Kenna said, “Looks like we’re on the move. You good here, Maze?”
“What?” The young woman looked over and saw them all start to get up from the table. “Oh, I’m good. Whatever.” She waved a hand, refocusing on her work.
Kenna pushed her chair in, and her phone, still on the table, flashed to life with a notification. A new message.
She unlocked the device with her thumb and tapped the notification. Her heart sank at the image on the screen. A terrified woman, bound and gagged. Hair in her eyes. Blood under her nose.
Gabby Terrance stared at the camera.
A message popped up.
Give us the drive or she dies.
Chapter Eight
Kenna took a sip of her water and set the bottle back in the cupholder. Jax was in the driver’s seat of their armored vehicle, and Maizie’s voice came through the speakers.
They’d only been gone from the ranch for a couple of hours. Their current base of operations was far enough from Pueblo that no one could follow them without being noticed, but it meant that in order to look for Gabby or, as was the case right now, report her kidnapping to the police, they had to drive back to town.
Maizie said, “I have a program of mine working on the drive, trying to gain access. In the meantime, I’ve been checking on everything else.”
“What’d you find?” Kenna asked.
“The neighbor from Shawn’s street, the one who came over to talk to us? She’s posting videos all over socials, all about how”—she used a higher pitched, valley-girl tone—“‘Kenna and her team are investigating his death, so it’s got to be murder, right?’” Maizie continued in a normal voice. “Now she’s digging up Shawn’s blog posts about the software company he worked for and how their AI system was being used to spy on people who had their tech at home.”
Jax hissed out a breath. “She’s going to get herself hurt.”
“Or slapped with a lawsuit from this corporation.”
Maizie said, “Or kidnapped like Gabby Terrance.”
“Anything from the photo or the number itdidn’tcome from?” Okay, so that was a roundabout way for Kenna to mention the “unregistered” number the message had originated from. It wasn’t magic. It had come fromsomewhere.
“Nothing.” Maizie sounded disgruntled. “I’m working on it, but given who they are and what they can do, I don’t like my chances. They have a habit of getting away with murder.”
Jax pulled the car into the police station parking lot. “We won’t be able to pin it on one person in the company. They’ll have created separation between whoever gave the order and the person who carried it out.”
“So follow the money?” Maizie asked. “Because there’s no way they weren’t paid for murdering him.”
Kenna nodded slowly. “That’s one way to go about it. Have you heard from Zeyla yet? I’m hoping she is awake, and she can get out on the streets. Kick some doors in and get us closer to finding where they have Gabby.”
Jax slid the car into an open space in the parking lot and glanced at her. “After we file this police report, we can swing by her hotel and wake her up.”
Kenna wouldn’t have minded being the one to kick in some doors herself, but it wasn’t wise in her current situation. This wasn’t a case of waiting for things to get back to normal. It was a new season in her life—one that would last for the rest of it. She wasn’t ever going tonotbe a mother. Not anymore.
She had to accept the shift as permanent rather than just a season. After she had the baby, she would be spending her days keeping the child safe. Life wasn’t ever going to go back to what it had been.
Kenna would need to rely on her team to do the door-kicking instead.
She grabbed the door handle. “Let’s get this report filed.”
Jax met her at the front of the car. “Not our usual way of dealing with a kidnapping.” He held out his hand, a slight smile on his face.
She clasped his fingers, trying not to waddle when she walked. “The police don’t have a chance to find and rescue her or bring charges against the company if they know nothing about it.”
He nodded, pulling the door open and holding it so she could enter the lobby where the temperature was considerably higher than outside. It had a distinct scent of burned coffee and humanity, and behind the desk was a mess of file cabinets, stacks of paper, and plaques on the wall.
Kenna peeled off her coat and hung it over her arm, tugging her hair from her collar so it could hang loose. The uniformed officer behind the desk had sergeant chevrons on the sleeves of his shirt. He typed on the computer beside him, the desk phone between his ear and shoulder.
