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Chapter Twenty-Five

“ D id we have a deal?” Gregorio stopped a short distance back from two of his men. Keeping himself protected. “I don’t remember.”

“Where is One and the rest of his buddies?” Jax asked.

Gregorio shrugged. “How should I know?”

Kenna scanned the others, trying to figure out which one might have an itchy trigger finger. None of them had their guns higher than waist height, but in a fraction of a second, they could raise their aim and squeeze off a shot.

Either she or Jax could be left bleeding out in the Arizona dirt.

She asked, “What is this? What’s going on?”

He’d lied to her. Drawn them here under false pretenses. She clenched her jaw, refusing to let on how angry she was. This was a waste of time.

“Both of you, lay your weapons on the ground,” Gregorio said. “All of them.”

After a standoff lasting a few seconds, Jax started to lower into a crouch. He touched his gun to the ground.

One of the men took a step toward Kenna. “All your weapons on the ground.”

He came forward a little more.

Kenna shoved his hands out of the way, twisting his body to the left. She slammed into him, and they both hit the ground. She heard a grunt behind her but had to trust Jax could deal with his side alone. They were two against one, but only if Gregorio stayed out of it.

She reached for the guy under her, planning to slam his head on the ground. He hit her shoulder with both hands.

Someone else grabbed her around the waist and hauled her off him, her legs flailing. She yelled and kicked out. Trying to dislodge his hold on her.

“Enough!” Gregorio yelled, the sound hollow across the open space.

The man holding her spun her so she could see one man pinning Jax’s arms behind his back and the other holding a gun to his head.

She gasped, the sound sticking in her throat so that it came out choked and desperate. “Let him go!” She screamed the words but didn’t kick and struggle. She had frozen, everything in her cold at the thought of losing Jax.

“Now you understand what I will do to get my Nicola back.”

The man holding her set her down. She tore her gaze from Jax and looked at Gregorio. “Let him go.”

After a second of silence, he shook his head and said, “I don’t think so.”

The guy she’d tackled to the ground stood up. He patted her down more thoroughly than necessary and found most of her weapons. The ones he missed were hard for her to reach and weren’t going to give her the upper hand in this situation.

He tossed all her things on the ground, along with her phone.

The others did the same to Jax.

She pushed out a quick breath. “You want me to find her, and you’re taking the tools I need to do that?”

Gregorio said, “I’m not taking anything except the collateral I need to ensure your cooperation.” He lifted his hand and flicked his finger to the men holding Jax.

They shoved him toward Gregorio and then walked him in that direction.

Kenna moved to go with him. Purely a reflex.

Hands grasped her upper arms. She tried to get free, but the doctor and his useless modifications didn’t give her anything that would help her right now. Why couldn’t she be super strong? Who wanted to be dense and more breakable?

Kenna cried out in frustration, and a hand clapped over her mouth.

Jax glanced back and looked at her, the gun still pointed at his head. One move and a bullet would take him out. She read the desperation on his face. If only she could say something. All she’d be able to do was bite this man’s hand. She didn’t want that taste in her mouth, and what would it solve?

They walked him away, and she heard a helicopter in the distance.

Gregorio headed toward her, and the other two held her arms. Kenna couldn’t do anything but glare at him. She swung out a leg and tried to kick Gregorio, but they dragged her back.

He only laughed at her.

At least, all her struggling caused the one man to release her mouth. “You aren’t taking him.”

“I’m doing what I need to do. You do as you’re told.”

She gritted her teeth. Jax. “Don’t take him.” Tears rolled down her cheeks, and she couldn’t even brush them away. They pulled her hands so far behind her back that her shoulders were white hot with pain, all the muscles stretched to their limit.

“It’s already done, Kenna.” Gregorio’s voice sounded dead. “Bring me Nicola and Doctor Buzard.”

“What?” She gasped.

“I want them both.”

“He’s going to be arrested by the FBI.” At some point. Not imminently. “They will deal with him.”

“I have my own way of doing things. My own…” The words seemed to escape him.

But she knew what he meant. “Your brand of justice.”

His white teeth flashed in the dark. A predator about to sink his teeth into prey. “Exactly.”

“I’m not handing him over to you.”

“In that case, I’ll contact your office at a later date with the location where you can find the pieces of what is left of your husband .” He punctuated each word in a loud voice. “That’s the outcome you have chosen.”

Kenna shook her head.

Up ahead on the path, the helicopter landed, far enough away that it wasn’t overly loud and there wasn’t too much dust swirling up in the air. She couldn’t see him anymore. Couldn’t see the men holding him or where they had gone. Were they loading him into the helicopter?

Gregorio ran his fingers down her cheek.

She jerked her head away from him.

He laughed, but it was short-lived. “You will bring me Nicola and the doctor, and only then will I release your husband.”

“Unharmed.” She wasn’t going to accept any other outcome. If they had to come to an agreement, then fine. But she wasn’t leaving without the assurance that Jax was going to be alive at the end of this. And unhurt.

He said nothing.

“If you hurt him in any way…” What would she do? Burn the world down? Gregorio probably didn’t want to know what she was capable of when it came to her family.

She saw his teeth again.

He said, “An eye for an eye. Isn’t that how it goes?”

Kidnapping or revenge wasn’t what the verse meant, but she wouldn’t get distracted expounding on a Bible verse right now. “You want two people, and I get one back? That’s what you call fair?”

