AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Maizie stared at her.
“Just like we all have the capacity for good, we all have the capacity for great evil. No one is exempt. I don’t care how good someone thinks they are, we all live just a series of choices away from total destruction.”
Stairns nodded. “We like to think we’re better than the bad guys. And there are so many things they do that make me sick to my stomach. But you’re right that I shouldn’t take their actions as the right path and use their tactics to eliminate the problem. That might even the score, but it doesn’t make the world a better place.”
“Sometimes all you’re capable of is evening the score,” Kenna said. “But I do want to make the world a better place. It’s just hard to see that a righteous path could make a difference against all the evil in the world when you’re in the middle of the evil. But you know that, Maze.”
The teen nodded. “It doesn’t scare me that you could take a life. Either of you.” She glanced between them. “It actually makes me feel safer.”
Good.“I don’t like the person I am when all I’m after is vengeance. So let’s get the evidence and prove to the world exactly who Elliot Preston is.” Just so long as he didn’t come anywhere near Kenna or Maizie, she absolutely wanted to take the guy down. “So what about those military guys that ran the compound?”
Maizie clicked the mouse on her laptop. “The one you called Kart was a squad leader in the army. He had more than one report made against him, complaints of all kinds. Harassment. Theft. None of it was ever proven, but people transferred out of his squad on a regular basis.” Eight pictures appeared. “These are the guys who stuck for longer than a few months without filing a request to be transferred to a different team.”
Kenna pushed off the bed and went over to the teen girl. She squeezed Maizie’s shoulder, then crouched beside her and studied the faces on the screen. She pointed to the ones she recognized. “Ramon Santiago killed this guy, Benjamin. That’s Anthony. Navarro cut off his hands and had me take them back to Kart. I don’t see the fourth guy that was there at the compound.” She straightened. “He left a few days ago with three young women, drug mules he was taking to Seattle. I want to say his name was…Walken? Something like that.”
“Maybe they met him in the army, but he wasn’t in their squad,” Maizie said. “I’ll run his name and see if it pops in association with the three of them.”
“Thanks, Maze.” Kenna turned to Stairns and mouthed,I don’t want her coming to dinner.
He mouthed back,Who is going to protect her?
“I know you guys are talking about me,” Maizie said. “I’m just being polite enough to not get mad about it.”
Kenna strode across the room and filled a cup of water in the bathroom. She downed the whole thing, refilled it, then moved to stand with her shoulder against the open bathroom door.
“I don’t want to stay here alone either. So I guess I’m coming with both of you to the Navarro ranch.”
Kenna could understand that. “Did anyone at the compound find Kart’s body? I want to know for sure that he’s dead.”
Stairns frowned. “I can contact the local police and see if they’ve been through the place since it was attacked.”
She had met the local chief in Kart’s office. “Don’t trust anything the chief says any farther than I would be able to throw him.” Which was basically not at all.
His brows rose. “Is that right?”
“Maybe he polices the community and keeps people safe. But he also takes money from the Navarro cartel and Kart’s operation. So he’s sketchy at best.”
Stairns glanced at Maizie, who had the man’s picture up on her computer.
The teen said, “I don’t recognize him, if that’s what you want to know.”
“Fair enough.”
Maizie turned back to her computer. “I’ll get copies of the reports they log in their computer system and see if that gives us the information we need to know.”
“Short of going back to the compound and checking it out for ourselves?” Stairns glanced at her. “Don’t worry. I’ll be doing that alone.”
Kenna didn’t realize she had reacted. She took a sip of the water and tried to steady her shaky hand.
“I went out there last night,” Stairns said. “The whole place was crawling with Navarro’s men, so I stayed out of the way.”
If they’d found Kart alive, they would probably have killed him. Which meant he was dead—or he had escaped.
“Anything else I should know before we get ready to go to dinner at the Navarro ranch?” She still needed to take a real shower, plus drink about six cups of coffee and take one of the pills in the medicine bottle Stairns had given her.
Maizie glanced over her shoulder. “I hacked the medical office computer system because Valentina had so many appointments.”
Kenna froze.
