Page 20 of Every Which Way

She tugged open the driver’s door. “I figure you can talk us in there.”

Not too likely, but showing up at the scene was a surefire way for those detectives—or whoever had called Jax asking after her—to find her.

Because she was coming to them.

The real test would be what Roxanne did when the cops showed up.

Kenna buckled her seat belt, shifting so her phone and a weapon were within reach. The last thing she wanted was to miss out on her weddingagain. Wearing that dress brought up so many thoughts about Bradley and some great spiritual revelations she hadn’t considered before.

Right now, she needed to focus, though. Being all twisted around internally wasn’t going to help her make sense of familial DNA at a crime scene.

If Roxanne didn’t plan to tell her who this person was in relation to Kenna, the only alternative was to guess. The one person in the world she knew of that was connected to her genes, at least for certain, was Amara Constantine.

But if her mother was an asset for the company, then that meant not only had she faked her death when Kenna was a toddler, she’d also gone back to work for them. Either for the resistance or because she had no other choice. Though there was another option—that Amara had changed her mind and agreed with the company’s endgame.

More likely, she was a double agent, using her position of trust to undermine them. Pretending she’d changed her mind. It might even be what had kept Kenna’s father, and Kenna, alive for so long. Her dad had passed away years ago now, but he was still a huge part of who she was.

Roxanne pulled out of the parking structure.

“Start talking.” Kenna glanced over, glad to not be the one driving so she could focus on assessing this woman.

Different clothes and hairstyles, and she could come across as all kinds of thirty-something women from a number of walks of life.

Roxanne said, “Two weeks ago, we lost contact with our asset here. I was sent to find you and gain your assistance in helping to find her.”

They probably figured if she thought the missing person was family, she’d be all on board to help. But what if the missing woman didn’t want to be found? “What do you know about her?”

“Not a whole lot, actually. Things are so compartmentalized I only have a code name. Chimera. As for what she was working on, she’d checked in that she was meeting with someone, but that was the last we heard.”

“You must burn through a lot of assets letting them go out on their own like that. Seems like you’d do better to keep track of them.”

Roxanne glanced over. “I’ll submit that as a suggestion for the future. You know, because the higher-ups are so good at taking constructive criticism.”

Kenna didn’t smirk since Roxanne likely wasn’t trying to be funny. “I already know they don’t care much about the value of a life. But if you had any information about the extent of their operation here in the US, that would help me fight them.”

“You mean clean up the messyoumade.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Roxanne took a corner way too fast. “You took down the Rosenburgs. Now the company has nothing to push back at them, they can take all the territory they want and get a foothold here in the US.”

“So, it’s my fault for creating a power vacuum for people looking to steer society where they want it to go?”

“You said it, not me.”

“The Rosenburgs had their hooks in every level of US society. Private stockholders, government lobbyists. Healthcare. The media. Higher education. They even had someone in the FBI. That kind of corruption isn’t something I’m going to allow to continue if I can help it. The alternative to us being in a war against this ‘company’ as you all call it is that people like the Rosenburgs have the country in a stranglehold. So I’ll pass.”

“Except now you have to fight us whether you like it or not. And the company is so much worse than one family.”

Kenna said, “That’s life, I’m afraid. You take down a bad guy, and another comes along. Sometimes, they’re worse. Not exactly where I thought I’d be when I set out to catch killers and find missing people, but if taking them down makes it safer for ordinary people to live their lives, then that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

No matter that the president had effectively told her he had it under control. And he’d asked Jax to sign a nondisclosure about his mission to connect with the resistance so the US could help them. She was up against an international organization. No walking away.

And thankfully, she wasn’t alone.

She continued, “But it’s always been about finding a missing person. That’s the core of all of this. It’s about protecting lives. Especially when it’s family.” Making sure no one else had to go through what she went through the night Bradley lost his life. Not as far as she could help it, anyway.

So, if this organization wanted to manipulate her, they’d pressed the exact right button. They knew what tune to sing to get her to help Roxanne without even really thinking about it.

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