Page 3 of Storm and Tempest
Jax tried not to freeze, considering this was the first time she’d initiated physical contact. He’d had to stop himself from hugging her a number of times, not sure if she would be okay with it. He lifted his gaze to her so she could see the honest fear in his eyes. She wanted to be here to help him, and she had to know she was making a difference. She also had to know how much he needed her presence in his life.
“I’ve gotta go, Maze.” He cleared his throat. “Find me proof.”
She let go of his shoulder. “I won’t let you down.”
There it was. The delicate balance between needing her, and the young woman feeling like she had to prove herself. Not wanting to let him down was one thing—he felt the same way—but she didn’t need to tie herself up in knots trying to do it.
“Whatever happens, we stick together.” He went out on a limb and held his hand up in front of him with his palm toward his chest.
She clasped it, locking hands with him almost like they were going to arm wrestle.
“Deal?”
Maizie nodded. “Okay, deal.”
He squeezed her hand and headed out. Hopefully tonight would be the night he got his wife back. He didn’t want to know how bad the alternative was, for any of them.
He just wanted to find Kenna.
Chapter Two
Jax parked at the bank and crossed the street to Twisted Sugar, the late-night spot with bars on the windows and potholes in the parking lot. The team hunkered behind SUVs for a second, and before he’d even reached the sidewalk on that side, someone had given the “go” order and they moved in.
A team of tactical agents with rifles breached the doors and entered. Special agents with a vest over their suit shirt like he’d done, and pistols in hand, followed them in. As yelling erupted inside, Jax went to stand with a couple of agents assigned to catch whoever might make a break for it and run to the door.
“SAC Jaxton, are you taking over command?” Special Agent Farlan was African American, and a recent transfer from Florida.
Jax shook his head. “I’m not here to take over.”
Now that he was in charge of the FBI office in Phoenix, he’d had to learn not to act like the other special agents. He was the boss, and it was more of a manager role. He liked being out of the sometimes frustrating work of solving cases, but tonight he needed to be here so he could see for himself who was inside.
Special Agent Herron came out, spotted him, and motioned with a wave.
Guess she already figured it out.
They all knew his wife was missing, and that a lot of what they were working on currently involved that situation. He’d tried to explain aboutDominatusa couple of times, but the people he worked with shut down when it started to sound less like local federal crimes and more like a grand conspiracy. Those weren’t so popular these days, even if most of them turned out to be true.
He’d learned quickly to keep the bigger picture to himself, along with the fact he regularly looped in the president about what was going on. The taskforce he’d been brought into that was trying to take downDominatusseemed to have stalled out, though.
Jax jogged over to Herron, his gun holstered on his hip. “All clear?”
She nodded. “We have everyone secured. I figured you’d want to be here to ask questions.”
“Give me the highlights.”
She stepped into the dimly lit alcove entryway, toward a skinny Caucasian woman wearing six-inch heels, a tiny skirt, and even more tiny top. An agent standing guard. But that wasn’t why Herron had brought him in here.
She was just the first employee he spotted.
“Fourteenemployees,” Agent Herron said. “I use that term loosely. Six are men—the boss and five guys who are muscle. Eight women—the youngest looks like she’s fifteen, but we’ll run IDs. They have rooms in the back for paying customers, and the menu is whatever you’ve got the money for.”
Jax had been aware of what they would find. But when theory became reality, things were different. These women were someone’s daughter, maybe someone’s sister. Had they chosen this, either out of desperation or for some other reason, or had they been coerced?
“We have twenty-three customers all over in the lounge,” Herron added. “We’re running them, too.”
What she hadn’t done was tell him that his wife was here. Which meant she wasn’t.
Jax nodded. “I want Kenna’s picture shown to everyone here.”
