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Chapter Nineteen

“ O w.”

The doctor chuckled. “Got yourself a doozy right here.”

She eyed him, entirely too smart not to be suspicious. Then again, he’d given her something good, and the floaty feeling she was experiencing right now probably made her more…pliable. As long as Jax was here.

“I’m not crazy.”

The doctor frowned but didn’t quit his examination of her. “Did a medical professional say you were?”

Hmm. “Not exactly.”

“Then it’s not official. It would never hold up in court.”

“I’m not really worried about court.”

His lips twitched, but the frown was still there. “Your tests showed a cranial fracture, but what I’m finding doesn’t really line up with that.”

She bit her lip. “Is it better than it was?”

He looked at her. “You think it should be? Like bones magically start to heal at an accelerated rate?”

“Don’t worry about it.” She waved his hands away and sat up. Everything rotated around her. “I’m not the subject for your next paper.”

“Whoa.” The doctor held onto her shoulders. “No walking until tomorrow. No running for a month.”

She started to argue.

“You won’t change my mind.” He let go of her and backed up, standing beside the hospital bed. “I’m sensing you’re the kind of patient who takes advice and then does whatever she wants. Would I be right about that?”

She wasn’t going to admit to anything. Not if it ever did go to court.

“Yes.” Jax had entered the room while she wasn’t paying attention and now stood at the end of the bed. He looked at her and didn’t manage to hide the wince. “She’ll be resting plenty, thank you, Doctor.”

Kenna pressed her lips together as soon as the doctor had left the room, saying something about paperwork for release. “It’s not like I can lay in bed and also find those kids and Nicola.”

“You have people for that now.”

She didn’t like this idea at all. “You’re going to derail your career for the sake of helping me?”

“I will if I think it’s necessary.” He folded his arms across his chest.

Arguing wasn’t going to get her far. “Where is Bruce? And Ramon? I need to call Maizie and check in.”

“We’re going back to the house so you can get some sleep.”

“It’s already healing. The doctor said so.”

“We’ll see.” His brow was set. He wasn’t going to budge on this.

“Remember when you were hurt in Salt Lake City, and I was taking you home? We were in line for food or something like that. You said you were going to the bathroom while I was in line, and you split out the back and went to see the victim’s husband. ”

She bit the inside of her lip.

“I’m not saying you have zero credibility. I’m saying I have reasonable expectations for what you may or may not do based on what you think needs to be done. I’m asking you to delegate to your team so you can focus on healing.”

Kenna’s head might not be pounding anymore, but it also didn’t feel great. She didn’t have the energy to think of an argument, much less use it and actually succeed.

“You have people to help you now. You don’t need to do everything by yourself, even just to keep people safe.” He came over, moving slowly so he could sit on the side of the hospital bed.

“I don’t like it here.”

“That’s why I’m taking you home.”

“I don’t like people being in danger when I can do something about it, but I’m stuck like this.

” That doctor guy had a lot to answer for, thinking he was doing her a favor but arguably making her more breakable.

Nothing had happened to the man who headbutted her, while Kenna ended up with a fractured skull. This sucked.

Jax smiled gently. “I know. That’s why everyone is on board to help you. Bruce and Ramon are going to meet us at the house.”

She said nothing.

“I need you to agree.”

He was going to make her promise, knowing she wouldn’t go back on her word. She ground her teeth.

“Kenna.”

“Fine,” she said. “They can do all the work, and I’ll rest.”

He leaned down and kissed her. “It’s the smart play. Rest. Heal. Later, we’ll find the bad guys and kick butt.”

It took a couple of hours to get released from the hospital, hit the pharmacy for some prescriptions she wasn’t going to take, and get back to the house. Kenna pushed open the door from the garage to the house, realizing she hadn’t driven her own car in days. “Jolene, we’re home!”

“Are you talking to a cat?” Bruce stepped into view, holding one of Jax’s beer bottles. He took a sip, then said, “You don’t look so good.”

“This conversation is quick, then you’re going out looking for those kids. You can have one beer and no more because you’re driving.”

Bruce eyed her for a second, then gave her a short nod.

