Page 44 of Storm and Tempest (Brand of Justice #13)

Chapter Thirty-Three

T he airplane wheels screamed against the tarmac, and Jax gripped the chair handles, staring past Kenna out the window where the sun set behind the ocean off the coast of Washington. Nothing but coffee and some pretzels in his stomach. Maizie and Zeyla—then food. That was the order of priority.

“Still feels like a dream.” Her voice sounded wistful, and a little sad. But both of them were on a rollercoaster of emotions right now.

“You aren’t asleep.” Jax motioned to Ramon, across the aisle. “He is.”

The guy had been snoring since they left Anchorage.

She smiled. “Bear is meeting us on the ground?”

He nodded.

“I can’t believe I missed months. So much has happened.” She grabbed her bottled smoothie and took another sip. “There’s so much I need to tell you. Random things that keep popping in my head.”

“We have time,” he said. “I want to hear all about the pregnancy stuff that I missed.”

Kenna nodded, leaning her head on his shoulder while they taxied to the hangar, and the small plane came to a stop, her arms hugging his right arm. The jitters had stopped, but it wasn’t as if the detox was over.

He’d been ready to throw up when the plane took off and spent the first fifteen minutes in the tiny airplane bathroom.

Whatever the doctor had given him worked better than anything he’d ever taken during a detox.

Last time it had gone on for days, but after the surgery on the platform and the days since, he hadn’t felt too bad.

Which only made him suspicious that the doctor in Anchorage was somehow connected to Dominatus and it was all part of their larger plan. Because how else could the guy have figured it out?

Jax didn’t have the brainpower to figure it out right now.

He’d live to fight that battle another day.

Right now, he just needed to get to Maizie and Zeyla, wherever they were, and not spend the next four months looking for them.

The last thing he wanted was to lose Maizie when things had been so tenuous between them before he left to get Kenna back.

Kenna touched his knee, and he realized he’d been bouncing it up and down. “You’re different.”

“No, I’m not.” Once he got over whatever he’d been given, things would be back on track. He’d start going to meetings again, figure out his job, get back to that happily ever after they’d been enjoying.

“What if I like it? You’re…edgy. Or I just missed you and you’re having a rough day. But you’re still hot, by the way.”

Jax frowned. “That’s a lot to unpack.”

Instead of responding to that, she said, “You are different.” She eyed him. “You’ve been through a lot.”

“How can you say that I’ve been through a lot?” He twisted in his chair to face her. “After everything you’ve been through. My stuff doesn’t even hold a candle to that.”

“Doesn’t mean you didn’t go through something huge.” She squeezed his knee. “I’m just processing, and I’m doing it out loud. Sorry. I’ll keep it to myself.”

“No, don’t do that.” He leaned over and kissed her. “Tell me whatever you want to say. It’s okay.”

“I was just realizing there’s a lot we need to tell each other, and some of it might be really hard.” She sighed. “It’s going to take us time to work everything out.”

“It’ll keep.” He squeezed her hand. “Elizabeth can help.”

She nodded. “I haven’t had coffee in months.”

“What? That’s insane. Those monsters.”

Kenna’s eyes flashed, and she burst out laughing.

Ramon sat up suddenly, groaned, and slumped back in the chair. “Ouch. What’s going on?” He looked at them. “Oh, never mind. You guys need to get a room?”

“Maizie first,” she said. “Then the RV.”

“We could pick it up on the way,” Jax suggested. “But I think they’d know it was us coming if we roll up to the house in the RV.”

And that urgent feeling was back again. The sense there was a ticking clock, and they had to get moving fast or they would lose their window to catch up and rescue the two women.

Ramon looked at his phone while the pilot opened the exit door. At the door Ramon said, “Bear’s here,” and went first down the stairs.

Jax frowned. “He’s moody in the morning.” Maybe he was moody all the time, except with Maizie. He wanted to tell Kenna how he and Ramon had developed a friendship the past few months. About the FBI. All of it. Instead, he said, “Hold on to me, or the rail?”

Kenna said, “What will you be holding on to?”

Jax hesitated, because she made a good point.

“Geez, both of you look terrible.” Bear pulled back from giving Ramon a back-slapping hug and came to the stairs. He jogged up wearing fresh tactical gear and looking like he’d been here long enough to shower and freshen up.

