Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
Salt Lake City, Utah
Kenna put her hands on her hips. She was surrounded by rows of trailers, campers, and RVs lined up in the small campsite, but she had her attention on a particular one. More specifically, the RV that belonged to her.
It had been two days since their run-in with that gunman. Since the state police had swooped in and arrested those men. She wanted to kiss the car for protecting them from the attack, but it wasn’t the vehicle that saved them—it was the Lord.
She’d thought then that a speeding ticket would be the worst of it, but after the cop was killed, they hadn’t been able to simply drive away. The police had dragged them in to make statements while Kenna worried if Maizie and Zeyla were okay.
“This thing needs some serious repairs.” She shook her head at the bullet holes down the side of the RV. The one shattered window in the door. “But I’m glad it isn’t you that needs a patch-up.” She tugged Maizie over, gave her a hug, and kissed the side of her head.
“Me, too,” Maizie said. “It was pretty scary, but when Preston flew over and they obliterated that SUV, I knew we’d be okay.”
Kenna loved the mountains surrounding them and the cool temperature of winter. Today was a dry day, but snow that had fallen the week before now sat in dirty clumps on the corners between the rows of campers which had been salted to keep people from slipping or cars from sliding into each other.
She wouldn’t mind seeing snow, even if it meant wearing a hat and gloves.
“I felt the same when I saw the chopper come to help us. And when that SUV hit the cop who pulled us over, it happened again when the police showed up.” Tears sparked in her eyes, and she swiped one from the corner.
“Jax was amazing.” She glanced over her shoulder where he sat in the front seat of their car.
It didn’t look much better than the RV right now.
He had his laptop open, probably using a hot spot on his phone, looking up routes to local hospitals just in case she went into labor while they were here.
“He fended off those guys until the police came.”
Zeyla strode around the front of the RV like this was any other day. “The neighbor wanted to know if we’re here to cause trouble. I wasn’t really sure how to answer that since you told me lying is bad.”
Kenna held back the smile that wanted to emerge. “I’m not planning to cause trouble. I’m planning to find a family that might be missing, but don’t share about the case either.”
Zeyla shrugged. “They might know something. You never know.”
“True.”
Maizie looked at Kenna. “Should I interview people here?”
“You could, if you want to work on your skills. But I’d rather meet up with Ryson and see where he’s at with looking for Crystal and the kids, now that we’re here.”
She’d been reading over the file from that other case on the drive and running through what she might’ve missed since she’d heard the details of the investigation recounted on the podcast.
“I have a report typed up for us to pass on to the Montana State Police.”
Maizie said, “Send it to me, and I’ll forward it to them.”
“Thanks.”
Kenna didn’t like that she might’ve missed an accomplice, but justice would be found, regardless. It wasn’t like she had to bring the guy in herself. There were plenty of good cops in the world. The kind who showed up to help a pregnant woman and her husband on the side of the road in Colorado.
Zeyla asked, “What happened to the flash drive and the port?”
Kenna went to the picnic table and sat on the bench. “Maizie copied everything on it.”
“Already posted it to the internet.” The young woman hopped up on the table and sat with her legs swinging under her. “So now everyone knows what that software company was doing. Even if they were working for Dominatus, we put a serious crimp in it by making it public knowledge.”
“I enjoy ruining the plans of people who prey on others.” Zeyla folded her arms, looking every bit like the warrior she was. But on occasion, she allowed them to see the softer edges of who she could be.
All of them—Zeyla, Maizie, and Kenna—had been through so much. They’d walked different paths but become people who had hard edges and soft, vulnerable places. Still, Zeyla was one of the most complicated women Kenna had ever met.
“Me, too.” Kenna nodded. “If there’s something going on with the Feathers family, we’re going to find out what it is. It might feel like a small case compared to a lot of what we’ve been doing lately, but it’s important. Maybe even more important than fighting Dominatus on a global scale.”
Which was, if she was honest, something she couldn’t—or shouldn’t—be doing right now.
Kenna needed to feel like her life meant something.
That motherhood didn’t mean giving up who she was.
It had to be about expanding that person, not contracting her to where she couldn’t do what she felt she’d been called to do.
She and God were working out the details, but helping Ellayna meant something to her. Actually, it meant a whole lot right now.
“I need to call Ryson if he hasn’t called me back yet.”
Maizie looked at her phone. “He’s almost here. Unlike Ramon, who has dropped off the map and gone completely dark, Ryson let me add him to our tracking app, so we should all be able to see where he is.”
Zeyla shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “You just drop that in there like it’s no big deal? Ramon is off the map. We have no idea where he is or what he’s doing.”
