Page 81 of Now or Never

She kissed his cheek. “I’ll be right back.”

He probably wanted to ask her about the conversation she’d just had with the Croatian president, but they’d have time to chew over that after. “I’ll be over there.” He pointed toward the door.

Kenna chose a stall and had just locked the door when she heard the creak of the restroom door opening and a female voice, muttering, as she crossed the tile floor. Instinct Kenna didn’t fully comprehend, but also wasn’t going to question, had her lifting her feet off the floor.

The woman sighed. “It’s me.”

Kenna sat still and listened to the phone call, all her nerve endings alert.

“He’s drinking it now. I’ll give him ten minutes and then lead him out the side entrance.” Pause. “I said you’d be paid the rest, didn’t I? Just do what I told you to do.”

She knew that voice.

Kenna slid her cell phone from the runner’s armband she’d fastened around her thigh and sent Amara a message.

Chapter Thirty-One

The bathroom door creaked open again. Kenna flushed the toilet and let herself out of the stall. “Don’t mind me. Just need to wash my hands.”

The woman to her left was…

“NurseSmith.” Kenna hung a right, walked behind Amara, and washed her hands while the two women faced off. She needed to go tell Petyr that he’d already been dosed with something.

Assuming he was the target.

Kenna pulled two paper towels from the dispenser. “Who were you here to kidnap, and who’s working with you?”

Nurse Smith just stood there. Faced with Amara, Kenna wasn’t exactly surprised to see the woman was frozen with no idea what to do.

Amara was deadly even without a weapon in her hands.

Smith started to lift her phone, her attention shifting. Hoping to quickly send a message?

Before Kenna could object, Amara flicked out her hand. A tiny blade embedded itself in Smith’s shoulder, almost to the hilt. She gasped and stumbled back a step but didn’t go down. And she didn’t pull the knife out.

“Better to hand over the phone,” Kenna said.

The nurse had hung up with whoever she was talking to before Amara came in. Someone within the embassy staff, or even on Petyr’s personal security detail, maybe. And here they’d thought they were going to leave in the next few minutes. Amara and Bruce and their instincts had already known something was wrong.

Unless there was more to come.

Kenna leaned against the wall by the door. Her phone buzzed with a text from Jax. She replied back,

Clear

She was safe, and he was safe to enter. But the door didn’t open.

“Who was the target?” Kenna asked again.

Nurse Smith sneered at them, stiff now because of the pain. Blood seeped into her blouse over her shoulder. “Doesn’t matter. We can get to anyone at any time. We’re everywhere.”

Amara didn’t react. But then, the brainwashed assets ofDominatuswere nothing new to her. This woman was low level. Probably only here so she could work her way back into their good graces. Taking a job just to prove she was useful. But in an organization that regularly tossed aside anyone who wasn’t, and who barely considered the foot soldier to be part of them, Kenna wasn’t hopeful for her long-term chances.

AllDominatuscared about was power. The only people who mattered were those at the top. Everyone else fell in line, or they were eliminated.

“Petyr?” Kenna tilted her head.

Smith’s eyes flared.