Page 21

Chapter Twenty-One

“T his is the address?” Kenna pointed at the screen of Maizie’s laptop. They were on the picnic bench between the two vehicles with Ramon sitting across from them. Bruce was asleep in a plastic Adirondack chair by the fire pit, his hood up on his sweater mostly covering his face—or shading his eyes from the sun—and Cabot curled up on his lap snoring even though she didn’t really fit there.

The air had a morning chill, but there was no breeze moving the trees. All was still at the RV park except for a lone older man walking a tiny dog. The sight of them made her want to contact her friend Dixie, whom she hadn’t heard from in a while. And Forrest Crosby. Maybe even Taylor, her psychologist friend at the FBI in Salt Lake City.

Friends. People who had influenced her life in the last few years and stuck around in emails and texts and infrequent phone calls. Women she would go to for advice or just to chat.

Was she really going to invite them to her wedding?

She didn’t even have a wedding date. When Jax got here, they could probably figure it out. But when one of them was constantly in the middle of a big case, it was hard to find time to plan like that. Even just thinking about getting married and the overwhelming amount of decisions involved made her heart start to beat faster.

Ramon asked, “Why are you freaking out?”

“I’m not. I’m just thinking about wedding planning.”

Maizie and Ramon shared a cryptic glance. She was about to ask what it meant when Maizie said, “I don’t think you need to worry about that right now. I mean, we’ve got so much going on with this. You have your dress, so you’re good.”

“Weddings are more than finding a dress. There are a thousand things to figure out.”

Ramon shrugged it off. “You have time, right? You’ll figure it out.”

“Do you think your mom will come?” Maizie asked.

Kenna groaned. “Great. Now I’m thinking about that and how awkward it’s going to be. I mean, it’s not like she’ll be all overwhelmed and happy for me.”

Ramon’s expression softened. “She’s not going to get emotional. How can she when her existence is life and death, protecting her children. Keeping people alive and safe, and trying to take down the company. She’s been at war her entire life. No rest. No downtime.”

“She had it with me.”

Ramon nodded slightly. “That’s true, but that might be exactly why she knows it won’t work. That taking time off costs someone their life. She may not be prepared to go so far as to take a day off because it could have disastrous consequences.”

Kenna looked away, watching the tall pine trees around them. The mountains in the distance, and the expansive Colorado sky with the sun rising, bringing with it an orange glow that stretched across the horizon.

She could understand what it felt like to know to your soul that letting go of the struggle for even a second would cause someone pain—most likely her. She’d felt that way about letting people in, going it alone for two years after she left the FBI. She had needed that time to heal. To figure out what she wanted. To process all the things she was feeling after losing Bradley. She’d worked out what she wanted the rest of her life to be and pieced together a life she loved out of the ashes of what she’d thought she would have. Who she thought she would be. The years she thought she would live.

God had directed her back to Salt Lake City, giving her that Joseph moment where what had been intended for evil He had used for good. Her good. She’d met Jax, reconnected with Ryson and his family, and started working with Stairns. Maizie had come along. Her friends, Dixie and Forrest. Then Ramon. Now Bruce as well. And Jax’s family.

That was a lot of people to add to her Christmas list.

It was enough to make her want to shed a tear of gratitude that she had so many people in her life. Even if occasionally she needed a break from them in favor of some solitude.

Ramon continued, “And her daughter is missing. She managed to save you, but this girl might as well be everyone she’s ever loved. If she loses Zeyla, then she loses everything .”

“I get it.”

“Do you?”

Kenna rolled her eyes. “Maizie, tell me about the house. If Amara is going to try and trade Clare and Roxanne for Zeyla, I want to be there.”

Maizie looked at her, tucking hair back behind her ear. “Are you going to call the cops or the FBI?”

“I’m not sure yet. Tell me what you’ve got.”

Maizie looked back at her laptop. “Okay, from the top. The company we infiltrated has properties owned by companies, shell corporations, subsidiaries, all those words that mean they’re companies inside of companies that are parent companies of other?—”

“We get it,” Ramon said.

“So I have a list of addresses of places they own. The address Amara sent is on the list. I’m still working through Hadley’s information and the phones those two brothers had on them. All communication was on the dark web, so it’s not searchable, and the threads are gone now. The number the brothers contacted is a dead end. The phone is unregistered, and it’s either off or out of battery. My guess is they turn it on periodically when they’re expecting contact.”

