Fortunately Colt was out of eyesight when Joelle woke—she was startled enough by Kate. But she took in her businesslike appearance and relaxed. Until she saw Colt.
She tensed, her knuckles white as she gripped the sheets. Her eyes widened with fear. “Who are you? What are you doing in my room?”
Kate moved to calm her down, putting a gentle hand on the foot of her bed. “I’m Kate. This is my... uh...” She settled on what she thought would relax the other woman. “Husband, Colt.”
Joelle couldn’t hide her surprise. “You two are married?” She looked back and forth between them. “For real?”
It wasn’t the first time their being married had provoked that reaction.
Colt appeared to be taking Kate’s “try not to be threatening” advice because he sat down in a chair. “Believe me. I don’t know what she ever saw in me, either.”
He said it with a wry smile that was directed at Joelle, but his eyes were all for Kate.
She felt a fresh stab in her chest and pushed it away. Damn him. She wasn’t going to let him do this to her.
But he always did this to her.
Turning back to Joelle, Kate could see from the conspiratorial lift of her brows that she knew exactly whatKate had seen in him. Even looking like hell, Colt was hot. Bad boy, “I’m going to break your heart” hot, but undeniably hot. Six foot four, two-twenty—95 percent of that heavily stacked muscle—dark hair, green eyes, with a face that belonged on a movie screen, there wasn’t a lot not to like.
Except the attitude.Remember the attitude.
“Whaddaya two want then?” Joelle asked with a Mississippi accent that was every bit as heavy as Travis’s had been.
Kate had met the young SEAL only a few times, but he’d been a good kid with simple but strong values: God, country, family. In that order.
She inched a little closer to Joelle and rested her hand on the bed rail. “We wanted to talk to you about Travis Hart.”
Any friendliness in Joelle’s expression was immediately replaced by wariness and defensiveness. “It was you! You’re the one who called me!” Tears filled her pretty eyes. “You’re going to tell me he’s dead, aren’t you? That’s why you’re here?”
The girl—for Kate was guessing she couldn’t be much older than twenty—was instantly distressed. Kate tried to calm her, glancing anxiously at the monitors. She wasn’t sure how to read them, but she knew the jump in activity and beeping couldn’t be good. “Relax,” Kate said. “Breathe deeply. We aren’t here to upset you—or your baby.”
Was that what had landed her in here in the first place? Kate hoped it hadn’t been her phone call, but she suspected it was.
She felt a twist of guilt and was relieved when the sounds and activity on the monitors started to abate.
Joelle was crying and gripping Kate’s hand something fierce, but the deep, even breaths were helping.
“He’s really dead, isn’t he?” She was watching Katewhen her gaze flicked to Colt. “I heard about the training accident, but it sounded like some kind of government cover-up so I was hoping that...” Her voice lowered to a whisper. “But I knew. He would have called me back if he was alive. He swore he’d take care of me if I went through with it.”
Colt gave Kate a nod, but she would have told Joelle anyway. This girl and her baby deserved an answer, and she wasn’t going to lie to her and give her false hope. Kate nodded. “I’m sorry.”
Surprisingly, the news seemed to calm the girl. The tears were still flowing down her cheeks, but her grip on Kate’s hand relaxed. “I knew it. Travis was a good guy. He would never have left me high and dry like this. He would have kept his word. What happened?” She glanced back at Colt. “You worked with him, didn’t you? You are a SEAL, too.”
Kate was surprised the girl had made the connection, but maybe she shouldn’t have been. There was a look to guys like Colt, and if you’d been around it, you would recognize it. Maybe it wasn’t all bad that he was here with her. Joelle seemed to trust him.
Colt nodded. “I worked with him a few years back for a little while. He was killed in a bar fight in Alaska.”
“Bar fight? That doesn’t sound like Travis. Are you sure it wasn’t on a mission?”
“It wasn’t,” Kate assured her. “Can you tell me the last time you heard from him?”
“It was a few months ago. He said he would be out of contact for a while, but he would send me more money when he got back.”
“For the baby?” Colt asked.
She nodded.
“Were you and he planning to raise the child together?” Kate asked.
