Chapter 32
Chapter Thirty-Two
Salt Lake City, Utah
Fourteen Months Earlier
“There!” Maizie pointed out the front windshield.
Kenna jerked the wheel to the side of the street where Preston stood on the sidewalk, waiting for them. As soon as she’d put the car in park to disengage the door locks, he climbed in the back seat.
“Are you my rideshare?”
Maizie giggled.
“Buckle up.” Kenna threw it in drive and hit the gas. “We’re already late.”
“Funny how that works.” Preston sounded amused.
“You want us to get there and not be able to help?” She gripped the wheel and focused on following the car’s directions to where Jax was currently pinging on the map.
Maizie turned in the seat and looked back at him.
Preston said, “No offense, but Jax is already there. Zeyla knows what she’s doing. What are a pregnant woman and a nineteen-year-old tech genius going to do in a firefight?”
“I’m not offended.” Maizie straightened in her seat. “But Zeyla is going to take me to the range when we get the chance. She’s going to teach me about weapons and keep working with me on self-defense.”
“I could hit them with the car.” This thing was indestructible. Kenna, unfortunately, was not. But right now, that wasn’t the point.
Preston gasped. “It was only just fixed!”
Kenna got distracted from being amused and nearly missed her turn. She took the corner sharply and spotted two black SUVs blocking the entry to a shopping mall parking lot. Beyond them, in the dark, she saw flashes of light.
Gunfire.
The parking lot seemed mostly empty, with just a few cars over at the far end by a restaurant. Everything else looked closed, or just derelict at this time of night.
Maizie dialed, and they all listened to it ring. “Come on, Zeyla. Pick up.”
“Call Jax.”
She dialed again. While it rang, Preston said, “Why do those SUVs look familiar?”
Maizie said, “Those guys from Pueblo found us here! The ones who killed Gabby.”
“Now they’re trying to get Zeyla? Oh, no way.
” Kenna let the car nearly pass the blocked entrance, then swung the wheel hard.
She bumped the car up onto the curb and drove along the sidewalk around the SUV where men were hunkered down firing at her family!
She wanted to ram their vehicle, but what would that accomplish?
The call connected. “I can’t talk right now.”
“We’re here to help!” Kenna yelled over in the direction of the phone, both hands tight on the wheel.
Gunshots pinged off the side by Maizie.
Preston whimpered. “The car was just fixed.”
Kenna sped up a bit, avoided the dark streetlight that must’ve been shot out and bumped off the curb at the end. She couldn’t see much in the dark, but swinging the car to the right got her headlights in the right direction.
She lit up Zeyla and Jax hunkered down on the far side of Zeyla’s car. Unfortunately, that gave the bad guys a better view of them.
Kenna kept going and stopped with the hood of the armored car in line with the back right side of Zeyla’s car. She rolled her window down. “I’m your rideshare!”
Jax lifted up. “Go!”
Zeyla ran around the back of the car as Kenna rolled the window up. Jax covered her. Bullets pinged off the right side of Kenna’s car. Within moments, the two of them were in the back. She spotted a guy almost at the door right when Jax slammed it.
She shoved the car in reverse and hit the gas.
Whoever she bumped over wasn’t going to be having a good day.
Kenna winced. “Sorry. But you chose this life, bud.”
She shifted into drive and hit the gas again, speeding away as fast as she could while Zeyla and Jax breathed heavily in the back seat. It sounded like both of them had been running a marathon and were now out of breath.
“Where to?” Kenna asked.
Jax said, “How about you drive around the corner, and we’ll switch seats.”
“I’m fine. Police station? Hospital? Home? They’ll find out where we live pretty fast if we just leave them loose and don’t make sure they’re arrested,” Kenna said. “If we call Ryson and they’re following us, the police could set up a roadblock trap. Right?”
“I have some scratches, but I don’t need to see a doctor,” Zeyla said.
“Jax?”
He didn’t answer right away. “I’m good. We had it handled, and the FBI or cops were on their way to the scene. Now all they’ll find is shell casings.”
“Because I rescued you?”
“We had it handled.”
