Текст книги "Wicked Lies"

Автор книги: Lora Leigh

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Текущая страница: 16 (всего у книги 18 страниц)

A cry dragged from her when hard hands latched in her hair, dragging her to her feet as her stomach lurched sickeningly from the agony.

Oh God, she was going to vomit!

“You fucking whore,” Phoenix hissed in her face. “I’ll kill you now.” The barrel of the gun went to her temple. “You killed Colby.”

“You’re next,” she promised, feral rage ripping through her. “Jazz won’t let you live after this. And if he does, Cord sure as hell won’t. Did you think I wouldn’t tell them who I was after you killed Gunny? That I was in danger?”

“You’re lying. Cord would have told me. We’re best friends. He would have let me know if your bitch ass was alive,” he snarled.

Kenni smiled back at him with icy disdain. “Are you sure about that, Phoenix? Or do you just want to be sure of it?”

If he didn’t shoot her she would damned sure carry a bruise from the barrel digging into her head.

“You’re dead.”

“You don’t have the fucking ball…”

“Kenni, those biscuits done?” Jazz called out from somewhere between the hall and his bedroom. “I’m a hungry man.”

He was furious; Kenni could hear it in his voice. He’d really be mad once he saw how Colby was staining his nice tile floor.

She was whirled around, the gun barrel digging into her head as Phoenix gripped the hair at the other side to hold her in place.

“I want that card,” he snarled at her ear. “Or you can watch Jazz Lancing bleed, too.”

Something exploded in her senses then. See Jazz die? No. She couldn’t. She’d seen her momma die; she’d had to walk away from Gunny’s lifeless body. She couldn’t see Jazz taken from her. She couldn’t bear it.

“Hey, Kenni, did you lock the dogs out again?” Jazz called out as he stepped into the television room.

The puppies were howling at the door. Marcus was watching Essie as she jumped, only to miss her mark.

“Kenni?” he called out again, the weight of the Glock at his back tempting him to pull the weapon.

Kenni wasn’t answering but he could hear the scuffle in the kitchen and terror lanced his soul.

Moving to the kitchen he stepped inside before coming to a hard stop and feigning surprise at the sight that met his eyes.

He took one look at Kenni’s face before directing Phoenix Weston a hard look. The bruise already marring her creamy flesh was a killing offense. Phoenix Weston was a dead man.

“You know, I’m getting really tired of men thinking they can abuse my woman,” he told Phoenix softly.

Kenni’s lip was bleeding, her eye swelling. And she was favoring her right ankle. But she was alive.

“Fuck you, Lancing. She killed Colby. We weren’t going to kill the bitch. But she’ll die now.” There was no small amount of panic in Phoenix’s voice.

That panic wasn’t a good thing.

“Who killed Colby?” He just wanted confirmation, but the bloodthirsty look in Kenni’s eyes assured him he didn’t need it.

“This fucking bitch.” He jerked Kenni’s head back by her hair as she struggled against him. “Stay still, you fucking cunt.”

Jazz winced at the insult and the fury flickering in Kenni’s gaze.

Jazz tsked softly. “Colby’s staining my floor, Kenni. Blood is damned hard to scrub out of stone.”

“It will give it character,” she snarled. “The bastard kicked Squirrel. He deserved it.” Then her eyes narrowed. “What took you so fucking long anyway?”

“I had to get dressed,” he murmured, meeting her eyes and hoping she saw the warning in his.

“Primp,” she snapped.

“Both of you shut the fuck up,” Phoenix cried out. Damn, pressure really brought the bitch out in the other man.

“What do you want, Phoenix?” Jazz didn’t waste any more time. Phoenix was becoming unpredictable.

Phoenix snarled back at him, his hand tightening in Kenni’s hair.

“We were going to be nice and just collect the information her mother gave her,” he spat out. “But she had to go and kill Colby.”

“I don’t have it.” She followed the grating denial by swiftly striking an elbow into Phoenix’s kidney, just as Jazz heard Marcus and Essie bounding behind him.