Kenna shrugged. “They have Zeyla. She got Hadley out but was recaptured, and they burned the location and went somewhere else. I think it might be about drawing out my mother so they can have Amara and Zeyla.”

Ramon said, “What about moving vehicles? If they had to transport everything and everyone—because that hospital was cleaned out—somewhere else, to the new location, that means they’d need vehicles to put the stuff in. At the last minute, they had to have hired transportation. There could be a paper trail.”

Maizie said, “I’ll see what I can find. We know it would’ve been contracted from the building we looked through, with all the bodies. Want me to pass on what I find to the police?”

Kenna said, “Langford is probably mad because we left Hadley’s house. She isn’t responding to my messages.”

“She’s probably at the DA’s office getting a warrant for your arrest.” Ramon smirked.

“That isn’t actually so funny,” Kenna said. “I’d rather not end up in jail.”

Ramon shrugged. “It happens.”

Kenna frowned. She wanted to ask what he was talking about, but they were better off focusing. “What else do we know?”

“According to social media…” Maizie’s voice trailed off.

The Class C screen door snapped back on its hinges. Stairns rounded the hood of the vehicle and came over, holding a thermal cup and his phone. His gaze met Maizie’s, and he nodded slightly.

Kenna asked, “Is there something I’m missing?” Everyone was sharing looks, and she was evidently not privy to their private conversations.

“Don’t worry about it.” Ramon waved a hand. Then to Maizie, he said, “What did you find online?”

Stairns sat beside Ramon with his coffee. He’d gone to talk to his wife when she’d called, and apparently, it put him in a good mood. Made her want to call Jax just so she could hear him say something sweet.

Maizie said, “They’re having a party tonight at that address. A big fancy fundraiser for a local charity. It’s black tie, and there are three hundred people on the guest list.”

“I have a swollen face,” Kenna pointed out. “And Ramon doesn’t look much better.”

“You could cover it with makeup,” Maizie said. “Or wear a wig that falls over your left cheek.”

Ramon said, “You could tell Langford. She could take Miller.”

Stairns shook his head. “Terrible idea. They’ll get outed as cops in five minutes, and we won’t manage to find Amara in the crowd.”

Ramon said, “I hate to be the one to suggest this, but given the crowd they’ll be going into… What about Stairns and Maizie?”

Kenna and Stairns both said, “No,” at the same time.

Ramon lifted his hands.

Maizie looked disappointed. “I have black eyes, but I could cover them with makeup.”

Kenna turned on the bench seat to face the teen. “You absolutely could go to something like this. It has nothing to do with your age. It’s about training and knowing what to do. Then, you go in with confidence, not as a ball of nerves with no skills.”

“I don’t mind being in the van. It’s like being home in the Airstream.”

This was new. “You like being there?”

“It’s not like I’m scared to leave. I’ve been to Mexico and England. This is Colorado still, so we’re not even that far from home, but I wanna go back there when the mission is over. And I don’t want to spend more time on the road than in the Airstream at Stairns’ house.”

Kenna squeezed the girl’s shoulder. “That’s good to know. For now, it works, and if you want to change things in the future, we can make sure you have the skills to do what you want to do.”

Maizie kept her expression impassive. “Bruce said he’d teach me how to interrogate a suspect. Like with pliers and a car battery.”

Ramon busted up laughing.

What could Kenna say to that? Bruce was going to teach her enhanced interrogation tactics?

Maizie grinned, then laughed out loud. “He said to tell you that so I could see your reaction.” She kept laughing. “That was a good one.”

Bruce opened one eye under the hood. “Did I miss it?”

Maizie kept laughing.

Kenna said, “I’d throw this mug at you, but it would be a waste of good coffee and a good mug.”

She saw Bruce’s grin flash under his hood.

Maizie leaned against her shoulder, still chuckling.

“Let’s all focus, shall we?” Because if Maizie was going to get them into this party, they needed an invitation, their names on the guest list, and fancy outfits. “Actually, I have an idea. Bruce? Why don’t you go with me tonight? I could use some of those CIA spy skills of yours.”

Bruce sat up, nearly dislodging Cabot from his lap. The dog didn’t really fit there, but she curled up and made it work. “What are we doing?”

