Page 8 of Every Which Way

“Need any help?”

He said, “I’ll let you know.”

“This is a team now. If I have to accept that, then so do you. We’re a package deal.”

Ramon chuckled. “You make it sound like the best thing that ever happened to you. We’re so blessed.”

She balled up her napkin and threw it at him. “Someone give me a bad guy to catch. Something that sends me on a case to find a serial killer or a missing person. Anything. I’ll be unfortunately busy for a couple of days. Jax’s mom and Maizie can scope out the wedding show thing with his sister, and they can just get me samples or whatever to look at later.”

Stairns shook his head.

Maizie said, “Not happening.”

“Good luck with that.” Ramon chuckled. “No cases for you until after you make nice with your future mom.”

Kenna groaned, leaned forward, and banged her forehead lightly on the table.

Bruce nudged her shoulder. “You need me to kill someone.”

“No.” Her voice was muffled by the table.

“Is this woman really so bad?”

Kenna sat up. “We met a few months ago, almost right after Greece.” She cleared her throat. Someone had shot at her and Jax on the day they got engaged, but Bruce killed the assassin. Unbeknownst to them, he’d been there watching their backs. “Jax ambushed me into meeting them because he knew I’d drag my feet. His mother is…an interesting woman. Lovely, well meaning. She’s impeccably put together, so I’ll need to find shoes other than the ratty pile of Converse in my RV closet.”

To be fair, Jax had been correct. She would’ve probably put it off forever, but he’d figured out how to make it happen.

“Did you meet his dad as well or just his mom?”

“Both.” She shook her head. “His dad doesn’t really engage. He answers the questions he’s asked, but aside from that, he sips his whiskey and smooths down his tie.” And he did his best to look disapprovingly at everyone. “I’m interested to see if she’s different on her own, with Laney.”

It could be that Jax’s father set the tone when he was around.

How two kids from those uptight, one-percenter parents managed to be so down to earth was a mystery. Jax was…Jax. Best boyfriend ever—now her fiancé. Laney had an air that was just settled. Peaceful. She loved her husband and her kids, and she handled the family drama like a pro. Like it didn’t bother her at all that she was the peacemaker.

Kenna had been raised by a single father after her mother died—or so she thought.

They’d driven all over the country in his Airstream while he’d solved cases as an investigator, and she’d homeschooled herself.

Two things she knew now were that her mother wasn’t her mother and that she wasn’t dead. Not that Kenna had proof of either. All she had were stories. The book that woman in Greece had given her. But she also had an overbearing team in her life and an international organization to take down.

It was enough to make her bang her forehead on the table again.

She needed a case to work before life got too real and forced her to do something insane, like choose a veil for her wedding dress.

ChapterThree

Kenna and Maizie stood beside each other, descending the escalator at the convention center into an ocean of people—mostly women. A lot of them wore veils, or sashes, indicating they were the bride-to-be. “Kill me now.”

Maizie giggled.

If Kenna looked around, probably behind them, she would find Ramon somewhere. Bruce and Stairns were working on whatever Bruce’s thing was today—digging into the life of the man Bruce had confronted yesterday, the guy who’d been his colleague in the CIA.

And she was here. At a wedding show.

“Anything on the company from yesterday?”

Maizie waved at someone across the lobby. “I’ll tell you later.” She wound her arm through Kenna’s and pretty much dragged her through the crowd to where two women waited for them.

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