Page 27 of Now or Never

The elevator door opened.

“I wondered if maybe you weren’t so happy about the timing,” he said. “Given what’s going on.”

“And how I’m determined to avoid all of it?”

He squeezed her hand, but her phone started to ring in her pocket.

She glanced at the screen. “Amara. Probably about the sketch.” She swiped her thumb across the screen and put the phone to her ear. “Hey.”

“You have a minute?”

Jax led her down the last part of the hall from the elevator to the lobby and through the expanse of space where they had coffee only yesterday. Nothing was amiss, but she noted he scanned the tables and people sitting chatting. A guy by the reception desk to the right didn’t look up from his phone.

Kenna focused on the call and let her husband do the work of protecting them both. “Did you recognize the photo?”

“I’ve seen him before, but I don’t know his name. I’ll need access to one of their computer terminals to find out who he is. Maybe at the platform?”

“Worth asking MSI.” The security company that had taken over the platform where she was held during the rescue would likely let Amara have a moment with their computers. “Maybe they have access to files we don’t know about. But I did hearthat the system was erased when it became clearDominatuswas going to lose the fight.”

“Hang on.” Amara relayed the info to someone else.

Bruce.

Kenna didn’t like that he was privy to the details, but Amara already knew not to trust implicitly. The two of them might be aunt and niece, even though Kenna had thought for years that Amara was her deceased mother, but they still didn’t put total faith in each other. The only person she did that with was Jax, and to a lesser extent Maizie and Ramon. Maybe Stairns. The Rysons were her friends, but she didn’t want their little family to be targets, so she hadn’t called them in months and hadn’t seen them since she and Jax got married.

“Kenna.”

She held the warm phone to her ear. “Yes?” Stepping off the curb beside Jax, she remembered the night shortly after they’d met when someone tried to run her over. Jax had been in her orbit since, and now they never needed to be apart.

“I asked if you were ready for the next most pressing issue.”

“Hit me with it.”

“Moments ago, Maizie received an encrypted packet in her email. She needs a key to get into the packet. I’m working on that.”

“What’s going on?”

“Our friends from Hann, Anthony & Associates are being rounded up and arrested as the perpetrators of yesterday’s bombing in DC.” Amara paused. “You know who the target was?”

Kenna nodded. “I know.” Jax held the car door for her, and she ducked her head, climbing in. “The Croatian prime minister.” She watched Jax round the front of the car to the driver’s side.

“Actually, the president,” Amara corrected. “Their prime minister is over the executive branch of their government. The president is their commander in chief, basically the boss of their military.”

“Sounds complicated.”

“The president is the one here to nail down the details of the treaty with our president. Someone tried to take the Croatian guy out.”

“What does it have to do with our lawyer friends?” Kenna asked.

The call muted for a second, then connected to the car speakers.

“Three of the lawyers were already arrested,” Amara explained. “The taskforce is moving quick. They pinpointed them as the prime suspects and they’re rounding them up and making arrests.”

Kenna bit her lip for a second. “Did they do it?”

Jax glanced at her but said nothing.

“Of course not!”