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A bullet exploded behind her.
Run.
The round embedded in the wall beside her, and the woman continued firing wildly.
Kenna raced outside, across the grassy weeds and the gravel of the front yard. Her foot jabbed on something, but she kept going in her socks, pushing everything from her mind.
The gunshots continued from inside the house, but Kenna held tight to the boy and ran. He jostled in her arms and came awake, crying again.
“It’s gonna be okay, Javi.” Kenna jogged down a side street, along what counted for a sidewalk. Ignoring the pain in her foot.
A car roared around the corner at the end of the street.
Kenna crouched beside a parked car while it whizzed past and took a few measured breaths. Then she lifted up and continued. She’d saved the boy, and now she just had to get out of here. Back to town. To a phone, or some other way to get help.
“Okay, here we go.” She waited and looked around the corner. A couple of boarded-up storefronts. Two men across the street spotted her.
Then Kenna walked, heading straight and making a beeline for…she didn’t know. But she would get there in one piece with the child in her arms. Assuming her forearms didn’t give out and she dropped him on the ground.
“Hey, woman!”
Realizing one of the men had been calling out to her, she turned her head to the side, just slightly. “No, thankyou.”
“Woman, you stop!”
The other one yelled something in Spanish.
She walked faster.
Another car engine revved. Actually multiple cars, which rounded the corner up ahead and sped toward them. Two Mercedes pulled over by her. Kenna backed up to the building. Her back hit the bricks and she held on to Javier. What else could she do?
The first car’s doors opened. Ramon climbed out and said something to the two men, barking an order full of authority. They backed up and walked away.
Kenna let out the breath she’d been holding. “How did you find me?”
Ramon looked her up and down and winced. “Come on. Get in.” He held the back door open, and the guy who’d been in the back seat went to the second car.
She slid in and shifted Javier to the seat beside her.
Ramon got in the front passenger seat and turned to the boy. He spoke softly in Spanish and used the wordPapa, which caused Javier to nod. Then he gave the order to the driver, who pulled out.
“How did you find me?” she asked. They turned the corner at the end of the street, and the second car went the opposite direction. She frowned. “What are they doing?”
Ramon sighed. “What question do you want me to answer first?”
“Just start talking.” Kenna felt little fingers on her arm and shifted to hold Javier’s hand.
Ramon looked from the boy to her. “We know what house it was, so they’re going to pay her a visit.”
“They should take her to the police so she can be prosecuted as an accessory to kidnapping.”
Ramon said something to the driver.
The guy let out a burst of laughter.
“It’s the right thing to do.” Kenna might have it in her to be vicious and vindictive like them, but that didn’t mean she had to act on it.
“This is cartel justice. You think we need the police getting involved?” Ramon snorted. “People will find out Navarro is vulnerable and crawl out of the woodwork to challenge his authority.”
