Chapter 30
Chapter Thirty
“Iappreciate you giving me some of your time.” Kenna sat on the chair Petyr had pulled out for her. She glanced over her shoulder and politely smiled at him.
Jax stood not too far away on guard. Giving them the chance to speak. Kenna was prepared to be polite, as long as he gave her what she wanted.
Petyr settled into the chair across from her, and a waiter delivered two fingers of whiskey in a crystal glass, then set a glass of water in front of her.
She was thirsty, but she wasn’t going to drink it. For a second, she wondered if Jax might take a sip for her. Thankfully, he didn’t. She didn’t want to find out it was poisoned that way.
Petyr smoothed down his tie. “How has it been, working the case? Searching for our mutual associate.”
“He’s killed more people than we thought initially, not only ‘offspring’ and not only the man who’s murder file you gave us.
Who knows what the total is.” Kenna didn’t even want to think about Simon, let alone draw his attention.
“Surely, you have some resources available to you that could enable me to track him down.”
“In the interest of our mutual survival…” He drew a paper from the inside pocket of his suit jacket. “This is the motel where he’s been staying, but every time my people have dropped by, he’s out. They sit in front, but he never shows, and yet inside it appears he’s spent time there.”
“Thank you for the information.” She took the paper from him and put it on the table in front of her. “I appreciate the assistance.”
Petyr eyed her over the rim of his glass.
An elderly couple passed by them, and the husband said something to Petyr in a language Kenna didn’t speak. Presumably Croatian. Petyr nodded but didn’t respond otherwise.
When he turned back to her, he said, “Are we only here to talk about business?”
“Seems to me like that business puts us on either side of a chasm. There’s no way to cross it without compromising what we believe. Or becoming what we despise.”
He sipped his drink.
“The only way I see that changing is if you provide me with a DNA sample, like a cheek swab. Let me test it.”
“What difference would it make? I know what I know.”
“It makes a difference to me.” Kenna tilted her shoulders to the left a little to give the kicking little girl a bit more room so she might not come up against the hard resistance of Kenna’s rib cage.
She glanced at Jax. “To us, and to the rest of our family. Not just the baby Jax and I are having, but our entire family.”
“There’s nothing I can say that would satisfy you.
” He set the glass on the table, his forearm on the edge.
Fingers around the drink. “Any interest or curiosity in the young woman you adopted will be misconstrued. You already know my opinion of the company you keep here. Any other person in your periphery will immediately be viewed as a potential victim if I bring them up. When I only wish to get to know you and those you hold dear.” His gaze drifted over in the direction where Bruce had remained with Amara, and she was pretty sure she saw a slight curl in his lips.
“You don’t have a problem with Amara or Zeyla the way you do with Bruce. Why is that?” Seemed to her it was backward. Surely, it meant Kenna should be more wary of Amara because Dominatus had no problem with her.
“She’s given up a lot of her more…problematic activities.”
“And as such, she doesn’t represent as much of a threat?” Kenna hoped that was a mistake on their part.
“We all have our ends, and those who stand in our way. Perhaps, if given the chance, I could usher my people into a new era.”
“Global control?” She wasn’t sure it wasn’t the goal of any of the candidates for Imperatoris to take over Canada, the UK, Europe, and the US in one go. Whether that presented a threat to innocent people under their rule likely depended on who was voted in.
“Am I to apologize for wishing to be king?”
He’d been born in the wrong country if he wanted that. “You already have a whole lot of power.”
“There is always more.”
“What do you know about Major General Schnell?”
Petyr blinked, and the skin around his eyes contracted.
“Could he be the one who tried to kill you?”
He muttered a word in Croatian she probably didn’t want translated.
“Is he alive?” Kenna asked. “Because if you know where I might find him, I can put a stop to the present threat.”
“We have rules.” Before she could respond, he continued, “But in this case, his actions are permitted. As yours would be.”
“So, because he has other people do it, the rules of engagement permit him trying to take out you and probably everyone else who threatens him being voted in as Imperatoris.”
Petyr hissed in a breath.
She wasn’t going to apologize for saying that aloud and potentially jeopardizing the secrecy of it. “This is about innocent lives. People caught in the crossfire. Too many have lost their lives for what Dominatus wants. It has to stop. Here and now, this needs to end.”
“Then ensure I gain the vote, and you will be safe.” He sat back and sipped his drink, so satisfied with his plan. Except that put more innocent lives at risk.
He wanted her to bargain for her family’s future with his bid for power. As if that was the surest way he had to become the leader.
“What I do isn’t for you,” she stated.
“The end result is the same,” Petyr said. “Your safety and my leadership are intertwined.”
He seemed to genuinely believe he was her best bet at a future that didn’t involve more grief and terror than she’d ever experienced before in her life. Which was saying something.
