Chapter 42
Chapter Forty-Two
Salt Lake City, Utah
Fourteen Months Earlier
Jax didn’t hang around to see if the guy was actually out cold. He just left him to slump on the ground and ran across the parking lot faster than he’d ever run in his entire life, ignoring how much his ribs hurt.
Two black SUVs pulled out of the parking lot, leaving Kenna in the front seat. Taking Maizie. MSI took Maizie. Jax wanted to run after her, but they were too far away by the time he reached his wife.
He stumbled and nearly went down, scrambling to round the open door and crouch there beside Kenna. “Please, please.” He touched two fingers to her neck and found her heart pounding.
She was out cold.
Jax smelled an odd scent and leaned in to smell the area around her mouth. That wasn’t chloroform—thankfully. But whatever they’d shoved in her face had knocked her out.
“Kenna.” He shook her shoulder, then realized he’d rather have his hand over the baby. You’re going to be okay, baby. Their daughter would be born healthy to a healthy mother and raised in a loving family with two parents. Lord, I believe.
Jax was trusting God with everything he had right now.
Determined not to lose either of them.
But he’d already lost a daughter. He looked in the direction those SUVs had gone and found only an empty street full of shadows. Maizie was gone. He wanted to call Bear and tear the guy apart for this.
Whatever kind of plan MSI had, they were done. Jax was never going to trust them again.
Kenna stirred. He patted her cheek. “Wake up for me, babe.”
Jax dug out his phone, fully intending to call 911. But Ryson had called him earlier. He hit redial and called the lieutenant back.
“Ryson.”
“It’s Jax. I need an ambulance and police presence at this location. Maizie was taken by whoever shot at Zeyla and me the other day, and Kenna was knocked out by something. She needs to see a doctor.” He relayed the cross streets and explained where they were.
“I’ll get units on the way now, and I’m coming, too.” Ryson’s voice sounded strained. “Is she okay?”
Jax knew he meant Kenna. He didn’t want to threaten murder to a cop, implicating himself if anything happened to MSI and their people later. But he was also barely hanging on. “Just get here.”
Kenna groaned, her eyes fluttering.
“There you are.” He patted her cheek, then ran his hand down her arm. Reassuring himself that she was here. That she was waking up, and their baby was going to be fine. “I’m going to fix this.”
He glanced out the windshield at the spot where he’d left the contract killer and saw the guy’s arm move when he reached up and touched his face.
Jax looked back at Kenna and saw her eyes fluttering. “I’ll be back.” He squeezed her hand, then pushed up and raced back to the guy. He dragged the man up by his shirt, pulled an arm behind his back, and walked him over to the hood of the car.
He shoved the guy against the hood and secured his hands behind his back, patting him down thoroughly just to ensure the guy didn’t have weapons hidden on his person.
Then he turned the guy and had him sit.
“Do you have a name?” Jax stood over him.
The guy looked defeated, but Jax wasn’t going to assume he didn’t have fight left in him. He could hear sirens in the distance and knew help would be here soon enough.
“What does it matter?”
Jax said, “It matters to me.”
“Whatever just happened, I didn’t have anything to do with it.”
“I know that,” Jax said. “But my daughter was just kidnapped, and my other daughter’s life is in danger. She hasn’t even been born yet. So you’re going to help me resolve this situation so that she can be born into a world that’s a safe place.”
“Jax!” Kenna’s yell cut right through him.
He stepped to the side, keeping one eye on this guy. “I know!” he yelled back. “Stay there for a second.”
Police cars streamed into the parking lot, lights and sirens going.
“I can hand you over to them, along with a full rundown of who you are and what you do. I’m sure they’ll be thorough in compiling a case against you. Or I can tell them you were instrumental in me figuring this out.”
“Because I should believe you hold sway with the police?”
“I’m part of a task force.” That was the official story, at least. “I could call the president right now, and you could ask her if I hold sway. If my wife is the kind of person who makes the feds sit up and listen.”
The guy just stared at him while the sirens cut off.
Jax heard cars park and doors slam. “Who hired you?”
