Chapter 38
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Kenna leaned her hips back against the kitchen counter.
Jax sat at the dinette, halfway through his sandwich stacked with thick-cut bacon.
Zeyla had gone for a run to burn off some of the tension of sleeping upright in a chair.
Kenna figured she just wasn’t a big fan of close quarters and needed her own space on occasion.
Or she was hoping those guys in the black SUVs would make another move.
Maybe both.
“I don’t like any of this,” she said.
Maizie had come down from her loft bed and taken a shower. Now she sat in the driver’s seat with her laptop on her knees. Wearing wide-leg jeans and a loose-fit T-shirt. Her wet blonde hair was tied up in a messy bun on the top of her head. “He really told you to find the family?”
Kenna nodded. “He probably knows where they are, and he wants me to work the case. Like solving a puzzle. It’s a distraction at best; that’s the only explanation.”
Ellayna and her mother and her brother were gone. Supposedly kidnapped and being held somewhere.
But if MSI was behind it, then why was Crystal’s ex dead?
Even if they’d taken the family, someone had taken Marcus Neerwood’s life. She had a few theories as to why he was dead but no evidence to prove one was more likely than the others.
“I don’t like the idea that MSI put a bomb in Gabby and pushed her off that bridge.” Jax shook his head. “I’d never have said they were capable of doing something like that.”
“I knew they were capable,” Kenna countered. “But I thought they had more integrity than to kill an innocent person.”
Maizie said, “Unless she wasn’t all that innocent. But that’s too much collateral damage.”
It was certainly an explanation. And it fit, but Kenna still didn’t like it. “I don’t like the idea we’re being played. That we’ve been played on multiple occasions for the past few weeks.”
Ramon might be the only person who could tell her what was going on, and he was out of contact. Same with Bruce and Amara. Even Zeyla had tried reaching them, but it was as if all their phones were off.
Kenna jogged her heel up and down, using the movement to try and jog an idea loose from her brain. But she was being purposely kept in the dark. So how could she possibly figure out the answers.
“If it wasn’t for MSI being in the middle of this, I’d think it was Dominatus giving me the runaround. Distracting me because they have something big going on—probably something to do with the president.”
Jax turned and leaned against the window, one leg on the seat and his foot in the aisle.
“What if we assume that’s true? It could mean they’re using the guys from MSI because we’re more likely to believe them.
We trust them, right? So, if they say it’s all good, then we’re more inclined to go along with it.
To not try and uncover whatever sinister thing is going on underneath. ”
Maizie said, “That, and if MSI is the one shooting at us, then it makes sense why none of us has been hurt.”
Kenna looked at Maizie. “They missed on purpose.”
“It fits,” Jax said. “If we assume MSI doesn’t want something bad to happen to any of us. Perhaps they’re the ones who took the job with Dominatus because they can then actively ensure none of us gets hurt.”
“But Gabby was fair game,” Kenna pointed out.
Jax tipped his head to the side. “Maybe those guys in Pueblo weren’t MSI, but someone else. The guys here in the black SUVs are supposed to be the bad guys who wanted the tech from that software company, but they’re just pretending? But Bear wouldn’t stand for losing his men.”
Kenna said, “All he said was find the family. Sounded more like he’s bought in all the way. We haven’t heard from the software company.”
“They got their tech back.” Maizie gave her a pointed look. “If they don’t know we have a copy of all the files, maybe they think the damage from the leak will blow over. Those other guys believed they’d failed after they realized what we gave them wasn’t real.”
“Any break-ins, or incidents at the company office?”
Maizie said, “I’ve been keeping an eye on police reports, social media, and the company website, but there haven’t been any reported incidents. I was wondering if those guys from the bridge were going to try again.”
“The company might purposely keep it hush-hush.” Unless someone suddenly died under suspicious circumstances or was murdered.
That was a lot harder to bury. “Question is whether what’s going on here in Salt Lake is connected to what we were working in Pueblo, or if they are two separate incidents with different perpetrators. ”
All of it was just a distraction from worrying about Ramon.
Kenna grunted. “We have a whole list of things we don’t like about what’s going on, but no concrete proof of anything, and the bottom line is that Gabby was killed because we took the case.
Not to mention that Ramon might be in serious danger. Wherever he is.”
Jax’s expression softened. “What happened to Gabby wasn’t our fault.”
“She might not have been kidnapped if we hadn’t taken the case.” Sometimes, things were just that simple. “She would still be alive.”
Jax said, “Gabby wanted answers about what happened to her brother. None of us knew that would be the result.”
Kenna didn’t know what was going to allow her to let it go. She probably just needed to grieve. Visit the woman’s grave and apologize. But none of it would change what had happened; it would just alleviate some of the guilt.
“So, they tell you to focus on finding Ellayna and her family now,” Maizie said. “Like you need something to do. Like they’re doing you a favor or something.”
Kenna pushed out a long breath.
Her phone rang. She looked at the screen, then lifted it from the counter. “It’s Ryson.” She answered it and put it to her ear. “Hey, what’s up?”
“I’m going to ask you a question, and you’re going to be very careful about your answer.”
She thought about the audio recording from her voicemail because it didn’t sound like there was any other noise on the line. This could be fake like her conversation with Ellayna. “Ryson—”
She heard a heavy door click shut and then the sound of traffic passing by wherever he was.
