Page 19 of Secrets Beneath the Waves

Zeyla shook her head. “He never explained to me why.”

“And you just went along with it, even now that he’s dead? The guy put your life at risk, but you still want to finish what he started?”

“It’s not like that.” She winced again, balling her napkin into a scrunched-up bundle in her fist. “You’re going to think this is so stupid. You’ll tell me it’s a terrible idea.”

“Why don’t you give me the benefit of the doubt, and we’ll see what happens?”

She stared at him for almost a minute before finally saying, “I want to give Kenna her father. Not that he’d be anyone she wants to bond with, considering he’s pure evil like the rest of them. But…I took Malcolm away from her.”

“You think this Count of Shadows guy is Kenna’s father?”

This was the first Ramon had heard anything about Kenna’s biological dad. She’d been the result of the artificial insemination of Zeyla’s aunt, Amara’s sister. Bred for the purposes ofDominatusso they could stake a claim in the world by filling it with as many people of theirs as possible. People whose genetics they had decided.

Kenna certainly couldn’t claim she was a mistake or the result of an accident. But who she was had made her a target of these people. Her and the baby she was carrying.

“Milo thought he was. He said so as soon as he saw a picture of Kenna.”

Ramon said, “Go back to the part about Malcolm.”

“It’s just that…I took Malcolm away from her. He’s my dad, and she thought he was hers for her whole life. But when she found out that one of their guys was her dad… I may as well have killed Malcolm for her.”

“I don’t think Kenna would agree with your assessment.”

“That’s why I didn’t want to tell you,” Zeyla said. “I’m just telling you how I feel. I’m not saying it makes any sense.”

“So you find this Count of Shadows, and Kenna gets a father? Why would she want a father like this guy? Not to mention you’ve never met him and have no idea what his name is.”

Zeyla stiffened. “Maybe she just wants to know where she came from. Isn’t that something everyone wants to know?”

Ramon shrugged. “I try to live in the now, not in the past.”

“Some of us don’t get to do that. When Amara finally told me who my father was, it meant something to me. Even though he was dead by then. It meant that I had belonged to someone.” Zeyla bit her lip. “I knew that Kenna would always hate me for the fact that Malcolm Banbury is my father and not hers.”

He started to object to that, but she cut him off.

“I just need a DNA sample from him. I can give her that much.” She took her cup and both of their containers to the trash and dumped them inside, not stopping to wait for him before she headed to the front doors of the restaurant.

Ramon grabbed his soda and offered his table to a waiting family before crossing the tile floor and heading for the door. She was already over by the car, leaning against it and looking up at the cloudy sky. He scanned the parking lot just in case Miguel had shown up after they went inside.

All he saw were families, young couples, and people on their lunch break from work. A slice of normal life that he didn’t often see. He operated mostly after dark and in places these people would never go.

“Zeyla—”

She cut him off. “Maizie found a storage unit that Mrs. Harrison started renting just a few weeks after Chelsea went missing.” She turned to the door and got in.

They did need to talk about why she felt such a driving need to put herself in danger just to get Kenna a paternity test. This whole thing was beyond a fool’s errand, not just because Miguel was here and probably still gunning for Zeyla so that he could complete his mission. But right now, he would let her have a breather from the intensity of the conversation.

That didn’t mean they were done talking about it.

He reachedthe storage unit in just under twenty minutes—a brand-new-looking complex with a central tower of multiple stories of units that had to have some kind of central elevator. The rest of the complex had rows and rows of garage doors that all looked the same.

Zeyla gave him a code for the entrance gate. “Maizie said Mrs. Harrison rents unit 314.”

“Got it.” He eased the car slowly between rows, looking for the right number. “You really think there’s going to be something in here?”

“I don’t think she’s involved with what happened to Chelsea or any of the others,” Zeyla said. “But she’s definitely hiding something. She just had that look about her.”

“I was trying not to be biased toward her, but I got the same impression.” He spotted the correct number and pulled over beside it. “Will we need a key to get in?”