Page 26

Chapter Twenty-Six

K enna came awake swinging her arms this time. In a full rage with no intention of letting up. Her wrist clipped the dashboard of a car, and she cried out.

Bruce reached over with his arm across her front, high up by her collarbone, and pushed her back against the seat. “Easy. You’ll hurt yourself.”

They were on the highway, driving somewhere.

“Go back!”

“No.” He didn’t even shake his head.

“I’m gonna kill you. Jax is back there!”

“Easy. The cops pulled up as we left. They’ll get an ambulance out there, and your boy will be fine.”

“And his father?”

Bruce asked, “His dad was there?”

She shifted in the seat, getting out of the cramped way she’d been sitting. He’d covered her lap and her knees with a jacket…after he’d pinched her neck and knocked her out. “Pull over.”

“No.”

“Stop the car, Bruce. I’m getting out.”

“Not with no shoes on you ain’t.”

She should batter him until he pulled over, then kick him out. Only that was nothing but the bluster of someone who was mad but didn’t have the physical strength to overpower the other person. Weapon. She needed a weapon.

Kenna searched around. Checked the hidden pockets of her dress… “You patted me down?”

“Didn’t want you to run the risk of hurting yourself.”

“I’m more likely to hurt you right now. What are you doing?”

He kept his attention on the road in front of them. “My job. Helping you solve your cases, and in this case, helping you get your family back. Isn’t that what you pay me for?”

“Perhaps I made a poor choice.”

“Don’t think you wanna fight me in court for wrongful dismissal. You’ll have to settle, and it’ll cost you.”

Kenna leaned over. “Your enemies would murder you before it even went to trial.”

“We’re doing this my way.”

He knew she was right, but he didn’t want to admit it. “Why would I go along with this when I just left Jax back there in who knows what state, along with his father?” She looked down at her hand and remembered she left her engagement ring in the dresser drawer in the RV. She hadn’t even thought of it until now, but suddenly, it seemed like everything . One part of the story, but it seemed to linchpin the entire thing.

More important than a smart watch that would give away her location—which was not on her wrist. When was the last time she’d worn it?

Bruce didn’t know about the necklace, or did he? She needed a second to reach up and flick the switch on the back to transmit her location to Maizie. But the battery didn’t last for hours, so until Maizie knew to start looking for her, there was no point in wasting its life.

He glanced over. “You want your mom back, right?”

She stared at him, aware they were going out of Denver on the freeway. South? Or some other direction. She had no idea. Maybe they were going nowhere in particular. Could Maizie track them? Did the teen know what was happening? Until she got a call from Jax, she might not know that anything was wrong. She wouldn’t think anything was off about Bruce being with Kenna, if she discovered they were together.

“Well?”

“Quiet. I’m plotting how to get away from you.”

He reached over and flipped on the radio, which started playing last century’s greatest rock hits for crusty old ex-CIA officers who were enjoying being back in the US after years of exile.

She waited a second, then turned it off. “My mom?”

“I knew you wouldn’t leave Jax of your own accord.”

Duh. “What about my mom?”

“I figured the easiest way to make a clean break from that car was to knock you out. It was expedient, so you don’t need to be mad. I made the choice, it’s done, and now we can move on.”

“You’re fired.”

“I followed Roxanne from the house after you, and when she stepped in, I took her down.” He paused for emphasis, then said, “Jax needs to find his mom and his sister, right? He’s gotta focus on that.”

“I was going to help.”

“At the expense of yours.” Bruce shrugged. “Now we can do both, and you can blame me. Doesn’t need to put a wedge between you and Jax, and this way, his dad doesn’t get in the way of our mission.” He slapped his chest. “Jax’s family is their business. If Dad screws that up, then it’s on him. Nothing to do with us. Your family? They’re our responsibility.”

Did he hit his head and suffer some kind of injury or a mental breakdown? Maybe he had PTSD. His logic was sort of sound but also didn’t make sense to anyone else.

