Page 33 of Now or Never
“Okay, um…” He hesitated. “I wasn’t going to ask, but what are you thinking about?”
“I’m just thinking,” she said. “Trying to get my thoughts straight before we jump in and get to work on this. Like, did I really see the ghost in the lobby? I guess I had to have, since Megan said that’s who killed her. But in the moment, I really wondered if it was just my imagination.”
“Zeyla and Ramon are tracking down the man you made that sketch of. If there’s someone to find, they’ll get him.”
She nodded, trying to feel reassured. “And the military connection to Mitch and Carl, the duo kidnappers.”
Maybe they would never know exactly what had happened, but Jax had made a call to the district attorney’s office in Boston and jumped on a video meeting with the DA so he could explain their fears regarding Carl’s release and Megan’s worry that he would never be charged.
The DA had reassured both Jax and Kenna, who’d been listening from the passenger seat, that he wasn’t going to allow anyone to sway justice. He had been planning a press conference ASAP to tell the world what Carl had done, and how Megan’s rescue had cost her life. Even if the DA considered her death accidental, no one could deny that a horrific crime had been committed. Who could stomach Carl being free after that? The more people who heard the truth, the harder it would be to cover it all up. IfDominatuswanted to do that.
Jax glanced over. “Could be the connection ended with Mitch’s untimely death during his deployment, and they’ve got no loyalty to Carl whatsoever.”
“That’d be nice. But if they killed Megan, there’s a chance it’s Carl that needs protection now.”
He squeezed her hand. “Maizie will figure it out.”
A woman in a wool overcoat that hung to her knees stepped out from a building beside them, red hair and a dark-blue watch cap. Navy slacks and flat shoes. As she passed by, she pushed a folded paper into Kenna’s hand.
Jax reacted to the proximity of the woman and shifted Kenna to the building side just after the woman passed her. He turned and slowed to a stop. “What was that?”
Kenna hadn’t gotten a good look at the woman’s face. By the time Kenna turned around, she was gone. A black town car sped away from the curb and disappeared into traffic.
“She handed me something.” Kenna showed him the paper, which turned out to be a folded note.
Jax scanned around them and shifted closer, his entire being a protective stance. She touched his sides, not just to reassure him but also to remind herself of what he’d said. He was here, and they wouldn’t be separated. She wasn’t alone.
He unfolded the paper. “Tell Maizie FD-2769-CM.”
Kenna glanced around like she’d be able to see the woman who had slipped her the note. She wasn’t going to think about how easily she could’ve been killed.They don’t want me dead.That was the only thing that didn’t make her lose her mind with fear of what might’ve been. The thing she couldn’t anticipate. The known unknown that kept her up at night.
“I guess we should pass it on.” He tugged out his phone.
“Maybe it’s the decryption code for the packet she got yesterday.” The young woman had been working on other tasksbecause she’d deemed it “impossible” to crack. “And that was one of the lawyers? Or a friend of theirs?”
“They want our help.”
Kenna groaned. “I’m not making anyone any promises.”
He nodded, pocketed the phone and the note. Any photo he took would upload immediately to the server Maizie had set up, and she would get a notification. She would see it right away.
“I agree with you about that.” He held out his hand again. “We see what we can do. That’s all anyone can ask of us.”
It occurred to her that he was treating her as if she were fragile. A little more breakable than usual. Which was completely correct.
She wanted to be robust and strong, able to withstand what life threw at them next. But when that happened, she would shatter like she had before. Even taking weeks out and recuperating hadn’t enabled her to put the pieces back together. Nor had working a case—not just because that case turned out to be connected to all of this.
Kenna pushed out a breath. “But we’re going to work the case.”
“Yep.” He squeezed her hand. “We can’t let the lawyers at Hann, Anthony & Associates go to prison for something they didn’t do.”
“If they were behind it…”
“Seems more like they’re scrambling out of surprise,” Jax said. “They saw it coming, but it happened too fast for them to get safe.”
Kenna had thought the same thing while watching the news reports on the drive down. A change of scenery, and hours spent watching the world go by, had helped her find at least some of her equilibrium. But she wasn’t fixed.
She wasn’t even sure it was possible.
