Wicked Lies

by Lora Leigh

  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.

  “Ready?”

  She nodded, still staring up at him.

  When his head lowered, his lips covered hers in a kiss that bonded any part of her soul that might have been free. She felt him, felt the hunger and the need fusing together in a heat that was always there, always ready to warm her.

  Holding tight to his arm as the fingers of her other hand pressed against his chest, Kenni let that kiss have her. Her lips parted, her tongue meeting with his, tasting the passion and the power of his hunger and becoming intoxicated with it.

  He was like a drug.

  Irresistible, addicting.

  There was nothing as filled with pleasure, heat, and solace as his kiss and his touch, his possession and his passion. She’d dreamed of it, fantasized about him, yet she’d never come close to the pleasure she’d found in his arms and in his bed.

  She had fought for eight years to return to him, she finally admitted to herself. She’d fought to survive, to live, because in the back of her mind she knew that dying meant never seeing him again. Never having a chance to touch him, or be touched by him.

  When his head lifted he still held her close, hi
s arms wrapped securely around her.

  “I have you, Kenni,” he promised, his voice soft, filling her with the knowledge that she wasn’t alone anymore. “I’ll always have you, right here. Whether you stay or leave, no matter where you go or what you do, baby, I have you.”

  He had her.

  Did he know, though, he’d always held her heart? Ragged, often broken and filled with all the tears she’d never been able to shed, but still, he’d always held it.

  Whether she held his or not.

  CHAPTER 19

  They really didn’t need a plan. They had all the evidence they would need, Cord informed them when they stepped into the kitchen. But to enact Kin justice on the wife of a Clan leader, that leader had to be in agreement.

  It wasn’t just Luce they had to face, but also Kenni’s father. And no one knew what he may or may not feel for the young wife he’d taken mere months after his first wife’s funeral. Though her brothers were all in agreement that it wasn’t possible their father had been messing with his wife’s sister before her death.

  Cord, Deacon, and Sawyer would return to the house and make certain Luce was there. Once they had the house secure and any chance she had of escaping eliminated, then Jazz and Zack would bring Kenni in.

  Kenni could feel the nervous tension filling her as she sat in the truck with Jazz a mile from the house. She could see the top of the roof peeking from above the trees as childhood memories rushed through her mind.

  Many of those memories included Jazz. He’d been friends with her brothers for as long as she could remember. He, Slade¸ and Zack had been three of her father’s favorites, and he often joked that if he could have handled more boys, then he would have adopted them.

  There were other memories, though. The time she’d fell from the swing and skinned her knees. Cord had paled so alarmingly even Kenni, only five at the time, had stared at his face in wonder. Then he’d ordered her to never get on that swing again and swore he was going to cut it down.

  She’d run to Poppy and he’d made it all right. He’d kissed her skinned knee, bandaged it, and even though he’d been in the middle of a meeting, he’d given her his time and love.

  There had been picnics in the backyard, family reunions that often filled the grassy acre of land next to the house.

  There hadn’t been a family reunion since her mother’s death.

  As time passed, the tension increased inside her, twisting its way through her stomach and tightening sickeningly every time she let herself wonder what his reaction would be.

  Would he welcome her? Would he denounce her?

  The man she had known as her father would never denounce her, she thought, but ten years was a long time when a heart felt betrayed. If he felt betrayed by her silence all those years, then he could turn her away.

  “We’re in place.” Cord spoke through the small transmitters he’d passed out before they’d headed to the Maddox mansion.

  The earbuds tucked securely into the ear canal, almost invisible but strong enough to both send and receive every word. Though not a lot had been said once her brothers entered the house.

  Putting the truck into gear, Jazz drove along the street then turned into the drive as Kenni listened to her brothers pull everyone into place. Poppy came from his office, Luce was drawn from her rooms, and Luce’s daughter, Grace, sent to a neighbor supposedly to babysit.

  Cord had wanted her out of the way while her mother was dealt with. Once Luce was contained then Grace would be brought home and everything would be explained.

  Explanations wouldn’t help, though, Kenni thought as Jazz put the truck in park and turned off the ignition. Nothing would ease the painful realizations Grace would have to endure.

  “I’ll come around and let you out,” Jazz forestalled her as she moved to open the door. “Stay still.”

  He was still trying to protect her.

