Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
“That’s insane.” Kenna leaned away from Jax, who was sitting beside her at the Rysons’ dinner table. “He has to be insane if he thinks we’re going to believe that he’s a Dominatus double.”
Also at the table were Zeyla and Maizie, Javier and his wife Valentina, Luci—currently on her booster seat, eating bite-size pieces of dinner with her fingers—and baby Carlos, who was nursing on Valentina’s lap under a cover.
Jax gave her a small smile. “How was your day, dear?”
Zeyla snickered, and she and Maizie shared a smile.
Kenna rolled her eyes. “What do you know, there’s been a murder?” She didn’t want to be callous to a loss of life, but right now, nothing was capable of surprising her. Or so she’d thought, until Jax mentioned that Rickshire insinuated he was a Dominatus look-alike.
That the real Gerald Rickshire was still out there, probably being protected by someone powerful within the organization.
She blew out a long breath and reached for another piece of garlic bread, holding off taking a bite until she said, “Single gunshot to the head, left to bleed out on his kitchen floor.”
Valentina reached out to cover Luci’s little ears, but it was too late.
“You know, I was raised hearing about murder and learning how to solve it, and I think I turned out okay. It’s probably fine.”
Valentina’s eyes bugged out. Ryson coughed behind his hand.
“Um…” Maizie didn’t continue.
Kenna just ate her bread and didn’t worry too much about it. There was far too much to worry about with a child of her own, so many ways she could be damaged or put at risk or traumatized. If she started thinking about it, she would wind up spiraling with no way to come up for air.
She should probably be concerned for other children being exposed to evil, but it felt like taking on the weight of the world right now. With how pregnant she was, Kenna wanted to spend a short period of time worrying about her baby. Focusing on her child.
Zeyla said, “The police are going to investigate Neerwood’s murder, but it’ll take them weeks to come up with a suspect. The detective told me fingerprints and DNA can take that long just to reach the point where it’s tested. By then, the guy will be long gone, out of the country, probably.”
Maizie lowered her fork, a bit of cheesy lasagna on the tines. “Do we know if it might be connected to what happened to Shawn Terrance? Like, what if it’s the same killer?” She put the fork in her mouth.
Kenna wiped her hands on her napkin. “I doubt the deaths are connected to each other, but it’s possible the same person was hired to…”—she glanced at Luci, who grinned at her with cheese around her mouth—“do the job.”
“So an assassin?” Zeyla perked up.
“Either way, we still need to find Ellayna and her family,” Jax said. “If Neerwood was taken out because of it, that means he knew something. Now we’ll never know what it was.”
“Unless he wrote it down or sent the information to someone.” Maizie lifted her brows. “I’ll ask the PD techs I’ve been talking to if we can take a look.”
Ryson glanced at the young woman. “Good idea.” He nodded, working on his own plate.
Kenna said, “We need to unpack his life. See who he’d have confided in.”
Jax nodded, finishing up his bite. “Maybe he has a girlfriend or best friend, or even his mother. He might’ve shared concerns with them.”
Valentina shifted the baby from where he’d been nursing, and her husband accepted the sleepy child. He dropped a kiss on Valentina’s forehead. “I’ll put him down.”
She said something in Spanish, in a soft voice, that Kenna didn’t catch.
Ryson took the baby down the hall, while Valentina removed the cover and cut a bite of her lasagna with the side of her fork. “Anything else we can talk about, besides murder?”
Zeyla leaned over the corner and made a little figurine of a horse dance across the table toward Luci, who squealed in delight. “Ma-dur!”
Valentina’s eyes flared. “Great. Now I’m being a bad influence.”
Kenna sputtered. “I’m not a bad influence.”
“I love you, girl.” Valentina shot her a look. “But not much of what you do is child-friendly.”
Jax sounded like he was trying not to laugh.
“But I guess you’ll figure it out soon enough.” Valentina motioned to Kenna’s baby bump.
“You think I’m going to be terrible at this.” The irritation—disappointment?—was going to give her heartburn.
“I didn’t say that.” Valentina shook her head.
Ryson wandered back in, holding the baby monitor. “Say what?”
His wife glanced at him as he settled back at the table. “That Kenna is going to be a terrible mother.”
“You told her about our conversation?”
Kenna glared at him. “Excuse me?”
Ryson looked like his hand had been caught in the proverbial cookie jar. “It’s just…” He didn’t continue.
Valentina stepped in to save him. “You aren’t going to be a terrible mother, Kenna. We just… No one knows what they’re doing when they have a child. You learn as you go and hope you don’t mess things up too badly.”
Beside her, Ryson nodded.
“You’re going to choose your own path, and it isn’t going to look like what anyone else thinks you should be doing.”
Kenna pressed her lips together. Jax reached over and held her hand.
Valentina continued, “Because it doesn’t need to. You being a mother isn’t about what someone else tells you is right. You’ll parent just like you live your life. Always looking to do the right thing, to help those who need it. To bring justice.”
Zeyla said, “Maybe you should name her Justice.”
“No.” Jax shook his head. “This child isn’t going to represent what we want or what our lives mean. She gets to choose her own path and find her own life, whatever that looks like, without us putting our ideas or expectations on her.”
Kenna squeezed his hand.
Valentina said, “I know you’ll do the right thing. That you’ll do everything you can to keep this child safe. She’ll know she’s loved and that you’re there to keep her safe. That’s the most important thing.”
Kenna swiped a tear from the corner of her eye.
