Текст книги "Wicked Lies"
Автор книги: Lora Leigh
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“Who?” The question was soft, the sound so nonthreatening Kenni watched Cord warily.
“Later, Cord,” Jazz said as the sound of a vehicle coming up the drive could be heard. “Slade’s here and I want to see that video. And I think the three of you need to do more than focus on who to kill. Focus on who’s alive instead.”
“They’ll pay, sunshine,” Cord promised, that too-soft, too-gentle voice sending a shudder racing up her spine. “I promise you, they’ll pay.”
CHAPTER 15
The DVR was still encrypted when Slade and Zack arrived.
“I want that program,” Slade growled as he handed her the device, his gray eyes gleaming with amused irritation, his expression rueful. “Or I want to play with cracking it.”
“Not hardly,” Kenni drawled, turning back to the table where her laptop was waiting and taking the chair in front of it. “Gunny spent two years building the security encryption just for me. I think I’m rather possessive of it.” Slanting a thoughtful sideways look for a second, she added, “I might give you a shot at cracking it, though.” Just to see how long it would take him.
Turning to her brothers Slade nodded warily, obviously waiting for Kenni to pull up the video.
Deacon and Sawyer moved around the table to see the computer screen, arms crossed over their chests, their glowering expressions giving them a savage cast.
They were furious. Kenni could feel the waves of rage pulsing around them. They were doing nothing to hide it, but it was Cord’s silent, icy expression that had everyone’s nerves on edge.
Even Kenni’s.
Once that expression would have meant Kin arriving from three different states then disappearing with Cord for days at a time. She understood now that the groups were more than just friends of her brothers or some ordinary hunting trip. No doubt, blood had been shed on each of those excursions.
It took only seconds for the computer to recognize the DVR’s hard drive and pull it up. Clicking on the decryption program, she opened the video file within it then sat back and watched the status bar as the file loaded. It opened with a request to choose the file needed.
Motion-activated indoor cameras automatically recorded until all movement had stopped for five minutes. Choosing the first recorded file for that day she watched as it opened, revealing the two black-garbed figures entering the back door of the rental house.
They began there, systematically tearing it apart with no regard for neatness, just as they began talking without considering who or what may be listening.
“Do you really think if she’s that Maddox bitch, she was stupid enough think she could stay hidden?” the shorter of the two man team murmured.
She knew that voice.
Frowning, Kenni watched their movements, the shape of their bodies, and their stride as they moved around the kitchen.
“Oh, she’s Kendra Maddox. The DNA tests confirmed it. Why do you think the boss is so desperate now?”
Kenni straightened in her chair. DNA?
A muted chuckle sounded then. “Wouldn’t Colter be pissed to know we have his lab contact? She keeps telling him the results haven’t come back yet. It’s all I can do not to thank him whenever I see him, for being the nosy bastard he is.”
Slade.
The blood she’d gotten on the kitchen towel at his house. Evidently Jazz hadn’t rinsed and bleached it as he’d led her to believe.
Behind her, Slade cursed under his breath, the sound rife with anger. Served him right for stealing her damned blood. But it didn’t serve her right, because his actions had been the catalyst for the renewed attempts against her.
“Before or after Cord let you know I wasn’t really Annie Mayes?” she asked her friend’s husband.
“After,” he growled. The knowledge that his lab contact had sold him out must not be sitting well with him. “The background you came in with actually satisfied me,” he added, the rueful irritation in his tone almost amusing.
“Marriage is making you lazy,” Cord accused him disgustedly. “It didn’t satisfy me for a minute.”
But then Cord had been born suspicious.
“She has cameras,” one of the men on the video stated as they entered the living room, staring at the picture she’d hidden the lens behind.
Striding across the room and reaching up, he jerked the frame from the wall. Thankfully the camera on the other side of the room activated and began recording.
Bastards. They snapped the camera from its connection before following the wires through the wall, busting drywall and pulling them free as they went.
“Damned bitch,” one of them breathed in irritation. “I have half a mind to feed her to my damned cat once she’s dead.”
Her eyes narrowed on the video. The way he’d spoken had triggered a memory not yet fully formed.
The silence behind her was deafening.
The threats continued as they traced the wires to the next camera in the bedroom, once again missing the backup there. Finding the decoy box they ripped it from the wall and packed it and the cameras into a black pack. Then they proceeded to destroy the bedroom.