“I need you to tell me if you or Zeyla went into Marcus Neerwood’s house. I need to know what you touched. Specifically.”
Kenna’s mind conjured that smell. The realization Marcus Neerwood was dead and had been that way for several days by the time they found him. “Why do you need to know what we touched at the scene?”
“Just answer the question.”
Kenna didn’t like the sound of this either—add that to the long list of things that were “not okay” right now.
“If you find a boot print on the front door, it belongs to Zeyla. I didn’t go inside.
She walked around, but I told her not to touch anything.
I don’t even think she touched the body. He was clearly already dead.”
“You have two problems.”
“Okay.” Kenna bit her lip.
“The first is that forensics found Zeyla’s print on the frame of the door, like she touched it going out.”
“I watched her step out. She didn’t touch the door frame.”
“The other problem is that the ballistics on the weapon used matches the death of another man shot in his home.”
She already knew the name he was about to give her.
“Shawn Terrance.”
Kenna closed her eyes. “The same person who killed Shawn Terrance also killed Marcus Neerwood.”
Jax shifted in his seat, straightening at that news.
“And the Salt Lake City Police Department believes the killer is Zeyla?”
“You didn’t hear it from me.” Ryson hung up.
Kenna lowered the phone. “Maizie, where is Zeyla now?”
Maizie’s fingers flew over the laptop keyboard. “Coming back into the RV park. She’ll be here in a couple of minutes.”
“Okay.” Kenna needed another nap or to be able to drink coffee, if she was going to figure this out.
Jax said, “She’s being framed for two murders.”
Kenna clenched her fingers on the edge of the counter, holding on as if it would keep her stable. “If they were able to point at her as one of those people on the bridge, I think they’d be doing that as well. Ballistics between the two murders matches, and they think Zeyla did it.”
“So they have the murder weapon with her prints on it?”
“If they do, Ryson didn’t tell me. Maybe he wasn’t allowed to say that much, and he just told me what he could.”
The RV door opened, and she stepped in, kicking off her tennis shoes outside on the rug in front of the door.
Jax shook his head. “Risky move, giving us a heads-up. We could put Zeyla on a bus and ensure she disappears.”
Zeyla looked around, her brow lined with sweat from her run. Still wearing her leggings and a thin running jacket and gloves. “Why am I disappearing?”
Kenna explained about the prints found at the scene.
Zeyla muttered under her breath, shaking her head. “You know, you try to go straight, and they always get you in the end.” She stomped to the dinette and slid in across from Jax, her frustration evident in every movement.
Maizie asked, “Could this be another distraction?”
“More likely, it’s a way to get Zeyla out of play, because they know she’s a threat.” Kenna had to admit… “At least, she’s more of a threat than me right now.”
“So, I’m going to be arrested, is that it?” Zeyla asked.
Jax shook his head. “That’s why it was risky for Ryson to tell us. You’re the kind of person I would consider a flight risk.”
“So sweet.” Zeyla smirked.
She thought that was a nice thing for someone to say about her? Never mind, of course she did. “We can get you the best lawyer. Prove this is a setup.”
“If Dominatus is behind it, there isn’t going to be a paper trail,” Zeyla said. “I’m as good as convicted.”
“You don’t know that,” Kenna told her.
“They’ll have paid off everyone they need to. No evidence left of what really happened or who killed Marcus and Shawn.”
“There has to be because it wasn’t you.” Kenna wanted to fight this with every breath she had.
But the fact that it could be yet another distraction made her want to do what Jax had suggested—put Zeyla on a bus.
Or a plane to some South American country with no extradition agreement.
Get her out of play because they refused to be manipulated.
“You aren’t even going to ask me if I did it or not?”
Kenna rolled her eyes. “You think I need to?”
Zeyla shrugged. “I might have. I could secretly be an assassin, and you’d never know.”
“I want to find that funny,” Maizie said. “But right now, it really isn’t. And besides, we know where you were during the times of death. Because you were with us. So we know you didn’t do it. Even if you could have.”
Zeyla glanced at Maizie, a sisterly smile on her face. “Don’t forget it.”
Maizie didn’t seem to find that so funny either.
Jax said, “Preston probably has some high-priced lawyer on retainer who can fight for your freedom. Convince the police you didn’t do this because the evidence was faked and you have alibis.”
Zeyla said, “Preston? The guy who was wrongfully convicted of murder and served the whole sentence.”
Kenna winced. “That doesn’t mean the same thing is going to happen to you.”
“I’m not just going to roll over and let them put me in prison. This isn’t a fight we need to take on because I don’t want to and you’ll be busy having that baby.” Zeyla shrugged like it was a done deal. “So, they can arrest me…if they can find me.”
Maizie’s expression saddened.
Kenna said, “None of us wants to lose you.”
“I know,” Zeyla said. “That’s why I’m still here, even though with anyone else I’d have taken off to do my own thing a long time ago.”
As far as working with Zeyla, and her being part of their family, that was as close to a declaration of love and affection as they were going to get from the woman. Probably ever.
“If you want to stay,” Kenna said, “no one is going to take this. We’ll fight with everything we’ve got.”
Zeyla said, “Sometimes, everything you’ve got isn’t enough.”
Kenna refused to believe that. “It has to be enough.”