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“We’re going after the doctor. Just like we were planning before. We need to rescue those kids that no one else seems to care about!”
Bruce stared her down. “And your husband?”
“I have to at least make it look like I’m doing what Gregorio wants. The only way to get Jax back is to find the doctor. And if we find him, we find the kids and Nicola.”
“Okay.” Ramon nodded. “I’ll use Jax’s phone to contact the Phoenix FBI office. They can come out here and find it in the dirt all shattered, and I’ll make up a story about how I saw some guys in suits…”
He looked at her, a question in his gaze.
She nodded.
Ramon continued, “They shoved him into a helicopter. I saw the whole thing, but there was nothing I could do.”
Kenna didn’t like him lying, but she had to get moving. They all did. If the feds found out she’d been here, they would want to interview her for hours. She was pretty sure Jax didn’t have that long.
Gregorio had gotten impatient, enacted this plan, and upped the ante on her finding Nicola. He was going to use whatever means necessary to get her back.
“Do it. Leave the leather wallet with his credentials in it next to the phone. That way, they’ll know for sure it’s him who is missing.” She took her own cell phone and turned back in the direction she figured the car would be.
Bruce jogged to catch up and walked alongside her.
She heard Ramon start talking into Jax’s phone, yelling as if he was terrified of what he’d just seen. Reiterating everything at max volume and putting on quite the performance.
Bruce held out his elbow.
She slid her arm through it and held on, walking beside him. “Thanks.”
“Anytime, kiddo. You know that.”
Hard to believe she had more tears in her, but it seemed she did. She glanced back, trying to focus behind her. Not on Ramon. She stared at the place where Jax had been—the last place she’d seen him.
Prayers filtered through her head. Disjointed snatches of things that probably didn’t make sense, but God would know. He’d understand her heart in this and hear her meaning, rather than the nonsense she was saying in her head.
They needed help.
She needed a plan, a place to look, and the strength to do it. She needed a guarantee that Gregorio wasn’t going to renege on the arrangement and kill Jax anyway.
Like a child throwing a tantrum, justified or not, she cried out in her head that it wasn’t fair. That after everything she’d been through, she didn’t deserve to have to go through this as well. That losing Jax would be too much.
But even in the middle of the despair, she felt the peace of God flow through her. He had this all in His hands, and she had to trust Him. Jax had put his life in God’s hands as well. Kenna only needed to rest in the fact that He wouldn’t allow Jax to reach the point of despair.
Ramon caught up. “Okay, they’ll probably be here soon, so we’d better get out of here.”
Kenna nodded, and Bruce asked, “You okay? Any injuries we need to get looked at?”
“What do you think?” she said.
“Then we need a plan.” Ramon glanced sideways at her, holding a flashlight so it illuminated the wide path in front of them. “Because if we need to give the Santinos Nicola and the doctor, we need to know where to find them.”
“It’s the only way I’m going to get Jax back alive.”
She hoped.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Kenna walked into the conference room first. Lisa Romeo was nowhere to be seen. Instead, the younger one who’d shown up to the park that day rose from her chair.
“Where is she?” Kenna opened her hands, looking around even though there was no one else in here other than this woman.