“Don’t forget to destroy the clothes.” The order was given with an air of amusement. “Boss says it’s about the worst thing we could do to her. I guess she likes her pretty clothes more than most women.”
No, it wasn’t that she liked her clothes more than most; she just wouldn’t have had the cash to replace the quality of clothes she did have. Two years without being hunted like a rabbit and she’d managed to purchase a few of the more fashionable items she might have had if her world hadn’t exploded on her ten years ago.
They took a lot of enjoyment in destroying them as well. As they ripped, tore, and cut the material, they also found a lot of enjoyment in discussing the “boss.”
But what were they looking for?
Nothing in particular had been mentioned, though they systematically went through every drawer, looked beneath them, tore at the carpeting, checked the vents.
“Nothing.” The announcement was made as one of them exited the bathroom after destroying it as well. “She doesn’t have anything.”
“Boss says there’s rumors she’s been taking a lot of pictures,” the other reminded him. “She should have at least had a camera.”
“Or her cell phone?” the first retorted, scoffing at the idea of a camera. “You know what gossip is like around here. She probably said she wanted pictures and someone took it and ran with a camera.”
That was always a possibility, Kenni thought in amusement. Gossip in small towns tended to be like that.
“They were after your files,” Sawyer murmured then. “Any indication that you were investigating who was giving the orders or recognized anyone who’d been sent after you in the past.”
“Where were they hidden?” Deacon question softly, indicating the pictures and hard copy of the few files she’d printed.
“Beneath her box springs.” It was Cord who answered the question. “That’s where she used to hide everything. Then she hid under the bed herself.”
Well, one point for the older brother, she thought painfully. He’d paid attention when she was a child when she hadn’t thought he had. Had he been even remotely involved in the attempts on her life, he would have told whoever was sent to search the house to be certain to check there.
“All kids hide under the bed,” Deacon snorted doubtfully. “That doesn’t mean anything.”
“Not like Kenni. If there was something she valued she made a slit beneath the box springs and hid it inside there,” Cord stated softly. “She would hide under the bed herself whenever she thought she was in trouble. We let her think she was pulling it off. She never learned she wasn’t, evidently.”
“She learned. She was just out of options when you stepped in with the boob squad.” She nodded to Deacon and Sawyer. “I hope you at least use a muzzle whenever you take them out on jobs with you.”
“Industrial-strength glue,” Cord snorted.
“Yeah, I always said they were untrainable,” she remembered, her voice softening at the insult she would throw at her brothers when she was younger.
Keeping her gaze on the video, she frowned as one of the black-garbed figures stood at the doorway and turned back to the room. His head tilted, his gaze circling with narrow-eyed intent.
He didn’t even pause as his gaze swept over the hidden eye of the backup camera she’d placed next to a nail hole in the scratched, aged trim of the window. The lens blended in perfectly among the other blemishes, the trim replaced without so much as a scuff mark to indicate it had been removed at any time.
He sensed it, but he just wasn’t good enough to know what it was he was sensing.
“Let’s go, bro,” the other urged. “Daylight’s coming in.”
Turning, the would-be assassin/burglar strode quickly across the kitchen without disturbing the cereal thrown across the floor.
“I know them.” Frowning at the video as the two left by the back door, Kenni could feel the answer to their identity teasing at her mind.
“So do I,” Jazz murmured. “I just can’t place it.”
Her brothers didn’t comment either way.
Closing the file she pulled up the file log, saw that the only recording remaining was the time she’d arrived at the house and disconnected the encryption program.
“Like Slade, I want a chance to crack that program.” Sawyer was all but rubbing his large techie hands in excitement at the chance to get into Gunny’s program.
“Gather your things, Kenni,” Cord said then. “We’ll leave as soon as I can discuss a few things with Slade.”
The shocking statement had her head jerking up, her gaze meeting Jazz’s as he came from behind her.
He stilled next to the table, his eyes meeting hers slowly.
“I’m not going anywhere, Cord.” Setting the electronic lock on the laptop, she closed the lid and slid it aside with deliberate care. “I’m fine where I’m at.”
“Like hell…”
She rose to her feet and turned to face him.
“Didn’t Poppy tell you, this is home,” she told him softly. “As long as Jazz allows me to stay, it’s home.”
A heavy frown creased his brow. “Think Poppy won’t head straight here when we tell him?”
Kenni turned to Jazz with a mocking smile. “How many others will have to know, I wonder?”