One of the cops ran over to Kenna and crouched to speak to her. The other approached Jax’s side. “You’re the one who called the lieutenant?”
“That’s right,” Jax said. “My daughter, she’s nineteen. She was just kidnapped from the back seat of the car by men driving black SUVs. My wife is pregnant and needs medical attention.”
“No, I don’t.” She held on to the cop’s arm, standing up out of the car.
Jax’s stomach clenched, but he didn’t order her to sit back down.
“And this guy?” the cop beside him asked.
“He’s about to tell me who hired him for a contract kill.” Jax folded his arms across his chest.
The killer lifted his chin. “I didn’t kill anyone. I don’t have anything to do with what just happened here. And you can’t prove either of those things to be untrue because they aren’t.”
Kenna leaned against the car, like she was shaking off a daze. “We know you didn’t finish the job, but you accepted payment for it.”
“Who paid you?” Jax asked.
“All I have is a username. Grand Master.”
Another car bumped the curb and sped into the parking lot. Ryson’s brakes squealed, and he shoved the door open to race over. “You guys all right?”
Jax moved to Kenna, gathering her into his arms. “We’re all right. Maizie was taken.”
She leaned her head on his shoulder. Jax threaded his fingers through her hair so he could feel her heartbeat in her throat again. To reassure himself that she really was okay. The baby needed to be checked out, but she hadn’t been harmed. Just knocked out by whatever they’d used.
“I’ll put this guy in the car.” The officer took the killer’s arm and led him to the black-and-white patrol car.
Ryson stood in front of them, his attention on Kenna. “Why take Maizie?”
Jax swallowed hard. He didn’t have an answer. “What about her laptop?”
Kenna didn’t move out of his arms. Ryson went to the back seat and looked. “It isn’t here.”
Jax shook his head, but he didn’t know what to say. Maizie had been through so much. MSI knew that, and they still did this? They’d destroyed any goodwill they had with him, and probably also with Kenna, by doing this.
Ryson asked, “Is it possible they needed her for something?”
“They could have asked.” Jax clenched his jaw. He was probably holding Kenna too tightly, but she didn’t seem to mind. She was doing the same.
“They’re still in town. We’ll put a BOLO out for the vehicles, but it would be better if we had license plate numbers.” Ryson scratched his jaw.
The other uniformed officer wandered back over with his partner—though they’d arrived in separate vehicles. “Your guy in there is talking now. Says he’ll give you what you want to know about this Grand Master person. You guys know what he’s talking about?”
Jax nodded. Kenna slid her arms from around him.
Then an ambulance pulled into the parking lot.
Kenna stiffened. “I don’t need to see a doctor.”
“You might not, but the baby does, and that is nonnegotiable.”
Thankfully, she didn’t argue. Ryson held out his hand, and she took it. He walked her over to the ambulance, where the EMTs climbed out.
Jax went with the officers. “What did he say?”
One of the cops said, “I think he saw you and your wife. Maybe he’s got a soft spot.” He opened the front passenger’s door, and Jax slid in, facing the back.
Through the grate, Jax could make out the killer’s features in the dim light. “I need all the help I can get right now. Which is good for you because it means I can put in a good word. You can make a deal.”
He’d already mentioned the Grand Master.
“Do you know who it is? This Grand Master who hired you. Do you have his name?”
The guy looked out the window, toward Jax’s car. “I have his IP address. I do my homework on who I’m working for.”
Jax wrote down the series of numbers the guy had memorized. “Did you know who I really was when you came here?”
“Have to admit, I was curious about Banbury Investigations. But mostly, I didn’t want to get jammed up in something I didn’t do. Guess I miscalculated that one.”
“I’ll make it clear with the district attorney what your role was—and wasn’t. You didn’t hurt anyone as far as I’m aware.” His history was another matter. “You and I aren’t enemies.”
“You have plenty of those. You don’t need me to be one.”
Jax said, “You served, didn’t you?”
The guy nodded.
“Ever meet a Major General Schnell?”
He nodded. “I know what you guys did. I know about the military bases he had and that he was doing research. There was only one on the news, but we all know the problem was a lot more widespread than that.”
