“I did this,”was what I should have said, but I was a coward. Telling her a lie was easier than telling her the truth. I couldn’t even tell her the truth about Kenzi. As far as Margot knew, she was safely at home.
“I need to let Kenzi know what happened.” Margot blurted, making me aware that I could no longer hold back what had happened to her only daughter.
She pulled her cell from her purse, but before she could make the call, I reached out and took it from her hand. “There is something you need to know.”
Before I could tell her about Kenzi, Davian stepped into our space. “Margot.” His features softened as he delivered the blow. “We believe the same men responsible for the explosion have taken Kenzi. We are doing everything we can to find her.”
Margot’s expression revealed disbelief. “What are you talking about? I just spoke to Kenzi a couple of days ago. She was preparing for her trip to Chicago.”
I wasn’t sure if Margot was in the right state of mind, considering everything that had just happened. Kenzi wouldn’t have kept going to Chicago from me. “Kenzi never mentioned that she was taking a trip to Chicago,” I said. “What is in Chicago?”
“Saxton, Marsh, and Peters, a law firm. She is supposed to start in less than two weeks. I would have thought she would have told you, Axe, especially since she planned to live there with you.”
I was speechless. Margot knew exactly what she was talking about—delirium was no longer a factor. Kenzi kept this from me. It made me wonder who else knew about her going to Chicago. Looking at Davian, I asked. “Did you know about this? Did Reyna?”
I could tell that Davian was in the dark as much as I was by the way he looked at me. “If Reyna knew about Kenzi’s employment with Saxton, Marsh, and Peters, she didn’t mention it to me,” he replied before heading back to the computer room.
Davian left me standing with Margot, leaving me completely clueless as to what I was supposed to do. One thing I knew for sure was that the warehouse was no place for her. “Come on, Margot. I’ll take you home.”
“If you think I am going home, you are insane. I’m not leaving until I know my daughter is safe.” Margot stood her ground and didn’t move an inch. How could I force her to go home when I couldn’t rest until Kenzi was safe, either?
If Margot insisted on staying, I wanted her clueless about any information we might dig up. So, once I had made sure that she was comfortable upstairs, I headed back down to the computer room. Something or someone caused Wilkerson to go through with the destruction of her bookstore and I had to find out what it was. I thought back to the beginning with the threatening letter Davian received. We all agreed that it came from Crosby McCall. Another fact we learned was that Wilkerson and Harris had ties to McCall. Wilkerson wasn’t the type of man to be someone else's henchman. He liked being in control—spatting orders left and right.
Even though Wilkerson enjoyed controlling others, he wasn’t the big fish in this game. Someone else was calling the shots. It could have been McCall, but blowing up buildings wasn’t his thing. He preferred to sell sex. It was then that something occurred to me. Maybe we needed to look at the bigger picture. Maybe this wasn’t about illegally gaining real estate for developing large business complexes, but for something horrendous, like exploiting sex and trafficking. There was a link between all of them and I had to find out what it was. Maybe then I would know more about Stevenson and where the hell he took Kenzi.
~4~
Kenzi
Something was up with River, and it was more than wanting to get me safely to Chicago. He was running around like a madman. Even before we left the shelter, he seemed paranoid. He was constantly looking around, not to mention always looking in his rearview mirror as we drove. Whatever River was watching out for, he wouldn’t be able to see it coming. The fog was so thick that we could only see a few feet in front of the vehicle.
With the inability to see anything, I had to ask who or what he was looking out for. “Why are you so nervous? Did something happen while you were outside of the shelter?”
“I’m sorry if I gave you the impression that something happened. We need to get to the airport as quickly as possible before things get out of hand.”
“What could possibly get out of hand?” I asked, completely taken aback by his comment.
Instead of answering me, River ignored my question by turning on the radio. Music filled the inside of the Rover, but it didn’t prevent me from asking my question louder. “Are you going to avoid my question or tell me what you meant?”
I wrapped my fingers around the volume knob to switch it off when a female voice came over the radio. The woman on the radio was reporting a breaking story of an explosion that had happened moments ago. When River reached out to turn it off, my gut told me to stop him. I pushed his hand away and turned up the volume. I didn’t miss a word she was saying. Hearing what she was saying made me wish that I had let River turn the radio off. The explosion she was reporting on was on the same street as my mom’s bookstore. When she continued to describe the scene and the massive destruction done to the building, I realized she was describingBooks-n-Things.
I looked over at River, shocked and confused. Tears fell, one right after the other. All I could think about was my mom. “I need to get back to Atlanta. I need to make sure my mom is okay.”
“No,” River answered abruptly. “We can’t chance going back to Atlanta.”
“I am tired of you telling me what I can and can’t do. I demand that you take me to my mom.”
“I can’t do that. It’s too dangerous, Kenzi.”
The feeling of helplessness turned into anger. “You keep saying that. You won’t let me talk to Davian or Reyna because Davian can’t be trusted. I can’t talk to Axe because he isn’t the man I think he is. Why is that, River? I’m beginning to think you want to keep me for yourself. You’re no better than Van Wilkerson and Niles Harris.
“You can’t mean that.” River slammed on the brakes and turned to face me. “I would do anything for you, Kenzi. If your boyfriend caused the explosion of your mom’s bookstore, I don’t want you anywhere near him or Davian Cross.”
“What! You can’t be serious. Why would you say that? Axe would never do that. He loves my mom,” I wailed, with tears coming down full force. River was so far off base that my anger was growing by the minute.
“I wouldn’t be so sure.”
~