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“So you got typecasted whether you liked it or not?”
Ramon shrugged one shoulder. “No one asked me what assignment I wanted.”
“So you didn’t you tell them you didn’t want to be undercover?”
He snorted. “No one would have believed I was some straightlaced FBI agent. Maybe it never would have worked.” Maybe he’d given up trying. Or he’d been through too much to believe it would’ve worked. “Kind of like the daughter of Malcom Banbury staying under the radar, working the job, and never getting her name splashed in the public eye.”
Kenna stiffened. She’d given up trying to convince people that she never purposely drew attention to herself.
“So you understand.” He paused. “Choices are made for us, whether we like it or not.”
“But I can choose how I react to it. How I feel about it, and what I decide to do next is up to me.” She wanted more control than she had, especially at a time like this. But maybe even that was an illusion. It would be difficult to keep from succumbing to the fear and losing the last scrap of hope that she had.
“When I found you in Navarro’s office, I guess your call made it through.”
She flinched. “What do you mean?”
“An older guy visited the ranch. Passed your picture around and asked about you. I pegged him as a fed before Navarro did. We ran him, but he’s retired.”
Her stomach flipped. “Stairns.”
Ramon nodded. “That was his name.”
“Did you tell him where I am?” If she could’ve lifted her arms, she would have grabbed his shirt. Two grasping handfuls, betraying precisely how much desperation she had inside her.
“Navarro told him you were helping us with a problem.”
“You should have told him where to find me.” If anyone could bust in here, it was Stairns and whatever army he found to help him. “I need to get out of here, Ramon. You have to get a message to—”
“You don’t have to convince me. If you want to get out of here, just give me the number and I’ll make the call for you.”
“You’ll have to memorize it.”
Before she could even begin to get the number out, the door opened.
“Let’s go,” Kart said. “Both of you.”
Kenna buried her reaction. Kart couldn’t know what was between her and Ramon, the shared history they had. If he knew, then she had no doubt he would use it against them. Maybe she could find a pen and a piece of paper, and he could take the number to contact Maizie—and hopefully Stairns—with him.
Kart held a gun down by his side. He instructed them to go ahead of him, through the building to the office she had talked to him in before. Instead of being empty, a uniformed local man sat in a chair drinking from a stoneware mug.
Ramon glanced back at her. “That’s the local police chief.” Before she could respond, he said, “And he speaks good English.”
“That I do.” He set his mug on the desk. The uniform he wore had dark pants and a white short-sleeved shirt, bars on his shoulders. A hat lay on the desk beside the mug. When he reached for it, the muscles in his forearms flexed. “I brought everything I have on the cases I haven’t been able to solve.” He stood and walked toward Kart. “I expect to see you in a few days.”
Kart shook his hand. “I’ll bring your payment.”
The police chief stiffened, apparently not expecting the American to say that. He glanced back at Kenna and Ramon. Because Kart had just informed her and Navarro’s man that he was receiving payments from the Americans.
She doubted that had been a slip on Kart’s behalf. More likely it was intentional so the police chief would know that at any moment Kart could make trouble for him. Unless he cooperated. This entire situation was nothing but a series of underhanded deals and threats.
Kart closed the door to the office, shutting the three of them inside. “The files are on the desk, Kenna. Turns out he’s had a series of unexplained deaths and hasn’t found the person responsible.”
“And I’m supposed to solve those as well?” She shot him a look. “Why would I voluntarily do that, when there’s absolutely nothing in it for me?”
“I can make it worth your while.”
“But you’re still going to hand me over to your cousin. So how is that worth my while?” She figured it was a losing battle trying to get him to change his mind and welch on the deal with Elliot. It seemed to her that he was far more afraid of the consequences of that. Maybe he was even scared of his cousin.