“God, Kenni, Poppy’s never recovered…” Sawyer whispered in disbelief, his voice hardening at the thought of keeping their father in the dark.
“There’s no coming back from dead, Sawyer,” she reminded him painfully, turning back to them. “Poppy would be easier to get to than even the three of you. He’s cemented in those he trusts, and he trusts David. He always has. How many other Kin does he trust that far who are aligned with whoever killed Momma?”
“Kenni, you need to come home,” Cord growled despite the arguments as he glanced at Jazz. “Just because Poppy gave him a few things he knew you loved and Jazz built your dream house doesn’t mean it’s happily-ever-after. That was then…”
“And this is now,” she replied, her voice sharper perhaps than she’d intended. “And I’m not going anywhere, Cord.”
“Those are Maddox eyes, and Slade’s lab contact may have identified her DNA as Maddox, but I’m not convinced she’s Kenni,” Deacon said then, his tone icy. “Kenni wouldn’t have hidden for ten years, she wouldn’t have denied her family the truth that she was alive, and she wouldn’t endanger the man she thought she was in love with ten years ago.”
“And Deacon would have known better than to think I’m so easy to maneuver,” she snorted as she began pushing the laptop, DVR, pictures, and files into the leather bag. “The three of you need to figure that one out now.”
“You’re not protected here, Kenni,” Cord argued. “Slade has his own family to think of, that just leaves Zack to help…”
“She said she’s not leaving.” Jazz didn’t raise his voice or issue a threat, but the tension in the room intensified significantly.
She knew how the bone felt between two dogs now.
“Kenni’s not one of your playthings, Jazz. It’s been ten years since you asked Poppy to let you see her, don’t try to convince us whatever you felt for her then still exists now,” Deacon argued, his expression glowering.
Kenni didn’t think she could bear to hear the answer to that accusation.
“Enough, all three of you.” Slapping her hand to the table, she turned to her brothers and let them see the outrage surging through her.
“Kenni, you’re still our sister,” Cord bit out before she could say anything more. “Our baby sister. The thought of losing you again—”
“Is one of the reasons I didn’t want you to know,” she cried out. “Do you think I’m not aware of how the three of you and Poppy hurt? Did you think I wanted you to have to suffer any further?”
“Then come home,” he demanded, his tone low. “Come home, Kenni.”
But she was home. She could feel that truth in every fiber of her being. It wasn’t just the house, the pool, or the gazebo. It was Jazz and part of her soul refused to let the dream of belonging to him go as so many other dreams had been lost.
* * *
It had to be her choice.
Jazz kept reminding himself that he couldn’t make her stay, and he couldn’t place his fist in any of her brothers’ faces, unless they tried to hit him first. He rather doubted he could push them into hitting him first right now.
That didn’t keep him from glaring at them.
Son of a bitch, he was almost scared they were going to talk her into leaving.
Cord would be the one to persuade her, he thought. She’d always been closer to him than the others. For years she’d been his shadow, trying to follow him everywhere he went.
“No, Cord.” Her tone was firm, firm enough that she had her brothers looking at one another as though seeking answers. “I’m fine here. For now.”
“And when this is over?” Deacon asked then, shooting Jazz a dark look. “When it’s safe to go home, will you go? Or are you going to wait until he’s finished with you? Until he’s convinced you what great and wonderful friends the two of you can be while everyone’s laughing at you behind your back?”
“Enough.” Jazz stepped forward, placing himself at Kenni’s back, ready to get her the hell out of there as both Slade and Zack moved to the ends of the table, bracketing the Maddox brothers. “Get the hell out of here, Deacon, before I end up pissing her off and teaching you a few manners.”
Deacon’s bark of sarcastic laughter loosened the leash Jazz normally kept on his temper. “Manners? Like yours, Lancing? The kind where you keep your damned mouth shut and don’t tell us our sister is alive?” he snapped. “You should have contacted us immediately.”
“Cord you should leave now,” Jazz drawled with icy fury, lifting his hands to Kenni’s shoulders as she started toward her brother, fists clenched, fine tremors racing over her body. “And get Deacon the hell out of my house until you can convince him to have a civil tongue while he’s in it.”
Deacon was getting madder by the minute, Jazz realized, and he didn’t need that right now. Hell, Kenni didn’t need that right now.
