Page 25 of Storm and Tempest

Jax didn’t like it. “Not something I try to think about.”

“Me either,” Maizie said. “I much prefer suspicious car accidents.”

Jax’s foot switched to the brake, but he caught himself. “What’s that?”

“The coroner died in a car accident, along with his wife, a week after he signed Buzard’s death certificate. They were ona highway headed north, toward the Grand Canyon. Went off a cliff. The car caught fire, and they both died pretty much instantly. So I have two more death certificates open on my computer, a news obituary, and a social media post. The wife’s friends can’t believe such a tragedy occurred. Apparently, it was a brand-new car.”

“Cars fail.” Jax didn’t like saying it while he was driving, but it could’ve been a freak accident. If the timing wasn’t incredibly coincidental.

“And people are murdered,” Ramon said. “Especially people who get in the way of whatDominatuswants.”

Maizie was silent.

“If they wanted Kenna dead,” Jax began, “they wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of taking her. And the fact they took her from the scene outside that silo means they couldn’t wait. So she knows something, or they needed something from her. Either way, she’s of value to them. That means she’s alive somewhere.”

Ramon said, “Amara better come up with some intel. I need to kick a door in and shoot somebody.”

Jax couldn’t disagree but needed to know why Maizie had gone quiet. “Maze?”

“I’m okay. I just… We all miss her. Not just me.”

“It sucks. And it hurts.”

“Are you okay?” Maizie said.

Jax had to tell her the truth. “I’m holding on. But it’s hard.”

She sighed across the phone line. “Sorry the coroner is a dead end. Bruce is looking for Elliot Adams’s car, or someone who saw him after he left the silo going after the transport. Maybe he’ll find something.”

“I’ll pray for that.” Jax heard the hollowness of his own words. He shouldn’t say that if it wasn’t going to be true. There was no power in an empty sentiment. “I will.”

He made the promise to himself as much as to her.

This wasn’t going to be solved by working in his own strength, trying to succeed in his flesh. He knew probably better than a lot of people that his flesh was so weak. He needed God to supply him supernaturally with the ability to keep the faith until Kenna was found.

To not give into despair the way her previous partner had.

He hung up with Maizie when they pulled into the drive, and Ramon dropped the laptop off to her in the RV next to where he parked his car. Soon as Ramon was back in the car, Jax pulled out again.

“Where to, Boss?” Ramon asked.

Jax ignored that comment. “I’ve been trying to work out who ordered Special Agent Adams to go after Kenna’s transport, and if that person is also responsible for his disappearance.”

“Why send the guy after the transport if you want the people who took her to be able to get away?”

“Exactly.” Jax headed for a coffee shop they’d tried but which Kenna hadn’t liked. Going to her favorite place would hurt too much. “If someone sent Elliot after them, maybe it was because instinct said the whole thing might be suspicious. Whoever is dirty found out, intervened and stopped Elliot.”

“Okay, so who in your office would do that?”

The new guy, Special Agent Farlan, must have been transferred in to take the place of Agent Adams. “I still don’t understand how an agent goes missing and no one raises an eyebrow,” Jax commented. He called a guy that worked in Farlan’s group, listening to it ring before the guy picked up.

“Browne.”

“It’s SAC Jax. Got a minute?”

“Uh, yeah. Sir. Heard you were out for a day or two. Sick or something.”

At least he didn’t mention the shoot-up at the restaurant. The Bureau either hadn’t figured out he was there yet, or this guy simply hadn’t heard.