“Thanks a lot,” Jax said.

Bear gave Kenna a hug. “Look at you. Sight for sore eyes.”

“You, too. I’m glad you’re back.” She hesitated. “You are back, right?”

“It’s been a while, but yeah, I’m back.” Bear headed down the steps. “Come on. I have a car waiting. Thanks for the ride from Alaska, by the way. Normally I’d call in to the office and have them hook me up with transport, but in this case…”

They’d actually chartered two planes from Alaska, but Bear had been so far offshore it had mean he took a different route entirely. One that apparently got him here faster. Probably because he hadn’t had to explain to the doctor they were leaving.

A huge commercial plane hurtled down the runway behind them and took off. Jax could hear traffic on a nearby road over behind the hangar and the fence beyond it. Mount Rainier in the distance, no snow this time of year.

The stark contrast between the Pacific Northwest and his home in Arizona made him want to pack up his life there and hit the road just for a change. After all, Jax had nothing waiting for him there. Not when everything he needed was right next to him.

Kenna had become nomadic after her life took a tragic turn, and he could see the appeal of the open road.

Maybe it was because his life had almost gone the same way, and all he wanted to do was never take what he had now for granted.

That might mean finding a new home base somewhere else, and it might mean living in the RV year-round.

What mattered was that they could figure it out together.

Bear opened the rear door. “Hop in. I’ll explain on the way.”

“We’re meeting Preston and my father?”

Bear nodded. “Right now I don’t trust anyone except you guys, but if you vouch for them, I’m okay with it.”

“Thanks.”

Kenna climbed in, moving to the captain’s chair on the far side of the middle row. Ramon in the front seat.

Jax said, “Just tell me you know where Jonas took Maizie and Zeyla.”

Bear nodded. “Get in.”

That was the impetus that meant Jax could follow the order. He buckled up, and Kenna held out her hand. The tiny snack mix they’d found in a cupboard on the plane hadn’t lasted long, but it had helped to settle his stomach. He wasn’t about to suggest a food stop. Not until this was over.

Jax said, “Talk.”

Bear hit the gas, and Jax had to grab the handle on the door. “There’s been a load of turnover at MSI since I left. It hasn’t even been a year since…”

Since Allie had been murdered and Bear had cut everyone off, walking away so he could heal. Keeping in touch only on a basic level with Maizie, she at least knew he was still alive even if he didn’t want to talk to anyone.

“Since I left,” Bear finished. “The new guys seemed okay, but something was off with a couple of them. I didn’t clock that they were the ones who stayed behind when Hollace sent the team out to find you and Ramon, and bring Kenna back in. Mr. Jonas must have planned it that way.”

“I figured it was because he didn’t trust them with the job,” Ramon said, his head bowed to his phone. Texting.

Jax said, “But that’s who we left protecting Maizie and Zeyla. Not super reassuring.”

Bear turned a corner fast, swerving lanes and cutting through traffic like a pro. “Update on the platform, in case you’re interested.”

“Yes.” Jax leaned to the side so he could see better out the front windshield.

“Unfortunately, there was a fire, and it got out of control. The whole place burned down, and no one survived. Not even the doctor.”

“How do you know that if no one is left alive to tell the tale?” Ramon asked with a wry tone.

“Well, there was a similar incident on an island over by the coastline,” Bear replied.

“The people who escaped that, locals who were caught up in it but innocent of wrongdoing, happened to notice. The coast guard did a flyby and confirmed there’s only smoldering wreckage where the platform used to be. ”

“Interesting.” Jax glanced at Kenna. “Are you okay?”

“I’m glad it burned down.” She blinked back tears and waved away his concern. As if that was going to work. He took it more that she didn’t want to talk about it right now—not never.

Later was another story, alone in the RV. Safe and sound. Maybe somewhere in the mountains, by a lake. No cell signal for miles around and no way for anyone to find them except the people they loved.

He glanced at Bear. “Just tell me where Maizie and Zeyla are.” Right now, Jax didn’t want to know about anything else.

“Hollace has Bruce and Amara with him. He and the others from MSI—the ones we know are solid—are with your dad and Preston. The team is going to rendezvous in the parking lot of a closed-down store about a mile from Earl Jonas’ mansion.”

