Page 16 of Now or Never
Kenna’s focus was Megan—and Joseph. “Go to him.” She indicated the boy in the corner, and Megan rushed across the room, gathering the child against her. The boy tucked his head against her hip, his arms around her legs, holding on tight. As close to safety as he could get.
The guy got up off the floor of the hallway, tension and anger in every line of his body. “The two of you get out of my house!” The assailant’s voice thundered in the room, the lack of furniture making the sound echo off bare walls and floor.
Megan and Joseph both flinched at the sound and moved closer to the corner of the wall as far from him as they could get. But the guy didn’t even look at them.
Kenna moved her gun into view, matching Jax’s stance, but with her hips back into her coat, making the sides hang where they might disguise her front. Or at least not make it obvious she was pregnant.
Far as she could see, this guy didn’t have a gun.
“That’s the thing,” Jax said. “It isn’t your house.”
Kenna picked up the line of questioning. “The name on the mortgage is Mitch Caudell, but he died overseas six years ago. So who are you?”
“The person who lives here!”
“Call the police. Tell them we’re here and you want us to leave.” Kenna shrugged. “We’re happy to be escorted from the premises.”
A tendon in his jaw ticked. He had no intention of calling the police. But she did.
Before she could reach for her phone again, the front door slammed open and footsteps in the hall preceded Ramon and Zeyla rushing in a second later with their guns drawn.
“Everyone good?” Ramon moved into a defensive position in front of Kenna so she got a good view of his jacket and jeans, and the back of his head, but not much else.
“We’re good,” Kenna replied.
But Megan and Joseph still looked scared for their lives.
Zeyla scanned the room, clocking each person. Taking in more than the average citizen. Cataloguing threats and assessing the situation. “Take the woman and the kid out. I’ll make it look like self-defense.”
Jax said, “We don’t murder people in cold blood.”
Kenna agreed with her husband’s statement but wasn’t going to immediately discount Zeyla’s idea. She found she was morewilling to find gray areas these days than she’d ever been before in her life. Just not right now in front of two innocents.
“Megan, you and Joseph come over here.” She held out a hand, around Ramon.
Megan looked at Kenna’s Hispanic friend.
“He’s here to protect us,” Kenna said. “And we’re all here to protect the two of you.”
She started to move, Joseph still clinging to her leg. The guy grabbed her, pulled them both in front of him, and swung his arm around her neck. Megan swallowed a scream, her eyes pleading with them to help her.
Kenna ducked back behind Ramon, fully confident her husband and two friends would take care of the situation. While they called out orders to him to let her go and put his hands on his head.
“911, what’s your emergency?”
“We need the police,” Kenna said. “This guy is hurting his girlfriend and child.”
She told the dispatcher the street address and described the house. When he asked more questions, she gave as much information as she could, explaining she was a private investigator here to ask about a cold case murder.
They talked long enough for him to say, “There’s a patrol car pulling onto the street now.”
“Thank you.” Kenna hung up, whether the conversation was over or not.
She ducked into the hall and heard Megan yelp, then opened the front door and waited for the uniformed officers to park. She waved the two of them over, both guys in their thirties or forties. “Thank you so much for coming.”
When the two men entered the hall and went into the living area, Zeyla and Ramon were both gone. Jax alone stood guardover the three—the captor and his two victims. “He won’t let her go. He just rushed in and grabbed them.”
The two cops moved through the space with confidence. Both had heavy gear on their belts and overcoats over their uniforms. Beanies were tucked into pockets, and neither drew their weapon.
