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She wanted to sit here and bask in it. Absorb this feeling, so different from who she’d been for years. Then again, she didn’t know what she should do next. How did this work, anyway? She needed some direction.
She needed Jax.
Outside she saw Ramon walk to a dusty Toyota. The driver’s door opened and the priest climbed out, then both back doors opened. The two nuns were stocky, their visible features no-nonsense in the light of the headlights. They looked like they could take care of themselvesandkeep a bunch of rowdy kids in line.
Ramon spoke with the priest while the nuns stood like bodyguards.
She looked at the dash clock, no idea how long it would take to get back to the ranch since she didn’t have her phone to map it. Still, they needed to get going if they were to make their deadline to deliver the money and save her friends.
She grabbed the handle and shoved open the door, not sure what to say to the priest and nuns about her…what was it, a conversion? She didn’t know how to tell them about her change of heart. Change of life status. Did they even want to know?
Whether they did or not, she needed to find out how long this was going to take.
The wind pushed the door back against her, so hard she had to fight to get it open and get out. Sand blew in gusts.
Kenna shielded her eyes from the flying dirt. “Ramon!”
He strode over to her. “I’ll just be a sec.” He slid open the back window on the camper shell, her side. Right behind her seat. He pulled out a duffel, stuffed full. Not part of the wrapped stacks of what she presumed were cash.
Peeking in, she saw two pallets, bundles stacked to the ceiling. Shoved in tight and wrapped up. No one would guess it was all money.
And he had an extra package?
“What’s going on?”
No one answered her.
Ramon handed the duffel to the priest, talking in Spanish fast and quiet. They shook hands, then he strode back over. “Get it. We need to go.” He glanced behind the truck, up the highway where they’d just come.
Kenna looked as well. “You see something?”
“Get in, Kenna.”
He was mad at her? As if any of this was on her. She’d played along and he could tell Navarro that, thank you very much.
“What was that?” She buckled her seatbelt even though he didn’t. “What did you give the priest? And is there someone following us?”
“There’s always someone following us.” He peeled out. “And I’m not just talking about that hurricane.”
She didn’t like the sound of that. “So why’d we stop?”
“Doing my civic duty. Or my devout duty to the church. Probably both, considering how much money was in that duffel.”
Her brows rose. “You just gave money to the church?”
“It was a donation.”
She checked the side mirror. Maybe there were headlights behind them, but it could be anyone out here on the highway headed inland. “And you made a planned stop to do that? In a way Navarro won’t know you skimmed some off the top.”
“How do you know it wasn’t my money?”
She glanced over. “Was it?”
He chuckled. “The church doesn’t care if it’s dirty money. Maybe it’s better that they have it. Then it’ll get used for something good, right?”
“So you jeopardize my friends’ lives for a church donation. Couldn’t you have done it another time?”
“Chill, yeah?” Ramon huffed. “We’ve got time. And Navarro can’t know, so you’re not going to tell him we stopped.”
