Page 29

Chapter Twenty-Nine

T he next time Kenna awoke, she was lying on a couch in a small office that wasn’t a rich man’s study, more like government chic. She could hear someone crying softly. It wasn’t her.

She blinked and started to sit up.

A woman gasped. “Kenna! Don’t try to move too fast.”

She found the woman’s face. “Laney.” Kenna brushed back the hair that had fallen over her face and let out a groan, lying back against the pillow. This couch was hard and uncomfortable. “What happened?”

Before the drugs, she hadn’t been with Jax’s sister. His mom was here as well, on a chair beside the couch.

Laney crouched by Kenna’s hip. “Stay where you are. I can explain but…they’re watching.”

“Talk fast.” None of this made any sense.

Kenna reached out a hand and gently touched the collar on Laney’s neck. The one with explosives in it that, if activated, would blow her head off and kill her instantly. “Laney.” She groaned the word, then touched her own collar. Nothing. “Why don’t I have one? You’re both wearing them.”

Adrielle looked away, a balled-up tissue in her hand. Anger was far better than sadness in whatever situation this was.

She sat up, a huge skirt moving with her as she lowered her legs to the floor. She was wearing… “Why am I in my wedding dress?”

Laney backed up and sat on the coffee table. Whoever owned this office, they might work for the government, but they were high up. Like a senator. “We have only been here half an hour, so we don’t know much. They made us put you in that, by the way. We didn’t want the senator’s men doing it.” She motioned to Kenna’s middle.

Adrielle didn’t look at them. Her body language screamed that she was on the precipice of losing all control.

Kenna gritted her teeth and shifted back on the couch. “Why do I ache all over?”

Laney shook her head. “They put these collars on us. They’re explosive devices…”

Kenna was already nodding. “I saw my mom at the senator’s house. They’d put one on her. This is about getting organs for his uncle. He’s sick.” Her voice broke, and she cleared her throat, hardly able to process it. “Zeyla.”

She’d never even met her sister and had only seen her in person once.

Kenna didn’t want to lose that shot at a sibling. But right now, there wasn’t anything she could do about it.

Okay, time to quit ignoring the obvious. “He took my dress from Akira and put me in it because I’m supposed to marry him?”

Laney bit her lip.

Adrielle said, “If you don’t, we all die. But we’re probably dead either way. Once he has no need for us?—”

“Mom.”

Kenna glanced between the two women. “My friends will find us. Or we’ll figure a way out of this.” He’d had the collars’ key in his pocket before. Or perhaps he had some kind of remote detonator, maybe on his phone. “We just need a plan.”

She patted her lap. Lord…

All of it went unspoken, but He knew.

She looked around. “You took off my dress?”

Laney said, “Yes. It’s there.” She motioned to the basic desk and aging monitor.

Kenna stood. Pain whipped through her middle, and she sucked in a breath and sat back down.

“I’ll get it.” Laney went to the desk and brought it back.

Kenna clenched her teeth and turned the dress over in her hands, looking for the pocket by the zipper. Please be there. Whatever it was, she figured she would need it. “Do you know if Jax is okay, and your husband?” She looked at Adrielle.

The older woman only shook her head, pressing the balled-up tissue in her fist to her mouth.

Laney asked, “What happened just now when you tried to stand?”

“They did something to me. I don’t know what.” But she could guess well enough. Kenna wasn’t going to think about it, though. She could do that later. After they all got out of this situation. “You’ve tried the phone on the desk?”

Laney nodded. “It isn’t plugged in. There isn’t even a cable.”

“Ah.” Kenna found the opening to the pocket and slid out a thin implement that didn’t look like more than a hefty fountain pen. She removed the lid and found a wicked serrated blade, hiding it in the folds of her dress so she could look at it.

The handle had some curve to it. A slight guard around the middle, where the lid connected, would keep her from cutting her fingers when she thrusted forward and her hand slid. She wanted to swipe it through the air in her hand, to get a feel for the weight, but that would be too noticeable. Instead, she replaced the lid and slipped it into the front of the dress she wore.