“Seems fair to me.” He took a step back. “And it’s what will happen. Or you have nothing.”

“You’ll have nothing as well. I’ll still have a shot at justice.”

“I’ve killed people for a lot less.” Gregorio lifted his chin to one of his friends.

A meaty hand grabbed the side of her neck, squeezing. Cutting off the blood flow to…

She struggled to get away.

Everything went black.

“Kenna.”

Someone shook her shoulder.

“Kenna.”

“Is she breathing?”

A heavy hand landed high on her chest, staying there while she drew in air and blew it out. She bided her time for a second, remaining still until she had gathered her wherewithal and could come out swinging.

“Whoa.” Hands grabbed her wrists, gently.

That was what got her to think twice.

“Easy.”

She blinked her eyes open and saw stars. On the ground. On the same trail. “Where did they go?” She shoved Ramon’s hands off and sat up, nearly falling over. “Where’s the helicopter?”

Bruce turned back from something and came over. “There was a chopper? Or can you hear it? If they hit you hard enough, you can probably still hear something that sounds like a helicopter, but it isn’t.”

“There’s nothing out here. It’s quiet.” Ramon still held onto her.

She squeezed the outside of his arm, and he let go of her. She explained what had just happened. From them being drawn out here with a ruse to him having a gun to his head.

Gregorio’s dark bargain.

All of it.

“Help me up.”

“In a second.” Ramon looked at Bruce, who shone a flashlight on the ground. “Found it?”

“Phone. The screen is shattered, but it still works. Set of car keys. Jax’s wallet. Knives, pepper spray, and three guns.”

Kenna said, “Grab it all. We need to move.”

Bruce and Ramon pocketed most of it. She’d have taken Jax’s wallet, but it didn’t fit in any of her pockets. All the weapons that were hers, she put back where they went. “We need to call it in.”

Bruce whipped his head around to look at her. “You want cops out here?”

Ramon said, “We can be gone before they get here.”

“That’s not what I mean.” She shook her head, and it kept swimming when she stopped.

She blew out a long breath, trying not to throw up or fall over.

“The FBI needs to know their Special Agent in Charge was just kidnapped. Especially when the kidnappers are demanding a ransom for his safe return. They didn’t promise to return him unharmed, which means they could do anything. ”

More tears rolled down her face.

She scrubbed them away, probably smearing dirt from the ground on her cheeks. Her skin felt gritty, and so did her fingers.

“You want his people looking for him,” Ramon said, his tone quieter than usual.

“We’re going after the doctor. Just like we were planning before. We need to rescue those kids that no one else seems to care about!”

Bruce stared her down. “And your husband?”

“I have to at least make it look like I’m doing what Gregorio wants. The only way to get Jax back is to find the doctor. And if we find him, we find the kids and Nicola.”

“Okay.” Ramon nodded. “I’ll use Jax’s phone to contact the Phoenix FBI office. They can come out here and find it in the dirt all shattered, and I’ll make up a story about how I saw some guys in suits…”

He looked at her, a question in his gaze.

She nodded.

Ramon continued, “They shoved him into a helicopter. I saw the whole thing, but there was nothing I could do.”

Kenna didn’t like him lying, but she had to get moving. They all did. If the feds found out she’d been here, they would want to interview her for hours. She was pretty sure Jax didn’t have that long.

Gregorio had gotten impatient, enacted this plan, and upped the ante on her finding Nicola. He was going to use whatever means necessary to get her back.

“Do it. Leave the leather wallet with his credentials in it next to the phone. That way, they’ll know for sure it’s him who is missing.” She took her own cell phone and turned back in the direction she figured the car would be.

Bruce jogged to catch up and walked alongside her.

She heard Ramon start talking into Jax’s phone, yelling as if he was terrified of what he’d just seen. Reiterating everything at max volume and putting on quite the performance.

Bruce held out his elbow.

She slid her arm through it and held on, walking beside him. “Thanks.”

“Anytime, kiddo. You know that.”

Hard to believe she had more tears in her, but it seemed she did. She glanced back, trying to focus behind her. Not on Ramon. She stared at the place where Jax had been—the last place she’d seen him.

Prayers filtered through her head. Disjointed snatches of things that probably didn’t make sense, but God would know. He’d understand her heart in this and hear her meaning, rather than the nonsense she was saying in her head.

They needed help.

She needed a plan, a place to look, and the strength to do it. She needed a guarantee that Gregorio wasn’t going to renege on the arrangement and kill Jax anyway.

Like a child throwing a tantrum, justified or not, she cried out in her head that it wasn’t fair. That after everything she’d been through, she didn’t deserve to have to go through this as well. That losing Jax would be too much.

But even in the middle of the despair, she felt the peace of God flow through her. He had this all in His hands, and she had to trust Him. Jax had put his life in God’s hands as well. Kenna only needed to rest in the fact that He wouldn’t allow Jax to reach the point of despair.

Ramon caught up. “Okay, they’ll probably be here soon, so we’d better get out of here.”

Kenna nodded, and Bruce asked, “You okay? Any injuries we need to get looked at?”

“What do you think?” she said.

“Then we need a plan.” Ramon glanced sideways at her, holding a flashlight so it illuminated the wide path in front of them. “Because if we need to give the Santinos Nicola and the doctor, we need to know where to find them.”

“It’s the only way I’m going to get Jax back alive.”

She hoped.