Jazz stepped aside, lifted his brows, and watched Essie take a leap for the kitchen table and throw herself at Kenni. Marcus was right on her heels, his object the gun in Phoenix’s hand.

Powerful jaws locked on tender flesh as Kenni’s assailant screamed out his horror, but Essie had grabbed a mouthful of Kenni’s shirt and pulled her from his hold with enough strength that Kenni went to the floor.

“Hold!” Jazz ordered before the male could take Phoenix’s throat out.

Marcus turned a growl on Jazz at the order, his teeth poised at a horrified Phoenix’s throat as saliva dripped from razor sharp-teeth. Marcus was prone to show Jazz his displeasure with his teeth.

“Do it and your ass goes to the barn,” Jazz growled right back at him.

Marcus let his teeth graze tender flesh over a throbbing vein as the scent of human urine brought a grimace to Jazz’s lips. Dammit, the kitchen tile was going to be impossible to clean.

Marcus was satisfied, though. He moved back, only to jump for Jazz when the kitchen door slammed inward and Slade then Zack rolled into the room. Jazz only shook his head, pushing Marcus aside and moving quickly for Kenni as she grabbed Phoenix’s gun and came to her feet with a graceful, well-trained twist of her body.

“Kenni.” He moved between her and Phoenix.”We need someone to question,” he reminded her as he read the bloodthirsty anger in her eyes.

“He kicked Squirrel.” There was no fear, no hesitancy in her. “Colby said they killed Gunny. They don’t deserve to live.”

“If that’s true, then he’ll die by my hand. I was the one who trusted him.” Cord Maddox stood at the back door, flanked by his second-in-command, Banyon Maddox, and three Kin lieutenants.

Kenni stared at him icily. “See why I didn’t want to tell you a damned thing,” she charged as she threw her hand out to indicate Banyon and the three men Cord had served with in the military. “You can’t keep your damned mouth shut.” Jazz turned to Cord slowly, furiously.

Before he could speak Cord shot Kenni a dark frown. “Men die when they fight alone, squirt, Gunny should have taught you that. So do women.” Then he turned to Jazz, his gaze narrowing. “Why doesn’t it surprise me that once again you didn’t even bruise your knuckles?”

Cord might have been giving the appearance of a man who didn’t give a damn, but the raging pain and fury building in his eyes told another story. Still, it was no excuse, and Jazz wouldn’t let it go. Cord should have never betrayed her then dared to walk into her home and say something so ignorant to her.

“The day isn’t over yet, Cord,” Jazz promised him as Kenni’s expression paled and pain darkened her green eyes. “Not by a long shot.”

CHAPTER 18

Getting Kenni to sit down and actually sit still long enough to check the swelling in her face wasn’t easy. For some reason she felt the need to pace. As she’d done so, she’d glared at her brother and cousin, as well as the two men Cord had brought into the Kin from the team he’d fought with in the military.

John T and Axe, and that was all most people knew them by. Reserved, loners for the most part, but pure hell in a fight and they watched Cord’s back whenever needed. Jazz knew he should have expected Cord to bring them in. That was a serious oversight on his part.

“You okay?” Jazz touched the bruise rapidly darkening and swelling further on the side of Kenni’s face.

“I’m fine,” she muttered, throwing a glare over his shoulder at Cord. “He just had to tell them, didn’t he?”

The betrayal she felt wouldn’t be easily wiped away. He’d figured that out in the beginning. That one piece of information, her identity, she felt endangered her family too much to reveal until her mother’s killer was found. By revealing it and bringing the men he’d revealed it to into the house, he’d sliced at her sense of security, the small amount of safety she’d tried to find in Jazz’s arms.

Gently, he pressed the ice pack he had with him to her face. “He trusts them with his life, Kenni. And unfortunately, he’s right. You and Gunny against the Kin going out after you, over and over again, made both of you weak. Neither of you was to blame, though, I promise you that.”

