Chapter 43
Chapter Forty-Three
Evanston, Wyoming
Two Days Later
Kenna held the phone to her ear so she could listen to it again, even though she’d already done that a hundred times on the drive over here. Even though they knew it was likely a fake that MSI had created using Dominatus tech.
She still wanted to hear Ellayna’s voice.
“Kenna? It’s me, Ellayna.” They even made her sound nervous.
“The people keeping us here want to make an exchange. They want you to bring the tech that you retrieved from that company in Pueblo. The drive and the…port.” It sounded like she was making sure to say it right.
As if this twelve-year-old really was under duress.
“And they’ll let us go if you hand it over.
They want to meet at your cabin in Wyoming in two days’ time. Noon.”
Kenna lowered the phone and let the rocking chair move back and forth. She stared out at the snow-covered land in front of her. The neighbor’s place, a tiny red barn that dwarfed the house beside it, was almost too far away to see. Mountains in the distance.
They’d forced her to come home to make the exchange.
Now her RV was parked in the shop Jax had constructed months ago.
Preston’s helicopter had a weather cover over it but still looked totally conspicuous in the yard, and his dogs were leaving paw prints all over the snow around the house.
He was staying in her RV, and he had security guys camped out over the property in little tents.
They were here to work patrols but also sort of looked like they were having a blast camping out in the snow.
A small SUV had made its way from the highway to the west, down the single-lane road to her front gate. She already knew who it belonged to.
Kenna called out over her shoulder. “They’re here!”
Jax pushed open the screen door, then shut the front door to the cabin behind him. He needed a blanket as well if he was going to be out here without a coat. He glanced at her and saw the phone. “Listening to it again?”
“It’s the only thing I can do. Maizie is gone, and I can’t get her back.
Ramon isn’t here. Amara and Bruce aren’t answering.
Zeyla is…keeping herself safe.” She sniffed back tears.
“At least we can do this. But I have no idea what to think. Our friends are the ones who created this whole situation.”
She just couldn’t let go of the betrayal. It stung that MSI had chosen to work with Dominatus and not even trusted her. They just took it upon themselves to do…whatever this was that they were doing.
The small SUV pulled into the drive Jax had plowed between the road and the shop, parking off to the side. Elizabeth and Craig Stairns climbed out.
Kenna shifted to the edge of the rocking chair and swung the blanket around her shoulders.
Elizabeth waved her back. “You don’t have to get up.”
“It’s good to stretch my legs,” Kenna said. “I’ve been sitting for a while.”
Elizabeth came up the porch steps and held her arms open. Kenna gave her a hug, difficult because of the person between them. Elizabeth’s breath caught in her chest. “I can’t believe they took her.”
“I know.”
The other woman leaned back, and Kenna saw Jax and Craig shake hands.
Craig Stairns, once a marine. An FBI agent for years.
A tough, weathered lawman who’d seen it all and lived with the scars to prove it.
He looked wrecked. All because a young woman had nestled her way into his heart, and now she was in danger.
“Right now, we need to save Ellayna and her family.” Jax swallowed. “And Maizie.”
“Tell me what to do.” Stairns lifted his chin. “We need these guys to answer for what they’ve done. Putting innocents in danger. Taking Maizie from us.” He shook his head, his jaw set. “I brought weapons.”
Jax motioned with his chin toward Stairns’s car. “Let’s take a look.”
Kenna took Elizabeth inside so she could use the bathroom after so many hours in the car. She poured the older woman a glass of water and handed it to her when Elizabeth came into the kitchen.
“Thanks.” Elizabeth smiled, settling onto a barstool at the counter. “This is an adorable little cabin.”
Kenna smiled. “It’s not just cute. It’s got some upgrades, and it’s fully satellite connected.”
“Doesn’t that put you on the grid.” She sounded awkward saying the words. “Rather than staying off it so you’re safe.”
“It makes more sense for us to be connected if we need to call for help or if someone on the team needs to get information to us.” Kenna hit the button on the kettle so she could make tea, then realized there wasn’t much time before the exchange. She clicked it off.
She just needed something to do while she waited. It felt like she’d done everything possible to distract herself since MSI had taken Maizie and she’d discovered the voicemail in her inbox. No call in her call history. Someone had simply dropped the message in her voice mailbox remotely.
She should assume this was a setup, but these people were supposed to be her friends. They wanted tech she had turned back over to the software company who owned it—but apparently, they knew she’d made a copy of everything before she posted it all online.
“What’s the plan for when they show up?” Elizabeth looked at her over the rim of the glass. “You aren’t going to face down these gunmen, are you?”
“I just want Maizie, Ellayna, and her family safe. But Jax came up with a good plan, and there’s a whole team here to keep me safe.” Kenna had her gun on her. She wasn’t going to put herself in danger, but Bear and his team, hopefully, didn’t intend her harm.
Lord, protect us.
This would be a delicate balance.
“And when you go into labor?” Elizabeth asked, not beating around the bush.
