The defense wanted her to talk about how there was no way she could ever have escaped her fate. It would always have been tied up withDominatus. That, in a way, they’d done thisto themselves in pushing her to the point that she’d effectively snapped and killed them all.
“Yes, Your Honor.” The defense attorney looked at her.
She didn’t look at the defendant. Kenna couldn’t even meet her gaze. She didn’t know what she would see there.
He asked, “Is it true that your parents were both a part of this group,Dominatus?”
“Yes, they tried to escape it. My mother—at least, I think of her as my mother—faked her death to keep my father safe. She went back toDominatusand later raised her other daughter as part of the group. She felt she had no choice but to keep my father and me safe by allowing us to believe she was dead.”
“And my client?”
“She likely never knew any other life than theirs. Children are born to the womenDominatusclaims as mothers, raised by parents who are part of the group in a kind of adoption. Those children are then raised to be assets who infiltrate every facet of society in a grand plan to steer a country, or the whole world, the wayDominatushas planned for it to go.”
Kenna had seen it with her own eyes. She’d been manipulated by them, duped by them, nearly torn to pieces by them. She’d lost family members to the fight. In the end, it could have cost her everything, but God had His hand on them through it all.
She continued, “Her future would likely have been to become one of their mothers. They consider that their highest honor. But the woman isn’t given a choice. They’re selected as nothing more than an incubator for the next generation.”
“It’s my understanding that there’s a generation of women inDominatuswho will never have children. That it was, in fact, your mother who sterilized everyone except you.”
Kenna nodded. “That’s correct. They’ve managed to get around the problem by artificial insemination, but the women ofDominatuswon’t have children that are their own.”
Her mother had tried to deal a blow to the group, but once again, they’d adapted. There were factions within the group who would never give it up. Kenna and her family had taken on the task of finding and dismantling every part ofDominatusuntil she had put a stop to all of it.
But she’d had to make the worst kind of choice in order to put herself in the position to do that.
A choice she just knew the defense was about to bring up.
“The goal is to dismantle them,” Kenna said. She had to say that. People needed to know—especiallyDominatus—that the group was on borrowed time.
One mass casualty event, as tragic as that was, hadn’t dealt a death blow to the group. There was still work to be done. But Kenna and the rest of Banbury Investigations were in this fight until the very end.
She’d made that promise, and she intended to keep it.
The defense attorney almost looked smug. “My client, acting under the worst kind of duress, attempted to do just that. Because after a lifetime of subjugation and terror, she found the power to fight back. To act in self-defense.”
“As I stated when I began, I wasn’t present to witness the event.” She wanted to call it a massacre, because that’s what it had been. But that was a term the media was using, trying to sensationalize the biggest trial in decades.
He continued, “It’s my understanding that you are now the head of this group,Dominatus. You’re their leader, are you not?”
Kenna stared at him, unwilling to lie under oath. “Yes, I am.”
Chapter Forty-Two
Salt Lake City, Utah
Fourteen Months Earlier
Jax didn’t hang around to see if the guy was actually out cold. He just left him to slump on the ground and ran across the parking lot faster than he’d ever run in his entire life, ignoring how much his ribs hurt.
Two black SUVs pulled out of the parking lot, leaving Kenna in the front seat. Taking Maizie.MSI took Maizie.Jax wanted to run after her, but they were too far away by the time he reached his wife.
He stumbled and nearly went down, scrambling to round the open door and crouch there beside Kenna. “Please, please.” He touched two fingers to her neck and found her heart pounding.
She was out cold.
Jax smelled an odd scent and leaned in to smell the area around her mouth. That wasn’t chloroform—thankfully. But whatever they’d shoved in her face had knocked her out.
“Kenna.” He shook her shoulder, then realized he’d rather have his hand over the baby.You’re going to be okay, baby.Their daughter would be born healthy to a healthy mother and raised in a loving family with two parents.Lord, I believe.