Maizie glanced in the back. Preston was silent. Kenna didn’t really know what to say. Jax could be irritated that she’d entered a dangerous situation with unknown risk. Or he could be irritated that she’d left the RV at all. She didn’t know which it was.
“We need to find Sylvia Caughton.”
Maizie said, “I still need to run that analysis of Ellayna’s voice.”
“I need to go talk to the feds again,” Jax said.
Maybe that was why he was mad. “I can go with you, if you want? I’ll explain that you had no choice but to leave the scene.”
Preston patted the shoulder of the seat. “Take a left here.”
Kenna complied. “Where are we going?”
“Tell Ryson to meet us at Bashevis diner on Sixteenth.”
“I’ll text him,” Jax said.
Zeyla said, “I am hungry.” When Maizie looked back at her, she said, “Adrenaline.”
Kenna saw the sign for the diner rotating above a squat building and pulled into the parking lot.
The ground dipped under the car wheels, and she drove through a couple of potholes before she found a good space out of the light of streetlamps.
In a dark corner, where their car might go unnoticed by black SUVs full of gunmen looking for her and her family.
The idea of that made her want to stay in the car, because she knew she was safe in here.
It gave her a small hint of what Jax was probably feeling right about now. Plus the adrenaline. Plus frustration. Plus wondering when the baby would come.
“Do we know what those guys wanted, apart from revenge?” She shut off the engine.
Zeyla said, “They didn’t ask. They trailed me when I left Sylvia’s building and followed me after I got in my car. Tried to run me off the road.” There was a short pause, and she said, “Thanks for showing up.”
Kenna waited.
Jax said, “No problem.” Then he said louder, “I was happy to help until the cavalry arrived.”
Kenna really wasn’t going to sit at home when her family was in danger—and she had a million-dollar armored car. “I need a milkshake.”
Jax said, “Stay put a second.”
The rest of them got out. He opened her door for her and helped her out of the front seat. She groaned as she straightened.
“Did you hurt yourself?”
She shook her head. “I forgot how uncomfortable it is doing defensive driving. I feel like I bruised my tailbone going up that curb.”
He shook his head, an incredulous look on his face. At least, from what she could see in the dim light.
“I love you.”
He chuckled, sliding his arms around her.
“We should get inside. Not that it’s safer than being exposed out here.
” But he didn’t let go of her, he leaned in and slid his nose along hers, giving her a distracting kiss that made her wish maybe she had stayed at home.
“I love you, too. Hopefully, I live long enough to enjoy raising our baby with you and having you drive me crazy for years rather than expiring on the street because you gave me a heart attack.”
“I hope so, too.” She kissed him back, trying to be equally distracting to him as he was to her. “I love this car, too. We should keep it.”
He laughed, walking her over to the front door of the diner with his arm around her waist. His head close to hers. Muttering about how she liked to change the subject so she wasn’t under scrutiny.
Kenna wanted to point out that she wasn’t the one who’d been shot at, but now probably wasn’t the time.
Jax opened the door, and she went in first. The diner had a couple of customers and two waitresses.
Kenna found Preston and Maizie at a booth in the far corner.
As she crossed the room, Zeyla emerged from the back hall where the sign indicated the restrooms were.
Kenna said, “This is where you come to eat?”
She liked the place just fine. It had a hometown feel, like a lot of the spots she’d eaten at with her dad growing up on the road while he solved cases—and hiding from Dominatus so thoroughly that she hadn’t even known they existed.
Preston was a billionaire. This wasn’t his usual scene. “You’ll see.” He looked pretty pleased with himself.
Kenna pulled a chair over from a neighboring table and sat with her back to the wall between the booth and the neighboring table. “Don’t ask me to slide in there. I’ll never get out.”
Jax sat at the table to her left, between her and the window. Or the door. Her protector. She reached out, and he held her hand.
Maizie got all dreamy-eyed.
“What are we doing here?” Kenna squeezed his hand.
Jax said, “Ryson and his cops will be here in a few.”
The waitress, in a salmon-colored uniform, pushed through a door with a circular window and came over on white sneakers. Her eyes lit, and her entire expression beamed with happiness. “Kenna!”
She managed to stand up before the younger woman got to her. “Nora Thibodeaux.” She opened her arms, and Nora gave her a hug. Kenna laughed. “It’s really you.”
