Page 25

Chapter Twenty-Five

K enna felt her eyes widen. She ducked her chin a fraction so no one saw her face. Right now, she had zero ability to school her features. If anyone looked at her, they’d realize immediately she could guess who the two people were that had just been tossed out of a chopper.

But if it really was the two kidnappers, that meant Senator Woodford kept up his end of their bargain. But he’d taken her mom and her sister with him. There had been nothing she could’ve done to stop him without dying for her efforts.

Kenna tuned out the buzz of movement and conversation around her and closed her eyes.

“Bruce.” She gave him a second, then said, “Bruce, do you read me?”

Nothing. And she’d tried more than once.

Woodford hadn’t said anything about her mother. When she’d mentioned Zeyla, he pretended not to know her sister—cousin, whatever they were to each other. Then again, maybe he’d never heard her real name. Maybe he only knew her as Chimera.

Not only did she need to find Laney and Adrielle, but she also needed to find Amara and Zeyla. Mother-daughter pairs. Jax’s family had him, and probably his father, and law enforcement on their side. Who did her mom have?

She opened her eyes and looked around. There had to be someone who worked for the senator still here. Not all of them could’ve made a run for it.

She scanned the guests, mostly just trying to find Mr. Whitworth-Harrow. Had Charlie run off like a scared little mouse when the police raided the place? She’d kicked him in a way that would have impeded his ability to sprint.

There.

He sat with his back to the wall on the stairs, way across the ballroom. Looking dejected. Probably because his favorite person had left and not taken him. Of course, she was just speculating. He could be tired and sad the party was over.

Miller came back over.

“Can I use your phone again?”

He ignored her question and stood there, towering over her. As if she was going to let him use his size to intimidate her. “Any idea why two bodies just dropped in the pond from a chopper?”

“You think I would know?”

He stared at her.

“Fine.” Kenna rolled her eyes because all she had left was sarcasm. “Depends if one is male and one is female.”

His eyes narrowed.

“Well?”

Miller nodded.

“The kidnappers.” She shrugged. “Of course, I don’t know for sure, but that would be my guess. Shame we can’t ask Hadley and have him confirm their identities.”

“What about the other victim?”

Kenna said, “I saw Senator Woodford escort her into the trees, thanks to your agent letting them make a run for it. I’d suggest you locate Woodford and ask him why he left during a police raid and where she is. But I wouldn’t want to tell you your job.”

Miller snorted. “Sure.” He stiffened and muttered something.

Jax walked in the front doors. Badge on the lapel of his wool coat so that no one would be confused about who he was. A couple of the FBI agents across the entryway snapped to attention—former military guys, probably. The kind of people accustomed to showing respect to the chain of command.

Jax lifted two fingers in acknowledgment, scanned the room, and found her in the chair with Miller standing over her.

Miller stepped back, a pinched look on his face.

“Hey, buddy. How’s it going?” Jax clapped Miller on the shoulder. “Good to see you.”

“Sir.”

Kenna bit the inside of her lip to keep from smiling. “Don’t let that dirty agent go. You should get to the bottom of that.”

“Right after he uncuffs you.” Jax stopped beside her and stuck his hands in his pockets. Holding himself back from what he wanted to do.

Miller used a key to release the cuffs, taking them and walking away.

Jax held out his hand, and she stood, touching her lips to his. “You lost your shoes?”

She didn’t kiss him the way she wanted to right now, but it was enough in a room full of people where he had to be professional. “It’s been an interesting night.”

“You’re cold.”

“Can I have your coat?”

He smiled slightly, tugged off the badge, and slid his coat off. He helped her thread her arms through and then slid the badge onto his belt. “There isn’t anything I can do about your shoes.”

“You could piggyback me out to the car.”

He smiled, then tugged the lapels of the coat toward him and kissed her. “Wouldn’t that cause a stir.”

“I didn’t realize I was so cold. Your coat is warm.” She wrapped the edges around her. The wool fell to her knees almost, heavy and warm. “We need to find people. Get moving.”

“Maizie.”

She nodded.

Jax pulled out a set of keys. “There’s an Audi out front. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

“Thanks.” She took the keys and kissed his cheek.

Now that he was here, she had no desire to question Charlie or do anything else right now. But only in this moment. Tomorrow might be a different story, but right now she wanted to curl up in this coat and warm up. Afterward they’d all make a plan together.

She headed for the door. “Bruce.” Kenna checked that the comms earbud was still seated correctly so she could hear him if he spoke. “Bruce, do you read me?”

Outside, a crowd of cops had gathered on the lawn, so she couldn’t see the two bodies. Probably for the best. The human form didn’t do well hitting water at terminal velocity. Things got messy.

She stepped as lightly as she could across the gravel drive to the car that lit up when she clicked the button on the key fob. A man sat in the front seat. It took her a second to recognize Jax’s father.

He’d sent her out here knowing his dad was in the car?

Kenna pulled open the rear door and slid in. “Mr. Jaxton, how are you?”