Uncertainty shadowed her eyes, haunted them. The tears she kept trapped in her soul darkened the emerald color and filled them with a pain so deep, it went far beyond what she obviously revealed in her face.

“He should have at least asked first.” The betrayal refused to abate, and Jazz couldn’t blame her a bit. He just understood it.

That didn’t mean he was going to forgive it, just that he understood it.

Kenni didn’t much care at the moment, though. Slade and Zack had taken Phoenix to the basement and that left no one to expend her anger on.

She tried to rise from her seat again.

“Come on, Kenni, sit here with me for a minute,” he told her firmly, placing the ice pack on the side of her face again. “Let’s see if we can help the swelling here.”

“I need to check on Squirrel…” She actually made it to her feet this time.

“Squirrel is fine.” Rising, he looped his arm around her waist as she tried to move past him. “You’re going to sit right down here.” He pushed her back into the chair. “And let all that lovely adrenaline racing through you begin to crash so we can contain it.”

Kneeling in front of her again, he watched her closely as Cord’s men moved around the kitchen.

“What are they still doing here?” She glared at them. “He needs to take them and leave.”

“And you need to sit still and hold that ice pack to your face,” he ordered, wondering if anything could get through to her and her need to release the fury pounding through her.

Rising, he turned to drag another chair over to the side of the table when he felt her move again.

“I’ve had enough of this!” Jumping from her chair Kenni stalked to the steel barrier holding the puppies outside.

Squirrel was howling in outrage at the sight of her, his head tilted back like a wolf as he formed a perfect little O with canine lips. It would have been cute under other circumstances.

“Not yet, Kenni.” Jazz caught her before she reached the barrier. “There are too many strangers here for Marcus and Essie to be comfortable with the babies romping around them.”

She hadn’t considered that. The remorse on her face was as clear as the shock and pain.

“I have to get out of here, Jazz.” She rubbed at her arms, her pale face almost white now as she stared up at him beseechingly. “I can’t just sit here.”

She was going to explode at this rate, he knew.

“Come on, I’ll take you upstairs then.” Maybe a few minutes alone, without strangers moving around her, would help settle her down. God knew he could use a few minutes himself.

“Escaping, is she?” Cord drawled from behind them then. “I should have known that one was coming.”

Jazz almost cursed as Kenni froze for a second before turning to face her brother and cousin.

“You know how he gets, Kenni,” Banyon said with a grimace. “He’s worse than a damned kid at a candy store when blood is spilling.”

“Don’t waste your time, Banyon. Kenni doesn’t believe in letting family in any more. She’s going to protect us all, ya know,” Cord drawled from the kitchen doorway.

Lifting the cup of coffee he’d helped himself to he sipped at it lazily before tilting it in her direction in mock acknowledgment.

“And you’re a moron,” she snapped. “Someone should have neutered you at birth to halt the testosterone development.”

A mocking smile tilted his lips. “Too late now.”

“Like hell. One day someone’s gonna show you different with the sharp edge of a good knife,” she guessed. “I want to be there when they do.”

“Little girl, that’s not a day you’ll ever see,” he assured her, still laughing. “Hell, Kenni, you’re so damned good at running I don’t expect you to stick around past fall now.”

She smirked back at him. “Oh, I’ll still be here, Cord Maddox, if for no other reason than to prove you wrong.”

He sipped at his coffee again, his expression thoughtful.

“Don’t do it, Cord,” Banyon muttered. “Jazz will retaliate.”

“Come on, Banyon, what’s there to retaliate over?” Cord mocked. “A sister who cut us out of her life ten years ago? I should have figured out why I couldn’t find her all those years. It was because she didn’t want to be found.”

“Finally figured that out, did you?” she asked painfully, rising from the chair as Jazz straightened in front of her. “Took you a while, didn’t it, Cord.”

As she turned her back on them and left the kitchen, she would have been surprised had she seen Banyon’s and Deacon’s expressions, Jazz thought. Not that either of them said a word.

