Page 80 of Every Which Way

Kenna said, “Why trade one twin when you could offer two?”

“I already have a second asset.”

Kenna bit the inside of her lip.

“Your friend, Roxanne. I caught her last night while you were tussling at the roadhouse, getting that.” She motioned to Kenna’s face with her water glass.

“I caught an elbow,” Kenna said. “You have Roxanne? In your custody?”

Amara shrugged. “She’s going to garner me a whole lot of goodwill when I tell them how thoroughly she screwed up infiltrating the Federal Bureau of Idiots.”

Stairns’ head whipped around from watching the window.

“Easy,” Kenna said. “I was FBI, and so was my father. This family doesn’t disrespect the bureau.” They might not always get along with the feds, but they weren’t going to be disparaging them.

“In answer to your question, yes, I’ll be taking Clare. I’ll trade her and Roxanne to get Zeyla back.”

“I wanna to talk to Roxanne before you do the trade.”

Amara chuckled slightly. “If she had planned to tell you anything, she’d have said it already.”

“Get me that list of names.” She could tell their conversation was coming to an end before Amara shifted in the seat and began to slide toward the end of the bench. “And locations. I want everything you have on the structure of the company and who is in charge of every division.”

“Some things are beyond even my extensive knowledge. It’s why they’ve existed for so long.”

“Give me what you have.”

Amara said, “I’ll need the car keys.”

Stairns shook them.

Amara glanced at Bruce. They exchanged an inscrutable look. She took the keys and went out the door.

“Please tell me we have a tracker on that car.”

Stairns said, “It’smycar.”

“We can follow it?”

He reluctantly nodded. “Maizie set it up. Just in case. Who knew it would be just in case your mom borrowed it?”

Bruce shifted in his seat again.

He’d seemed surprised when she referred to Amara as her mother. Hesitant to acknowledge her now. “You two know each other, Bruce?”

“We met in the woods by the roadhouse.” He cleared his throat. “Last night.”

“That’s why you didn’t show up to help.” Kenna pulled out some cash to leave on the table to cover the bill. “Are you the reason Roxanne got away?”

“Nothing happened. Don’t worry about it.” He headed for the door.

Outside, Amara pulled from the space and drove toward the exit that would get her back on the highway.

Kenna stared after him. “Why does him telling me not to worry fail to fill me with confidence?”

“Because you’re smart, and you have good instincts.” Stairns grinned. “I guess we’re riding back in his truck. Let’s make sure he doesn’t leave without us.”

“I’ll call Maizie so we can find out where she goes.”

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