“You’re making a mistake, Kenni.” Deacon focused on his sister, his brows lowering as the anger raging through him darkened his gaze and hardened his expression. “You’ve been in Loudoun long enough to know what they say about his women.”
“And what would that be, Maddox?” Jazz pushed Kenni behind him and stepped closer to the other man. “Go on, push some damned stupid insult out of your mouth about a single woman I’ve been linked to. Be that stupid man, so I have the excuse I need to kick your damned ass.”
“Stop this.” Kenni managed to push herself ahead of him again, moving to place herself between the two of them before Jazz pulled her back. “Deacon, this is enough. Right now.”
The tension in her voice, the hurt was enough to send adrenaline pulsing through him. She’d been hurt enough in the past ten years; he’d be damned if he’d let her brothers hurt her further.
“Kenni, come on. Ten years and the man has never had a serious relationship.” His bark of laughter was cutting. “Does that sound like a man you want to bet your heart on?”
“I bet my heart on him when I was sixteen and the three of you told me to stay away from him or you’d break his bones,” she cried out then, surprising Jazz with that bit of information. “I didn’t listen to you then, Deacon. I went to Poppy instead, and from what I’ve heard, he reined your asses in.” Jerking from Jazz she stepped closer to her brothers, outrage and anger trembling through her. “Say one more nasty word to or about Jazz and I promise you, when I do go to Poppy, I’ll tell why I won’t be moving in, coming to visit him, or attending any holiday meal or party thrown in his home. Because my brothers are too possessive and too damned superior to accept that I have enough common sense to make a decision for myself, despite the fact that I did play a rather large part in keeping my own ass alive for ten years.”
She didn’t yell, she didn’t have to. The minute she mentioned going to her father the three men backed down with their proverbial tails tucked and stayed there.
“Don’t punish me,” Sawyer muttered, giving Deacon a hard push to the door. “I didn’t do anything.”
“Poppy didn’t care ten years ago if you were part of it or not. You let him open his big dumb mouth so you were just as culpable. Has his opinion on that changed?” she questioned them harshly, but even Jazz knew the answer to that one. Poppy hadn’t changed one whit.
“Not hardly,” Cord muttered, stomping to the back door before turning back to Jazz with a killing stare. “Don’t let anything happen to her, Jazz. Nothing.”
Jazz crossed his arms over his chest and met Cord’s glare with one just as antagonistic. “Anyone will have to go through me, Marcus, and Essie to get to her,” he informed her brother. “And you know yourself, trying to get through me isn’t something that’s considered advisable.”
“The problem is, there’s a lot of things about you that aren’t considered advisable. Especially when it comes to women,” Deacon snorted though he was already on his way out the door.
Tightening his jaw, Jazz forced himself not to follow the Maddox brother out the door and teach him the manners he’d obviously forgotten over the years. Instead, he turned back to Kenni.
Once again she lifted the pack containing her laptop and the DVR and headed for the doorway.
“Kenni, are you okay?” There was something about her expression, her eyes, that bothered him, that made his chest ache.
She did things to him no one ever had, made him feel things he hadn’t realized he’d never felt before, and none of it made sense.
“I’m fine, Jazz.” the assurance did nothing to relieve the tension building in his senses. “I’m just tired. I’d like to take a nap, I think.”
He glanced at Slade and Zack as they, too, watched her, the curious concern in their expressions mirroring his own.
Hell, what had he done?
As she disappeared through the hall on the other side of the television room, he turned back to Slade.
“What did I do?” Hell if he knew, but damned if he didn’t feel guilty all the same.
Slade just shook his head.
“Some things a man has to learn on his own, Jazz,” he finally chuckled as he headed for the back door. “I think I’ll go take a nap myself. I swear, you two are enough to make a man tired. Real tired.”
Glancing at Zack, Jazz lifted his brow questioningly. The other man just shrugged as though to say it was hard damned telling when it came to Slade.
And that was the damned truth.
CHAPTER 16
He found her in the bedroom, the balcony doors now closed as she stood to the side and looked out on the edge of the valley as it met the slope of the mountain rising over it.
“Deacon and Sawyer left,” she said as he moved across the room to stand several feet from her. “Cord’s still out there, though, just above that table rock that looks out on the pool.” Somber knowledge filled her gaze. “He thinks I didn’t see him slip into the tree line.”
Evidently her brother didn’t have a lot of faith in his ability to protect her or in her ability to survive.