And honestly, Jazz had had enough of it. This picking and poking at Kenni by Cord, Deacon, or whoever else decided they didn’t agree with her decisions was going to stop.

And it was stopping right here.

Turning to where Slade and Zack stepped from the basement, Jazz waved them out to the back porch. Cord would know better than to accept an invitation outside by Jazz. That left good old-fashioned trickery.

Not that Slade or Zack stupid. But whether they agreed or not, they would still help.

As Jazz moved to the back porch, Slade and Zack moved to each side of him.

The screen door hadn’t even closed when Cord pushed out of it, glaring at Jazz when he moved around him to face him.

“Trying to hide something, Lancing?” he snarled.

Jazz smiled complacently before delivering an uppercut that lifted the other man from his feet, throwing him back over the steps and to the grass in the yard.

And he wasn’t finished with Cord Maddox, either.

*   *   *

Fuck!

What just exploded in his head?

And why the hell were rainbows twisting and screwing one another across his vision. Those freaky lights were scaring the shit out of him. Especially as he felt himself being hauled to his feet.

Swaying, Cord gave what he hoped was a hard shake of his head.

Okay, they were going away now. No more weird rainbows.

Reaching up and gripping his jaw, he worked it slowly as he focused on the man in front of him.

“Jazz?” He stumbled just a little before Jazz caught him. “Thanks, man,” he muttered, shook his head again, then frowned up at him. “Jazz, did you just fucking hit me?” He had to blink again to chase away more rainbows.

Amazement filled Jazz’s features.

“Cord, I just helped you up, man.” He sounded pleasant enough. “Here, let me see what you’ve done to your face.”

Cord dropped his hand from his jaw.

Hell exploded in his abdomen then. His stomach was shoved clear to his throat with a whole lot of help from Jazz’s fist. Before he could catch his breath Jazz delivered another iron-bitch fist to his jaw and Cord was sure something broke this time.

He slammed into the side of the porch.

Ah fuck.

Shit. Dammit.

His legs went limp. Cord felt himself slide down the wall supporting the porch until his ass hit grass.

Fuck.

Jazz’s fists had only gotten harder over the years.

He might actually puke. Maybe Jazz ruptured his stomach?

“Get up!” Jazz demanded furiously.

Hell no. That shit wasn’t happening. Those freaky-ass rainbows scared him.

“Tell Kenni some bullshit like that again now,” Jazz snapped. “Next time I’ll break your face.”

“It’s the truth. She has to stop running.” Cord coughed, barely managing to hold his breakfast down.

“Maddox, you wouldn’t know the truth if it dry-fucked your ass,” Jazz sneered. “You stupid fucker. You’re so damned blind it amazes me you’re still able to walk.”

Cord stumbled to his feet, wondering where the hell Banyon had run off to.

“You’re too blinded by lust to see what’s right in front of you.” Cord stumbled against the porch, keeping a wary eye on Jazz. “You’re going to lose her if you keep babying her.”

Jazz took a step closer.

“Dammit, Jazz, you hit me again and we’re going to have problems,” Cord warned him, slurring a bit.

Damn, his face hurt.

“Get off my property and stay off!” The order sounded serious.

Hell, Jazz sounded serious. Jazz had never thrown Kin off his property, no matter their disagreements. And there had been a few over the years. Pop would be pissed over it, but once he found out it happened after Cord learned Kenni was alive and living with Jazz, then he just might throw Cord out of the clan for a while as he’d threatened ten years ago.

That just wouldn’t do. Not at all.

Cord tried to laugh but shit, it hurt. “Come on, Jazz, we’re going to figure out what the hell is going on here and then we’re going to kick some ass. Kenni’s going to be fine.”

Jazz moved for him again.

“Hit me again, Jazz, and I swear to God I’ll turn into the best brother she’s ever imagined having and talk her home before you’ve realized what happened,” he swore. “Go ahead, test me on it.”

*   *   *

Jazz paused.

