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Chapter Sixteen

“ Y ou knew his father’s cousin?” Jax turned from closing the door behind the Santino family patriarch—or so she assumed—and his associates. The men who protected him.

Kenna leaned against the corner of the wall with the blanket wrapped around her. She was freezing. “You met him in Vegas.”

“Right.” Jax shook his head, then looked at the watch on his wrist. “I thought Bruce was gonna be here soon?”

She went and got her phone, her mind full of thoughts of Vegas crime families and the horrifying situation they’d pulled Maizie out of, which had connected Kenna to Anthony Santino. He had died in the course of her freeing Maizie. At least he’d told her he was at peace before he died.

Kenna needed everyone to come over so they could make a plan. A wave of anxiety shook her insides. Jax was vulnerable like her. Right now, he was as much of a target as she was. “I should put locators on all of them. Didn’t you call Ramon a few days ago? I thought he was coming to Phoenix.”

Bruce had told her that Ramon was recently working in Palm Springs.

“Might take another day. He was all the way up north in Wisconsin when I talked to him the day before yesterday.” Jax sighed.

“That whole conversation with the Santinos was crazy. Those guys think you’re just going to drop everything and look for that woman?

Gregorio Santino, the guy who snaps his fingers and people jump to do whatever he wants? ”

She was still stuck on the Wisconsin thing. “We don’t have any cases up there.” Ramon’s sister had been killed in that area. Maybe he’d wanted to finally say goodbye. But right now? “The only other thing I can think of is?—”

“Forrest Crosby.”

She stared at her husband. “Do you know something I don’t?”

“I know I thought he was in love with you.”

Kenna winced. The one time Ramon had kissed her was out of relief because they’d nearly died, and neither of them had ever mentioned it afterward.

He knew she loved Jax, and he’d never made a real move on her to try and persuade her otherwise.

She hadn’t been aware that Jax knew about Ramon’s feelings when she wasn’t even certain.

Jax continued, “He told me he and Forrest hit it off at our wedding. So, he went up there to spend some time with her.”

“She lost her husband years ago. She always seemed lonely, and he’s…

I guess in his own way Ramon is a good guy.

” It wasn’t a case that had brought Kenna to Forrest’s house, just a place to stay with her RV.

In the end, they’d remained friends. She just hadn’t anticipated this twist to their friendship.

“I should have loaned him the RV. There’s less chance he’d get into trouble if he has his own living space. ”

Jax kissed her forehead. “As if he’s gonna give up a vintage Charger to borrow your house.”

“Fine, I guess not.” She slid onto a bar stool at the counter. “Okay, the doctor is missing. We’re presuming that Buzard has Nicola, right? Same kidnappers, same outfits. Who else would it be? Now the Mafia wants us to find her because they think we’re their connection to Buzard.”

“Maybe they’re afraid of him, and they need you in the mix to take the heat.”

“Seems like they shouldn’t be afraid of anything, but you might be right.

” She tried to get her thoughts straight.

“We still need to check everything we own and every inch of this house—and our cars—for bugs. We also need to find those two kids and make sure they’re good so that I can sleep at night.

Then, we need to find that cop who is one of the doctor’s minions.

” She shook her head. “Earnest. If that’s even his real name. ”

She reiterated to Jax how that cop and his partner had shown up at the medical center and agreed to take the kids to get checked out and then settled with social services. He’d been the man drawing her blood, wearing a mask until she’d pulled it off.

Jax said, “That might be how Doctor Santorini got on Buzard’s radar. When the cop reported back that you’d seen her for something, they decided to act after that.”

“If those kids are alive, then I don’t care about the rest of it.” She bit her lip. “I’m sorry about Nicola if she is in danger, but it isn’t like I can account for everything. We need to find those children.”

“You’d ditch the whole idea of taking down Dominatus just for the sake of two kids?” He’d asked, but it wasn’t a question. Not really. Because Jax already knew the answer.

“Yes.”

There were actually a lot of things she would ditch that case for. She stared him down. Almost daring him to ask her to list all the things she would give up her life and her goals for.

Jax said, “They’re bad people. Nicola could be in serious danger.”

“I could argue I’m as much of a victim of theirs as she is. And why is it my job to take them down? There’s a world full of billions of people. Governments. Police forces. Military. Someone else can do it.” She lifted her chin. “I’ve got too much to lose.”