“Well, there go my plans for skinny-dipping.”
The look she gave him was one of exaggerated disbelief. “Then you weren’t intending to do so anyway. You wouldn’t let Cord stop you.”
His brow lifted. Shooting her a grin, he inclined his head in acknowledgment. “That’s true,” he agreed. “But if you want to skinny-dip, sweetheart, I’ll make sure it happens for you.”
He’d made certain she had her house, the gazebo with the bed in it, the pool, and everything else she’d mentioned she would have on the property if it were hers and he’d never imagined for a moment she’d enjoy it in any way.
“Yes, you would,” she whispered, and in her eyes he could see the knowledge of the same memories that drifted through his mind. “God, Jazz, you confuse me.”
Of course he did. In the ten years she’d been running she’d known very little warmth or gentleness. It had been all about survival, about living one more day.
And Kenni was a survivor. As much as he hated it, as much as it enraged him that she’d been forced to learn the skills to survive, still, he respected the strength he saw in her.
It challenged him, though. It made him want to see how far he could push her personally, how deep that vein of independence and defiance went when it came to her lover.
“Because I’d make Cord lurk somewhere else so you could go skinny-dipping?” He lifted a brow curiously. “That’s more self-preservation, sweetheart. You know I’d have to go and get me some of that.” He nodded toward her with a wicked lift of his brows. “And that’s not something we’d want him to witness.”
She shook her head to that and he almost grinned. Of course, that gleam of future retaliation he saw in her eyes was something he was going to look forward to.
Moving away from the curtained doors, she stared around the bedroom for a long moment before turning back to him.
“What are we going to do now?” she asked, running her hands through her hair and staring back at him with narrowed eyes.
“What do you want to do now?” he asked in return. “No doubt whoever went through the house was watching it after they left. That’s what I would do anyway. They’ll know who you’re with and where you are. Cord knows that as well, that’s one of the reasons he wanted to hustle you back home, where he believes you’ll be more secure.”
She was shaking her head even before he finished. She knew that wasn’t her best bet.
No one had ever accused her of being a dummy. Confused perhaps, too damned stubborn and independent definitely. But she was smart. She always had been.
“That would be the worst thing I could do,” she murmured before moving to her pack, lifting it to the bed, and loosening the leather flap while frowning thoughtfully.
“We’ve pushed and now someone’s messing up.” Leaning against the dresser behind him, he watched her unpack the clothes she’d had hidden somewhere. “We just need to push a little more.”
“A little more push could find us in a sniper’s sight,” she warned him. “That’s not a pleasant place to be.”
And she would know. She’d been there more than once.
He had to take a careful hold of his control, something he could feel slipping, tugging at his determination to use caution now.
The hell she’d endured for the past ten years was pissing him off more by the day. Facing her brothers had been incredibly difficult as well. So difficult she’d immediately distanced herself, pulling back and placing an invisible mental shield between herself and the three men she’d adored as a young girl.
“We’re not going to figure it out right now,” he warned her, coming to that realization himself. “What we can do, though, is see about getting something to eat and maybe going through the information you’ve pulled together so far.” Straightening and dropping his arms from his chest, he gave her a hard look. “You shouldn’t have waited to let me see the files and pictures you have, Kenni. You should have let me know you had the information.”
“There’s a lot of things I probably should have done over the years, Jazz,” she stated wearily, moving past him. “Add that one to it.”
Catching her arm Jazz pulled her to a stop and smiled down at her, carefully restraining the need to let the impulses rising inside him free.
“Are you learning from your mistakes, though?”
“Who said I made a mistake?” Soft, challenging, the dare in her voice had his body hardening as though he hadn’t just taken her a few hours before.
Catching her free wrist before she could avoid him and securing it behind her back with the other, he stared down at her. The wildness reflected in her deep, emerald-green eyes was a match for the core of wildness that burned inside him.
Hell, he knew she was a match for him, in every way. He had a feeling she was too concerned with protecting those she loved than she was with understanding the emotions she didn’t know how to deal with.
“I said you made one, cupcake.” The assurance slipped past his lips before he could call it back, the need to force the emotions she kept so carefully contained, free, nearly overwhelming.
But that need had only been growing since the day he’d met her. Since he’d stared into hazel eyes and seen fear and mystery that were so much a part of her.
Her eyes narrowed. “Cupcake? Really, Jazz?”