“We should have dessert before Kenna starts crying into her lemonade.” Ryson grinned.
She let go of Jax’s hand, grabbed a piece of garlic bread, and tossed it at Ryson’s head.
He dodged it, laughing. Luci erupted into laughter along with her father.
Kenna gave herself a second to listen to the sweet sound of a child who felt safe and protected, and knew she was loved, and wondered what her daughter’s laughter would sound like.
She rubbed a hand down the bump in her midsection, feeling the baby kick against her side.
A sign of life she needed often, just to reassure herself that God was protecting them all.
She leaned her head on Jax’s shoulder, and he kissed her forehead.
“Take the day off tomorrow,” he whispered. “Zeyla and I will get out there and see if we can find Ellayna. You and Maizie can work the computers.”
“Yay.” She probably sounded tired and like she was being sarcastic. She glanced at Maizie and winked.
The young woman stood with Valentina and helped to clear the table. Ryson took the bread, and Zeyla grabbed the last piece before he headed with the empty plate to the kitchen.
Jax shifted and pulled out his phone, which was vibrating from a call. “It’s Preston.” He set the phone on the table and tapped the screen. “You’re on speaker.” He listed off everyone that could overhear.
“Having a party?”
Kenna said, “Family dinner. So where are you?”
Jax let out an amused laugh under his breath. He agreed with her.
Preston said, “Almost to Salt Lake. It’s been a long drive, but we should be at the campsite in a couple of hours.”
“Sounds good,” Jax said, then filled Preston in on the fate of the closest family member that Crystal, Ellayna, and Abe had. He also gave their friend the highlights of his conversation with Rickshire. “We have things to do tomorrow, but we don’t have much in the way of leads.”
“I’ll do what I can to help.”
“Thanks,” Jax said. “We appreciate it.”
“I had a meeting with one of the higher-ups in the Colorado State Patrol before I left. They have those guys from the SUVs in jail or in custody in the hospital. There’s no way to know if any of them escaped before they could be caught, or if there are more and we didn’t get them all, but they’re treating this group—there are seven being charged—as if this is all of the attackers. ”
Kenna wasn’t so quick to assume it was done, but the police wanted someone to answer for the death of one of their officers.
Those guys would also be charged with the deaths of Shawn, Gabby, the nurse, the doctor, and the janitor, along with the theft of stolen property.
Plus, all the charges that came with chasing her and Jax, firing on them and the RV—putting Maizie and Zeyla’s lives in danger.
There were a whole lot of things for them to answer for.
Jax asked, “Who are they?” just as Ryson, Valentina, and Maizie came back in with a tray of brownies, a tub of ice cream, and a stack of bowls.
Preston’s voice came through the phone speaker.
“They had ID, but near as the police can tell, it’s all fake.
Their names are all Civil War generals, and if that isn’t interesting enough, they tried to take fingerprints for these guys, and all of them have had the tips of their fingers burned until they have no discernable prints. ”
“Civil War generals?” Jax shifted on the chair.
Doing so dislodged her head, but that was fine. She sat up and turned a little in her seat so she could face him. “What is it?”
Jax glanced at her. “The names of Rickshire’s visitors.”
“So, it’s connected.” She didn’t want Rickshire to be right about what he’d implied. By all rights, he shouldn’t have anything to do with Dominatus. If he did…
It wouldn’t change the need to find a family in danger.
Jax said, “At least it gives us somewhere to start.”
Ryson paused, cutting into the brownies. “Civil War generals?”
“Yep,” Jax said.
Even Maizie looked interested. Zeyla had her attention on the brownies, like she wanted to grab a handful and shove them in her mouth. Kenna didn’t blame her because they had a caramel drizzle on top and smelled amazing.
Preston said, “So, we look for crimes with the same MO, right? Civil War general aliases, and burned off fingerprints?”
“It’s somewhere to start,” Kenna said. “First thing tomorrow.”
“Sounds good. I’ll be there soon.” Preston ended the call.
She smiled. “Preston is turning into an honest-to-goodness investigator.”
“Just don’t ask him to hack a computer system,” Maizie said. “He has no clue about technology.”
Zeyla glanced aside to look at her. “It isn’t something anyone can do. Your skills are pretty amazing.”
Maizie looked like she wanted to hug the other woman. Kenna kind of wanted to see her try.
“Brownie time.” Valentina seemed determined to get them to clock off for the day and was giving it a valiant effort.
“Good idea.” Kenna nodded.
Zeyla said, “I think anytime might be brownie time.”
Jax chuckled. “Too much of a good thing makes it not a good thing.”
“Maybe when it comes to brownies,” Ryson said. “But not everything.”
Luci flung her toy, and it landed on the floor, which was unexpected enough it caused her to start crying. Jax shoved his seat back. “Hey, girl.” He rounded the table and held his hands out for a second so she could see he wanted to pick her up.
She lifted her arms, and he drew her out of the booster and into his arms.
“You wanna get your toy?” Jax tipped her so she could reach for it, then drew her back up dramatically. She squealed with delight.
Kenna watched the whole thing, soaking it in.
“Want me to throw this at your head?” Ryson held a spoon with a bite of brownie like he was going to use it as a catapult.
“That would be a waste of brownie.”
Valentina laughed, passing bowls. “Someone talk about something other than murder, or I’m going to get a deck of cards and teach you all how to play something.”
Kenna glanced around at these people, her heart full of love for her family. Those she spent all her time with, and others she missed dearly. They would all be a part of her daughter’s life.
Lord willing.