“Can you tell me where all the bases he controlled were located?”
The guy thought for a second. “Spokane, the one you guys found. Nevada. Texas. Pretty sure there’s one in Wyoming, but I don’t know where.”
MSI had a base of operations somewhere, and it wasn’t a research platform off the coast of Alaska.
What he needed was for Maizie to contact him somehow when she got to where she was going. That way, he’d know where she was being held, and he’d be able to come and rescue her.
“There’s a lieutenant.” Jax motioned to Ryson. “Javier Ryson. Tell him everything you know about Dominatus.”
Jax got out of the car because he’d rather be with Kenna, and he had the IP address. They’d have to figure out how to find the guy with their computers and no Maizie to help them with all their tech needs.
But she was so much more to them than just support staff. She was family—the daughter they’d adopted.
Two steps from the car, a shot rang out across the parking lot. Glass shattered.
“Gun!”
At the cop’s cry, Jax dropped to the gravel. He winced, covering his head with his arms. No more shots sounded in the air.
“He’s dead!”
Jax rolled over and saw the back window of the cop car had blown out. The contract killer had been murdered.
One of the two officers said, “Lieutenant!”
Ryson yelled back, “Go!”
Both officers ran off in the direction the shot must have come from. Jax got up and ran in a crouch to the back of the ambulance. He got in and shut one half of the door. Kenna sat up on the bed, an exasperated looking EMT on the bench beside her.
“Ma’am?”
She lowered the oxygen mask from her face. “I’m fine. The baby’s heart rate is fine.”
She was arguing with the EMT, but still, Jax nodded because he’d needed to hear that.
“And I got a voicemail,” she said.
The EMT said, “I’m still recommending you be seen by a doctor, even if that’s just your obstetrician.”
“Sure. I’ll do that.” She handed him the oxygen mask and scooted to the end of the bed.
Jax said, “We’re not exiting this ambulance until the shooter is in custody.”
Ryson lifted his radio from his belt and held it to his mouth. “Copy that.” To them, he said, “They’re entering the building.”
“If I had to guess? I’d say they’re looking for Sylvia Caughton.”
“That makes sense, given that witnesses stated a woman visited Wallace Lofton at the hospital.”
Jax shook his head. “What are you talking about?”
“Right. Zeyla’s stuff superseded that,” Ryson said. “Wallace Lofton died in his hospital room. It looks like a result of his injuries, like a blood clot got loose and ended up in his brain, but I’m not convinced she didn’t usher him along. The woman who visited him.”
Kenna frowned. “She left him alive long enough to talk to us, then she came back and killed him?”
“So he could tell us they were using their deep fake voice technology for the podcast,” Jax said. “So that we would realize you didn’t speak to Ellayna?”
“That means Dominatus wanted us to believe MSI was right in the middle of this.”
Jax nodded. “I think you’re right about that.”
Not that it completely made sense. Though, if Dominatus was at work and didn’t like MSI’s involvement, their aim might simply have been to drive a wedge between Banbury Investigations and Bear’s team.
That was the only thing he’d learned so far that might make him inclined to give Bear and his team the benefit of the doubt that they might be on the right side in all this.
Ryson’s radio crackled. Someone spoke through it, but Jax couldn’t make out what they were saying. “Copy that.” To them, he said, “The shooter is gone.”
“Great, let’s get out of here.” Kenna shifted all the way over to where Jax stood so she was sitting on the end of the bed. She waited.
If he pushed it, she would probably go to the hospital because he asked her to.
He looked at the EMT. “You heard the baby’s heartbeat?”
The guy nodded. “It was strong, and she was moving around.”
“And her blood pressure?” He motioned to Kenna.
“No higher than I’d expect it to be.”
Jax looked at her. “You can stay here while I bring the car over.”
Kenna nodded. “I’ll play you the voicemail in the car. Ellayna says her captors will trade her and her family for Shawn Terrance’s drive and the port it goes into. We have two days to get to Evanston, Wyoming.”
The EMT shook his head. “Who are you people?”