She didn’t have her necklace and wasn’t sure where it was. At this point, if her friends couldn’t find her, then they were in serious trouble.

But she figured she could stall. Give her friends the best possible chance of finding them.

Kenna looked at the window and saw daylight through the slats of the blinds but couldn’t see outside. Just that little bit of light coming in, letting her know it was daytime. “Where are we?”

Laney swallowed. “The federal courthouse in Cheyenne, Wyoming. We were in Denver just a few hours ago. They loaded us into an SUV, and we came north. We didn’t know why. They never told us anything until we got here. Just what these collars are. What they do.”

Kenna reached over and clasped Laney’s hand, holding on for a second. “Jax will come.”

“I hope that’s true.” She looked rumpled. Exhausted. Scared.

“How are you, Adrielle?” Kenna looked at her future mother-in-law.

She couldn’t think about Amara and Zeyla. Not when she was here with these women. Unless she got out of this situation, she wouldn’t be able to rescue them. Even if she did, it might be too late.

“I’m scared.”

Laney whispered, “She needs her heart pills.”

Kenna said, “I’ll put that on the list.” She wanted to make light of the situation and joke. Find her bravado she always seemed to be able to draw from. But it wasn’t here. It was gone, along with her strength and her ability to stand up.

What had they done to her?

They could’ve taken an organ from her. Or extracted her eggs.

Okay, focus.

She couldn’t think about that, or she’d spiral with the endless possibilities and drive herself into a tailspin. Instead, she could ask Senator Woodford. Preferably at a time when her friends and family were safe, and she had that knife to his throat. Just a tiny bead of blood weeping from the spot where she was poking him.

She wasn’t normally the murderous type, but that would be satisfying.

The door opened before she could say more or decide anything. Woodford strode in. “Good. You’re ready.”

“Ask me if I can stand up.” Kenna stared at him from her spot on the couch.

He lifted a remote. “Test me and I’ll turn this on. It’s a dead man’s switch. You know what that is?”

“You take your finger off the button, and it activates.”

“Kaboom.” His brows rose.

“Why don’t you just give me a logical reason why I should cooperate, and then there’s no need to endanger people or make threats? I’ll cooperate.”

He stared right back at her.

“But you never asked. You’re so used to threats and terrorizing people you forgot diplomacy.” She looked away, effectively dismissing him. “You forgot about negotiating.”

“My way is more expedient.” He came over, grabbed her upper arm, and hauled her to her feet.

Kenna screamed in his face, pouring all the acknowledgment of her pain into the cry. Plus, a whole lot extra just because she could.

A tendon in his jaw flexed.

“Sorry, am I not supposed to let you know that whatever sick thing you guys did while I was unconscious still hurts?” She clasped her hands together in front of her in a prayer position. “If you wanted demure, you chose the wrong girl.”

Adrielle let out a whimper.

Woodford ran his hand down over her elbow to her wrist, holding it so tight it felt as if her bones were going to slam together. He studied the scars on her arms. “Disgusting. But I suppose you can simply cover them with sleeves, and no one needs to see.”

She lifted her other hand and held her forearm up. “I’ve started to not mind them.”

Not that she would be explaining to him what they meant to her. Or how far she’d come in her acceptance of the things that had been done to her and the grace given to her by Jesus.

Thank You. Also, some help would be awesome. If You’re not busy. Now was definitely the time for casual and close for her prayers. Not distant and formal. Anytime now would be great. Not telling You what to do or anything. K, love You. Bye.

Some in the world considered that sacrilegious, but if this was going to be a relationship, she was going to be real. Kenna would accept nothing less than a dependent relationship that was deep and honest. Not a formal agreement based on mutual respect.

“They’re ready for us.” He dropped her arm like it stank and stepped back. “Ladies, if you would come with me?”

Laney and Adrielle both stood. Laney held out her arm, and Kenna snaked hers through. They weren’t going to hold each other up, but they could walk together.

The federal courthouse in Cheyenne.

