Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
Megan sucked in a sharp breath. A thud in the hall sounded a second before the threat stumbled into the room and fell to the floor, his face flush with anger. Kenna shifted enough to untuck the material she’d tucked around her pregnancy belly.
“Jax?” Kenna didn’t want to ask, but she had to know.
“I’m good.” Jax appeared at the doorway, holding his gun. “Tried to fight me for it. Found out what happens when he goes up against someone his size.” His jaw was set, indicating to her that her husband wasn’t happy. For several reasons would be her guess.
Kenna’s focus was Megan—and Joseph. “Go to him.” She indicated the boy in the corner, and Megan rushed across the room, gathering the child against her. The boy tucked his head against her hip, his arms around her legs, holding on tight. As close to safety as he could get.
The guy got up off the floor of the hallway, tension and anger in every line of his body. “The two of you get out of my house!” The assailant’s voice thundered in the room, the lack of furniture making the sound echo off bare walls and floor.
Megan and Joseph both flinched at the sound and moved closer to the corner of the wall as far from him as they could get. But the guy didn’t even look at them.
Kenna moved her gun into view, matching Jax’s stance, but with her hips back into her coat, making the sides hang where they might disguise her front. Or at least not make it obvious she was pregnant.
Far as she could see, this guy didn’t have a gun.
“That’s the thing,” Jax said. “It isn’t your house.”
Kenna picked up the line of questioning. “The name on the mortgage is Mitch Caudell, but he died overseas six years ago. So who are you?”
“The person who lives here!”
“Call the police. Tell them we’re here and you want us to leave.” Kenna shrugged. “We’re happy to be escorted from the premises.”
A tendon in his jaw ticked. He had no intention of calling the police. But she did.
Before she could reach for her phone again, the front door slammed open and footsteps in the hall preceded Ramon and Zeyla rushing in a second later with their guns drawn.
“Everyone good?” Ramon moved into a defensive position in front of Kenna so she got a good view of his jacket and jeans, and the back of his head, but not much else.
“We’re good,” Kenna replied.
But Megan and Joseph still looked scared for their lives.
Zeyla scanned the room, clocking each person. Taking in more than the average citizen. Cataloguing threats and assessing the situation. “Take the woman and the kid out. I’ll make it look like self-defense.”
Jax said, “We don’t murder people in cold blood.”
Kenna agreed with her husband’s statement but wasn’t going to immediately discount Zeyla’s idea. She found she was more willing to find gray areas these days than she’d ever been before in her life. Just not right now in front of two innocents.
“Megan, you and Joseph come over here.” She held out a hand, around Ramon.
Megan looked at Kenna’s Hispanic friend.
“He’s here to protect us,” Kenna said. “And we’re all here to protect the two of you.”
She started to move, Joseph still clinging to her leg. The guy grabbed her, pulled them both in front of him, and swung his arm around her neck. Megan swallowed a scream, her eyes pleading with them to help her.
Kenna ducked back behind Ramon, fully confident her husband and two friends would take care of the situation. While they called out orders to him to let her go and put his hands on his head.
“911, what’s your emergency?”
“We need the police,” Kenna said. “This guy is hurting his girlfriend and child.”
She told the dispatcher the street address and described the house. When he asked more questions, she gave as much information as she could, explaining she was a private investigator here to ask about a cold case murder.
They talked long enough for him to say, “There’s a patrol car pulling onto the street now.”
“Thank you.” Kenna hung up, whether the conversation was over or not.
She ducked into the hall and heard Megan yelp, then opened the front door and waited for the uniformed officers to park. She waved the two of them over, both guys in their thirties or forties. “Thank you so much for coming.”
When the two men entered the hall and went into the living area, Zeyla and Ramon were both gone. Jax alone stood guard over the three—the captor and his two victims. “He won’t let her go. He just rushed in and grabbed them.”
The two cops moved through the space with confidence. Both had heavy gear on their belts and overcoats over their uniforms. Beanies were tucked into pockets, and neither drew their weapon.
One moved to Jax’s space to face off with the captor. “I’d like you to step outside with me, sir.”
The other said, “I’ll stay with these folks.”
Kenna was supposed to go with Jax, though. “I don’t want to leave my friend. Megan was really scared when he rushed in and grabbed them. Can I stay with her?”
That solved part of the problem. The guy who lived here with them would spin a tale about protecting his house as if they were the assailants who had come in uninvited. Until Kenna managed to reveal the reason he didn’t want to call the cops in the first place.
“Maybe Megan and Joseph can come outside with me?” she suggested.
Kenna was as worried as she likely appeared.
Sure, she could play the pregnant card and use her condition to convince the cops she was about keeping people safe.
Which was true, and not something that only applied universally to anyone having a baby.
But she’d used the pregnancy in her favor enough today.
Eventually, it would feel like using the kid as a set piece to do her job.
