Page 15

Chapter Fifteen

K enna listened long enough she could hear it. Down the empty stone corridor, the faint sound of rhythmic breathing. “I don’t hear anything else.”

She grabbed her phone and used the walkie-talkie app they all had. “We found someone down here.”

She left it open and crept forward, her volume low on her phone. Gun-first. Taking easy steps that made little sound on the floor.

Bruce made no sound. He stepped in front of her as if he had every right to take a bullet for her.

She didn’t like it, but she also did. Kenna would do the same for any of them.

He stopped near an open door. There was nothing else down here. The whole hospital seemed abandoned, and if this was where Carlton Hadley had been brought after his abduction, she didn’t see the cells he’d mentioned. But they could be in these rooms. Or the rooms themselves. They needed to take photos to show the fire chief to be sure.

If this place hadn’t been used for anything nefarious, why did it sound like someone in the room had a machine turned on?

Bruce stepped inside. She heard the exclamation from his lips, almost silent but not quite.

She stepped around him, and he didn’t move. “What…” Her words disappeared as she took in the room.

A cell, the walls lined with stone that had been carved into over the years. Scratches and markings made by people over the better part of a century. In the center was a hospital bed with a patient hooked up to machines on both sides. IV tubes on both arms, and another in his neck. If it was a man—she found it difficult to tell either way.

Bruce let out a curse. “There isn’t much left.”

Her phone chirped from the walkie-talkie app. “Nothing on the second floor. Going to the first now.”

Bruce slid his phone out. “Copy that.”

Kenna just stared at the patient, her mind not quite able to process what she was seeing. The head seemed intact, but he had a bandage over his eyes. The chest had been cut open, splayed out, and instead of lungs, a machine beside the bed pumped up and down, delivering oxygen to his body. “Is there a heart?”

“Don’t throw up. I’ll be disappointed.” Bruce strode to the far side of the bed and looked into the open chest cavity. “Heart is still here. Not sure it should be exposed to the air, but what do I know? Maybe they didn’t need one of those. Though, apparently, they needed the lungs, his liver, and one of his kidneys.”

Kenna let out a breath. “I don’t want to know if he has eyes under those bandages.”

“Or a brain left in his head.” Bruce straightened, shaking his head. “He won’t survive either way. Being kept alive artificially like this, the machines are maintaining basic functions. Keeping his heart pumping.”

Kenna had a lot of questions. “I don’t know where to start.”

“How about ID?” Bruce pulled out his phone and took a photo of the man’s face. Then a photo of the fingertips on his hand.

“You can get a print?”

“I can do a lot of things,” he said.

“I already knew that.” They had to keep Maizie out of here. She didn’t need to see this. “What are we going to?—”

Before she even finished, Bruce reached over and literally pulled the plug out of the wall. Then another plug, and another.

“You’re gonna?—”

Bruce stepped away from the wall and walked past the now-dying man.

“He’s going to die! You killed him!”

Bruce grabbed her arm and tugged her toward the door. “He’s already dead. He’s gone, and there’s nothing you can do.”

Kenna sputtered, tripping along with him. Being dragged out. “We can’t just leave him here!”

“That’s why you hired me. To do the hard things.” Bruce wasn’t dragging her exactly, but he also wasn’t giving her the chance to do anything but go with him. “They left him to prove a point. That there’s nothing you can do to stop them. But they also left him to slow you down—or to stop you .”

He nudged her ahead of him up the stairs and said, “Everyone out.”

She figured that wasn’t only to her when it echoed from her phone. “Why do we need to?—”

“We triggered something, obviously. It’s what I would’ve done.”

How could he possibly know… “Bruce?—”

“Time to run.”

Kenna didn’t wait around to find out if he was right or wrong. She pounded up the stairs, taking them two at a time.

When they were in the ground floor hallway, Stairns appeared in the lobby. “Come on.”

She raced over to him. “Is this place going to blow or something?”

“We found something out back you’ll want to see.”

She reached the lobby just as a clang sounded at the front door.

Ramon turned back. “That just locked on its own.”

Maizie, at the back door, let out a squeal. “The door!” She had it open and was standing in the doorway. “It’s closing!” She turned to push on the door, the weight of it sliding her feet back into the building.

Stairns ran to her and pushed at the door. The rest of them followed, and Kenna slipped between, bringing Maizie with her.

Ramon and Bruce came through, pulling Stairns with them.

“What on?—”

Bruce kept moving, his approach causing her to stumble back. “Go. Go.”