“Soft, sweet, and so very edible,” he assured her, his voice lowering as her lips parted, her subconscious sensuality peeking out, tempting him.
Lips trembling, her gaze flickered from his, though her body softened further. The contradictions in her would keep him guessing for years.
If he could keep her with him.
“Now, we have two choices considering you haven’t eaten today. Dinner, or that bed over there with me between your thighs, riding us both to exhaustion. That won’t take long for you, I’m guessing.”
Shadows were already gathering beneath her eyes and her face was paler than it had been that morning. Her expression was strained with tension, with tiredness.
“Dinner,” she snapped.
When she pulled against his hold again he let her go, slowly.
The need to touch her, to have her, was like a hunger he couldn’t sate now. The need to take care of her was just as strong, he was realizing. To ensure she was safe, protected. Nothing else mattered, not even the lust that dug sharp little claws into his balls.
“Dinner,” he agreed, stepping back from her before running his fingers restlessly through his hair. “Definitely dinner.”
“How long before it’s going to slip, Jazz?” she asked, carefully moving several feet out of his reach.
“Before what slips?” If he didn’t get out of the bedroom and away from that bed, the image of her beneath him out of his mind, then there was no way she’d get dinner first.
“Whatever you’re holding back,” she retorted as though she knew what the hell she was talking about. “What are you hiding, Jazz, and how much longer can you actually keep it hidden?”
“You better hope I keep it hidden until I figure out how to leash it,” he warned her. “Because trust me, darlin’, that’s an animal you just don’t want to deal with right now. Not at all. Now, let’s go see about dinner.” He strode to the doorway before turning back to her. “Should I lay out a steak for that asshole brother of yours?”
Her eyes narrowed, lips thinning at the mockery in his tone.
“Might as well,” she answered him, her sugary politeness when combined with the dare in her eyes almost more than he could resist.
“I’ll do that then.” Nodding shortly, he left the bedroom and the woman.
He really needed to feed her first. She was going to need her strength.
* * *
Who did he think he was fooling?
After eight years on the run with Gunny and meeting countless military types, she’d learned to recognize what one marine’s outspoken girlfriend had called a vein of pure dominance in a class A sex machine.
The explanation that went with it had left her blushing for days. Now Kenni could well understand why the girlfriend had seemed so very smug.
That particular girlfriend hadn’t been dealing with more than just the sex machine, though, while she was, Kenni thought morosely. She was dealing with a protective sex machine, something she’d never imagined coming up against.
The fact that he’d been incredibly aroused wasn’t lost on her, either. She’d escaped, probably in the nick of time, though she didn’t doubt for a moment it was because he’d let her go.
Moving into the kitchen behind him she watched his back carefully, left the gate opened just enough for Squirrel to slip in behind her, then moved to the table where she sat down. Lifting the puppy to her lap, she was amazed at how heavy he was, and the fact that hiding him wasn’t really going to happen. He was too intent on giving puppy kisses to her cheek whenever she couldn’t avoid him.
“That pup is going to think he’s allowed out here,” Jazz warned her as he moved to the back door.
“So?”
“So, it’s not fair to the rest of them, and if the rest of them are out here then we’ll have a mess you do not want to clean up, I promise.” Before she could answer the charge he was out the back door, his deep voice booming. “Maddox, get your ass in here if you want a steak.”
Kenni winced. No doubt his voice had echoed all across the valley. She could almost see Cord’s irritated expression. If he was trying to actually catch someone who may be watching, those hopes had just been dashed to hell and back.
“There, he was invited.” The door slapped closed behind him.
“It was your idea to invite him.” Shrugging, she watched him with narrowed eyes as Squirrel finally curled up on her lap and settled down.
“I was being facetious,” he informed her, his voice and his expression bland as he moved to the refrigerator.
He was not. He knew damned good and well Cord would have gone nuts when Jazz began grilling the steaks. Jazz wanted to irritate him with the bellowing invitation, nothing more. Come to think of it, those two had never really been able to get along despite the fact that she knew they were friends.
Kind of friends anyway.
“That’s what you get for being facetious,” she informed him as though he were serious. “Perhaps next time you’ll forget the facetiousness.”
He tossed the steaks to the counter as the back door opened with a firm push.
“Lancing, you have a big mouth,” he snapped.
Jazz pretended to ignore him. Washing his hands quickly, he turned back to the steaks and began tearing them out of their white paper.
