Page 49 of Storm and Tempest
The slam of the car door echoed in the otherwise quiet expanse of space. A couple of birds took flight up in the ceiling, soaring out an open window.
A couple of the lawyers he’d met a few months ago at their office were at the far end of the room, standing guard. One of the two had been there when they rescued him, he was pretty sure. He’d been badly injured and didn’t remember a lot of it, but he thought she looked familiar.
The mafia guys who had captured him, trying to get Kenna to rescue the leader’s niece in exchange for Jax’s freedom, hadn’t been seen since. He never asked anyone where they were. Whether the lawyers killed them, or someone else had, Jax wasn’t sure he wanted to know.
But where did that get him? Maybe he should’ve asked a whole lot more questions, given Amara had been keeping the secrets she had. Then there was Ramon and the thing he seemed to have going with Zeyla—even if it was antagonistic.
Bruce stopped by the trunk of the car, a sheen of sweat on his forehead. Blood at the corner of his mouth. His former partner had put up a fight.
Jax strode over. “Were you going to tell anyone you caught up to Samuel and were moving in?”
“I told Maizie.” He reached for the trunk. Jax grabbed his shoulder and turned the man back around. Bruce twisted to him, already swinging.
Jax blocked the punch. “We’re going to establish some ground rules.”
“Like no one puts their hands on anyone else?”
Jax wanted to say,You started it, but didn’t. “Fine.” He folded his arms. “But clue us in. You don’t want the guy loose, and he needs to explain his involvement while also giving you an answer as to why he betrayed you. Did I get that right?”
Bruce nodded.
“Great. But now is when we quit doing things solo and call each other for backup.”
After all, if he’d quit the FBI to help them full-time, then they needed to start acting like a team.
Ramon, staring at his phone, muttered, “Who put you in charge?”
Jax glanced at him.
Bruce flipped the lid of the trunk open, and he and Amara hauled Samuel out. The guy was breathing hard behind the cloth tied around his head. Both his hands and feet had been taped together, and he’d soiled himself.
Jax wrinkled his nose, but couldn’t help noticing how it seemed Bruce and Amara were in sync. There was a pattern to their movements, most likely similar to him and Kenna. As if they’d spent a lot of time in close quarters—living and working together.
All that since Bruce had met her only months ago? The guy certainly kept his secrets, but it wasn’t like he was playing both sides in the same way Amara did. At least, not according to Kenna he wasn’t. Now that Jax knew Amara had been hiding Kenna’s situation from all of them, he’d have to ask them straight-out what was going on.
“I’m just saying.” Ramon shrugged. “Kenna lets us do our own thing.”
“And look where that has us so far.” Jax wasn’t going to back down on this. “It’s time to change how we’ve been doing things.” Ramon didn’t look up, so Jax peered at what was on his screen. A small circle moved across a map. “You’re tracking Maizie as well?”
“She’s almost here.”
Jax nodded. “When she gets here, we’re having a team meeting.” Someone grumbled, but he didn’t wait around to figure out who. Instead, he went to the front doors and watched for Maizie to appear in the direction she was coming from.
Bruce followed him outside, and then Ramon.
Bruce said, “They’re getting Samuel settled in a spot that’s good for questioning.”
Jax didn’t look at either of them. “They’ve done that before here?”
“Probably thought they’d have to do that with Elliot,” Bruce said. “But he just told them everything after Amara brought him here.”
“Even though she’s the one who ran him off the road?” He didn’t understand any of these people. They didn’t operate the way he’d been trained to at all.
Bruce started to say something but didn’t.
Maizie pulled into the parking lot at that moment, turning haphazardly into a space across two white lines and barely shutting off the engine before she ran over. The young womandidn’t slow down. She slammed into Jax and wrapped her arms around him. “She’s really alive? When did Amara hear from them?”
He hugged her back, careful to keep his arms loose for when she wanted to step back. “She’s alive,” he repeated back to her. Rather than dwell on the when, he just wanted a second to absorb the fact they hadn’t killed Kenna.
