Page 118 of Every Which Way

The senator brought the weapon up. She dove for his arm, shoving it aside, and felt the gun go off.

He slammed the gun at the side of her head, his other hand still holding the switch with his grip zip-tied into place. Both hands swung at her. Pain exploded in the side of her skull.

Kenna fell back again.

She dragged the knife from her bodice, tugged off the lid, and swung it at the senator. The gun muzzle flashed over and over as he fired wildly around the room. Jax lay on top of Maizie, covering the teen with his body.

Kenna jabbed the knife into the side of the senator’s neck.

The gun slipped from his hand.

Woodford reached up and clutched the knife handle on his neck, drawing it out as he gasped and choked on his own blood. The knife fell to the floor. He clutched the blood seeping from his neck and fell back.

What would happen to the dead man’s switch if it became soaked with blood? She pushed the zip-tied hand out farther from the senator’s bleeding body.

Kenna gathered up the stupid dress and clambered over him. She fell to her knees by Jax and turned his shoulder. His head came around, and Maizie blinked up at them from the floor. Kenna touched the teen’s head. Jax had a gash on the side of his face, across his cheekbone. A graze from a bullet.

She gasped, then coughed out the grit and smoke still in the air.

The key.

She looked around, found the key on the floor, swiped it up, and stumbled across the room. Langford swung around, crouched by Adrielle. Yelling to someone.

Mrs. Jaxton needed her heart pills. That was what Laney had told her.

Kenna unlocked the latch on Laney’s collar. Laney took the key and did her mother’s. Kenna took both collars and threw them to the far corner of the room.

Only then did she let out a breath.

Every part of her body hurt.

She slumped to the floor. Laney tried to catch her, but pain flashed in Kenna’s forearms, and she couldn’t hold on.

Then Jax was there, gathering her to him.

She buried her face against his shirt, wrapped her arms around his waist, and prayed for her mother and sister.

She felt Maizie touch her arm.

Two EMTs came in and crouched by Adrielle. Kenna hung onto Jax, leaning against him until he scooped her up with one arm under her knees and another behind her back. He lifted her, carrying her like a terrible facsimile of a bride over a threshold. The whole thing was ridiculous anyway.

She looked over her shoulder.

Woodford lay dead on the floor. Along with all his plans and his attempts to terrorize people. At least this small part of theDominatuswas gone.

It was over.

ChapterThirty-One

Kenna woke up warm again. Which wasn’t good last time, so she came awake far too fast. Sitting up in a hospital bed. But with a heavy weight across her front that she had to push against.

“Whoa, whoa. It’s just me.”

She held on to his sleeve, lying down again so she had to roll slightly toward him and look up. “Did we get married? Is that why you’re in bed with me?”

He grinned. Fully clothed, on top of the blanket. So she guessed the answer was no. He smiled slightly. “They said they were bringing me a chair, but it’s been a couple of hours, so I figure they forgot. If I ask, they might kick me out because visiting hours are over.”

Kenna moved her arm and realized she had an IV needle in her elbow. She looked at the clear bag hanging on the hook. It would be easier to bury her head in the sand and not deal with the hard emotions, but doing that wasn’t going to get her answers to any of her questions.

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