Thunder erupted deep in the building, the throaty sound of an explosion rumbled through the structure, and it started to collapse.

“Go!”

Kenna turned and dragged Maizie with her. Then Maizie was dragging her.

The ground began to crack between her feet.

Bruce stumbled, and Ramon hauled him up.

Kenna jumped a log and kept going, reaching the trees at the far end of the back lawn before she stopped and turned back. They stood together, and she watched the building collapse in on itself.

“How did you know it was going to blow?” She had to talk loudly over the rumble of the building collapsing.

“Instinct,” Bruce said. “And…no, it was just instinct.”

Maizie didn’t let go of her hand. “Uh, Kenna.”

She turned from watching the building fall into the ground. “A fail-safe?”

Bruce nodded. “Most likely. Because, like I said, it’s what I would have done. If I knew people were coming after me, I’d leave a tasty morsel, and then I’d wreck them so there’s nothing left.”

Ramon eyed him. “It’s a little scary when you say it like that.”

“I did hear a sadistic tone in your voice.” Kenna gave herself a second to catch her breath.

“Guys.”

Kenna turned back to where Maizie stood behind her. The teen had all her attention on the woods behind them. “What is?—”

“Just look,” Maizie said. “Otherwise, I have to say it out loud.”

Kenna scanned the trees, looking for someone who might wish them harm. She saw no one between the dead trunks—Bruce had been right that nothing was alive out here.

Ramon let out a curse.

“Can we all stop swearing!” Kenna sucked in a sharp breath as the evidence before her began to make sense. The periodic mounds of dirt where the ground was raised, each one between a couple of trees. Two feet by six. “Shallow graves.”

“We spotted them from the upstairs windows.” Stairns said, “There are so many.”

She scanned as far as she could see, spotting the mounds of dirt often. Even at the edge of what she could make out, the graves continued.

Maizie squeezed her hand. “How many people did they bury out here?”

Stairns said, “I’m going to call this in. If you don’t want to be here when the local police, state police, and FBI show up, then you should leave.”

“Maizie?” Ramon turned back to the building and swept his arm out.

Bruce cleared his throat. “Um?—”

“You’re good,” Kenna said. “Go.”

“I can’t believe I dropped the shotgun.” Maizie winced. “Now someone will find it in the rubble.”

Kenna put her arm around Maizie and squeezed her shoulders. “Don’t worry about it. One gun will be an interesting find, but we won’t get in trouble over it.”

“Okay. I’ll see you later.” She wandered off around the side of where the building had been, which was now a great crater in the ground.

Giving it a wide berth, Ramon led them to the front.

“I hope the cars didn’t fall in.” They’d parked pretty close.

Stairns said, “Thanks, ’preciate it.” And then, he hung up. “What was that?”

She shook her head. “How long?”

“Twenty minutes, give or take. They’re sending a chopper.”

Kenna walked from the trees back toward the gaping hole in the ground. “At least everything has quit falling in.”

Stairns tugged on her arm and pulled her back a step. “Just make sure you don’t. I doubt Jax will be impressed if his fiancée were to plummet into a hole.”

Kenna turned away from the hole. “Wanna talk about it?”

“It’s nothing.”

She eyed him. “Thought we weren’t going to lie to each other.”

“Bradley would’ve liked Jax,” he said softly. “He’d be glad you were moving on and doing it with a bureau guy.”

Kenna smiled. “He was loyal, I’ll give him that. Mostly just because the alternative was his mother pushing him into politics.”

And look how that whole thing turned out.

Stairns tipped his head to the side. “I’d never have thought we would be here. Maizie. Ramon. Now Bruce. It’s good, Kenna. You’ve done good work. Probably better than I’d ever have been able to do.”

She glanced over. “You and Elizabeth have been amazing with Maizie.”

“She’s an amazing girl. She deserves anything we can do to help her.”

Kenna nodded. “I agree. But is that really letting her help me solve crime?” It might not aid the teen’s continued recovery. “She needs to be a normal kid. Work in a fast-food place and go to college.”

“Did it stop you from being who you are?”

Kenna frowned.

Stairns just shrugged, looking at the landscape around them. A ruined building on one side and a wooded area full of shallow graves behind it.

A chopper flew overhead, circling around.

“She’s gonna be who she’ll be. It’s up to us to let her know that we’ll be along for the ride. That she’s always welcome, the truth is always expected, and it’s okay to make mistakes.”

