Page 22 of Dust and Ashes

She gripped the steering wheel. “I guess attacking each other wasn’t worth it after all.”

“Maybe not, but it was fun.”

She pressed her lips together. Better that than say something else and wind up being injured or killed.

“Well then, I guess we’ll need to overlook the fact he cut off Anthony’s hands and sent them back to me. We can have a sit-down with the guy and see if we can work something out with the mine.”

She couldn’t resist saying, “What is it?”

“Only one of the largest undiscovered lithium mines on the continent.”

“Huh.” She’d have preferred it to be some kind of ancient culture’s buried treasure, but apparently that wasn’t going to be a thing today. Recently she’d gone after a cult with ties that went back to medieval times. Generations of people following in the same footsteps, creating terror and teaching those who came after them to do the same.

This couldn’t be an Indiana Jones thing?

Kart said, “What were you saying earlier about diversifying?”

“Right.” Kenna rolled her eyes because he couldn’t see her face. “Makes perfect sense.”

The lithium mine would have to be a serious windfall in the making if both Navarro and Kart were arguing over control of it.

She pulled into the compound as armed guards watched her drive down the lane. The place had suffered some damage, and there were men hauling debris already. Clearing the road between two buildings.

“Over there.” Kart patted her shoulder and pointed at the loading bay.

She managed to contain the flinch. Her nerves had started to fray right away, and now she was reaching critical mass.

Something had to give, or Kenna didn’t know what kind of state she would end up in.

As she climbed out the front seat, a couple of guys ushered Elisa and two other girls Kenna had seen in the room cutting and packaging drugs out of the building toward the truck. All three young women looked sick, pale, and sweating. One clutched her stomach.

Behind them was a Caucasian man. The fourth member of the team, who she hadn’t had any contact with and didn’t plan to. Every part of the guy screamed something lethal. She was pretty sure he was the one who had been torturing Jax.

Kart lifted his fist, and the man bumped it. “See you in a few days, Walk.” Then he patted Elisa’s stomach, a grin on his face, and watched while she was loaded into the back seat of the pickup truck.

Drug mules.

“Later, Hoss.” The man slid in the driver seat.

The three girls were shoved in the back. Another guy, equally lethal but a local, got in the passenger seat. The five of them left as fast as Kenna had peeled out of the drive-through with her milkshake the first time she had her license. Just because she could.

Kart had found replacements for Lola and Ana, girls he could use. Victimizing the broken and afraid all so he could make money.

“I want to see Jax.” She wasn’t going to back down about it.

He smirked. “It doesn’t change anything.”

It wouldn’t even make her feel better, either. But she had to see if he was still breathing. Wanted to pray he would be awake today. The way he had been the first few days they were here.

Instead, Kart grabbed elbow. “Let’s go. We need a place to hold this meeting.”

“Why am I involved?” Kenna wanted to stay quiet, but she just couldn’t. “I should be here, waiting for the sheriff. Not going to a meeting.”

Kart glanced at her, the smirk back on his face. “Turns out there’s a use for you after all.”

ChapterSeven

Kenna sat in the back of the car between two locals in Kart’s employ. Gunmen with wandering eyes, but they’d allowed her to shower. She didn’t know whose dress this was. It fit reasonably well, falling to her mid-thigh and keeping her cool. She’d opted to keep her Converse just for some sense of normalcy in this chaos.

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