked up her glass and
ran some water into it from the tap. She held out her hand and the kidnapper gave her the tablet. She swallowed the tablet.

“Okay,” she said. “I swallowed it.”

He grabbed her by the back of the neck. “Open up and let me see.”

She opened her mouth. He stuck a beefy finger in and swept between her cheeks and gums, the roof of her mouth and under her tongue.

Kate shuddered and
did her best not to gag. She didn’t quite succeed.

“What?” he demanded, squeezing her neck as he grabbed her jaw in his other hand. He leaned in so close that his face was only about two inches from hers. She swallowed audibly. “You too fancy for the likes of me? You don’t like my taste?”

She closed her eyes.

“Open your damn eyes and taste this,” he grunted, then put his mouth over
hers and kissed her with brutal force. He drew back and grinned at her. “What do you think about that?”

She felt dizzy and her eyes were getting heavy, but she managed to spit at him.

He jerked her backward by her neck, slapped her with his open hand. Then he fastened the handcuffs around her right hand again.

Tears sprang to her eyes.

“Watch out or I might have to really hurt
you. Now let’s go get in my car. And don’t attract any attention. I don’t want to shoot anybody and I know you don’t want me to.”

Despite her fuzzy head and heavy eyes, Kate felt panic gushing up from her throat like an active volcano. She didn’t think the kidnapper would shoot anybody in the middle of a quiet neighborhood in daylight, but she couldn’t take the chance. She clenched her jaw
and let him lead her out to his car. He kept her body close to his to hide the handcuffs from view.

He pushed her into the backseat just about the time the fuzziness covered her brain and her legs decided to give way. He locked the doors with the electronic key, then got into the driver’s seat and pressed a couple buttons on the console. “Gotta love child-safety locks.” He looked at her in
the rearview mirror. “You have a nice nap, now. By the time you wake up, we’ll be there.”

“I’ll get to see Max?”

“If you’re good, Doc. If you’re good.”

* * *

T
RAVIS
GOT
TO
Kate’s house a few minutes after seven. When he pulled into the driveway behind her car, he noticed that all the lights were on, which seemed odd. Kate never left a room without turning off the light—never.

He went up to the front door and knocked. He didn’t want to use his key and take the chance of startling her, since she wasn’t expecting him. But when she didn’t answer after a second knock, he unlocked the door and went inside. Immediately, he knew something was wrong. Her left shoe was on the floor in the living room. He didn’t see her purse anywhere, but a glass sat on the kitchen counter.
By itself, the glass wasn’t a cause for worry, but he saw something streaked on it. He walked over and looked closely at it.

Burning fear ignited at the base of his spine and coursed upward to his scalp. Travis had no doubt what had happened. While he’d been talking to Dawson, the kidnapper had come here and taken Kate. He clenched his fists and closed his eyes.
Focus,
he told himself. Anger
didn’t accomplish anything. He could hear his sergeant’s yell.

Soldiers! Listen up. What’s your best weapon? These?
He’d held up a rifle and a grenade.

No, sir!
the recruits cried.

These?
He held up his fists.

No, sir!
they cried again.

Then tell me!
he bellowed.