The problem was, he was pretty certain Cord could do it. He wasn’t nearly so confident that she belonged to him totally yet.

“When you two are finished posturing, we might need to talk.” Slade broke the stare-off he and Cord were having.

Turning his head, Jazz met the other man’s gaze, frowning at the icy rage in Slade’s eyes.

“Phoenix talk already?” Jazz questioned him. He hadn’t expected that.

“You and Cord need to come to the basement,” Slade informed him. “We came upstairs to get the two of you before you decided to try your fists out on his face. Phoenix is refusing to talk unless Cord’s willing to make a deal with him first.”

The Maddox Clan was notorious for not making deals. What Phoenix had done was a killing offense and one that no order had to go out on. Every Kin, in every state, would be gunning for him if he was seen.

“I’m always willing to talk.” Cord shrugged.

He knew what Jazz knew. It wouldn’t matter what Cord promised, the Kin would carry out the sentence. It was a check-and-balance system designed to ensure that certain laws within the Clan were never broken. The murder of a Clan member being rather high on the list. Phoenix should be aware of that and if he wasn’t, then Cord wasn’t required to inform him of it.

Moving stiffly, the elder Maddox limped back to the porch, and Jazz couldn’t help but let a mocking smile tug at his lips. He may act as though the fight hadn’t fazed him but his face looked like a bull had kicked it and he wasn’t moving easily. It would be a while before he forgot what it meant to piss Jazz off now.

Moving through the house, Jazz paused long enough to give Marcus and Essie the order to join Kenni in the bedroom.

A heavy steel door secured the basement from the upstairs while another secured it from the outside entrance. Locking both doors ensured Phoenix stayed where Slade and Zack had left him. Of course, the hard nylon wrist and ankle restraints helped ensure he didn’t escape.

Slouched in a hardwood chair, he sat morosely between the shelves of camping supplies on one side and several antique desks and sideboards on the other. In front of him Slade and Zack had pulled two chairs over to old wooden worktable Jazz sometimes used when repairing household appliances or lamps.

Moving to the table, Cord perched on a corner and stared back at Phoenix through one bloodshot eye. The other had already swollen closed.

“Jazz hits hard, huh?” Phoenix remarked despondently, more for something to say than anything else.

“What kind of deal do you want, Phoenix?” Cord wasn’t wasting any time on the other man.

Phoenix must have expected that, though, because he didn’t protest, just gave a small nod of his head before breathing in roughly.

“I know I’m dying as soon as I’m off Lancing’s property,” he stated without inflection. “I just want you to make sure I’m buried next to Colby. He was my twin. We’ve never been separated. I don’t want to be separated from him now.”

Cord just stared at him. Evidently, such sentiment from a man willing to kill another’s sister was a little hard to take in. Jazz knew it had shocked the crap out of him.

“Fine, I’ll bury both of you in the same hole, how’s that, Weston?” he finally snapped. “If you know who’s behind this and you have proof. Otherwise, I’ll have you buried on opposite ends of the planet. You got it?”

“I have proof,” he promised. “I told Colby we couldn’t trust her and he wouldn’t listen, but he helped me get proof, just in case. I have several meetings recorded and pictures of her killing Kin herself. I have everything you need. I swear.”

“Where is it?” Cord wasn’t taking chances.

“On the chain.” He lifted his neck to display a heavy gold chain with a small silver-and-black pendant. “The pendant slides open on the back. There’s a computer chip there. It has everything.”

“Convenient,” Cord murmured as Jazz moved to the other man and with a quick jerk of his hand snapped the chain from his neck.

Turning the pendant backward he saw the small catch that held the back on and released it. In it lay a small black micro SD card.

“Get Kenni,” Cord suggested. “Have her bring the laptop. She has a right to hear this.”

Turning, Jazz nodded to Slade to go after Kenni.

As Slade turned and moved quickly to the stairs, he turned back to Phoenix. “How did you get past my security?”

