Page 102 of Every Which Way

She waited a second, then turned it off. “My mom?”

“I knew you wouldn’t leave Jax of your own accord.”

Duh.“What about my mom?”

“I figured the easiest way to make a clean break from that car was to knock you out. It was expedient, so you don’t need to be mad. I made the choice, it’s done, and now we can move on.”

“You’re fired.”

“I followed Roxanne from the house after you, and when she stepped in, I took her down.” He paused for emphasis, then said, “Jax needs to find his mom and his sister, right? He’s gotta focus on that.”

“I was going to help.”

“At the expense of yours.” Bruce shrugged. “Now we can do both, and you can blame me. Doesn’t need to put a wedge between you and Jax, and this way, his dad doesn’t get in the way of our mission.” He slapped his chest. “Jax’s family is their business. If Dad screws that up, then it’s on him. Nothing to do with us. Your family? They’re our responsibility.”

Did he hit his head and suffer some kind of injury or a mental breakdown? Maybe he had PTSD. His logic was sort of sound but also didn’t make sense to anyone else.

Except that she had been trying not to wonder whether helping Jax find his family would mean she never found hers. Splitting up wouldn’t have been her first choice. They spent hardly any time in person as it was—at least right now. She’d been content to just be with him and find out what his dad knew about the company, hoping that finding his sister and his mom would lead them closer to Amara and Zeyla.

But the reality was that she could easily be torn between the two.

She might have to choose.

She had no idea what the answer would be. “Where are we going?”

Bruce glanced over. For a while, he didn’t say anything, and then he seemed to be admitting something that might be a secret. “Woodford has Amara and Zeyla.”

“I saw him take them.” But the way he’d said it made her wonder if he knew far more than she did. Though, he likely didn’t know that Clare’s twin had opted to kill herself with a fire. Or that Kenna had uncovered a dirty FBI agent.

Where had he been while she focused on the mission?

Seemed like he’d had a mission of his own the entire time. One she hadn’t been privy to.

He said, “Your mom tried to exchange with his guys, giving them Clare and Roxanne. It went wrong, and Clare was killed. Roxanne knocked out your mom, and they put her in the cell with Zeyla.”

“When the cops arrived, they left out the back.”

Bruce grunted. “Figures they’d run.”

“So where are they?” She looked around for a phone. His phone. Where had he put it? Or was he completely off the reservation, gone dark. No communication.

The glove box.

She pulled the handle, and it dropped down. Kenna’s phone tumbled out into her hands.

He grabbed the phone, hit the button on his window, and tossed it out. As the window whirred back up, he said, “Too easy to trace. The company knows where you are all the time, and I’d be surprised if they haven’t hacked you already.”

“As if Maizie would let that happen.”

“They’ve been in her system. You wanna tell me it’s impenetrable?”

“Nothing is impenetrable.”

Bruce said, “That’s why we’re going old school.”

“Why are you doing this?”

“You and I paired up tonight. Figured we’d see it through, given certain developments. So let’s get them back.”

---