Bridget nearly flinched but stood his ground. “I mean, when you’re waving it around, that is.”
Jax left them to it, glancing at the interesting artwork in the hospital room—a mannequin dressed like a showgirl in the corner. Except someone had stabbed her in the heart.
He kept going, looking for… He wasn’t sure what, but it beat standing around or going through drawers. Maybe he had a computer. Recording equipment for his podcast.
Or did Wallace Lofton rent another location to do the recordings?
Did he have a basement or a storage unit?
That could be where they might find Crystal, Ellayna, and Abe.
Living room. Kitchen. Even the detached garage on the side of the yard, and the shed out back. Jax walked through all of it, moving fast. Clearing it in his own way. And, if he wanted to admit it, bleeding off some of the tension of not knowing what would happen next with Kenna.
Worrying that the baby, and his wife, might not be fine. Anything could go wrong during a pregnancy, and the chance went up during labor astronomically. Not that he’d done an internet search on statistics or anything.
Still, the point was to not let her know that he was terrified of what could happen. The point was to create a calm, relaxing environment so that their daughter stayed put for as long as she needed. With the best chance to be born healthy.
He strode out of the shed and looked at the house, breathing hard. Hands on his hips.
Trying to figure out how he was going to be calm and supportive when there were so many things he had no controlover that might go wrong. Jax could do everything in his power to make sure it all turned out okay, but anything could happen.
He could lose it all.
Zeyla stepped out of the back door. Ryson followed her, and they met him in the middle of the yard. Grass crunched under his feet. “Did we find anything?” Otherwise, this trip had been for nothing. “Anything at all?”
Zeyla folded her arms. “The guy is probably dead because he was a loose end, and whoever took them is going to get away with it. If they’re even still alive.”
Jax and Ryson both turned to her.
“You asked.” She shrugged, which hunched her shoulders. “I thought we were free to give our opinions.”
Ryson said, “We have no idea where he is or if he knew about them being taken. He isn’t here, and neither are they. That’s the bottom line.”
“So you keep searching. All-points bulletin.” Kind of like Kenna trying that phone number over and over again. A futile exercise, but at least it made her feel better. A little, anyway.
Ryson nodded. “And we loop in the FBI. Get all the available people we can looking for Lofton and that family.”
Jax nodded. “No phone or computer?”
“Correct,” Ryson said.
“No secret rooms, or hidey-holes?” Zeyla asked.
“Not that we found.” The corner of Ryson’s lip twitched, but he didn’t smile.
Jax was glad, given that there was nothing funny about this situation. “But we have the number Ellayna called Kenna from, and we can track Lofton’s credit cards, online activity, and his phone.”
Ryson nodded. “Correct again.”
“Assuming it wasn’t a prerecorded message on the phone.” Jax hated the implication as soon as he said it. “All we have is one body and now four missing people.”
“Lofton will turn up. No way a guy like this is smart enough to disappear a family with no trace.” Zeyla shook her head. “He’s low-level. A nuisance. The goal was for him to draw attention to Ellayna. Probably so that Kenna would come here. Meanwhile, they take Ellayna, her mother, and her brother, and no one has a clue how or when or where they are.”
“They?” Ryson asked.
Zeyla stared at Jax, as if willing him to argue with her. “You know this hasDominatuswritten all over it.”
He didn’t want to say that aloud. Not to civilians or people he cared about that could get caught in the cross fire. But life didn’t often go as he planned.