“It’s been a while.” She shoved her hair back behind her ear; the rest of it was gathered behind her head.
“Since New Orleans, when you had your baby.” Kenna laid a hand on her abdomen. “How did you get here from Seattle?”
“I wanted to strike out on my own.” Nora lifted her chin in Preston’s direction.
“He convinced me Salt Lake City was a good place to raise a child. Now it’s your turn.
” She grinned. This young woman, whose life had been torn apart thanks to criminals in the south, had given birth under the worst kind of circumstances and then accepted Preston’s offer of a place to live.
“It’s a girl.” Kenna grinned back. “How is Elvira Makenna Sanders?”
Nora laughed, tugging out her phone to show Kenna the lock screen—an image of Nora and a chubby little girl with two bottom teeth and an infectious smile. “She’s so big. And so happy. There’s an older lady who lives next door to me, and while I work, she stays with Ellie.”
“I told her she doesn’t have to work.” Preston didn’t look up from his phone.
Nora rolled her eyes. “And I keep telling you I’m not the kept woman of an older billionaire. What will people think?”
Preston didn’t seem to care. “I’m still putting you and Ellie in my will.”
“And I’m still working. I’m taking care of my daughter and building a life for myself.” She shook her head. “Even if it’s cold as all get out up here.”
“You miss the bayou?”
Nora shook her head. “Not one bit.”
Kenna gave her another hug. “I’m so happy for you.”
“Thank you.”
A tear escaped from the corner of Kenna’s eye, and she swiped it away. She shifted her chair closer to Jax’s and sat where he could put his arm around her, leaning into his side. Nora took their orders, and Kenna decided she wanted fries and a milkshake.
“You need some protein.”
Kenna nudged his side. “That’s why I’m going to eat one of your chicken fingers.”
His phone buzzed. “Ryson said there’s an officer down callout at the other end of the precinct, so he has to go there first. He’ll be here afterward.”
Zeyla said, “And if those guys find us here? They’re clearly still after what they wanted—the drive we copied and couriered back to that company.” She paused for a second. “Or they want revenge for what we cost them.”
“They probably think we forced them to kill Gabby.” Meanwhile, Kenna figured they might have been the ones who’d killed Gabby’s brother, too. “All for the software. Which they didn’t get.”
“What are you thinking?” Jax asked.
“Just that if it was Dominatus, they sent the wrong people. Or they didn’t realize they’d be going up against us.”
“I thought they waited for us to find the drive, and then they showed up.” Maizie glanced over from her computer.
“Maybe.” She had a point. “Then they used Gabby to try and get it from us. Now they’re mad.”
Jax said, “That makes the most sense.”
But why did she feel as if there was more going on?
Dominatus was involved, but what did they want with that software?
Whoever wanted it should’ve just done a business deal with the software company—or a hostile takeover.
Why hire mercenary-type guys to get it? The visibility on a murder case was far too great.
They could’ve gotten what they wanted without anyone knowing.
It almost felt as if they were a distraction. A way to keep Kenna and her family busy. A way to test what they would do—or what resources they had now.
Was that why it seemed off?
Nora set the tray in front of them on the table and came back with another for the booth. Zeyla grabbed her cheeseburger and took a huge bite.
Kenna leaned her head toward Jax, and he said grace for them both in a quiet voice. She squeezed his knee and opened her eyes.
Sylvia Caughton stood just inside the front door, wearing dark jeans and a black sweater with a dark gray coat over it.
She looked exactly like the photo on the news outlet website.
Like a redheaded actress who probably disliked how many freckles she had and worked extra hard not to have any extra pounds on her body. She was highly trained and dangerous.
Zeyla whipped out of her seat and turned, raising her gun to point at the woman in the doorway. Jax stood as well, his gun drawn.
One of the men at the bar slid off his stool and rushed into the kitchen. She heard a “Hey!” and then a door slammed.
Sylvia lifted her hands. “You haven’t been getting my messages, have you?”
“You want to talk?” Jax asked her, his voice ringing with authority.
“I came here unarmed.”
He crossed the room halfway. “Hands against the wall. If you are unarmed and you just want to talk, you get patted down.”