“I don’t want any part of this.” She couldn’t care less than she did about who was in charge, except that he was right. Kenna didn’t want to admit that much, however. Why let him know that he was right and might be her safest bet? If she was interested in gambling with her future, that was.
She would rather trust God for the outcome.
“Let the chips fall where they may.” She shrugged her bare shoulders, suddenly aware she’d come to this event in her finest just for this. “Or help me eliminate a dangerous threat, both to you and to innocent people.”
Rather than leave the fight up to her and claim mutual benefit when her family inevitably succeeded—which always meant lives at risk—he had to participate in this.
“Help you how?” he asked.
Kenna found herself back on solid footing, rather than off balance by this man who hid his lethality behind a veneer of civility.
She doubted she was cut from his cloth, even if she were genetically related to him.
She’d been raised by the man she called Dad, and he’d never been a foreign dignitary.
Malcom Banbury was a man who fought for his brand of justice.
“Major General Schnell was killed weeks ago in Washington using military arms,” she began.
Ramon had been injured in that attack. In fact, it was a miracle both he and Zeyla were alive given their proximity when the missile, or RPG, or whatever it had been, hit the ground right were Schnell had been standing.
“And yet, he’s currently showing up for appearances on news outlets, holding Pentagon press conferences, and performing his duties.” She paused for a second. “So was the general who was killed the double, or is the man who is alive the replacement?”
“I doubt a man of the general’s caliber would allow himself to be caught, let alone killed.”
“So the original is alive and well.” Kenna didn’t like the sound of that.
Ramon and Zeyla were going to flip when they discovered the man they went up against wasn’t even the real Schnell.
“And commanding a small team of men who were also reported deceased. Former soldiers, one of whom is Simon Newton. The killer you tasked me to find.”
Petyr nodded.
“Tell me where to find the rest of the team, and Major General Schnell.”
“The rules of engagement prohibit me from revealing his whereabouts.”
“And yet he tried to kill you,” Kenna pointed out.
“Unless I can prove he gave the order, he did not.”
Innocent until proven guilty. No man-made institution would ever be perfect when run by humans, who were flawed. But in the courts, it was a way to ensure justice had to be found without a doubt rather than guilt being presumed. Interestingly they’d also adopted that tenet.
“What about the team?” Kenna asked. “Are they off limits?”
She figured there was a reason he and the president had only told her about one deceased man, Steven Braughton. Probably because she’d met his killer, and working the case might lead her to not only Simon Newton but also the rest of his associates.
Did they work together, or was each one a hired gun who did everything alone?
She didn’t like the sound of multiple assassins out there.
Petyr shook his head. “I cannot be seen to be actively pursuing assets. The council would deem me a threat to Dominatus. I would be eliminated.”
“I need carte blanche access to any military instillation my people want to enter. No questions asked, just complete access to anything we need.”
“And what makes you think I can provide that?”
“Your access to the president is considerably less conspicuous than mine.” Kenna let him absorb that.
“Tell her I need all-access passes for the person who presents the pass, no matter who it is.” She couldn’t provide specific names to be pre-authorized, since she had no idea what the plan was going to be.
“And you need to tell me where to find the general and his men.”
“You need access, and you don’t know where you’re going?”
Kenna rolled her eyes. “As if that ever stopped me from ending the threat.”
“I’ll get you what you need.”
“Thanks.” She spotted Amara at the edge of her vision, motioning her away from Petyr, and started to stand.
“And a DNA sample.”
Kenna straightened, and then Jax was beside her, holding her hand. “Thank you.”
Petyr inclined his head.
Kenna and Jax walked away, back over to Amara and Bruce. “We’re leaving?” she asked.
Bruce gave a sharp nod. Amara said, “Something isn’t right.”
“I’m going to run to the bathroom before we go.” Otherwise, she’d end up making them pull over to a twenty-four-hour chain pharmacy, and the facilities here would be a whole lot nicer.
Jax walked her to the hallway off the lobby, where she found the restroom.
She kissed his cheek. “I’ll be right back.”
He probably wanted to ask her about the conversation she’d just had with the Croatian president, but they’d have time to chew over that after. “I’ll be over there.” He pointed toward the door.
Kenna chose a stall and had just locked the door when she heard the creak of the restroom door opening and a female voice, muttering, as she crossed the tile floor. Instinct Kenna didn’t fully comprehend, but also wasn’t going to question, had her lifting her feet off the floor.
The woman sighed. “It’s me.”
Kenna sat still and listened to the phone call, all her nerve endings alert.
“He’s drinking it now. I’ll give him ten minutes and then lead him out the side entrance.” Pause. “I said you’d be paid the rest, didn’t I? Just do what I told you to do.”
She knew that voice.
Kenna slid her cell phone from the runner’s armband she’d fastened around her thigh and sent Amara a message.