Jax kissed her gently. Before he could say anything, the front door opened.

“It’s just me.” Bruce wandered in and spotted them. “Again?”

Jax smirked. “I’m making coffee.” He wandered around the end of the breakfast bar.

She turned to Bruce. “It’s been a long day.”

“I’ll say. Kidnapped?” He actually looked like he might be worried about her. His usual Hawaiian-style shirt had a sheen of sweat the material had absorbed.

She could say they were fine, but that wasn’t the truth. “Jax has a big bruise.”

“This isn’t show-and-tell.” Jax took the carafe to the fridge to fill it with filtered water.

Bruce said, “Good, ’cause I ain’t a nurse.”

“We need to know if this house is bugged.”

He frowned. “Of course, it’s bugged. And you just said that out loud, so now they know that you know that it’s bugged.”

“So find them for me and get rid of them.”

“Already did, three times. They put more in.”

Jax turned from the coffeepot. He’d loaded it all in but hadn’t hit the button. She pointed to it to remind him to turn it on, but all of his attention was on Bruce. “You found bugs in my house?”

Bruce nodded, folding his arms and leaning one shoulder against the fridge. “The day you guys went hiking at Camelback Mountain. Then another day when you were doing background on that Fleming woman.” He looked at Kenna. “Plus the day after you first realized they had been in your house.”

She lifted her chin. “How did you get in and out with the security system?”

“Maizie spoofed it. She said she wanted the practice.”

Jax got a mug down, and it slammed on the counter. “I’m guessing I need an upgrade. Seems like anyone can get in and out of this house without me knowing.” Maybe he didn’t mean to slam it that hard because the second and third mugs landed more quietly.

“I’m a super spy. And the doctor and his people have been kidnaping victims for years with no one discovering what they’ve done until now. Of course, they can get in and out with no one knowing.”

“I know that’s supposed to make me feel better, Bruce.” Jax stood on the other side of the breakfast bar, across from her. “But it doesn’t.”

“These people have resources.” Bruce didn’t back down. “It’s not like we’re going to beat them at their own game. They’ve been doing this for too long.”

Kenna asked, “So how do we take them down?”

“We need a whole new way of going after them.” Jax didn’t move. “We need to change the playing field so we’re on the offensive, and they get knocked back a step.”

That still left the question of how. The only thing she could think of was if they could get someone on the inside.

Jax said, “Might be time to brainstorm.”

“That, or we get Maizie to backtrace their surveillance and find out who is watching us.”

Bruce said, “We tried that. No go.” He looked at Jax. “That’s how I know you don’t need to feel bad. These people are beyond pros. The pros don’t even know how to do some of the stuff they do.”

Kenna said, “So you found a group of lawyers itching to take down the doctor and sent them my way?”

He shrugged. “Outside the box, right?”

“I guess I always need a shot at representation if something happens and I wind up in jail.” She’d been interviewed by the police at the lawyers’ office, but not by the same men who had driven away in a black-and-white police car, wearing cop uniforms, with the kids in the back seat. “I need to call that sergeant.”

“Your new best friend?”

She gave Jax a smirk. “I bet he’d love to hear from me.”

“Especially when you tell him that one of his guys is responsible for kidnapping and potentially murder.”

“He stuck a needle in me.”

Bruce said, “You saw his face?”

“I pulled his mask off. It was one of the cops from the medical center.”

Bruce’s jaw hardened. In fact, his whole body tensed. “Which one?”

“Find the bugs—again. I’ll get his name and address, and we’ll go talk to him.”

“You talk. I’ll be explaining some things in…other ways.” Bruce left the room before she got a chance to correct his assumptions on how this was going to go.

She sent a message to Maizie with what she had on the cop, hoping her tech genius could find the information she needed. If they were real cops, not two guys just pretending, there would be a department record of them responding to the callout at the medical center.

When she was done, she flipped her phone face down.

“Everything feels like a collection of odd threads right now. Like there’s a million different things going on, and I can’t get a handle on how it all weaves together.

Usually, I have more questions than answers, but it’s like all I have is answers, and I’m not seeing the questions. ”

“You’ll figure it out.” He reached over and squeezed her hand. “Don’t you always?”