“Going to a society party. You’ll need a tux.”

He sat back in the chair, groaning.

The sounds of his displeasure continued through shopping at the mall, all the way until they were driving to the property in a rented supercar.

“You should’ve let me drive.” Kenna smoothed down the skirt of her dress, which barely touched her knees.

Bruce barked a laugh. “No chance, honey.”

“Excuse me? Is this some sexist thing?”

“Can’t drive a car like this in heels.”

“These shoes were a dumb idea. I’m going to fall on my face.”

“Can’t wear Converse to a black tie.” Bruce glanced over. “Not even to make a statement.”

“They’re on the back seat. The minute I get outed as me, I’m coming back to the car to change them.” At least, it had sounded like a good idea in her head. “Now, tell me about Amara.”

He glanced at her again. “What about her? She’s your mom, ain’t she?”

The use of “ain’t” was like a tell in poker. But Kenna wasn’t going to point that out. “You saw her in the woods behind the roadhouse? She ended up with Roxanne in her custody, but you didn’t report that you’d made contact with anyone.”

“I don’t do reports.”

“Neither does Ramon, and what’s the point of papers and papers and more papers anyway? We won’t have anywhere to put them. That’s why we add it to the message board. I updated everyone with my note.” Not a report, just a little FYI. After all, if she didn’t do it, then none of them would. “But you said nothing about seeing her.”

“Fine.” Bruce pressed his lips together. “She got by me.”

“I know she’s a highly trained asset. Maybe being out of the CIA for a while made you lose your edge, some of your skills are rusty.” She would’ve continued but got the desired response already.

He cut her off, blustering. “You think I’m rusty?”

“Then how’d she get by you?”

“Maybe Amara hypnotized me. Does the company do that?”

“Probably,” Kenna said, shuddering a little at the thought of it. “But why would she?”

“How should I know?”

“So, a beautiful woman bewitched you, and you lost your mind…as it were. I guess it’s good to know your weakness.” Even if the object of his desire was the woman she’d considered her mother for years.

Bruce sighed. “Roxanne will recognize us both.”

“I’m more worried about the other people at the party.” Her phone rang, so she slid her thumb across the screen. “Yeah, Maze?”

“I got the guest list. I’m adding your names, but you’re not going to like this.”

Kenna frowned. Out the window, the sky was more clouds than stars. The road was darkness and headlights. Brake lights. Streetlights. All of it ruined what nature should look like at night.

Maizie might need the Airstream, but Kenna needed open sky. Maybe Wyoming or Utah. Someplace with no one for miles and nothing but stars overhead.

“Senator Woodford is attending, which you might think is a big deal, but also on the list is Adrielle Jaxton and Elaine Caliveri.”

“Laney?” Jax’s sister and mom would be at the party? “Are you serious?”

Bruce pulled off the highway.

“They’re on the list.”

Kenna said, “They’re supposed to have protection on them, and they’re walking right into the lion’s den?”

Bruce gripped the wheel. “It’s their world. Isn’t it?”

Maizie said, “I should call Jax and tell him what’s going on.”

“Thanks, Maze. Anyone else on the list I should know about?”

“A federal judge. The lieutenant governor from Wyoming. Business leaders. College professors. Stairns said ‘captains of industry,’ whatever that means.”

“Law enforcement?”

“Maybe. I’m still running names on the… Yikes, this guy is the general of the Colorado National Guard. When I saw Adrielle’s and Laney’s names, I called you right away.”

“Thanks. I’ll make sure they’re safe, and I’ll get them out. Bruce can take care of Amara.”

Maizie said, “Stairns said if you come across the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, give them a wide berth.”

“Copy that.” She spotted the turn up ahead. “We’re here.”

“You have comms.” Maizie hung up.

Bruce pulled into the drive and went through the open gate between two brick pillars with stone lions on top. He slowed to go down the long drive lined with cars. The drive circled at the end, with a fountain in the center. The two-story house was lit up. A valet took guests’ keys at a stand out front.

“Guess this is it.” She tucked her phone into the glove box.

Bruce said, “Try not to stab anyone.”

“That’s it? That’s your advice.”

“You go for the family. I’ll take care of your mom.” He pulled up at the valet stand.

Kenna said, “Try not to get hypnotized again, or I’ll stab you.”

He just grinned.