“She had one of the devices that overrides the security codes,” he answered, his voice thick with the tears that dripped down his face now. “She gave it to Colby and told him to make sure he returned it by this evening. She’ll be waiting for him.”

“Where?” Cord rasped, the rough tone of his voice a sound that assured a man death was coming soon.

Phoenix flinched.

“You’ll know once Kenni brings the laptop. You’ll know where to go.”

Glancing over at Jazz, Cord gave a brief nod as they waited.

Minutes later Slade escorted Kenni down the steps, laptop in tow, and led her to the table.

Her face was still far too swollen, but the ice she’d taken up with her seemed to have helped. Her eye wasn’t totally swollen shut, and the bruising seemed to have stopped at the mottled-blue stage.

Bastards.

“Are you sure about this?” she asked, opening the computer and powering it up.

He gave a brief nod as he stepped to her. When the screen came up he handed her the micro SD to slide into the reader.

“Wait.” Phoenix’s voice had them pausing and looking back at him.

“You might want to have her wait to see it,” he suggested. “Warn her first.”

“I don’t need a warning,” she told him softly then activated the reader as she stared at the screen.

*   *   *

Maybe she had needed a warning.

Maintaining her composure would have been impossible if Jazz hadn’t been there. His arm slid around her back, giving her the support she needed to keep from falling when the first video began playing.

“Are you sure this is what you want?” Colby asked the slender, dark-haired woman.

Tiny almost to the point of being frail, her long dark hair trailing down her back, her composed features belying what she was ordering the men to do.

“Aren’t I always sure?” She smiled complacently. “I was sure when I ordered my sister’s death and I’m sure now that we know where that bitch daughter of hers is. Kill the marine too, Colby, we can’t afford to have him looking for vengeance.”

Colby sat back in his chair and smiled back at her. “I’ll take care of it, Luce. Now take care of me…” He was undoing his pants.

She didn’t need to see that. She couldn’t watch it. There were three video files, and dozens of pictures. The proof that Sierra Maddox’s sister had planned her death as well as her daughter’s was irrefutable. The end result was her marriage to Vinny Maddox and ultimately taking over the upper sect of the Clan called the Kin, rather than just the lower ranks of soldiers the Kin often used for backup or support.

For power. For the gold it was rumored the Maddox Clan had hidden in case of a national catastrophe as well as locations of other Clans and planned defense measures should the worst happen and America be invaded for whatever reason.

The locations and plans she had sold the second they were found. The gold she intended to move and keep for herself.

“She’s insane,” Cord finally sighed as Kenni closed the laptop silently, her hands resting on the lid to keep from clawing at Phoenix in rage.

“If Colby and I aren’t there in a few hours, she’ll know something’s happened,” Phoenix told them. “She has an escape plan out of the house to a small private airfield where she keeps a plane. She’ll fly out before you realize she’s left the mountain.”

“She’s not going anywhere,” Cord assured him. “You’ll be buried with your brother as you asked. You have my word on it.”

Phoenix nodded, tears still falling from his eyes as his head lowered and he sat silently, waiting. He’d just be released once they had Cord and Kenni’s aunt in custody. He’d be driven to the county line but Jazz sincerely doubted he’d make it more than a few feet before he met the business end of a Kin bullet.

“Upstairs,” Jazz growled, taking the laptop from the table and keeping his arm carefully around Kenni as he led her to the steps. “Let’s figure out how we’re going to handle it.”

*   *   *

They weren’t handling it without her.

Moving woodenly, Kenni told herself she was fine. She had everything in working order, and now that she knew the truth she could hold herself together. It was just a matter of a plan, and Cord was wonderful with plans.

But inside, deep inside, she knew the truth. When the break came, when the shield that had protected her since the night her mother had died shattered, the exposure of all she had lost and the pain she had pushed back might destroy her.

“Slade, you and the others go on to the kitchen. Show Deacon, Sawyer, and Cord’s men the evidence. We’ll be down in a few minutes,” Jazz stated as he headed for the stairs, drawing her with him as she fought to keep from stumbling, to make her legs move correctly, to keep her body functioning.

