Page 130 of Long Road Home

Which was better for her and Jax, as they didn’t have toworry about innocent people hanging around. Or getting in the way.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket, starting to ring, but she ignored it and continued.

Finding Forrest was their priority.

Kenna had looked at that photo she’d been sent, and the first. She hadn’t run off in an effort to escape, and the evidence on Kenna’s phone would prove it. Empty kids classroom, then another. Empty storage room. Empty bathroom.

Theo and Alonzo stood in the pastor’s office, which had been cleared out of all the papers. One drawer wasn’t quite shut. His bathroom was empty.

No signs of life.

Theo said, “Basement?”

Kenna kept her focus on the hall, not looking at Jax or the other two men. The last thing she needed was to get distracted by her “boyfriend.” They’d had some nice moments earlier. He was figuring out what being with her was going to be like, and she was getting a handle on her hangups.

“We’re left,” Jax said. “You guys take right.”

Kenna said, “Got it” as Theo and Alonzo took off in the other direction.

“Nice guys,” Jax commented.

“Yes, they are.”

“And the story?”

Kenna felt a smile edge up the corners of her lips.

His voice rumbled behind her. “Okay, I figured by now the trap would’ve sprung.”

“Me, too.” They needed to be quiet, though.

Gun ready, Kenna swept another room, one that just seemed to be plastic chairs all stacked on shelves, round tables with fold-down legs between the two sides. No one. She turned out of the room.

Jax stood by the doorway, covering the hall. Before she stepped out, his eyes flashed. “Stan.” He set off, and she jogged after him. “He went in here.”

“Are we going to be jockeying for who gets to go first our entire lives?”

He grinned his acknowledgement and continued.

Kenna held aim around his shoulder as best she could while he descended the stairs down to the lower level. Every second she figured would be their last. He’d get hit by something, and she would have to watch him die.

And for what?

He stepped off at the bottom, into the foyer. She moved beside him so they could stand together.

“See him?”

“No,” Jax said. “Where’d he go?”

“Doesn’t matter. We’ll find him.”

The lower level appeared to be a maze of rooms and hallways, though under one side was the fellowship hall with huge columns holding the roof up. Sunday school classrooms lined the other side. They swept each and found nothing.

With every step, her frustration mounted. “This is getting irritating. I wouldn’t be surprised if the doors lock and he tries to burn us alive down here like sticking us in that garage.”

Jax pulled out his phone. “No signal.”

“How do we even know Forrest is down here?”

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