Silence echoed in the room.
“Say her name again.” Rickshire closed his eyes.
“No.” Jax didn’t want to admit she’d been taken by someone. Or that they suspected that’s what had happened. But he had to. “She’s disappeared. We think someone took her.”
Rickshire nearly jumped out of his skin. He flinched so hard the table would’ve moved if it wasn’t bolted to the floor.
“Inmate!” The officer didn’t move, but his voice pounded in the air as hard as a punch.
Rickshire stilled. Jax raised his hand, palm out, to the officer.
“Where is she?” Ellayna’s kidnapper spoke through clenched teeth. “Who took her?”
“I thought maybe you could tell me.” Jax had a hunch, and he played it. “After all, she’s yours, isn’t she? Ellayna Feathers belonged to you.”
He muttered something under his breath.
Jax leaned forward slightly. “What’s that?”
He had to get Gerald so angry about how someone else had the audacity to take Ellayna that he started talking.
“I guess someone else gets to play with her now.” Jax shrugged. “You lost your shot, thanks to Kenna, but someone else must have had their eye on her. They did what you couldn’t.”
Jax watched the tendons in his jaw flex as he chewed on the reality of what was happening.
“I guess, one day, you’ll get out of here. She’ll be older by then, so it won’t be the same.” Plus, by then, Rickshire would be ancient, if he didn’t die in prison. “Makes sense someone else gets a turn.”
“You came here to rub it in my face.”
Jax held his body steady. “I came to see if you know who might’ve taken her. That way, we can get her back.” He didn’t want to say that they were saving her for this piece of trash, but he would if he had to. Even if saying it made him want to throw up.
“Has anyone come here to ask you about her?”
Rickshire shook his head.
“You don’t have many visitors, but people do come to see you. Who are they? Friends and family…or fans?”
“We all have associates.”
“The names in the log are fake. We know the IDs are bogus. Tell me where to find James Longstreet. Or Stonewall Jackson.”
Rickshire’s lips curled up slightly.
“Clearly, they’re bogus, unless you have ghosts with Utah driver’s licenses coming to see you.” Jax flexed his fingers under the table. “One of them knows where Ellayna is. Don’t they owe it to you to give her back?”
“Maybe they’re doing me a favor.”
“Finishing what you started?” Jax shook his head. “I don’t think that’s how it works. Aren’t you the top dog? The one they all look up to. The legend who got away with it for years. Until Kenna Banbury came along and ruined everything.”
Now, this man was trying to cause her pain and suffering and hurt Ellayna in the process. Let alone whatever fate Crystal and Abe faced. That had to be why this was happening.
It should connect toDominatus. Maybe it did, but how? All he knew was that it might somehow be linked to their activities. Whatever they had planned for Kenna.
Rickshire shifted in his seat. “Don’t say that name to me.”
“She has a different name now, but nothing has changed. She’s going to rescue Ellayna because you’re going to tell me who took her.” Jax paused long enough to pray in his mind. Asking God for impossible things seemed commonplace these days.
Sometimes, those prayers were answered, and other times, they weren’t, but God’s goodness wasn’t predicated on whether or not Jax got what he wanted.
