Zeyla said, “Preston? The guy who was wrongfully convicted of murder and served the whole sentence.”
Kenna winced. “That doesn’t mean the same thing is going to happen to you.”
“I’m not just going to roll over and let them put me in prison. This isn’t a fight we need to take on because I don’t want to and you’ll be busy having that baby.” Zeyla shrugged like it was a done deal. “So, they can arrest me…if they can find me.”
Maizie’s expression saddened.
Kenna said, “None of us wants to lose you.”
“I know,” Zeyla said. “That’s why I’m still here, even though with anyone else I’d have taken off to do my own thing a long time ago.”
As far as working with Zeyla, and her being part of their family, that was as close to a declaration of love and affection as they were going to get from the woman. Probably ever.
“If you want to stay,” Kenna said, “no one is going to take this. We’ll fight with everything we’ve got.”
Zeyla said, “Sometimes, everything you’ve got isn’t enough.”
Kenna refused to believe that. “It has to be enough.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
“Whoa.” Maizie shifted to the edge of her chair, all her attention on her computer.
“What is it?” Kenna went over to the passenger’s seat and sat so her feet could get a break.
Zeyla got up from the dinette. “I’m going to shower and pack. Hopefully, the police don’t come here with an arrest warrant before I’m done with that.”
Jax watched her go, his expression like he wanted to say something to her but didn’t know how to convince her to stay. The truth was, Zeyla might be right. It would be far better to avoid the fight entirely than risk life in prison. Even if it meant living the rest of her life on the run, a fugitive from the US government.
It wasn’t much different from the life she’d lived so far. If anyone could make that situation work, it was Zeyla. But it also meant they would never see each other again. Zeyla would never get to be an auntie to Kenna’s baby.
“Take a look at this.” Maizie stood and placed her laptop on the dinette table. Jax shifted so he could see.
Kenna said, “Someone tell me what it is.” She closed her eyes, praying for Zeyla, since asking for a slowdown in the workof a police department didn’t sit quite right. She respected too many cops in this city to be comfortable asking for them to meet roadblocks in bringing Zeyla in for questioning. Or arresting her.
Still, she took a moment and told God how she felt. He knew, but it was part of the process that she let her thoughts have airtime. So she could articulate her fears and ask for wisdom.
“MSI sent you this?”
Jax’s question brought her attention around to the others in the RV. Maizie and Jax, the two people she was closest to in the world right now.
Kenna laid a hand over the baby, who was currently playing soccer with her insides. She shifted in the seat. “This kid is trying to bust out.”
Jax looked at her with a kind of wonder. “I don’t want to work this case. I want to drive to the cabin and forget all of it.”
She said nothing because she agreed, but they both knew they wouldn’t do it. At least not without knowing for sure that Ellayna and her family were safe…and Zeyla. “What did MSI send?”
The shower switched on in the bathroom.
Maizie slid across from Jax. “It looks like a contract, right?”
Jax nodded. “This is an invoice paying for the contract. Which is interesting in itself, since this isn’t what happened.” He scrolled down the page. “It had to have been a dark web transaction, and this is the paper trail. Maybe they found it and intervened.” He looked at Kenna. “Someone was hired to capture Ellayna Feathers from her home, and the orders include a note to dispatch anyone else in the house.”
“What does that mean?” Maizie asked.
“It means Abe and Crystal were going to be killed.” Jax looked at the screen again. “If MSI came across this, maybe it’s the reason why they sent their people to take the whole family. They knew there was a threat in play, and they stopped twomurders, plus whatever was supposed to happen to Ellayna after she was taken.”
“Any way to know who hired whoever they hired?” Kenna didn’t bother explaining. They would know what she meant.
