Page 76 of Now or Never
She worked through all the things they had leads on, and all the possible options in front of them. If they could follow a supposedly dead soldier into a secret base, that was a big win. Coming back out alive would be another story. It seemed as if they had a nascent idea forming. The beginning of a plan.
Kenna slid over her phone and decided to take Ramon’s advice.
She called her mom.
When Amara picked up, Kenna said, “I have an idea.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Kenna walked up the stone steps, lifting the hem of her red dress with one hand. Jax set his on the small of her back.
The building in front of them had been lit up like a beacon under the black of the night sky and orchestral music poured from every door and window. People milled around just inside the entrance dressed as she and Jax were in their evening finest for this event.
Flanking the doors outside were armed guards in army green dress uniforms. Soldiers for the country of Croatia, protecting their embassy on US soil.
Kenna showed the severe-looking lady at the entrance the QR code on her phone that Petyr had sent and checked over her shoulder. Amara and Bruce followed them up the steps. Bruce had his hand under Amara’s elbow. She looked like a queen with a black velvet dress and her hair piled on her head. Kenna wasn’t sure she pulled that look off the way Amara did, and not because she’d needed a specific dress that accounted for her and Jax’s plus one.
“Are you sure about this idea?” Jax whispered in her ear.
“Beats spending a night being questioned by the FBI.”
He smirked. “True.” His gaze drifted to her no-straps, split in the leg, “Look at me, I’m pregnant” fancy evening dress, and sort of glazed over. Apparently, Zeyla had done all right picking her outfit for the night.
Kenna had opted for flat sandals, even though Zeyla thought that was the cardinal sin. “They hassled you for long enough today.”
All because someone had called in an anonymous tip that one of the as-yet-unaccounted-for lawyers would be at the pregnancy center. Zeyla had explained that the ruse was for the FBI to show up and catchDominatusassets in the act of kidnapping “Kenna” and arrest them. Too bad that hadn’t happened. It had been a decent plan, and Zeyla had said she even saw a van she believed was the retrieval team speed away from the scene.
No one could’ve anticipated that the FBI would arrive early and jump the gun.
Amara and Bruce reached them. Kenna told the security lady, “They’re with me.” But Petyr split the crowd, approaching at a fast stride. Wearing a dark suit and bow tie, his hair slicked back.
“No, I don’t think so.” Petyr waved his hands, which summoned black tie guards. Not the ceremonial kind who flanked the door like set pieces in the display of Croatian elegance. These were the kind of thugs she would expect to see in an alley, only they were dressed for a gala. He motioned to Bruce. “He isn’t coming in.”
Kenna faced off with him. “They’re with me.”
His jaw flexed. The head of state who believed he was her father didn’t want to back down. But was he going to turn it into a scene in the lobby of his embassy?
“Unless you want to tell me what your problem is with Bruce, he comes in.”
“Both of them stay outside.” Petyr looked over her shoulder and hadn’t yet actually acknowledged her presence.
“They’re coming in.” She was pregnant. She wanted backup. “End of discussion.”
He stared at Bruce.
Kenna stared at the side of his face, waiting for him to relent. Finally, she added, “Petyr.”
One of his thugs reacted to that. They were either unused to hearing him be addressed by his first name or hadn’t been briefed on who she was. That was interesting.
“We just wanna talk.”
He looked at her then, those dark eyes. Trying to appear magnanimous because people were starting to stare at him. “There is no ‘we’ in this. There is only you and I.”
Kenna shook her head. “Doesn’t work like that.” She tipped her head to the side, which made the hairdo Zeyla had given her flop a bit. Hopefully, she hadn’t ruined it. “You remember Jax, don’t you? And Amara. Maybe you two have met. She’s my mother. Or, at least, the closest I’ll get to one. I had a father. His name was Malcom Banbury, but he died tragically many years ago. I’m not sure what your problem is with Bruce, but I’ve known him a while now and he’s saved my life several times.”
“I have guests to attend to,” Petyr said. “I’ll find you shortly.”
He walked away before she could respond to that.
