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Kenna stretched her arms above her head and rolled her shoulders.
Sleep was good, but she still had the urge to get moving so things loosened up a little. Which only made her think about Jax and all the exercise he’d made her do every day after she was shot.
“Ramon was hung out to dry.” Kenna paused. “He said he didn’t leave the FBI of his own volition.” She wasn’t sure what she even believed, or if her memories of being held by Kart and his men would skew what she remembered about all of this. “I don’t know.”
Stairns gave a nod. “I’ll make some calls and find out.” Before she could speak, he lifted both hands. “I won’t say that I found their AWOL agent. I’ll just look into what he was investigating and who the handler was.”
Kenna nodded, more than relieved that he understood her concerns without her having to be firing on all cylinders.
“You want to go back to the hospital or see the local doctor?”
“I have no idea if I trust either, but whoever is working on Jax had better be legit.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Stairns said. “The FBI flew in a Red Cross doctor from the other side of Mexico specifically to take care of him.”
“Good.” Kenna blew out a breath. “What do you know about the man that captured us, Kart? Or his boys? There’s only one left as far as I know.”
Maizie flinched. “I have him listed as Ian Kartom.”
Was he dead, or had he survived somehow? “That’s him. He said Sheriff Elliot Preston is his cousin.”
“I found that connection as well,” Maizie said.
Stairns nodded. “And ever since, she’s been throwing a wrench in every travel plan he’s made to get down here. Delaying him at every turn.”
Kenna laughed.
Maizie frowned at her.
“What, Maze? It’s brilliant.”
Maizie swallowed. “Thanks.”
“What is…?” Kenna put together the girl’s hesitation. “Elliot Preston?”
“I recognized him.”
“One of…” They didn’t need to say it out loud if they didn’t have to. It made Kenna sick enough as it was knowing what had happened to Maizie since she was tiny. She’d been held captive of a dangerous man in Las Vegas who believed he lived above the law. Until Kenna killed him.
Now he had no hold over Maizie because he was dead.
“I saw him around.” Maizie’s expression blanked, the tone of her voice hollow. “The sheriff.”
Stairns said, “You should’ve told me, kiddo.”
Kenna had heard him use the same tone of voice talking to his grandbaby. Or helping Ryson’s toddler daughter get more fish crackers.
He folded his arms. “Well, Iwasthinking we need the evidence to prove he’s the one behind Jax and Kenna being kidnapped. But now I’m thinking I won’t waste everybody’s time. I’ll just put a bullet between his eyes.”
“Find a grassy noll, I’ll be your spotter.” Kenna might sound like she was joking, but a huge part of her was deadly serious. Her brand of justice felt very much in line with that adage,God’s children are not for sale.
“You’re both talking about murder.” Maizie sat completely still, not backing down. “Not self-defense, just straight murder. That makes you no better than any of them.”
Stairns said, “‘There is none good. No not one.’ That’s what the Bible says.”
“So you want to be just as bad as them.”
Kenna knew what the girl was saying, but she also knew what Ryson had told her. And what she’d heard on the radio listening to sermons. “Humans are inherently sinful. I realized that when all I wanted to do was get Jax and get out of that compound, no matter what happened to any of the other innocent people in there. In the moment I didn’t care if they lived or died—or who might have cried over losing them. All I cared about was me.”
