Enemy Mine Read Free Page B

smelling the pine. Or inhaling the odor of the leather couches and chairs in the living room. So many little things that suddenly meant a lot to Kathy…
    “Are you sure? ” Laura dug into her daughter’s sky-blue eyes. She must have seen the dark shadows there as Kathy lowered her lashes.
    “Yeah, Mom, I’m sure.” Again, Kathy forced herself to play a part she hated. “In fact, I’d be unhappy about it. You’re right—life has lots of ups and downs.” Life and death. Her death, shortly. She suddenly felt a pang of anxiety. And a wave of grief that nearly was her undoing. Yet no matter how she felt, her need for revenge against Guillermo Garcia’s son and his family overrode it. The anticipation of vengeance soothed some of her panic.
    “Good! Listen, we need to call Jason and Annie. I’ll invite them down for supper tonight. You must see little Alex! He’s so cute, learning to walk! And such an adorable, loving child. But Jas and Annie are like that, so why shouldn’t their baby be, too? Have you seen your father yet? Does he know you’re here?”
    “Uh, no. I drove straight here, Mom.”
    “Pete and Kelly just graduated from the Naval Academy, as you know. We were so proud of them, Pet. I wish you could have been at the ceremony.”
    “Me, too,” Kathy murmured. Her younger sister andbrother, fraternal twins and twenty-two years old, had graduated from the Naval Academy less than two weeks ago. She’d still been on her black ops assignment in Colombia and unable to attend.
    “Well, the good news is they are supposed to be here tomorrow! They’re both taking their thirty-day leaves with us! Oh, this is so wonderful! The whole family is going to be home.”
    When Kathy saw tears begin to shimmer in her mother’s eyes, she felt the merciless grip of an icy fist around her heart. Laura loved her children so deeply and unabashedly. Kathy would miss that. Horribly.
    Laura lived to make their lives better than her own had been. She wanted them to know that a real family was supportive through thick and thin. Bowing her head, Kathy forced back hot tears that pricked at her eyes. Pretending to be hungry she cleared her throat, and picked up her slice of bread and took a bite.
    “That’s great, Mom,” she said when she’d managed to swallow it. “The whole gang will be here. Like old times.”
    Clasping her hands, Laura sighed and smiled, her gaze on the fluffy white clouds floating above the canopy of firs in front of their home. Along the white picket fence grew smiling white Shasta daisies with yellow centers, fragrant clumps of lavender and bright red-and-yellow gallardia waving in the breeze. The flowers reflected Laura in every way. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think you could be here for this, Pet. Now everything is perfect. Perfect! Morgan is going to be thrilled to death!”
    Sitting there with her mother, pushing the swing idly back and forth with one toe, Kathy nodded and choked down the rest of the bread without tasting it. She had a fierce, uncompromising love for her brothers and sisters; they all got along, unlike many other families, with their war stories of sibling rivalry. Not so with the Trayherns. Their bonds were strong and resilient. What ate at her was that she had to stick to her lie with all of them. She’d never lied to anyone before. Kathy drew a silent breath. She knew she was all screwed up inside, thanks to the kidnapping….
    Gazing upward, she watched the clouds drift overhead, casting a cooling shadow across the front of the house. What was wrong with this picture? She laughed inwardly, but it wasn’t a cheery laugh; it was one filled with derision—and hatred toward Guillermo Garcia. One way or another, Kathy was going to make his family pay the same heavy price that hers had paid for the act of terror he had waged against them.

CHAPTER TWO
    K ATHY TRIED TO STEEL herself for her father’s return from his office. She was helping her mother set the table in