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Hands grasped her upper arms. She tried to get free, but the doctor and his useless modifications didn’t give her anything that would help her right now. Why couldn’t she be super strong? Who wanted to be dense and more breakable?
Kenna cried out in frustration, and a hand clapped over her mouth.
Jax glanced back and looked at her, the gun still pointed at his head. One move and a bullet would take him out. She read the desperation on his face. If only she could say something. All she’d be able to do was bite this man’s hand. She didn’t want that taste in her mouth, and what would it solve?
They walked him away, and she heard a helicopter in the distance.
Gregorio headed toward her, and the other two held her arms. Kenna couldn’t do anything but glare at him. She swung out a leg and tried to kick Gregorio, but they dragged her back.
He only laughed at her.
At least, all her struggling caused the one man to release her mouth. “You aren’t taking him.”
“I’m doing what I need to do. You do as you’re told.”
She gritted her teeth.Jax.“Don’t take him.” Tears rolled down her cheeks, and she couldn’t even brush them away. They pulled her hands so far behind her back that her shoulders were white hot with pain, all the muscles stretched to their limit.
“It’s already done, Kenna.” Gregorio’s voice sounded dead. “Bring me Nicola and Doctor Buzard.”
“What?” She gasped.
“I want them both.”
“He’s going to be arrested by the FBI.” At some point. Not imminently. “They will deal with him.”
“I have my own way of doing things. My own…” The words seemed to escape him.
But she knew what he meant. “Your brand of justice.”
His white teeth flashed in the dark. A predator about to sink his teeth into prey. “Exactly.”
“I’m not handing him over to you.”
“In that case, I’ll contact your office at a later date with the location where you can find thepiecesof what isleftof yourhusband.” He punctuated each word in a loud voice. “That’s the outcome you have chosen.”
Kenna shook her head.
Up ahead on the path, the helicopter landed, far enough away that it wasn’t overly loud and there wasn’t too much dust swirling up in the air. She couldn’t see him anymore. Couldn’t see the men holding him or where they had gone. Were they loading him into the helicopter?
Gregorio ran his fingers down her cheek.
She jerked her head away from him.
He laughed, but it was short-lived. “You will bring me Nicola and the doctor, and only then will I release your husband.”
“Unharmed.” She wasn’t going to accept any other outcome. If they had to come to an agreement, then fine. But she wasn’t leaving without the assurance that Jax was going to be alive at the end of this. And unhurt.
He said nothing.
“If you hurt him in any way…” What would she do? Burn the world down? Gregorio probably didn’t want to know what she was capable of when it came to her family.
She saw his teeth again.
He said, “An eye for an eye. Isn’t that how it goes?”
Kidnapping or revenge wasn’t what the verse meant, but she wouldn’t get distracted expounding on a Bible verse right now. “You want two people, and I get one back? That’s what you call fair?”
“Seems fair to me.” He took a step back. “And it’s what will happen. Or you have nothing.”