Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Kenna walked up the stone steps, lifting the hem of her red dress with one hand. Jax set his on the small of her back.
The building in front of them had been lit up like a beacon under the black of the night sky and orchestral music poured from every door and window. People milled around just inside the entrance dressed as she and Jax were in their evening finest for this event.
Flanking the doors outside were armed guards in army green dress uniforms. Soldiers for the country of Croatia, protecting their embassy on US soil.
Kenna showed the severe-looking lady at the entrance the QR code on her phone that Petyr had sent and checked over her shoulder.
Amara and Bruce followed them up the steps.
Bruce had his hand under Amara’s elbow. She looked like a queen with a black velvet dress and her hair piled on her head.
Kenna wasn’t sure she pulled that look off the way Amara did, and not because she’d needed a specific dress that accounted for her and Jax’s plus one.
“Are you sure about this idea?” Jax whispered in her ear.
“Beats spending a night being questioned by the FBI.”
He smirked. “True.” His gaze drifted to her no-straps, split in the leg, “Look at me, I’m pregnant” fancy evening dress, and sort of glazed over. Apparently, Zeyla had done all right picking her outfit for the night.
Kenna had opted for flat sandals, even though Zeyla thought that was the cardinal sin. “They hassled you for long enough today.”
All because someone had called in an anonymous tip that one of the as-yet-unaccounted-for lawyers would be at the pregnancy center.
Zeyla had explained that the ruse was for the FBI to show up and catch Dominatus assets in the act of kidnapping “Kenna” and arrest them.
Too bad that hadn’t happened. It had been a decent plan, and Zeyla had said she even saw a van she believed was the retrieval team speed away from the scene.
No one could’ve anticipated that the FBI would arrive early and jump the gun.
Amara and Bruce reached them. Kenna told the security lady, “They’re with me.” But Petyr split the crowd, approaching at a fast stride. Wearing a dark suit and bow tie, his hair slicked back.
“No, I don’t think so.” Petyr waved his hands, which summoned black tie guards.
Not the ceremonial kind who flanked the door like set pieces in the display of Croatian elegance.
These were the kind of thugs she would expect to see in an alley, only they were dressed for a gala.
He motioned to Bruce. “He isn’t coming in. ”
Kenna faced off with him. “They’re with me.”
His jaw flexed. The head of state who believed he was her father didn’t want to back down. But was he going to turn it into a scene in the lobby of his embassy?
“Unless you want to tell me what your problem is with Bruce, he comes in.”
“Both of them stay outside.” Petyr looked over her shoulder and hadn’t yet actually acknowledged her presence.
“They’re coming in.” She was pregnant. She wanted backup. “End of discussion.”
He stared at Bruce.
Kenna stared at the side of his face, waiting for him to relent. Finally, she added, “Petyr.”
One of his thugs reacted to that. They were either unused to hearing him be addressed by his first name or hadn’t been briefed on who she was. That was interesting.
“We just wanna talk.”
He looked at her then, those dark eyes. Trying to appear magnanimous because people were starting to stare at him. “There is no ‘we’ in this. There is only you and I.”
Kenna shook her head. “Doesn’t work like that.
” She tipped her head to the side, which made the hairdo Zeyla had given her flop a bit.
Hopefully, she hadn’t ruined it. “You remember Jax, don’t you?
And Amara. Maybe you two have met. She’s my mother.
Or, at least, the closest I’ll get to one.
I had a father. His name was Malcom Banbury, but he died tragically many years ago.
I’m not sure what your problem is with Bruce, but I’ve known him a while now and he’s saved my life several times. ”
“I have guests to attend to,” Petyr said. “I’ll find you shortly.”
He walked away before she could respond to that.
“Welp,” Bruce said. “That went well.”
Kenna slid her arm in Jax’s elbow, and they headed across the lobby for the main ballroom. A server passed them with a full tray of champagne glasses, and Jax asked the guy for soda water. She scouted out a good location amid crowd, but not near to anyone who looked chatty.
The last thing they were here to do was mingle with the Croatian ambassador’s guests. Unless any of them happened to be former US soldiers listed as killed in action.
When she’d found the ideal spot, she turned to Amara and Bruce. “One of you needs to tell me why they seem to be fine with Amara and Zeyla being in my life but have a huge problem with washed-up ex-CIA officers.” She whispered the last part, so no one overheard.
Bruce smirked. “True enough.”
Kenna waited. Even Jax seemed content to hold out for the answer, in between accepting two glasses of iced fizzy water. Amara sipped from her champagne glass, and Bruce looked longingly at the bar for a second.
“Talk now. Drink after.” She lifted her chin.
He usually wore Hawaiian shirts with enough buttons open at the top to reveal he was well endowed with gray chest hair. Even in winter. Today, he had on a suit that she’d guess was rented, but she couldn’t be sure. His cheeks moved—working his mouth around, trying to decide what to share.
