Page 73 of Dust and Ashes

“I did everything I could to get them safe.” He ran a hand through his hair. “There had to have been a breakdown somewhere.”

Kenna paused, her fingers grasping the handle for the exit door. “So it’s their fault they couldn’t get free?”

“I thought they did.” He tipped his head to one side. “And no, it wasn’t theirfault.”

“Pretty risky if you ask me.” She pushed open the door and stepped out into the night. “Too much chance it will go wrong—which it did.”

“Life is risky.”

She couldn’t argue with that. “Some people only know safety their whole lives. It’s why I do what I do, so the ones who might’ve been targeted by a dangerous person never have their quiet lives disturbed by an individual who means them harm.”

“But you never meet them. You never even know who they are.”

“Why would I have occasion to do so?” She shrugged. “I know I’m saving lives.”

Ramon only stared at her.

Kenna blew out a breath. “All this business you’ve got going on rescuing people and setting them free—or so you hope—is great and all, but how does it get us any closer to finding Javier?”

She was with Maizie on that. Worried sick over what the boy might be going through right now. Though, she refused to let anyone know how much it was tearing her up inside.

Ramon said, “We need to know where he’d take the kid to lay low.”

“Or if he simply grabbed him and started driving,” Kenna said. “Which means he could be hundreds of miles away by now.”

Ramon shook his head. “Easier to just kill him and be done with it. Less hassle.”

“Do you even hear yourself?” Listening to it made her sick to her stomach. “We need tofind him, Ramon. Before the worst happens. Not because it’s in our own best interests.”

ChapterTwenty-One

Kenna braced her hands against the tile and closed her eyes while water from the showerhead pounded on her back and shoulders. Her body flushed under the heat of it, but probably just from the temperature she’d turned it to—close to the temperature on the surface of the sun.

She prayed for Javier, all too aware of how many hours he’d been gone so far.

Every place they’d looked and hadn’t found him narrowed the list of where he might be. But when the answer was “anywhere in the world,” that didn’t help her narrow down how far Kart could have gone. No matter how she tried to spin it in her own mind, there were still far too many places to look.

“I know You can keep him safe.”

She didn’t much care that Navarro might retaliate if they didn’t find him. Or if he didn’t like what they found. She’d rather push on and find the kid.

Ramon had opted to kick down some doors in town and ask local sources he had for information. They wouldn’t talk as readily if she was there, so she’d come back to the room to see what Maizie had. The teen was on research, and Stairns had gone to morning mass at church. He’d wanted to ask the priest afterward if there had been any news from someone in town about the boy.

What she wanted was to go by the hospital again and sit with Jax, even if he never opened his eyes. She wanted to see the monitors and listen to the beep of his heartbeat.

“I don’t want to lose him.”

She knew she would survive if she did lose him. She’d lived through the death of a man she cared about before. That one hadn’t killed her, but it had been close. What was between her and Jax might be new, but it wasn’t any less real than what she’d felt for Bradley. She had figured out that much the past few weeks—months—or just the last handful of days since they’d landed her.

The truth was, Jax pushed her in all the right ways to be a better version of herself.

Maybe it was better that he was unconscious right now. He didn’t have to see the turmoil she was in right now. Her head was a mess. Case in point? She didn’t like thinking about the fact she couldn’t help wondering if he would be disappointed in the person she was right now. Talk about mixed up.

If Jax died, would she be like Ramon? Maybe she’d be somewhere making deals with the worst kind of bad guy for survival. Or would Stairns and Maizie keep her from slipping over the edge?

Kenna didn’t want to find out.

But she couldn’t make a bargain with God to save his life just because it would in turn serve to keep her alive and on the right path. She had to be on the right path on her own, without Jax’s influence—but she liked the gift he was to her life.

---