Page 90 of Now or Never

“You’re a killer, Simon,” Jax said. “We bring killers to justice.”

“Is that you, Kenna? I can’t see you hiding back there.”

She made sure no one was to sneak up behind them. But Simon only ever worked alone. “Don’t worry about me. Worry about what happens to killers who return to the scene of the crime and get caught.”

More laughter.

“Put your hands up,” Jax said, his gun trained on Simon.

Kenna dug out her phone with her off hand and dialed 911. Maizie would see it, but it was enough for the police to follow her to this location—preferably from as close as inside the building behind her. She moved to look around Jax’s shoulder.

Simon moved fast, bringing out a gun. Already firing before he could even aim.

Jax fired back.

She felt the bullet slam into Jax’s chest, and everything in her tensed in a wrenching grief. He grunted and started to fall. Simon barely rocked back.

Kenna squeezed the trigger on her gun and fired over and over.

Simon’s body jerked as he fell to the ground.

She lowered the pocket of her jacket. Someone was yelling—maybe it was her. She collapsed to the ground beside Jax and rolled him to his back.

His head lolled to the side, a single bullet embedded in his shirt.

She choked back a sob. “Right. You’re wearing that vest.” She could hardly breathe.

“Ma’am!” The cop raced over. “Ma’am, are you all right?”

She lifted her hands. “My husband has been shot.”

Chapter Thirty-Four

Jax slumped onto the bed in the RV with a groan. Jolene hopped up and curled up near his feet.

Kenna winced, standing by the door that slid across and separated the bedroom from the rest of the RV. “Do you need anything? An ice pack?”

She doubted the over-the-counter medication he had taken was even taking the edge off the pain from the giant blue bruise in the center of his chest. Just looking at him made her chest tighten in sympathy.

“Ice…pack.” He groaned out the words, his eyes closed.

Kenna had given him a hand changing out of his gala event clothes, and he looked more comfortable now, but all that movement had to hurt. She grabbed an ice pack out of the stack in the freezer compartment and took it to him. Her phone buzzed in the pocket of her sweats, a notification for their security system. Before she could grab her pistol off the kitchen counter, the door opened.

“Just me!” Zeyla pushed the door open and came in, grinning. “Don’t shoot.”

“Too soon.” Kenna shook her head, leaving the gun where it was.

Her cousin looked around. “He’s good, right? The vest he was wearing stopped it?”

Kenna nodded back toward the bedroom. “He isn’t dead.”

“Dead would feel better than this!” Jax called out.

“It’s too soon for that as well,” Kenna yelled back. But the fact that any of them were joking about it was a minor miracle in their lives.

Zeyla pressed her lips together like she was trying not to laugh. “I know exactly how getting hit in the vest feels, among other things. Like we all do. I’m sorry you got hurt, Jax.”

Kenna waved at the fridge. “You know where the drinks are. Help yourself.”