Except that she had been trying not to wonder whether helping Jax find his family would mean she never found hers. Splitting up wouldn’t have been her first choice. They spent hardly any time in person as it was—at least right now. She’d been content to just be with him and find out what his dad knew about the company, hoping that finding his sister and his mom would lead them closer to Amara and Zeyla.

But the reality was that she could easily be torn between the two.

She might have to choose.

She had no idea what the answer would be. “Where are we going?”

Bruce glanced over. For a while, he didn’t say anything, and then he seemed to be admitting something that might be a secret. “Woodford has Amara and Zeyla.”

“I saw him take them.” But the way he’d said it made her wonder if he knew far more than she did. Though, he likely didn’t know that Clare’s twin had opted to kill herself with a fire. Or that Kenna had uncovered a dirty FBI agent.

Where had he been while she focused on the mission?

Seemed like he’d had a mission of his own the entire time. One she hadn’t been privy to.

He said, “Your mom tried to exchange with his guys, giving them Clare and Roxanne. It went wrong, and Clare was killed. Roxanne knocked out your mom, and they put her in the cell with Zeyla.”

“When the cops arrived, they left out the back.”

Bruce grunted. “Figures they’d run.”

“So where are they?” She looked around for a phone. His phone. Where had he put it? Or was he completely off the reservation, gone dark. No communication.

The glove box.

She pulled the handle, and it dropped down. Kenna’s phone tumbled out into her hands.

He grabbed the phone, hit the button on his window, and tossed it out. As the window whirred back up, he said, “Too easy to trace. The company knows where you are all the time, and I’d be surprised if they haven’t hacked you already.”

“As if Maizie would let that happen.”

“They’ve been in her system. You wanna tell me it’s impenetrable?”

“Nothing is impenetrable.”

Bruce said, “That’s why we’re going old school.”

“Why are you doing this?”

“You and I paired up tonight. Figured we’d see it through, given certain developments. So let’s get them back.”

She shifted in the seat again, trying not to punch him. “What happened?”

This seemed far more than just a mission. In fact, it almost seemed as if it might be personal to him. Because of Amara? Like maybe they’d had some kind of…moment in the woods. One chance meeting.

When he said nothing, she said, “If I can’t trust you, I’m not working with you. I don’t care how helpful you’ll be.” He’d already burned far too much of her goodwill tonight by leaving Jax behind.

“I’m doing my job. It isn’t about trust. It’s about finishing the mission while there’s time. Waiting around only lessens the chance of success.” Bruce leaned heavier on the gas pedal. “Strike while the iron is hot.”

“Because you know…what?”

He pushed out a heavy breath. “Fine. Maizie ran my old handler against the company, Jax’s dad, Woodford, and all of it.”

“He’s connected.”

Bruce nodded.

“So instead of some altruistic, get the job done, help me out, it’s actually about you getting revenge against the guy who burned you.”

“Just a bonus.”

“And my mother?”

“Can I help it?” He wrung the steering wheel in his grasp. “She got to me.”

Kenna gritted her teeth. “Good to know that even though you’re a trained spy, you’re still a man who isn’t immune to a woman’s charms.”

His phone rang once, then stopped.

Bruce lifted it from his jacket pocket, making her remember putting the earpiece in Jax’s coat. While he looked at the screen, his wrists braced on the steering wheel, she ducked her hand in the inside coat pocket and then slid the earpiece in her ear. Hopefully, while he was too distracted to see. “What was that?”

“Address for the meet.” He put the phone away. “It’s far enough away that we’ve got to pick it up. No more delays.”

She eased over to the door. “Who are we meeting and what for?”

“Depends how much you want them back.”

“Can you just explain it?”

Bruce sighed. “I’d rather you didn’t flip out.”

“So, I’m going to think this is a terrible idea? There’s a huge surprise.” She shook her head, trying to figure out where they could possibly be going. “Tell me what we’re doing.”