“Where’s Ramon?”

“Making coffee!” her friend called out from the kitchen. “And talking to Maizie.”

Jax slid his arm around Kenna from behind and held onto her waist. “Couch?”

She wouldn’t have to keep herself upright like on a bar stool. “Sure.”

He led her to the sofa and helped her sit. Ramon came in with a cup of coffee and handed it to her. “You look terrible.”

“There are two kids who need finding.” But still… “How is Forrest?”

Her friend in Wisconsin was an author, a widow, and a solitary person.

In a lot of ways, she fit Ramon, but there were also ways they might not mesh.

Kenna would need to see them together for real to assess if she thought they could go the distance.

Which, most likely, both of them would consider none of her business.

“Don’t ask me about my love life, and I won’t ask you about yours.” He stood over by the TV unit, looking tired, as if he’d driven for hours. Maybe even a whole day. Racing down here to help her.

“Thanks for coming.”

He shot her a look, like he wanted to roll his eyes. “You should’ve called me days ago.”

“I wasn’t going to interrupt…whatever you were doing.”

“I work for you. Isn’t that the deal? You call me, and I come.”

“We’re all supposed to have a healthy work-life balance.”

Ramon stared at her. “Sure seems like you have that.” He looked at Jax. “That’s why we’re having a meeting when you’re injured rather than having you rest.”

She shifted on the sofa and leaned against Jax, winding her arm around his elbow. He put his hand on her leg, so she tucked her knees up on his lap. “I’m resting.”

Jax chuckled under her cheek.

She glanced at Bruce. “You worked Terri Fleming’s case with me. Did you know the law firm Hann, Anthony, and Associates represented her after the police took her in? They were also connected to her business prior to us taking her case.”

Bruce lowered his beer bottle before taking another sip. “The intel I got was that the law firm is connected to a lot of businesses in town, but if they’re about taking down Buzard and his operation, then they aren’t our enemy. They’re our friends.”

“I wouldn’t go that far.” Kenna needed to think for a second.

Jax said, “How did you find out about the law firm in the first place?”

She would much rather be talking about the kids and how to find them, but the two officers who had removed them from the medical center were both dead.

No one else had seen the kids after they left.

Even so, she was going to send Bruce or Ramon after any kind of lead they could get if Maizie didn’t come up with anything from scrubbing local traffic cams—a long shot, and it could take days to find something, but the alternative was having no leads at all.

Bruce said, “Amara sent me their information.”

“You talk to her?”

He shrugged one shoulder. “She’s been busy with Zeyla, helping her recover from what was done to her.”

Kenna’s cousin—or sister, depending on how she wanted to look at it—had suffered when Dominatus removed several of her organs to illegally transplant them into their people who needed the healthy tissue.

Amara had texted her a few times. They hadn’t exactly had a happy reunion, and Kenna had seen Zeyla before she was transferred to the secure rehab facility, but Kenna hadn’t ever spoken to her as she’d been unconscious at the time.

“Amara knows I would help them, right?”

Bruce said, “She knows you just got married.”

So she’d left Kenna alone rather than asking for help? Ramon had taken off as well, leaving her to enjoy her newlywed phase. Bruce had stuck around as a bodyguard of sorts.

She had zero problem with spending as much time with Jax as possible, but it also felt like her team had deserted her.

And it felt as if her mother didn’t really want Kenna in her life.

Amara was technically her aunt, but that probably didn’t have anything to do with it.

Kenna being targeted by Doctor Buzard might be the real issue.

Maybe Amara simply didn’t want Zeyla anywhere near anyone connected to Dominatus .

Even if it was only that Kenna had found herself on their radar.

Jax asked, “Who is taking Nicola Santorini, and who is finding those kids?”

Ramon lifted one hand. “Kids.”

“Fine.” Bruce glanced at him. “I’ll go after the doctor. Even though she kicked you out of the office, and she’s connected to a Mafia family.”

“Why do you think I’m taking the kids? I’m not tangling with the Mafia.” Ramon shook his head.