“Okay, but a team of eager FBI analysts wouldn’t be a horrible idea, right?”

He smiled. “I think someone might notice if I suddenly tasked a group of my staff to help you.”

“What? I can be subtle. We’ll say I’m a consultant.”

“If anyone asks, you are a consultant. I signed the paperwork weeks ago just so we didn’t have to deal with questions if you started helping. Or”—he cleared his throat—“suddenly find yourself in the middle of one of my cases.”

“I would never.” She tried to sound aghast. Or, at least, kind of surprised.

Jax just chuckled.

Bruce wandered in and dumped a load of miniature electronic devices on the breakfast bar. “Some of those…you don’t want to know where they were.”

“No, I don’t.”

Though, Jax looked like maybe he did. Like he wanted to smash them all with the heel of his shoe. He scooped them up. “These are going on the grill.” He headed for the slider that led out to the back.

“Anything on your cop?”

Kenna checked her phone for messages while saying to him, “You and I were both planning to check on those kids. Far as I can see, both of us dropped the ball. I hope we don’t regret it any more than I do right now.”

Bruce searched the kitchen, then leaned his hips back against the counter and folded his arms. “I found the social worker who was assigned their case.”

“So they really were taken to the hospital and then turned over to child welfare?” She’d seriously failed those kids. Sure, she’d been dealing with a lot, but that didn’t excuse the fact she’d made far too many assumptions about them being taken care of.

“The hospital wouldn’t give me information on them, so I gave it a day and hit up the social worker. I tracked her down at her office, but all she did was give me the runaround.”

“Okay. That’s at least someone we can follow up with.”

He lifted his brows. “After we work over this cop. Find out why he’s working with that psycho doctor guy.”

Jax came in a moment later. Her phone had pinged with the information.

She asked, “You up for a field trip?”

Her husband said, “I’ll pour the coffee into hot cups so we can take it with us.” He even poured one for Bruce, who’d already crossed the street to his pickup truck so he could follow them.

“He’s a good guy.” Kenna buckled her seat belt and took a sip of her drink before they even pulled out.

Jax returned from taking Bruce his coffee. “He had a flask. He slipped a swig of whatever was in there into his coffee.”

She twisted in the seat to see out the back window through the open garage door. “I’ll talk to him.”

“I called Stairns about it a few days ago, and he said Bruce told him the wound in his chest has healed. At least, according to the doctor. But Bruce didn’t seem to be convinced that’s true.”

“So, he’s still in pain and self-medicating?” She’d been so wrapped up in her own medical situation, and everyone on her team letting Jax and her have time as newlyweds, that she hadn’t checked in. She’d just figured things were good.

Jax said, “I can talk to him if you want. I mean, I know what he’s going through.”

He had told her shortly after they met that he had a pain pill addiction problem in high school after an ankle injury. She thanked him and squeezed his knee.

“As long as I don’t have to arrest him for something, we’ll be good.”

Kenna grinned. She confirmed on her phone that it was the correct cop that Maizie had found. He wasn’t working tonight, and they had his home address. “Time to get some answers.”

If she was lucky, she’d figure out what the right questions were.

The neighborhood was an apartment complex. As soon as Jax pulled up, she spotted the light on in the front window, between the blinds.

“He might be home.” A swell of anger rose up in her at the prospect of seeing him again. She was still freezing, and on top of that, she now had a bruise on the inside of her elbow from where he’d dragged that needle out of her arm.

She pushed out of the car and walked to the front door with Jax, spotting Bruce as he pulled into the parking lot and stopped on the far side of a berm.

Hanging back, just in case. If he had a problem with pain management, they needed to address it.

This team wasn’t going to work if people were keeping things to themselves.

Like recovery that wasn’t going as planned.

Or having a relationship with her friend.

Jax hammered his fist on the front door. “Earnest Albertson! Open up, this is the FBI!”

Something shattered inside the house. Was it from surprise, or had something else caused Earnest to drop whatever he had?

Jax pounded again. “Open the door.”

“Maybe he’s calling his union rep before he does that.” She shrugged. But her nerve endings were lighting up. “Back up from the door.”

“I’m out of the way.”

“Okay, but—” Kenna reached for his arm, all her instincts flaring to life.

The door exploded in a shower of splintered wood and the sound of a shotgun blast.