He knew she wasn’t going to kill him, even if she wanted to. This wasn’t the world of international covert ops where people routinely disappeared—assassinated or kidnapped, then tortured and killed. Not between the two of them, at least.

“You said you want them back.”

She didn’t respond. It was far more complicated with her family than Jax getting his mom and sister back. Their relationship was nothing like that. He’d been raised by loving parents. His sister was amazing, a wife and mom in her own right.

Her mother had played dead for decades.

Her father had lied to her and had another child.

Her sister, cousin, whatever, she was nothing more than a stranger.

“Means you need to trade yourself for them.”

Just like that? An exchange.

“Didn’t you say Amara tried that? It didn’t work.” They wanted her mom and Zeyla, so why would they trade the two of them and lose what they’d finally gained after all these years? “They’re valuable assets. If my mom is to be believed, they’ve been hiding from the company for years. Staying under the radar. There’s no way these people are going to let Amara and Zeyla go.”

“They’re prepared to give them up. If they can have you.”

She wasn’t even going to think about that. “Why would they?”

“Who knows? I made the deal. It’s set.”

“It’s dumb.” How best to explain it to him? “Bruce, it’s obviously a trap. They’re going to have all of us instead because we walked right into it. None of us is going to go free. You’ll probably get killed—or traded to your enemies—and we’re all done. They won. Game over.”

If only someone on the other end of the comms would contact her. She prayed Maizie realized what was going on and turned the system on so she could connect. The comms used the closest Bluetooth, which was Bruce’s phone, unless he turned it off.

If his plan didn’t work, she would be lost to the company. “Do you know what happened to Adrielle and Laney? At least tell me that.”

Bruce shrugged. “I didn’t see them, and I didn’t ask.”

“There’s more going on than just Amara, but you’ve got tunnel vision.” It was a chess game, and he was playing checkers with half the pieces. “You’re not seeing the bigger picture.”

“It’s not that complicated, girl. You want them back, and I’ve agreed to trade you for them. They go free, and Ramon and Stairns get to finding you.”

“You think I’ll last longer than them?” Such a vote of confidence, though probably not a good thing.

“Zeyla, yeah. She was in a bad way. I could tell your mom was worried.”

“She didn’t want my help.” Kenna folded her arms loosely. She needed him to let her borrow his phone. “She wanted to get Zeyla on her own.”

“They’re going to kill her. Maybe both of them. Make an example to the rest of the resistance. You’ll know you could’ve stopped it.”

Kenna said, “And instead, I should trade myself so they can kill me?”

“I might be able to keep that from happening. If everything goes right.”

“You have to understand why I have doubts.” Not just about Bruce but about this entire plan. As soon as she could, Kenna was going to make a run for it. Go as far as fast as she could and try to escape. Then she would resolve this her way and not Bruce’s. He could do what he wanted, but it wasn’t going to involve trading her to the company.

“Yeah, but you’ll live with it. They don’t want you dead. They want you to be one of their surrogates.”

Her stomach flipped over.

Bruce said, “You think I’m gonna let you stay in a place like that, let them do that to you?”

“It’s exactly what you just said.”

“That’s what they’re going to think. Your mom played it straight. We’re now playing with dirty rules, and things are gonna get messy. I need to know you’re on board.”

“I won’t be unless you tell me everything.”

She was about to strangle him. Just reach over with both hands and make a point of throttling him with her bare hands, even if she didn’t have the strength to do any damage. She could get her point across, regardless.

The earpiece buzzed, crackling a little. If the thing suddenly emitted a high-pitched sound, she was going to have to keep from reacting, no matter how bad it was.

Bruce jerked the wheel toward the right side of the freeway, taking the exit far too late. Another car honked at him. He braked hard and skidded to a stop at the red light, turning left as soon as it went green. Under the overpass for the freeway, he pulled to the side of the road.

“Was all that necessary?” She stared at him, biting her lip. Praying someone connected with the comms channel. Maizie could do it from the website. But she’d have to know there was a reason to log on.

Bruce put the car in park. “Here’s what’s going to happen.”