“That’s where he took them?”

Bear nodded. “Maizie gave me access to a system she keeps connected, for just in case. Which I figure is right now.”

Ramon glanced over. “The trackers?”

“I have the password as well,” Kenna said. “But they took my watch.”

He squeezed her hand. “Mine, too.”

Thank You for these people and the care they have for each other .

A whole lot of forethought had gone into protecting each other.

So they could find a missing team member if need be.

Still, even with the safeguards they had in place, Kenna had been simply gone for months.

And he prayed they would find the two young women quickly, so the same thing didn’t happen again.

Already being pregnant when she was taken might have saved Kenna from some horrifying experiences, or it could have opened up new avenues for them to conduct procedures on her.

But neither Maizie nor Zeyla was pregnant, and the latter already knew the horrible things Dominatus would do to her.

She had missing organs and scar tissue as evidence.

As for Maizie…

We need to get them back. That means You have to move.

He’d never prayed as hard as this in his entire life. Such a simple sentence, and yet it meant the world to him that God came through on their behalf.

Bear said, “When y’all showed up in Seattle, and we put the mission together, she gave it to me just in case.”

“Good.” Jax nodded.

Bear merged onto the freeway and hit the gas. “Hers is transmitting from the house. Zeyla as well.”

“Why would they go there?” Ramon shifted in his seat. “Makes no sense that Jonas wouldn’t think we’d look for him at his house.”

“Or that’s exactly where we wouldn’t look, so it’s where he went. Familiar territory, and he can pack a bag,” Bear said. “There’s a flight plan filed. The MSI plane is going to Argentina tonight, leaving Sea-Tac airport in five hours.”

Jax’s stomach clenched. “He’s taking them out of the country.”

“That’s what we think.” Bear held the wheel with both hands, driving like someone who had graduated from every advanced driving course there was.

Jax held on to Kenna’s hand. “Jonas has been working with Dominatus this whole time, and he’s handing those women over to them?

It must be because everything that happened here all went wrong.

He didn’t expect us to survive the island.

Then we were taken to the platform, and I guess he didn’t know what the plan was. ”

“Hollace kept it under wraps because we didn’t trust those guys,” Bear said.

“So Jonas never knew, and we monitored communication from the platform to the office, with Maizie’s help of course.

All so we could figure out who was with him and who is still loyal to us.

The last thing we expected was for him to retaliate and take the women.

Preston and your father were left behind, but they managed to sneak into hiding spots.

No one looked too hard for them. They just grabbed Maizie and Zeyla and left. ”

Jax was glad to hear that it hadn’t been bloody, at least. “Something else to be thankful for, considering how easily they all could’ve been killed.”

Ramon glanced over. “We need to keep them protected even after we get Maizie and Zeyla back. Dominatus will send an asset to take out both Preston and your father.”

Bear took the off-ramp, and a street over he pulled into the parking lot of a pharmacy, closed for the night. He rolled his window down and spoke to Hollace.

Jax spotted Preston in the front seat, and his father rolled down a window in the back to listen.

A minute or so later, they pulled out. Driving in a convoy over to Earl Jonas’ house.

Through the streets, where headlights from oncoming traffic glared far too bright and the stars weren’t visible.

Ramon’s knee bounced up and down, and he turned his phone over and over on his leg.

Bear got a phone call, muttered a few one-word statements, then hung up.

Ramon and Bear spoke quietly, and Jax didn’t catch the exchange.

Jax felt Kenna shift to lean her head against his shoulder. “Losing steam?”

“Aren’t you?”

“I’ll rest when we get them back.”

Kenna ran her hand along the top of his forearm, the resilience in her touch shoring up some of his weak places.

Which he didn’t mind. God had put her on this earth to be his partner.

But Jax had to trust Him above anything else, so he could be the strength Kenna needed.

He was the one here to keep her safe, to protect her from all the evil in the world—because that was his role.

Kind of like the role of father, and brother-in-law.

The women in his life might not have an army to keep them safe, but he was going to ensure they had what they needed.

People who cared about them enough that they put it all on the line to save them.

Kenna shifted, lifting her chin so he could see her face. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” He tugged her close, planning not to let her go ever again.