Kenna figured they had a judge in their pockets. If it was a weekday, there would be people here. She actually had no idea what day it was. There could be staff in the building. Would that mean all of them were on the company’s payroll? Dominatus. The word dropped into her mind unbidden. She had a name for them now, and if Woodford had told it to her, that meant he didn’t expect her to live to tell anyone else.

He expected to control whether she lived or died.

Two armed men stood in the hallway. They walked behind the group down the hall to a pair of wood doors with an opaque glass window that had gold lettering. “Is that the judge in your pocket? Or did you coerce him as well?”

“Everyone who is here today is here because they’ve made the choice to participate. Even you.” He pushed the doors open.

Laney slid her arm down and held Kenna’s hand and, on her other side, took her mother’s hand as well.

Kenna glared at him. “Really seems like I chose this.”

“It’s the prudent course of action.” Woodford stepped into the courtroom. “If you don’t want to die.”

Kenna spotted a couple more guys, including the one from the cabin. But not her mother or any other women except the ones with her. Charlie sat in the front row of the gallery, and the judge in his robes arranged some papers on the defense table. The older man had a string tie and cowboy boots, his robes drooped off weak shoulders. He turned to them with tiny reading glasses perched on his nose.

She wanted to find fault with him or see some indication he was part of this evil organization. But he just seemed like someone’s grandpa.

“I see our bride has woken up.”

Kenna said, “I thought marriage licenses took a few days. Don’t some states require a blood test?” She thought of something else. “I don’t have my driver’s license, so I guess we can’t do this after all. So sorry you all wasted your time coming here.”

The men around the room said nothing.

Charlie didn’t stand up. He sat there with a pinched expression, looking a little bit…scared. Because he thought she might kick him again?

“How are you, Charlie?” She shot him a look, full of mirth because she was so over this, ready to flip out and start raging as loud as she could.

Anytime now.

The senator grabbed her arm and shoved her toward the judge. “Shut up.”

She looked back to see him turn to Laney and her mother.

“Would one of you care to remind her what happens if this doesn’t go forward?”

Adrielle whimpered.

Laney said, “Kenna,” and it sounded like a moan.

“Sorry.” She stood between the judge and the senator and counted six guys. Four goons who probably had guns, Charlie, and the judge. She probably couldn’t take them all out, but she could kill the senator with the knife tucked down the front of her dress.

Woodford studied her. “They should’ve fixed your hair.”

“You should’ve given us more time.”

“Let’s just say I’m…eager to go through with this.”

“Gross.” She turned to the judge. “You’re really fine being complicit in this? Isn’t it against the law that you agreed to uphold?”

“Weddings are happy occasions for everyone.”

“Sure they are.” This guy seemed like he was on something. He couldn’t seriously be this delusional, could he?

Woodford moved to stand next to her, and she heard a beep. When she looked over, he had his hand around the dead man’s switch. “Just in case.”

“Why do you even want to be married to me? I’ll make every day miserable for you, relentlessly, until you’re so tired of it you want to drive your car off a bridge.”

Someone snorted.

Woodford ignored it. “As enjoyable as it would be to take you to every society party I can get an invitation to, I’m sure you’ll much prefer spending your life in a comfortable room. With padded walls. Bearing my children.” He leaned close. “All of them.”

“Two…seven…twenty? How many are we talking?”

Woodford glared at her. “As many as I like, until you die.”

“Seems inefficient.”

“On the contrary, it will serve a great purpose and keep many of our women in line. You will be the example to all of a life well lived.”

Kenna pressed her lips together.

“Silence is a wise choice. Until you say, ‘I do.’”

“You can’t make me say it.”

Woodford waved the switch in his right hand. “I think I can. Unless you want to say it with brain matter on that dress.”

It was already ruined just by the fact she had to wear it standing with this guy. A man who seriously thought she was going to agree to this?

But her defiance would cost Laney’s and Adrielle’s lives.

He grabbed her shoulders and turned her to face the judge, who cleared his throat.

“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today…”

Kenna bit her lip. Anytime now, God.