Page 83 of Now or Never

“Hang on.” Bruce lifted the phone and hit a button. The sound of ringing was low, but audible.

Across at the group, one of the thugs backed up. Kenna watched to see if he’d reach for his phone, but he merely stood there. Instead, the woman they’d alerted to the problem took her phone off a clip on her belt and put it to her ear.

“Zdravo.”

Bruce whispered, “That means hello.”

He and Jax both headed over there, while the woman got annoyed that the caller hadn’t yet responded. Kenna leaned against the car to watch the conversation unfold. Saying a quiet prayer no guns would be drawn and no one hurt.Nice and easy.

They alerted the security thugs to the fact that this employee was part of the conspiracy to kidnap and likely kill their president. The woman in the green dress whirled around and slapped the staffer in the face. She stumbled back, and two thugs grabbed her.

Jax said something else to them, and he and Bruce came back over.

“Not the way I thought this evening would go,” Kenna muttered.

Bruce exchanged the phone for keys. “Follow us?”

Jax nodded. “We’ll be right behind you.”

Kenna would rather hear firsthand what Nurse Smith had to say, but it was safer for her to be in a different vehicle. Jax drove, and they followed Bruce’s car to an industrial area with plenty of empty parking lots. Bruce threaded through the complex, then through the trailer park behind it. The street switched to gravel, and he pulled into what looked like an old industrial plant.

The parking lot asphalt was cracked, with weeds growing through the openings. Bruce turned to the left and parked at an angle. Jax did the same, leaving space between the two cars. The place seemed deserted, but Kenna had been caught off guard by that before.

“I’ll stay put.” She palmed her phone. “I want to call Maizie anyway and check on Petyr.”

Jax leaned over and kissed her, then climbed out.

Being in the car wouldn’t necessarily protect her from a well-placed shot by a high-powered rifle, but if she was going to worry about that, then she really wouldn’t ever leave her bunker. She couldn’t live in fear of things she would never see coming.

Lord, protect us.

She tapped her phone on her knee, unsure how she was going to ascertain if Petyr was all right. It wasn’t like she had his number.

Maizie was easier to contact.

“Banbury—hey.”

“Hi, Maze.” She put it on speaker and dropped the phone to her lap so she could see what was going on through the windshield.

Jax had his arms crossed facing off with the nurse. Smith looked belligerent, even with the blood all over her shoulder. Bruce and Amara stood on either side of her.

“Anything from the files you’ve been going through?”

Maizie groaned. “Besides a headache?”

“Sorry.” Kenna didn’t envy the young woman’s job sometimes. Just the protected place where she lived, and the world that was hers inside that Airstream. Maizie was slowly emerging from it. Testing the waters of the outside.

“I switched to hacking satellites instead, because it’s way better than reading pages and pages of personnel reports and operation plans.”

Kenna smiled to herself. “Don’t get caught.” Kenna watched the tense conversation continue, and another car pulled into the lot. She twisted around. “Uh-oh.” She checked the others had spotted this new player but quickly realized she knew the car.

“What?”

“Ramon and Zeyla are here. No worries.”

“Okay.” Maizie sounded relieved.

“You were worried?”