Page 23 of Now or Never
Instead, she’d been deep in her thoughts and distracted by the cold terror of facingDominatus. Everything she’d buried in her mind and was currently actively trying to avoid thinking about—let alone facing. Letaloneactually going up against. All of it swelled up like a wave that threatened to drown her every time she even thought about any of it.
“Hi, Maze.” Jax gave her a wave, then turned his head and kissed Kenna. “Hi.”
“Good morning.” She smiled. “Don’t worry, I’m good.”
He nodded, and the assessing gaze dissipated from his expression. “What are you working on?”
“Proof I’m not ignoring this. I’m just not sure if I really saw this guy or not.” She shifted on the seat, moving toward the window so Jax could sit by her after he’d poured his first cup of coffee.
It wasn’t six thirty yet, but these days it seemed like she didn’t sleep nearly as much as she used to, and then a day or two later she made up for it. As if the baby had decided on her own rhythm already and Kenna was along for the ride. When it happened, she enjoyed the quiet morning by herself, and when she slept, Kenna enjoyed the peace of being curled up in blankets alongside her husband. Either way, she didn’t have to face life outside the door of the RV.
“Who is he?” Jax put one arm along the back of the seat, his fingers on her shoulder in a reassuring touch.
“A bad guy. If this guy is loose in the world, we have mega problems. There will be a trail of ugly murder scenes behind him.”
“Then we need to find out so he can be shut down before he comes after you.”
Jax was probably right about that, but still she said, “We don’t know if I would be the target.”
“Not something I’m willing to wait and see on.” He said it so matter-of-factly.
Kenna found it hard to argue with him. “Not going up against a serial killer would be great.” Especially not one who hurt people because he got a kick out of suffering. “I’d rather not to do that anytime, let alone pregnant.”
The fact she was even saying that was a testament to how much in her life had changed. Things had shifted, and life became more complicated. The stakes of the work they did were higher—much higher—when they went up against the shadowy organization that her family wanted to take down personally.
She wasn’t exactly dragging her feet. More like flat out refusing to engage, past the work she’d always done. Work like saving Megan and Joseph from the situation they’d been in.
“So how do we find out who this is?” Maizie peered at the sketch now. “I can’t search every DMV database in the countryand the military, and every other facial recognition program. It could take weeks, and he might’ve killed a hundred people by then.”
“I’ll touch base with Amara,” Kenna said. “See if she knows him.”
Jax made ahmmsound in his throat, shifting on the seat. He took a sip of coffee but said nothing.
“Anything else, Maze?”
“Isn’t there always?”
The young woman was right, but Kenna didn’t know how else to change the subject. “Hit me with it.”
Maizie’s gaze shifted in a way Kenna could tell she was looking at other screens.
Kenna focused on the sketch for a second, long enough to decide she’d put it together as close to the real thing as she could.
“Bear messaged me again. He wants to talk to you. They’re working on a plan, and he needs your input.”
Kenna wasn’t sure she could avoid it much longer. “Put something on the calendar. How are things going at the platform?”
Jax shook his head. “I’m still surprisedDominatushasn’t just blown the thing away.”
“Or they don’t consider it a breach of security to leave it there.” Kenna shrugged. “Could be they have a different plan for the security team who took it over and we just haven’t seen what it is yet. Or whoever was in charge is gone in a way they can’t report in. Which means the head honchos don’t know the platform was taken back and everything going on there was shut down.”
“Makes sense, in a way. But only if they really do run things so separately with different factions and groups like splinter cells and no cohesive leadership. If everyone is doing their own thing and no one reports to anyone else, I guess thiscould happen and they wouldn’t retaliate. Or come looking for revenge.” Jax shrugged. “Just seems inefficient.”
“Or it’s the path of least resistance.”
Maizie said, “What do you mean?”
“They don’t have to have checks and balances, someone giving orders and everyone reporting in.” Kenna paused. “Seems more like they have a general goal, and everyone goes about it in their own way, however they want to do it. So you’ve got a whole lot of rogue operations, and over the long term, they get where they’re going. But it doesn’t make change very quickly.”