“Bruce, why do they keep telling me to get rid of you?”
He took the bait on that one and ran with it. “Because I’m an asset to your team, obviously.”
“Or something,” Jax quipped.
Kenna ignored both of their attempts to brush off the heaviness of this conversation.
Dominatus insisted Bruce would betray her.
They’d repeatedly told her not to trust him.
As far as she was concerned, that likely meant she should keep him close.
But fear had her pushing him away the past few months, attempting self-preservation in a situation where she had zero control.
“You need to tell me, or I’ll think what they are advising might have merit. Enough to ask you to step away.”
Amara shifted to face Bruce. “Just spit it out.”
Kenna shouldn’t be surprised that Amara knew whatever it was.
She watched Bruce and realized that she’d always known there were things he was keeping from her.
Months ago, he’d been determined to take down the man who had betrayed him.
It turned out that guy worked for Dominatus.
He was dead now, but did Bruce consider that the man’s comeuppance?
Or was he using the betrayal as fuel to go after the whole organization now?
Bruce said, “You know who my partner was. How he screwed me over.”
Not the expression she would have used, but he had colorful ways of putting things on occasion.
Kenna nodded. “I know what happened.”
Even if most of it had been while she was a captive, Jax had caught her up. And right now, her husband put his hand on the small of her back. She leaned against him, not just for support in standing up.
“After it all imploded and I was burned and left for dead in England, I was approached by a guy. He had me do some odd jobs for a buddy of his. I needed cash. I had a certain skillset and no paperwork, so it wasn’t like work was easy to come by.” Bruce reached up and scratched his jaw.
A nervous move she hadn’t seen him make often.
“After a while I realized who I was working for,” he continued.
“At first, I didn’t want to care. When I asked questions and dug below the surface, I realized I was working for Dominatus.
Not the same part as my partner. They probably didn’t even know each other existed.
But I’d become the thing I hated the most.”
Kenna looked at the ballroom of people milling around, chatting each other up, or dancing to the orchestra’s mellow tunes. Had she brought her family into the lion’s den hoping to stir the nest enough she got some answers, or at least cooperation?
“I got out, but it almost killed me. I hit rock bottom and once I’d crawled out of that hole, I had to rebuild it all from scratch.
For years, I lived on almost nothing, moving from place to place and getting paid under the table.
Until an old friend reached out on a message board from decades before and told me someone needed my help. ”
She could still remember him pulling up outside the empty house she’d been hiding in. The target of a Dominatus assassin she had killed. Bruce had walked into the middle of it like the sunshine in that gray British world. Like a piece of home on foreign soil.
Stairns’ former friend had taken her to his home and welcomed her team. He’d treated Maizie with nothing but respect since they met and had become another reason the young woman was learning how to trust the men in her life.
“I meant what I said about you saving me.” Kenna walked to him, opened her arms, and gave Bruce a long overdue hug. “And you have no idea what it meant to me that you dropped everything and showed up to help.”
His arms tightened for a second before he stepped back and let her go. “Wasn’t much to drop. And in the end, it got me my life back.”
“You didn’t know that at the time.” He’d been there to help, not looking for a ticket out.
He tipped his head to the side, conceding her point.
“Why does he have a thing about being my father?” Kenna wasn’t sure why she asked, except that Bruce was much more of a father figure to her than anyone other than Stairns. Both men were mentors, friends, and the kind of man she wished was here to support her the way a dad might.
“Why do they do anything, or say anything, other than that it serves their purpose?”
“Any chance you gave a donation at a Dominatus sperm bank a lot of years ago?”
Bruce’s expression softened, but something like grief touched his gaze. “I wish.” He leaned in and kissed her cheek, his rough hand gentle on her elbow. “Doesn’t change anything as far as I’m concerned. That baby has a set of grandparents. Three if you count Jax’s folks, and Elizabeth and Craig.”
Kenna looked up and sniffed, trying to will away the tickle of moisture in her eyes. “I refuse to cry when I’m dressed like this.”
“Sometimes you don’t get a choice about that. It just happens.”
Amara eased up to his side, winding her arm through Bruce’s. “He’s right about us females. Besides, no one here cares if you cry. They just don’t want you to be upset.”
“Because I’m very obviously pregnant in this dress.” Kenna didn’t need the world tiptoeing around her. She could still kick doors in!
Jax slid his arm around her back. “I forgot what I was going to say. I looked at you and got tongue-tied. Why are we here again?”
“I thought you were a professional?” She had to razz him a little, even if she thought it was adorable that he thought she looked good.
“That’s why we’re here,” Amara said. “Because this is family business.”
Kenna nodded. “Thanks for coming.”
Bruce said, “Wouldn’t miss it, girlie.”
“Now that we’re done with our heart-to-heart, can we get to work?”