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Ramon lifted his chin. “I’ll be sure to tell Navarro that you treated me well, and that you’re going to take care of the problem.” He glanced at her, something like sympathy in his eyes, then back to Kart. “He’ll be glad to know things will be resolved.”
Kart sat silently for a second, staring at them. Then he shook his head. “You aren’t going anywhere, Santiago. There’s too much risk of you contacting someone who can take Kenna from me. No one leaves until the sheriff gets here, and I can wrap up my business.”
He would be rid of her then.
In the meantime, he wasn’t taking any chances that Kenna would be able to escape.
Kart continued, “The chief saw you, whole and healthy. The priest. The doctor. If anyone asks, Navarro will hear that you’re here and you seem fine.”
Kenna’s stomach clenched.
Ramon shifted. “You can’t keep me—”
“Enough,” Kart barked so loudly Kenna flinched. “I won’t be changing my mind, and you won’t be leaving. So why don’t the two of you put your heads together and figure out how many people this guy has killed, and who in my compound is doing it.”
ChapterThirteen
After delivering his order, Kart had Ramon and Kenna escorted back to the room where she had last seen Jax. Under armed guard. Holding the files the police chief had left.
Kenna had already tried the lock on the door twice since Kart shut them in.
There was no way to get out of here.
She paced to the window, through which she could see next to nothing but the sky. The music playing in the distance that she might otherwise have enjoyed now became a hated thing she would associate with this sense of desperation and hopelessness for the rest of her life.
Whether that was a matter of days, or decades.
Ramon sat on the floor with his back to the wall. “Are you going to pace the entire time?”
“How are you so calm? It’s like you don’t even care that we can’t get out of here.”
He lifted the pile of files from the floor and opened the first one. “You need to put a lid on all of this.” He motioned to her. “It’s not doing you any favors displaying to anyone who even glances your direction what’s going on inside you. You’re like this roiling mass of tension right now.”
“There’s no one in here but you. Why not show it now?”
“Because it’s exhausting just watching you.” He sighed. “Figure it out.”
She would rather kick the door than do that. The sense of calm that had settled on her in Kart’s office was gone now. If it had ever been real.
“Why don’t you help me go through these files instead?” he suggested.
But she couldn’t let go of something Kart had said. “Tell me what you know about the doctor and the priest. Are they really going to tell people that we’re fine here, and there’s nothing wrong with me?” Hot tears burned in her eyes. “I need to get out.”
“You and me both,” he said. “And who knows what people will say. Or if they’ll even get asked.”
She shook her head. “You don’t understand. That sheriff guy who is on his way? I can’t be here when he gets here. I won’t survive it.”
His impending arrival had kept her alive and mostly unharmed so far. Because Kart had been ordered not to touch her, and not to let anyone else do so either. It had kept her in one piece so far—but that wouldn’t last much longer. Mentally she was coming completely unraveled.
He stared at the files and didn’t answer her question.
“At least tell me you have a way to get back to Navarro,” she pressed.
“You think he cares about me enough to mount a rescue?” He shot her a look. “He’s interested in money and family, and that’s it. Too bad for me that I’m neither.”
“So you’re expendable.” She paced toward him. “But that doesn’t mean Navarro won’t come looking for you. He’ll want to know what happened.”
“He only cares about his nephew.” Ramon sighed. “He was hoping for an heir. That’s why he wants to find his bride so badly. He believes she was pregnant when she disappeared.”