Kenna laid a hand on her baby bump. “Hopefully, she won’t decide to arrive in the middle of everything.”
“You should be resting, not working. But a lot of women don’t have that luxury.
We don’t all get to ignore our responsibilities and put our feet up for days while we wait for a baby to come.
Especially not with jobs, other children in the house, and husbands who claim not to know how to boil water. ”
“But I cook a mean chicken fried steak.” Stairns strode in and came over to his wife, tugging her against his side and kissing her.
“Chicken fried steak sounds good.” Kenna smiled at Jax, who came over and stood by her.
The buzzer by the door sounded, then a voice came through the small speaker there—the property intercom. “Movement on the perimeter. Two black SUVs and a gray sedan between them on approach. ETA five minutes.”
Jax went over to the panel by the door and pressed the button. “Copy that. Move into positions.”
“Understood.”
“What’s the plan?” Elizabeth asked. “Assuming I’m staying in here, and if this baby comes, I’ll be elbow deep in placenta.”
Kenna tipped her head back and laughed. “I’m hoping that doesn’t happen before we get this situation sorted.”
Elizabeth shook her head. “In my experience, babies come when they want. Not on your timetable.” She eyed Kenna. “I want to know the minute you start having contractions.”
“That’s fair.” Kenna nodded.
Jax put his arm around her shoulder. “Let’s pray real quick before they get here.”
She closed her eyes, leaning her head on his shoulder and listened to him ask for a special blessing on this operation. For safety for those who were vulnerable, and protection for Kenna and the baby. He prayed they would get answers and that Maizie, Ellayna, and her family would be free.
“Amen.”
Jax kissed her. “Love you.”
“Love you, too.” She touched his cheeks and kissed him, then grabbed the shotgun from on top of the refrigerator and cocked it. “Let’s do this.”
Kenna ignored Elizabeth’s sputtering and went to the porch, where she sat with her blanket on her lap.
She hid the shotgun down the side of her leg, in the folds of the blanket where it would be out of sight.
Plus, it was really cold out here, and the blanket was going to help keep her warm beyond the layers she was wearing.
The trio of vehicles pulled to a stop on the road at the end of the drive. They didn’t turn in.
Doors opened on the front and rear SUVs, and MSI operatives she knew climbed out. She spotted Bear and Hollace, men she would have said she trusted just a few months ago. Men whose lives she’d worked to save.
Jax walked down the porch steps, while Craig came to stand at the rail in front of her.
Kenna could have pointed out the spots across the property around them where Preston and his team were hiding.
They’d chosen the positions carefully so no one would be aiming at MSI agents with Kenna in their line of fire.
The majority of them were on either side of the cabin, looking in the same direction she was.
Bear met Jax halfway down the drive. She couldn’t hear the conversation as he’d opted to not have comms in. Jax said something to Bear, who reacted. Taking a step back and shaking his head.
He strode past Jax who yelled after him, “Hey!”
Bear jogged over to the porch. Craig had a weapon up and aimed before he got near Kenna. Jax followed him up the steps and grabbed his arm, spinning him back. “You don’t go near her!”
More men climbed out of the vehicles, moving in formation across the front yard. Their boots sank into the snow as they rushed over to protect their boss.
Preston’s security force emerged on either side of the house, yelling as they strode forward with weapons of their own aimed at the MSI team. “Weapons down! Hands up!”
Someone yelled, “Freeze!”
They didn’t stop until Bear held up a hand, creating a standoff.
Jax was almost nose to nose with him now. “Tell your men to back off.”
“We came here for an exchange.”
“Hand over the family you kidnapped and tell your men to stand down.”
Bear swallowed, thinking for a moment. He reached up to his lapel and grasped it for a second. “Pull back to the car while I sort this out.”
Jax said, “Let the family go.”
“Give me the tech you have, and I will.” Bear lifted his chin. “That’s why we’re all here.”
“Not the only reason, but one of them.”
“So you just wanted to accuse me of kidnapping Maizie as well? I haven’t touched her.” Bear seemed offended. “I can’t believe you’d even think that.”
Kenna said, “Is it so crazy? You have Ramon. He isn’t answering his phone.
Where are Amara and Bruce, Bear? Have you seen them?
” Right now, she wasn’t even sure she had spoken with Amara a few days ago—or however long that had been.
Felt like forever. “Someone knocked me out with a chemical and took Maizie. The same people who shot at Jax and Zeyla. Your people.”
Bear shook his head. “That wasn’t us.”
“You really expect us to believe that?” Jax asked.
“You must think we’re stupid. You’re behind basically everything that’s happened to us in a week.
You probably planted Zeyla’s prints at those two crime scenes so that she’d get arrested.
Picking apart our team. And for what? Because you work for Dominatus now? ”
Bear backed off from Jax, turning slightly so she had a decent shot at his center mass if she lifted the shotgun.
She left it where it was, for now. “Why did you take Maizie?”