“Kenna.” He glanced at her, twisting around a little in the seat so he could look at her. “I’m eager to hear word about my wife and daughter. Her husband is quite beside himself that he can’t reach her, and I’d imagine the children are worried.”

Laney’s husband probably wouldn’t have said anything that would scare them. “I lost track of them at the party. Perhaps they ran out of phone battery or got lost on unfamiliar roads.” He’d had a security detail on them, hadn’t he? Surely, they knew where Laney and Adrielle had gone. Or if they were still in the house. “Have you heard from the people who were protecting them?”

“They were dismissed for the evening.” Seemed like he had to force the words out. Like he didn’t want to tell her but knew he had to give her the information in order to get them back. “Adrielle didn’t want to bring them to the party. They were nearby, expecting a call to collect the women and take them back to the hotel.”

“So they could still be here. Do you have a way to track their phones and see where they are?”

“Both left the building earlier, and their phones stopped transmitting their locations just beyond the grounds of this residence.” He shifted in the seat, looking through the windshield. “Oliver asked me to lend you his cell phone?” He said it like a question, handing over the device.

“Thanks.” She risked overstepping and just touched the shoulder of the seat he was in, patting it lightly. “Let’s figure out how to find them.”

She called Bruce first, but there was no answer. Her comms earpiece got in the way, so she took it out and slid it into the inside pocket of Jax’s coat.

It took a second to find Maizie in his contacts. She was listed as “M,” which made Kenna smile, despite everything that was going on.

Ramon was the one who answered. “It’s me.”

Kenna responded, “It’s me. Is she okay?”

“Are you?”

Kenna frowned. “Talk.”

“Maizie is fine. She’s just in the middle of a hack. Trying to access the senator’s information.”

“That’s good.”

“And you?”

“We need to find my mom and Zeyla.”

Jax’s dad shifted in his seat. Reacting to something, or simply adjusting his seat? Maybe he thought they should be fully focused on their family.

“On it. Stairns will help.”

Kenna asked, “Have you heard from Bruce? I’m starting to get nervous. The police weren’t going to let me go room by room and search for him. I haven’t seen him since earlier. We lost contact.” At least if the police had rounded him up with everyone else, there would be a name on a list of guests somewhere when he was asked for his information.

Or, like the burned spy he was, he’d somehow managed to slip out. But if he’d done that, why hadn’t he contacted her?

The guy could be lying somewhere in the house, dead or bleeding out.

She bit her lip. “Ramon?”

“I was checking. None of us have heard from him, and he’s not transmitting. Neither of you were from the minute you stepped into that building.”

“But we could talk to each other on comms.” Through the window, she saw Jax come down the front steps and head toward them. But he passed the car and walked to the crowd of cops that had thinned out now that a coroner’s van had shown up. “I wish I knew what happened to him. Not much of this makes sense.”

Ramon said, “You should’ve taken me with you.”

“Because you don’t trust Bruce now?” More likely, he didn’t appreciate being out of the loop.

“Maizie,” Ramon said, not talking to Kenna, “that doesn’t mean I don’t want to stay here and hang with you. No, that’s not what it means. I’m just frustrated.” He grunted. “Fine.”

She heard a shuffle over the line.

Then, “Hi.”

“Hi, Maze.”

“I told him to give me my phone.”

“Good for you.”

“I’m ready for Elizabeth to be done with her…vacation.” She cleared her throat. “I’m surrounded by these guys practically twenty-four seven. I need to paint my nails and talk about cute boys.”

Ramon made a strangled sound in the background.

“Go outside or something. I’m trying to work.”

Kenna smiled. “Jax is here, but we have work to do.”

“Too bad. There’s a new rom-com at the movies. I think you’d like it. The woman character is a former spy, and the guy is a Marine veteran. They both?—”

“Hey, can you tell me this later?”

“Sure, I was just talking until Ramon left the RV. He’s gone outside with Stairns.”

Kenna watched Jax walk back over to them through the other side window. Watching him move. Appreciating her fiancé for more than just his intelligence or professional skills for a second. It was enough to make her want to lift a hand and fan her face.

“Now, I can tell you what I found,” Maizie said.

Kenna frowned. “What’s that?”

“I didn’t want to tell anyone else before I told you, but I have a connection between Jax’s dad and the senator. Or, at least, a foundation that the senator launched. Maybe it’s nothing, or maybe there’s something sinister about it.”

“Pretend we don’t know for sure until we know for sure.”

Jax climbed into the car, and she handed over the keys from her spot in the back seat. He spoke quietly to his father, sat in front, and turned on the engine.

Maizie said, “The foundation supports children looking for scholarships in the arts. So low income families can put their kids in competition dance or buy instruments. They even support youth sports leagues.”

She said something else, but the sound deadened in the phone.

Then, her voice was coming out of the speakers. “If Woodford is all in with the company, and Jax’s dad is funneling money into a foundation that looks good on the surface, but underneath, it’s money for them?—”

Kenna lowered the phone. “Maze?—”

“What are we supposed to think but that Jax’s dad is associated with them?”

