Military Heroes Bundle: A Soldier's Homecoming / A Soldier's Redemption / Danger in the Desert / Strangers When We Meet / Grayson's Surrender / Taking Cover

Then she heard it again. A child’s piping voice, speaking quietly, but sounding normal. Not sounding hurt or frightened.

Thank God!

Trying not to let eagerness overwhelm caution, she moved as lightly and quickly as she could, listening intently and scanning the ground for dangers.

To the left again. Along what had once been a narrow street lined by small dwellings. Rotting, sagging, windows gaping without glass or other coverings except for a faded scrap that might once have been a curtain. Boarded-up doors to discourage explorers. More warning signs, posted in just the past couple of years after a hiker was injured by a collapsing building.

Then, oh, God, then...

Sophie’s voice again, coming from just behind one of the buildings. Quiet. As if she was trying not to be heard. Then another voice, this one even quieter, low, a man’s voice.

Pulling her gun, Connie held it in both hands and slowly worked her way around the weatherbeaten remains of some long-dead person’s dreams.

Her heart stopped, and she rounded the back corner. There was Sophie, clad in jeans, sweatshirt and a pink raincoat, sitting on a camp stool. On the muddy ground in front of her sat a man. Connie could see only his back, covered by a denim jacket. His hair was long, graying. She didn’t recognize him at all.

Slowly raising her gun, she pointed it straight at the man’s back.

“Sophie,” she said, keeping her voice calm, “move away from him.”

“But, Mommy, it’s Daddy.”

The man turned his head, and with a slam, Connie recognized him. Leo, aged by his time in prison, looking seedy and too thin.

“Sophie,” she said, keeping her gun leveled. “Come here. Now.”

“Mommy, don’t shoot him.”

“I won’t shoot him if you come here.”

Scowling, Sophie slid off the camp stool and walked toward her mother. Connie, tensed in expectation that Leo might reach for Sophie to use her as a hostage, was relieved when he let their daughter pass him without even twitching a muscle.

As soon as Sophie reached her side, Connie wrapped one arm around her, gun still pointed at Leo.

“You kidnapped her,” she said.

“No. She came to me.”

“I did, Mommy.”

“The minute you put her in the car with you, you kidnapped her.” She keyed her shoulder mike. “Micah? Ethan? I’ve got her. Leo’s here. I’m behind a building one block from the town center, uphill.”

They rogered her simultaneously over the crackling radios.

“Don’t you read the signs, Leo? You could have gotten her killed!”

“I checked the place out. I’ve been here a while.”

“Why? Why?”

“Can I get up?”

“You just stay where you are.” No way was she going to let him move until she had backup.

He sighed and shook his head. “I was a bastard, Connie. I’ve had plenty of time to face that fact.”

“Yeah, rehabilitated by prison. Next you’ll be thumping the Bible at me.”

To her amazement, his face actually saddened. “Yeah,” he said quietly. “I found God. About time.”

She hesitated, holding Sophie even tighter. “I’m supposed to believe that—when you kidnapped my daughter?”

“She’s my daughter, too! I figured that one out, finally.”

“You never cared before.”

“I never did a lot of things before that I should have. Instead, I did a lot of things I shouldn’t have. I had this cell mate in prison. He was in for dealing. He spent the whole damn time whining about how much he missed his kids. At first it pissed me off. But then I began to realize something.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I realized I’d thrown away the only good things in my life. The only things that mattered.”

“Amazing conversion.”

He shook his head. “I don’t expect you to believe me. But I’d never hurt a hair on Sophie’s head.”

“Then why the hell didn’t you just knock on my door, instead of putting her and me through hell for a week?”

“Because I knew you’d never let me see her. I tried to talk to you on the phone, but you hung up before I could say anything more than that you have a beautiful daughter.”

That was true. The truth of it pierced her. But not enough to make her trust this man.

Ethan appeared, his own gun unholstered, and took up position to one side. “Sophie, are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” the girl said. “Why is everyone pointing guns at my daddy?”

Connie answered. “Because he did a bad thing when he brought you up here.”

“No, he didn’t. I wanted to talk to him. He’s my daddy!”

Slowly, without permission, Leo rose and put his hands in the air. “So send me back to prison,” he said. “It doesn’t matter. I got to see her. And I’ll be gone in a couple of months, anyway.”

Connie’s hand wavered, and she lowered her pistol. “What kind of crap is that?”

“No crap,” Leo said. “You can check. Remember how you always said I should quit smoking? You were right. I got lung cancer. Nothing they can do.”

That explained why he looked so worn and way too thin. And now, as she stared at him, she could see lines of pain around his eyes and mouth.

Micah had appeared to one side, and now he spoke. “This isn’t a good place to talk. Let’s go back into town, where it’s safe and dry. We can sort it out there.”