Page 91 of One More Chance

A double cross.

She squeezed the buttons on both sides of her phone and sent Maizie an emergency alert.

Chapter Twenty-Five

“Did we have a deal?” Gregorio stopped a short distance back from two of his men. Keeping himself protected. “I don’t remember.”

“Where is One and the rest of his buddies?” Jax asked.

Gregorio shrugged. “How should I know?”

Kenna scanned the others, trying to figure out which one might have an itchy trigger finger. None of them had their guns higher than waist height, but in a fraction of a second, they could raise their aim and squeeze off a shot.

Either she or Jax could be left bleeding out in the Arizona dirt.

She asked, “What is this? What’s going on?”

He’d lied to her. Drawn them here under false pretenses. She clenched her jaw, refusing to let on how angry she was. This was a waste of time.

“Both of you, lay your weapons on the ground,” Gregorio said. “All of them.”

After a standoff lasting a few seconds, Jax started to lower into a crouch. He touched his gun to the ground.

One of the men took a step toward Kenna. “All your weapons on the ground.”

He came forward a little more.

Kenna shoved his hands out of the way, twisting his body to the left. She slammed into him, and they both hit the ground. She heard a grunt behind her but had to trust Jax could deal with his side alone. They were two against one, but only if Gregorio stayed out of it.

She reached for the guy under her, planning to slam his head on the ground. He hit her shoulder with both hands.

Someone else grabbed her around the waist and hauled her off him, her legs flailing. She yelled and kicked out. Trying to dislodge his hold on her.

“Enough!” Gregorio yelled, the sound hollow across the open space.

The man holding her spun her so she could see one man pinning Jax’s arms behind his back and the other holding a gun to his head.

She gasped, the sound sticking in her throat so that it came out choked and desperate. “Let him go!” She screamed the words but didn’t kick and struggle. She had frozen, everything in her cold at the thought of losing Jax.

“Now you understand what I will do to get my Nicola back.”

The man holding her set her down. She tore her gaze from Jax and looked at Gregorio. “Let him go.”

After a second of silence, he shook his head and said, “I don’t think so.”

The guy she’d tackled to the ground stood up. He patted her down more thoroughly than necessary and found most of her weapons. The ones he missed were hard for her to reach and weren’t going to give her the upper hand in this situation.

He tossed all her things on the ground, along with her phone.

The others did the same to Jax.

She pushed out a quick breath. “You want me to find her, and you’re taking the tools I need to do that?”

Gregorio said, “I’m not taking anything except the collateral I need to ensure your cooperation.” He lifted his hand and flicked his finger to the men holding Jax.

They shoved him toward Gregorio and then walked him in that direction.

Kenna moved to go with him. Purely a reflex.