Page 109 of Dust and Ashes

“Yeah,” Ramon said. “To that sheriff, so we can get your kid back.”

She’s not my kid.But in a lot of ways, Maizie was hers. “What do you mean?”

Ramon continued, “It’s faster if I call Elliot. I tell him you guys killed Navarro. The operation is decimated. Does he want to do a deal with me and have a controlling share in the cartel operation going forward? A guy like that won’t want to pass up the chance for power down here. The money? The access he gets to product?”

And he was worried people would think he wasn’t an upright man. Kenna shook her head.

“He’ll kill you and take it all,” she said. “He won’t do a deal for a share.” Even Kenna could figure out that much about the guy. The only saving grace was that it would distract Elliot from whatever he was doing with Maizie.

“All we need is for him to tell us where he wants to meet,” Ramon said. “If I can get eyes on your girl, you can move in and rescue her.”

Kenna shuddered. Jax held tight to her hand.

“Your friends can track his phone, right?”

She frowned. “I can do that from Maizie’s computer.”

“The feds grabbed it when they were at the hotel, so no one else did. It should be in the trunk.” Jax motioned to the car behind them.

Kenna handed the phone to Ramon. “Make the call. Get him distracted. Tell him you want to meet to discuss terms, and you’ll make it worth his while.”

The hurricane might have turned, but the wind remained out in full force along with the steady rain falling. She and Jax were both soaked through.

They had the beginning of a plan.

Would Elliot take the bait and hang around long enough for them to catch up?

Jax got the trunk open and dug out the computer from a backpack. Kenna opened it in the trunk, covered from the rain by the lid, and put in Maizie’s pin.

The teen had forced her to memorize the code even though Kenna had pointed out that she’d probably never have occasion to use it. Now she would admit it had been a good idea. She didn’t agree with everything Maizie wanted—like the chance to go out with Kenna and solve cases. But the girl had a lot of solid ideas.

Kenna wanted to get her back so they could argue some more about it. Even if it sounded funny, that was one of the things she missed right now.

“Thank you, Maizie.”And thank You.“Now be somewhere I can find you and come get you.”

Jax squeezed her shoulder.

Kenna got on the hospital Wi-Fi and logged onto the website. Maizie’s password manager filled the log in information in for her, and she waited for the map to load. She glanced back at Ramon, on Navarro’s cell phone. They should probably touch base with the agents.

“Is the FBI going to be mad that Ramon and I are taking point trying to get Elliot?” she asked. They could make it difficult if they had other ideas—if they wanted the sheriff in custody, answering for why he was here.

Jax shrugged. “I’ll let them know. They didn’t even have Elliot on their radar, so they don’t have probable cause to go after him even if they wanted to. But if a certain private investigator wanted to pull her signature move and hand over both the criminal and all the evidence to law enforcement, I’m not sure they’d object.”

“I’m gonna nail him to a wall for this.”

He grinned. “You’re so cute when you’re vicious.”

“I’m not trying to be cute!”

“I know. That’s why it was cute.”

He was only trying to get her to think about something other than the abject fear over Maizie’s fate currently.

God, surround her with angels.

Kenna would pray for everything God could possibly use as a resource to keep the teen safe. All the things she could think of. God would take care of the how, but Kenna would have all her bases covered. She wasn’t going to leave anything to chance.

Jax patted her shoulder. “It loaded.”

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