Page 16 of One More Chance

Kenna rolled her shoulders and shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “No, I mean I feel better. Maybe better than I have in a month.”

“That’s good, isn’t it?”

“It’s suspicious.” She headed for the kitchen, not wanting to fight with him if he really thought she’d just slept hard and dreamed vividly. There was no dreaming the mark on the inside of her elbow. Someone had done something to her in the grocery store parking lot, and she’d lost nearly three hours of time. “How can I not remember driving myself home? Why did I fall into bed with my shoes on?”

“It’s possible you were extremely tired.”

“I was, but that’s not it. I don’t drive around on autopilot like I’m unconscious.” She looked around the kitchen, trying to figure out if anything was odd. Her keys weren’t on the hook where she always put them. She went to the garage and hit the button for the trunk of her car. No groceries.

Kenna checked the cupboards and then the fridge. “Did you put the groceries in the fridge?”

“I only got home a couple of minutes ago. I haven’t done anything.”

She grabbed a can of juice from the fridge, shook it, and popped the top. Downed the whole thing in just a few gulps, thirsty and hungry at the same time. In fact, she was ravenous. “Why am I starving?”

“Did you eat lunch?”

She had no idea. “I went to the doctor’s office, then met Bruce in the park.”

“I heard about the kids and that woman Bruce tussled with. Maybe the adrenaline took more out of you than you realized.”

“And maybe I was kidnapped.” She showed him her elbow. “Otherwise, how do you explain this?”

“I can’t.” His expression darkened. “I believe you if that’s what you think happened, but we need evidence if we’re going to run with a theory.”

“Fine.” She wandered to the alarm panel. “This was deactivated.” She tapped through to the history. “At three thirty-five.”

“Is that when you got home?”

“The groceries were put away.” Had she really done all that and forgotten about it? Kenna patted her pockets. “Where’s my phone?”

“Where’s Jolene?” He started to turn away.

Kenna called out, “Can you call my phone so I can find it?”

She went to the living room while he checked the bathroom. After they’d looked in all the rooms and he’d checked for Jolene under the bed, Kenna started opening closet doors. When she opened the hall linen closet, a thin door that held a slender set of shelves inside the small space, Jolene hissed at her from the top shelf. “Jax!”

He appeared at the end of the hall.

“She’s in here.”

“Did you shut her in the closet?” He reached in and lifted the cat down, setting her on the floor where she trotted off.

She didn’t need to get mad at him for suggesting it, but she kind of wanted to. “Why would I have done that? She’s only going to mess up all these clean sheets and towels.”

“Okay, dumb question. Sorry.” He looked at his phone. “Your cell is still ringing.”

“I don’t hear it.” Kenna walked through the house. “Keep it ringing.”

She didn’t want to miss it because the call had gone to voicemail when she walked right past it. She opened the door to the garage, since that was the only other place to look, and heard the faint sound.

Inside the car…

She crouched and reached under the driver’s seat, digging out her dusty phone. “It was under the seat.” The call ended,and she wiped it off on her pants. She really did feel better. She was moving more easily, and her body didn’t feel so heavy. If someone had taken her this afternoon and done something to her…they’d made her feel better. “This makes no sense.”

Jax retrieved the steaks from the fridge. “I’ll go fire up the grill. We can eat and figure it out, maybe?”

He probably thought she was going to snap out of this funk if he gave her food. Which, to be fair, usually did work.

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