“And it’s your job to fight them?” Hasworth wandered toward the jury, which everyone knew was posturing. But no one in a courtroom ever believed it wasn’t at least partly a show.
Kenna and the US attorney, a federal prosecutor, were on the same side. Kenna wasn’t the one on trial. But that didn’t stop her from feeling as if the spotlight was on her.
Someone coughed at the far end of the room.
Hot lights for the cameras caused sweat to bead at the small of her back. She could hear the scurry of pen across paper, and it felt like an ocean of eyes were on her.
Hasworth continued, “You’re just an average PI, right?”
“I’m not sure I’d ever say that,” Kenna responded. “After all, nothing about this journey has been average.”
“I’d say that’s accurate, given that you took on a dangerous cult with only a seventeen-year-old and a retired FBI agent.”
“You forgot my friend Dixie. She’s a realtor.”
Someone in the room snickered.
Kenna tried her best not to react to that. They wanted her to recount the entire story? Fine. Everyone was going to be here for hours. But they really did need all the context ofDominatusand the threat they posed to the world.
And why, in the end, she had chosen to make a stand against them in her own way.
She sniffed back the tickle of tears.
“I take cases,” Kenna said. “It might not be average, but it isn’t complicated. I had no idea any of this would happen. How could I have known?” She barely paused before continuing, “I would never have guessed that after saving a group of illegal immigrants from captivity in Colorado, the sheriff responsible for that crime would come after me and my family and ship us down to Mexico as captives subject to torture.”
She hadn’t thought much about that time recently, but the thankful prayer rose again in her heart, and she had to stop for a moment and say the words in her mind.Thank You.They had survived, and Maizie hadn’t been hurt when she’d come down to rescue them.
“But in the outcome, I got to right a wrong. I got to expose a corrupt FBI agent and exonerate a man whose reputation had been ruined by her.”
Hasworth went back to her table and flipped over a paper. “You’re referring, of course, to Ramon Santiago?”
Kenna nodded. “That’s his name.”
“And you deemed him trustworthy? Someone you could rely on to keep classified secrets and protect innocent people in your care?”
You never saw him with Maizie.“Turns out I’m a good judge of character.”
“It also seems you believe yourself to be judge, jury, and executioner.” Hasworth spread her hands. “Isn’t that what some might believe? That you pick and choose who to save and whose life to end.”
“Not always.” She’d rather have challenged the prosecutor on who she had killed, exactly. Because Kenna hadn’t pulled the trigger on the dirty FBI agent who had ruined Ramon’s career. She hadn’t done anything with that creepy child in the secret room in that house—couldn’t have done anything.
The child might have had sociopathic traits, but she’d been cared for in their own way.
The Rosenburg family had been determined to steer US policy. For years, they’d succeeded.
Now they were no more.
Leaving a power vacuum forDominatusto fill in the US, the way they did in other parts of the world.
“You honestly expect this court to believe the past few years of your life have somehow been part of a ‘master plan’ that the defendant was part of?”
“Doesn’t matter what the court believes. What matters is what can be proven.” Kenna shrugged, even if she didn’t feel that easy about any of this. “And the master plan isn’t on trial. Neither are the people behind it.”
“You’re right. We’re here to ascertain if the woman behind that desk”—Hasworth pointed at the defendant—“is guilty of the deaths of twenty-three people in Chicago.”
Kenna didn’t look at the defense table. She couldn’t meet the eyes of the woman on trial. After all, they were alike in so manyways. One tiny shift in how things had gone, and Kenna would be the one on trial, not her.
“Then we have to talk about New Orleans,” Kenna said. “Or you can’t hope to understand what she’s been through. What any of us have been through. You can’t know because you didn’t live it. That’s why I have to tell my story.”