“Those kids have no one else. The Mafia just don’t want to get their hands dirty with the police and the FBI watching. They’d rather have Kenna do it because they think Jax will give her a pass for whatever she does since they’re married.”

That might not be true, but it was a nice idea. If it didn’t mean she was breaking the law.

“Thanks for that.” Kenna shot Ramon a look. “The Santorini family wants me to find Nicola for them because she’s part of their family, and I’m connected to them from a guy I knew in Vegas. It’s a whole thing.”

And it felt a lot like being shoved up against a wall. They’d blame her if she didn’t succeed or give her zero credit for finding Nicola if she did. Either way, she got nothing, and they walked away with no responsibility.

“She pulled away from the family, didn’t she?” Ramon shrugged. “Either they want her back in the fold, or they want to punish her for pulling away.”

“Maybe they just care about her.” She shifted a little so she could talk only to Jax. “What about Dana?”

“You’re worried about her? She’s in a secure facility.” Jax spoke softly, his face close to hers. “I’ll make some calls. Send a couple of agents to reinterview her under the guise of possibly opening a federal case into kidnappings like Nicola’s and make sure she’s all right.”

“Thanks.” Kenna shifted back to lean her head on his shoulder.

Which hurt, but she didn’t care. She wanted to sit close to him.

They had each other, so why not make the most of it?

“If we believe she was taken for Doctor Buzard, for whatever reason, then we could find him in order to find her. That might be easier than trying to track who took her and where they went.”

She needed her thoughts to work themselves out faster than this. And fatigue was creeping up on her. The guys would get to their tasks if she fell asleep, but that didn’t mean she appreciated being sidelined with an injury.

Probably, God was getting her to learn something about not being so independent. Trusting Him and trusting the people He had put in her life. But who in the world actually liked the lesson they were learning in the middle of it?

“So, how do we find this doctor?” Ramon asked.

Bruce said, “Aside from him kidnapping Kenna again?”

“She already has a tracker from Maizie on her, right?”

Kenna lifted her head. “I don’t know where it is.

The whole house was bugged, our cars and probably our phones have GPS trackers in them.

The ones in the cars were planted. They probably hacked our phones.

” Her rambling might not make much sense, but they would get the point.

“If you want to LoJack me, I’m all for it. I don’t want to get lost again.”

In fact, that was a regular part of her nightmares lately. After they’d visited Dana in that recovery facility and Kenna had been at Buzard’s mercy, she couldn’t help thinking about being trapped in a facility.

“None of us wants that.” Jax sounded like he had a lump in his throat.

Kenna had always held her own autonomy in the highest regard.

Her freedom and her ability to think for herself and make her own choices had been targeted at times.

By friends. By colleagues. By bad guys she had faced.

With an organization like the Dominatus —who could take it all away and there would be nothing she could do about it—all the fear she’d always stuffed down had resurfaced.

Almost as if she had some kind of repressed trauma.

Or this might be just a natural reaction to the life she’d lived.

But she didn’t need a psychologist to dig out things her mind didn’t want to remember.

Why face the nightmare if she didn’t have to?

She’d rather think of it as a completely rational fear of being trapped somewhere or being locked up and declared mentally unfit to be free.

“Either that headbutt scrambled my brains, or whatever Buzard did to me, he’s messed with my brain chemistry. Or something.”

Jax turned his head slightly but didn’t kiss the injury on her forehead. “Everything is going to be fine. Just get some rest.”

“I haven’t even finished my coffee.”

She felt him chuckle under her cheek again, and he said, “There will still be coffee when you wake up.”

“And breakfast fries?”

“Sure.”

She let out a long sigh, her eyelids refusing to open. They almost felt like they were stuck down. She sank into the warmth of her husband next to her, knowing he and her friends would take care of her. She’d never had that before in her life. Not the way she had it now.

None of it had turned out like she’d thought it would. But it was still good.

She didn’t want to lose any of it.

Even with everything going on, Kenna needed to keep hold of her purpose. The reason God had ensured she had the skills she did. Despite the threat, she was going to find those kids. And Nicola. Because that was what she’d been born to do.

Her brand of justice.

Then, she’d be coming for Dominatus .