Shock perhaps? She didn’t think she’d been in shock since that first night, just after seeing her mother hanging in a murderer’s hands. The bullet in her shoulder, the horrific feel of having it cut from her, unable to pass out from the pain or the mental fury that kept exploding through her senses.

Gunny had knocked her out. She wished someone would be that merciful now.

The bedroom door closed behind them before she realized they had entered the room and Jazz was pushing her into a chair before hunching down in front of her.

“Look at me.” The growl in his voice was firm, too demanding to ignore.

It hurt to meet his gaze. Her throat was so tight that swallowing was nearly impossible as the band around her chest tightened further.

She’d lived with that band for so long. Like a restraint encasing her heart, her soul, and it let her know it was there by restricting her ability to breathe, reminding her that she couldn’t let herself feel whatever she was feeling. But now she didn’t know what she was feeling. It was clawing at her chest, raking over something exposed and raw as Kenni fought to breathe through the pain. That band across her chest restricted her ability to do that, though; it weakened her and stole some of the hard-won control she’d prided herself on.

“Momma loved Aunt Luce,” she whispered, remembering many of the conversations they’d had on their shopping trips. “She said Luce was always sick when she was young. Momma stayed with her and looked after her. She thought they were so close. And she knew that last summer, didn’t she? She knew her sister had betrayed her.”

Her chest actually hurt. A heart attack perhaps, she wondered fatalistically. How very apt. How many times could a person’s heart be broken before it was irreparable?

“Maybe she didn’t,” Jazz whispered, his fingertips whispering over her cheek. “Whatever she was supposed to have, she didn’t give you, and neither did your uncle. If she had known, Kenni, she would have called your father, your brothers. Wouldn’t she?”

That made sense. It made more sense than to believe that her mother knew and would have put them both in danger. Sierra Maddox had always placed her children above everyone else. Above everything else.

The band loosened enough to breathe. Staring into Jazz’s eyes she could feel his strength enfolding her, wrapping around her like a soft, age-worn quilt.

“I’m going with you.” Her voice sounded stronger now. She could do this. She could see it through. “I have to face her.”

“Kenni…” He began shaking his head.

“You don’t want to push me out of this, Jazz,” she warned him, determination hardening inside her. “I’m the one she’s hunted for ten years. It was my mother, my uncle, friends who wanted only to protect me, that were murdered on her orders. Push me out and I won’t forgive you.”

His expression tightened dangerously. “You want to be a part of it, then show me you can hold it together until we’re finished. You break in the middle of it, Kenni, and you endanger not just the Kin that follow us, but your brothers…”

“Don’t treat me like a child, I know who will be endangered,” she snapped, glaring at him. “I’m not sixteen, Jazz. I have it together.”

He stared back at her intently for long moments before his expression eased enough that the savagery softened minutely.

“Yeah, you do,” he finally agreed. “Let’s get it done then.”

Straightening, he held his hand out to her. Strong, broad, it was callused and roughened, but gentle when he touched. And the offer he was extending to her was one she didn’t mistake. Even Gunny had never shared her protection with her. He’d always pushed her back; he’d never extended his hand to her in an offer to be a part of it.

Laying her palm in his, feeling his fingers close around her hand gave her more strength than it should have. It gave her hope. And hope, she realized, was something she’d been living without until she returned to Loudoun. Until she returned to Jazz.

Rising, she stood before him and placed her other hand against his chest, just above his heart.

“Jazz,” she whispered.

“Yeah, Kenni?” His lips brushed against her hair before he leaned back to stare down at her.

“On the ride to New York, I told Momma you were all I could think about,” she whispered. “She said if there was a more worthy young man to be fascinated with, then she couldn’t think of him.”

“Your momma was a good woman. A smart one.” His lips quirked with his trademark smile.

She’d told her mother she wasn’t just fascinated, but that could wait, she decided. It could wait until the past was resolved and she had a future to look forward to.