Kenna felt the burn of tears in her eyes. The chopper lowered close enough to whip up dirt particles. She could pretend those were the reason she looked as if she was about to cry.

The agents piled out of the chopper in full gear as if they’d been deployed to a hostage situation. Or they were coming back from one.

They strode over as a group, unclipping helmets and removing them.

She caught a look at the leader’s face and groaned.

Stairns held out his hand. “Thanks for coming.”

“Yes, sir.” The lead agent shook his hand. “Kenna Banbury, as I live and breathe.”

“Special Agent Miller.” Her nemesis from Salt Lake City. He was here? “It’s a surprise to see you.”

“Considering you’re standing in a field of buried bodies beside the rubble of a building, I’m not actually all that surprised.”

Stairns said, “Now that we got the friendly reunion out of the way, let’s get to work.”

He strode away, and most of the feds broke off to go with him.

Miller didn’t move, and neither did she. “Kenna. You look well.”

She lifted her left hand and waved her fingers so he’d see the ring.

“Yeah, I heard about that.” He looked her up and down. “You doing okay?”

“It’s good to see you. I’m glad this case will be handled by someone I know. Given the scope and the seriousness of it.”

“Did you just pay me a compliment?” He grinned, his clean-cut persona a little rougher around the edges. It had been two years since she’d seen him. In that time, he seemed to have ditched the mustache in favor of a full beard and a more tactical, less desk-work position. “As I live and breathe.”

Kenna rolled her eyes. “Let’s just do the handoff, okay? You guys take the scene. Stairns and I will leave.”

She walked off toward the others.

“Yeah, maybe it won’t be so cut-and-dry as that.” He jogged beside her.

Years ago, Miller had been her former fiancé’s best friend. He’d worked with her under Stairns. The entire office had considered her responsible for Bradley’s death and taken out their grief on her. But they’d also worked with Jax for long enough that they respected him.

They would at least have to admit she had good taste.

“Could be a few days before we confirm you and Stairns—and any of your current associates—aren’t suspects in this case.”

“What associates?” She looked around. “Stairns and I are the only ones here.”

“But you aren’t going to deny you’re involved? Interesting.”

Kenna reached the others. Most of the feds were staring at the ground. She didn’t blame them. “We’re working a case that led us here. If it wasn’t for that, you wouldn’t even know this place exists.”

Miller stared down at her from his perpetual high horse. Mr. Team Leader in his tactical gear. “Like I said, could be a while before we get this all figured out.”

It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him she would call Jax and they’d see about that when Stairns got on his phone.

“Assistant Director Simms, please. It’s Craig Stairns.”

Kenna chuckled. Then she stared at the view. “This is going to take you guys days, or even weeks, to process.” She patted Miller on the shoulder. “Guess you’d better get started.”

“Don’t leave town.”

She stared at him.

“I’ll need to know everything you know about what happened here. Down to the smallest detail, even if you don’t think it’s relevant.”

She had pictures on her phone of the guy who’d been barely alive downstairs—the source of the explosion. “Fine. I have a statement to make.”

“Great.” He dragged his phone out and it unlocked to an image of a blonde woman Kenna had met.

She nearly choked. “Your sister? Or girlfriend?”

Miller had already navigated to another window. He went back. “My girlfriend?”

She’d been right at first glance. It was Roxanne. “You know, maybe we’re just destined to always get off on the wrong foot. What do you say I buy you a drink later? Maybe she can come too. We can bury the hatchet.”

His brows lifted. “It’s new still, but I think you’d like her.”

Roxanne.

“You know what?” Kenna said. “A drink with your girlfriend sounds like a great idea. Why not? You go ahead and set that up for tonight.”

He shifted his weapon aside, the strap across his shoulder. He held his phone up, his thumbs poised to text. “I’ll see if she’s free.”

“Why don’t we make it a surprise? How about we don’t tell her I’ll be there. Then I can have the chance to read her honest reaction.”

“Okay.” His tone sounded like he thought that was odd, but he’d write it off as a girl thing most likely.

“Sounds fun.” They had their differences in the past, and she might never trust him. Even if she’d forgiven him for the hurt he’d dished out after Bradley’s death, it didn’t mean she would invite him to hurt her again now that her life had some stability—and a whole lot of happiness. But she could help him get out of a situation he’d realize soon enough he didn’t want to be in.

“She’s had drinks with the guys before. I’m sure she’ll say yes.”

Kenna smiled. “I can’t wait.”