“Hand over the family you kidnapped and tell your men to stand down.”
Bear swallowed, thinking for a moment. He reached up to his lapel and grasped it for a second. “Pull back to the car while I sort this out.”
Jax said, “Let the family go.”
“Give me the tech you have, and I will.” Bear lifted his chin. “That’s why we’re all here.”
“Not the only reason, but one of them.”
“So you just wanted to accuse me of kidnapping Maizie as well? I haven’t touched her.” Bear seemed offended. “I can’t believe you’d even think that.”
Kenna said, “Is it so crazy? You have Ramon. He isn’t answering his phone. Where are Amara and Bruce, Bear? Have you seen them?” Right now, she wasn’t even sure she had spoken with Amara a few days ago—or however long that had been. Felt like forever. “Someone knocked me out with a chemical and took Maizie. The same people who shot at Jax and Zeyla. Your people.”
Bear shook his head. “That wasn’t us.”
“You really expect us to believe that?” Jax asked. “You must think we’re stupid. You’re behind basically everything that’s happened to us in a week. You probably planted Zeyla’s prints at those two crime scenes so that she’d get arrested. Picking apart our team. And for what? Because you work forDominatusnow?”
Bear backed off from Jax, turning slightly so she had a decent shot at his center mass if she lifted the shotgun.
She left it where it was, for now. “Why did you take Maizie?”
Chapter Forty-Four
Bear looked at her, a haggard expression on his face. “We didn’t take Maizie.”
“Your people took Ellayna. Why would I believe you didn’t take Maizie?” Kenna looked out at the view off her front porch. What a nightmare this had turned into. Cold air blew across the snowy fields and rattled the screen door. Kenna spotted the dogs running across a field and heard a whistle.
She looked back at Bear. “Let them go, and we’ll talk about this, because you guys have some explaining to do.”
“We don’t work for you, Kenna.”
She didn’t think they worked for her, but she had thought they were friends. Colleagues. People who kept each other in the loop and shared information. She was about to argue but didn’t get the chance.
He said, “We workwiththe president.”
“Is that supposed to put us on the same side, then? The president exposed my team to the world and put us all under the spotlight. And for what? So she could make herself look better. Now it seems like you’re the reason behind everything going on with us.” She leaned back in the rocking chair. “What am Isupposed to believe? Except that you kidnapped a family and are holding them against their will.”
Bear said, “They’re good in the car. We need to talk first.” He grabbed his radio and held the button. “All positions hold at the vehicles.”
The MSI operatives started to back up to the vehicles, creating a perimeter around them. No one relaxed. If anyone with MSI made a wrong move, Preston’s security team would open fire.
Bear said, “There’s a faction of MSI that broke off from us when our boss, Earl Jonas, was killed. They went their way, and we went ours.”
Jax had told her about that because it happened right around the time he rescued her fromDominatus. Yet another time when Maizie had been in danger, and Kenna hadn’t been able to help.
She wouldn’t let Maizie suffer now.
Bear continued, “They split from us, and we haven’t been able to figure out what they were up to.”
“You were busy,” Jax said. “Taking over old military bases that Schnell controlled. Scooping up assets after he was arrested. Building up your team with our people.”
None of this convinced her that they didn’t have Maizie. But if it was some rogue division of MSI, then they’d knocked her out with something that wouldn’t hurt the baby. Not that she was going to thank them, but with theDominatuspeople she’d met being so adamant that they didn’t want to hurt her baby, that might be the only part that fit.
“And working for the president,” Jax finished.
“Which is funny,” Kenna said. “Because I thought we were the ones under her thumb.”
A tendon in Bear’s jaw flexed. “A few weeks ago, we intercepted a transmission between the interim Grand Master and the rest ofDominatus.It said that they intended to choosea new leader and that it would involve testing each of the candidates to see who came out on top. That person would be the new leader, along with their spouse. A single person with authority, or a power couple who could push the group into the future.