Her stomach dropped. He was going to think she’d been investigating him.

She tapped the Bluetooth button on Jax’s phone and lifted it to her ear. “I’ll call you back.” She hung up before Maizie could respond.

Jax let off the gas. She reached forward and slipped his phone into the cubby in the center console. “Sorry.”

He sat stiffly in the driver’s seat, both hands on the wheel. “Dad?”

“Yes, son?”

Jax didn’t relax. He got to the end of the drive and pulled onto the street. “Mom and Laney weren’t inside. They weren’t on any list the police have of people in the building when they raided it, and someone I spoke to said she remembered Mom and Laney leaving shortly before that anyway. So where are they?”

“How am I supposed to provide an answer to that question?” His father lifted both hands. “Isn’t that what we’re here to find?”

Kenna eased back into her seat and clipped the seat belt. Was their disappearance connected to him and his relationship with the company, or was this was something else entirely? She needed her phone, but it was in Bruce’s car, back at the house. If he needed a way to leave the house later, he would be able to take the car.

She jogged her knee up and down, trying to process everything and decide what to do first. Stairns and Ramon, Maizie. Some shoes and a change of clothes. Jax’s dad needed to tell them everything he knew. Maizie needed to find the senator. Kenna needed to use the restroom, get a gun, and get ready to find her family.

Jax let out a grunt. “You need to tell us everything, Dad. I don’t believe you’re in bed with these people, but maybe you got in too far before you realized you’re not into what they are. That you don’t want anything to do with them. I want to give you the benefit of the doubt, but that means you need to be honest.”

“So you can tell me what a mess I’ve made of everything?”

“That’s not what this is,” Jax said. “No one is accusing you. We just want to find Mom and Laney.”

She heard a car rev behind them and twisted around. The car came up too fast, approaching the back end of this rental. “Incoming.” She patted his shoulder. “Jax.”

“Got it. Everyone buckled in?”

His dad said, “Yes.”

Kenna said, “Don’t worry about me.”

He hit the gas, and they sped up, pushing her back into her seat. The car behind did the same. It put on a burst of speed and clipped the back end of their car at an angle from the license plate to the left corner, pushing them into a spin.

Kenna held on as her stomach swirled. The center median flashed in front of the car, then the trees on the side of the road. Cars around them honked.

The Audi clipped another vehicle and crossed the rumble strip at the shoulder.

And then, they were airborne.

She didn’t know how long it was before she woke up, but when she did, it wasn’t pleasant. Everything hurt. Like she’d been hit by a car and thrown through the air, inside Jax’s…

Jax.

She tried to say his name and heard herself moan, but no real words came out. All she had the strength to do was take in air to keep her heart beating, at least until she became more aware of the world. Herself. The situation.

Jax had slumped over the airbag. In front of her, his father had collapsed against the window, his head against the tempered glass. She unclipped her seat belt first. Then she would…

Someone hammered on the window. Kenna flinched around, which didn’t feel great.

Roxanne stood beside her door, pointing a gun at Kenna. “Get out.” The words were muffled behind the glass, and the company asset knocked on the window with the butt of the gun. “Now.”

Kenna hit the button and grabbed the handle. She twisted around with her knees and kicked at the door so that it swung out fast.

It clipped Roxanne, and she stumbled back, surprised but also amused. “Nice try.” She held the gun on Kenna and motioned for her to move. “You’re coming with me before EMS gets here.”

“I don’t think so.” There was no way she’d leave Jax and his dad unconscious. “You guys have taken way too much from me today. I’m done.”

Kenna leaned against the side of the car and lifted her chin. Her feet sank into the cool earth, dirt and grass with some twigs and pine needles. She really needed to find a pair of shoes.

She looked around and saw a few people had pulled over to help them. Maybe only two cars since the third was probably Roxanne’s.

The other woman took a step closer to her. “Move. Start walking or I start shooting places that won’t kill you.”

Kenna said, “I’m not leaving. You’re gonna kidnap me in front of witnesses?”

Roxanne’s expression indicated she didn’t much care.

“Put it down!” A man roared, and Kenna looked to see Bruce making his way down the grassy hill from the highway.

She ducked inside the car to see if Jax or his dad was waking up. They needed an ambulance for sure. So did she, probably, though she usually didn’t like to admit it. Who wanted to feel helpless? Far too reminiscent of the worst day of her life.

“I said, put it down!”

A second later, a gunshot exploded.

Kenna flinched, turning back to see Roxanne fall to the ground.

“Let’s go.” Bruce walked all the way up to her, right in her space.

She needed Roxanne’s gun just in case the woman wasn’t fully dead. Though, from the look of her, Bruce didn’t leave even a chance she was still alive. Kenna stepped toward the dead woman, hardly able to process what had just happened.

Bruce grabbed her shoulder, squeezing the side of her neck.

“What—”

Everything went black.