Which was exactly what they did. Not something she wanted to define her.
“Sir, you wanna let them go outside?” The officer’s question didn’t sound much like a request, more a test of the boyfriend’s intentions.
The guy huffed. “These do-gooders. They think they can take her from me. They’re probably from some weird religion.”
His hold on Megan shifted enough it looked less like he was trying to detain her. Which was better than blatantly strangling her, but the cops hadn’t seen that. This guy was good. He kept it tight when he had to, which meant no one had figured out what was going on with Megan.
Not until Kenna and Jax knocked on the door.
She wanted to thank God, say a prayer and be grateful for Him leading them here. But was that what had happened? She wondered how far His control of their lives extended when Jax considered his life yielded to the Lord…but Kenna wasn’t so sure about hers.
Megan whimpered.
“Ma’am, come with us.” The police officer waved her and Joseph over.
The abuser didn’t want to let her go but couldn’t argue.
“Sir, put your weapon away.”
Jax complied with the other cop’s order. “He’s a dangerous man. Don’t turn your back or underestimate him. We believe him to be the person who killed Samantha Ambrose six years ago.”
Kenna would have said the same thing, just so that the police officer took extra caution. It might even save his life in the next few minutes. They couldn’t control what the assailant did next, but the cop knew now to be extra wary.
She backed up into the hall, and Megan came with her. Joseph, too. “Megan, when was the last time you went outside?”
The girl stopped in the hall, the cop listening to their exchange.
“You and Joseph are going to need coats, okay? It’s really cold out.”
Megan said, “Joe, get your jacket.”
The little boy let go long enough to grab it off the hook by his backpack. His shoes were lined up neatly in a way no child would do. So had Megan straightened them? Making sure things were precisely in their place before “Dad” got home.
“Megan, do you have a coat?”
The young woman shook her head.
Kenna tugged off her own and held it out, making sure the shirt she wore covered the gun at the small of her back.
“Pregnancy is making me much warmer than usual. I’ll be good for a few minutes.
” Meanwhile, without it, the young woman would be far too cold.
She motioned it closer to Megan. “Please, wear this.”
Megan took the coat and slipped it on while Kenna went to the front door, trying to come across as nonchalant. Remaining calm and levelheaded, and showing kindness. All things that she didn’t need to pretend, but which a police officer would notice.
She opened the door and stepped out, watching Joseph slip his shoes on. “Do you need help with your zipper, buddy?”
He nodded and stepped over the threshold.
Kenna knelt on the front walk and waved him over. She got his zipper lined up. “This is a nice coat. Does it keep you warm?”
He didn’t answer.
She got the zipper to the top. “There you go.” She smiled, and he returned to Mom’s side.
Megan had the coat overlapped in front, so she was surrounded tightly by the warm material.
Kenna’s skin chilled, but she would be fine for a moment. “Megan, there isn’t a perfect solution here. We can all only do our best. But if you need help, if you’re scared for your safety and Joseph’s and you want to get out of this house, there are places you can go.”
She wasn’t going to promise he would never find her, but she wanted to.
The cop glanced between Kenna, Megan, and Jax on the far side by the door. There was barely room on the front step for him to be outside, but he stayed tucked against the open door.
Jax winced. “I hate to say it, but if you have information about the death of Samantha Ambrose, it’s going to give the police more reason to keep you safe. It might even be something they can talk to the feds about.”
The cop said, “You’re dangling witness protection?”
“I was FBI for years. I’m not promising anything, but we don’t know what Megan knows. She could be exactly the person the US marshals are in their business to protect.” Jax shrugged. “Someone wanted Samantha Ambrose’s death covered up and Megan might be able to tell us who and why.”
Witness protection might not be enough to hide someone from Dominatus. She’d considered it, but even that might not be secure enough to keep them from finding her, and Jax, and their child.
There might be nowhere on earth they could hide…
If Dominatus was looking for them.
“We’re here because Megan went missing around the same time.” Jax’s tone gentled. “Megan, were you held here against your will the last six years?”
Megan Tilley clutched her son’s shoulder. She nodded.
Kenna said, “Is the man inside that house the father of your son?”
There were limited options as to what could have happened between two men and two teenage girls who had gone missing from their lives. One person was responsible for Samantha’s death, and one person was inside that house facing a serious jail sentence.
Megan just stared at her.
“What is his name?” the officer asked, pulling out his phone.
“Carl Allerton.”
“He keeps you here against your will?”
Megan managed to nod.
“Does he hurt you or your son?”
“That’s not...” Megan’s voice sounded hollow. She covered Joseph’s ears, then said louder, “He isn’t my son. But I’m the only one who takes care of him. I’m the only one who protects him. You can’t take him away from me. I’m all he has.”
Kenna glanced at Jax, whose eyes widened. “Megan, who is his mother?”
“Samantha was.” The woman swallowed. “But they killed her.”