Page 16 of Storm and Tempest

Maizie took a seat beside Ramon, which left Jax on the side with Bruce.

Before he even touched the seat, Jax said, “Someone tell me where the body is.”

“That would be difficult, bro.” Ramon took a sip of his soda.

Bruce shrugged. “There was no body. No casket. Just dirt.”

Jax glanced around, not sure if he should even believe that. “So y’all took it upon yourselves to jump the gun and dig up a body?”

“Can’t dig up a body if there’s no body.” Ramon was completely unrepentant. “We were uh…landscaping.”

Jax eyed him. “So Marcus Buzard isn’t actually dead?”

“Hewasdead,” Ramon said. “Kenna shot him. That guy wasn’t coming back.”

Jax clenched down on his molars.

Bruce said, “I’m thinking…cloning.”

“Identical twins would be a lot less fantastical,” Jax said. “And more plausible.”

“We’re talkingDominatus. Plausible went out the window a long time ago.”

Jax glanced at Maizie, who had kept quiet so far. “You went into an FBI interview wearing an earpiece so they could feed you answers?” He motioned to Ramon and Bruce.

“We weren’t going to let her go in alone,” Bruce said.

Jax glanced at them. “I was there.”

Ramon shrugged, taking up the baton. “We did our job. Kenna wants Maizie safe, so that’s what we do.”

“Any leads on finding her?” Jax turned to Bruce.

The former CIA agent said, “The doctor’s body was our best bet. Maizie needs to go through the footage to see if she can find out who took him. Someone was covering tracks forDominatus.”

Jax needed more of a universal update than that, so he said, “And the lawyers, and Amara and Zeyla…” Plus avenues to get more evidence. “The funeral director. Those old guys from theretirement home. Financial companies we know are connected.” He looked at each of them. “Am I forgetting anything? Like maybe young men you’re chatting with online.”

“We haven’t talked.” Maizie actually looked nervous.

Jax left that one alone. For now. “We need leads.”

“That’s why I’m here.” A woman approached the table, giving them all plenty of warning before she slapped a file on the table.

“Amara.”

Behind her was a younger woman. Both looked so much like Kenna it hurt, but he didn’t rub his chest. They were even wearing tactical pants and T-shirts like Kenna often did. They looked like a mother-daughter crime fighting, investigating duo.

Jax cleared his throat. “How are you both?”

Zeyla only nodded. She’d had several organs removed while in captivity with another branch ofDominatus.The fact she was on her feet and functional was a miracle by itself.

“How we are is irrelevant,” Amara said. “We have a lead. Maybe.”

“I’ll take a maybe.”

Amara nodded. “I thought you might.”

Ramon reached over and took the file before Jax could open it. Jax shot him a look becausehewas the one who would be investigating any possible leads. Ramon totally ignored his issue.