“He knows how to take care of himself.” Kenna didn’t need to point that out, but sometimes, they all needed the reminder. “I’m praying he’s safe and successful. And that he reports in soon.” She looked at Maizie, who, surprisingly, hadn’t cowered under the intensity of Zeyla’s opinion.
Maybe Zeyla had softened a little, but Maizie had definitely grown stronger in the past year or so. She’d adopted some self-confidence and independence. The kind that gave her a backbone.
Kenna nudged her. “You said Ryson is almost here?”
Maizie showed her the screen. The dot that was her friend pulled off the freeway and turned into the lot where the entrance to the campsite was located.
This place wasn’t big. She could walk a circuit of the campsite in fifteen minutes, and that included going out the entrance and then coming back in, but the place had good showers and laundry facilities.
It wasn’t the kind of place to have a baby, but that was what hospitals were for.
A silver Toyota slowed to a stop on the single lane at the end of where they stood between the RV and the car—which they’d parked in the space they rented beside it so they could have more room.
Kenna stood as Ryson climbed from the front seat of his car. As she approached, he shook his head. “Never thought I’d see this. But then, I thought that about you in a wedding dress.” His mouth stretched into a wide smile; he looked so pleased to see her.
She took in her friend, one of her closest ones for years. They’d met during a hostage situation at a bank back when she’d been an FBI agent and he a police officer. Since then, he’d been promoted and shifted positions. He’d had a family, and she was about to have her first child.
Life moved on, but they were kindred spirits, and what she felt for him never wavered.
“Javier.” She spread her arms, and they hugged.
“You’re about to have this baby any day, and you come here?”
She found a snooty expression. “There’s a hospital here, and it’s better than the Podunk medical center where our cabin is.” She thumbed over her shoulder at where Jax was but realized he was standing beside her now.
Her husband said, “And if we call the police because we’re being shot at, the response time is quicker here.”
Kenna pressed her lips together. Jax and Javier Ryson did that man-hug, back-slapping thing and greeted each other like long-lost brothers. They’d known each other as well before she’d met Jax. In fact, Ryson was the one who’d connected them. Through a case, though. Not as a setup.
“Pregnancy is making me nostalgic.” She shook her head, unable to believe she was nearly crying again. “This whole thing is ridiculous.”
Ryson laughed. “Because you have feelings now?”
She shoved his shoulder. “Quick, talk about work.”
Ryson eyed her, an amused expression on his face. “I’d rather discuss why your vehicles look like you’ve been in a war zone.”
“You and everyone else we’ve met on the way here.” Jax shook his head. “But a rental wouldn’t have the armor plating Kenna’s life requires.”
Ryson grinned.
Kenna said, “Let’s get out of the cold and have a warm drink. You can fill us in on the search for Ellayna and her family.”
She strode to the RV and let Maizie and Zeyla in ahead of her. Or rather, she tried to. The two women wanted to say hi to Ryson first, so she wound up standing there holding the door open.
Their cat, Jolene, ever the intrepid adventurer who went everywhere with them. Mostly just so she could hide in the corner by the bed—on Jax’s side, of course. The cat chose now to emerge from the bedroom and stand by the door.
“No, no, baby. Don’t go outside.” Kenna shooed her back in and let the door shut behind her.
She wasn’t able to drink caffeinated coffee right now, but she brewed a pot for the others and made herself instant that was decaf.
It tasted good enough and smelled like the java her father had always drunk, so she found solace in nostalgia again.
As soon as she could after the baby was born, she was going to have the biggest cup of coffee she could find. And then take an epic nap.
The others came in and settled at the table, but Jax came over and slid his arm around her. “Hey.”
She smiled. “Hey.”
He dropped a quick kiss on her lips, and she left him to finish the coffee. She took a seat in the passenger’s chair, which had been rotated around to face the back.
“Okay,” Kenna said. “What’s the word on Ellayna?”
Ryson shifted on the seat opposite from Zeyla and Maizie.
He shook his head. “We can go to the house. I think you might want to see it, actually. But they haven’t been there in days.
I went to Crystal’s work. She’s the receptionist for a tire sales company.
They haven’t seen her at all this week, and she hasn’t called in.
The kids haven’t been to school or daycare. ”
“So, no sign of them in days?”
He nodded.
Kenna didn’t like the sound of that.
Maizie said, “I can check her bank activity, any credit cards. Can we get into their phones and see if they’re being used, or if we can get a location from those?”
Ryson said, “I’m going to see the judge about a warrant this afternoon.”
She knew that tone. “While we do what?”
“Crystal’s boyfriend works at a T-shirt printing company downtown.”
“You haven’t talked to him?” Kenna asked.
Ryson said, “He won’t talk to the cops. But I know for a fact that he’ll talk to you.”