  Loping around the truck, he pulled the door open and extended his hand to her again. Taking it, Kenni held on desperately as she stepped from the truck and he led her up the short walk to the porch where Deacon and Sawyer waited.

  “Poppy?” she whispered, almost breathless at the thought of seeing him again.

  “He’s in the front room,” Deacon nodded, his gaze heavy as they entered the foyer.

  Breathing in slow and deep, her fingers holding tight to Jazz’s hand, she moved toward the living room.

  “Cord, what’s going on?” Luce demanded, her strident voice overly loud as Kenni neared the open double doors. “I have things to do.”

  “Like meeting with Colby and Phoenix?” The latent violence in her brother’s voice was like a lash of fury. “That meeting’s been canceled, Luce.”

  Silence met his announcement for long moments.

  “What are you talking about?” Luce demanded, the icy confidence in her voice almost amusing.

  “Colby’s dead. A corkscrew to the heart by the woman you sent him after will do that. Phoenix spilled his guts, though. Know what I’m talking about now?”

  “I won’t tolerate this.” There was the fear.

  “Sit your ass down and shut your fucking mouth.” Vinny Maddox didn’t raise his voice; he didn’t have to. Years of commanding strong, independent warriors had given him a tone no one dared to disobey. “Cord? Would you like to explain yourself?” His voice softened slightly for his firstborn.

  “Let’s see if Luce wants to explain her side of the story first,” Cord suggested.

  “You’re crazy. I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Then I’ll explain it,” Cord promised. “Pop, Mother wasn’t killed as a strike against you. It was Luce’s attempt to make certain the evidence Mom had against her never saw the light of day. Evidence of collaboration with Clan family members to take over the Kin and to steal information and possible gold locations for her own gain. I have the proof, Luce. Want to keep protesting?”

  Poppy was silent for long moments.

  “She had your mom and sister killed?” Her father’s voice hardened, turned stony, merciless.

  “No, Pop, she managed to have Mom killed. But Kenni escaped with Charles Jones, the brother Mom called Gunny. Kenni’s alive.”

  “Where?” Hoarse, filled with hope, her father’s question was all she needed.

  Kenni stepped into the room.

  She didn’t speak. Her gaze went instantly to the still-tall, still-powerful form of her father where he sat in his recliner, his expression quieting so suddenly Kenni felt her heart collapse.

  She had no idea what Luce or Cord said from that moment. Clenching Jazz’s hand with both of hers now, she stared at her Poppy with a desperation she couldn’t contain.

  His hands clenched on the arms of his chair and slowly, so slowly he rose from where he sat.

  Dark blond and brown hair had turned gray in many places. His deep, emerald-green eyes flared with emotion, his expression becoming eagle-fierce.

  She wanted to breathe, but her lungs didn’t seem to work as well as they once had. Her knees were weak, her heart racing so hard she was breathless.

  “Poppy,” she finally managed to breathe out, the tightening in her throat returning, her voice hitching, pain resonating through every part of her body.

  “Kenni?” He took one step forward then looked behind her at Jazz desperately, and she knew who he was looking for. She knew that agonizing hope that filled his eyes and for the first time since she was eighteen her eyes filled with tears.

  “Poppy,” she whispered. “They took her.” She had to swallow but a sob ripped from her instead. “They killed Momma.”

  His expression collapsed. Tears filled his eyes as her own gaze blurred and burned.

  “Kenni. Ah God, my sweet Kenni…” His arms opened and Kenni hesitated only a moment before releasing Jazz and racing to him.

  * * *

  Jazz let her go, the tension he’d felt since the moment he’d realized she was alive evaporating.

  The woman he’d
brought into the Maddox home wasn’t the lover he’d held in his arms for the past weeks. This woman was the sixteen-year-old girl who had lost everything in her world in one tragic, pain-filled night.

  As Vincent Maddox clasped his daughter in his arms, Luce actually thought it a moment of weakness. Turning to run she barreled into Jazz when he moved into her path, nearly falling on her ass before Cord caught her.

  Nylon restraints were snapped expertly around her wrists as several Kin waiting for that moment entered the room. The two men who had arrived at the house with Cord earlier as well as several others positioned themselves around the room to ensure that Luce didn’t escape justice.

  Vinny was holding Kenni to him like a lifeline now, father and daughter weeping with a loss ten years past, yet never truly faced until this moment.

  Jazz stepped back as Cord, Deacon, and Sawyer joined their surviving parent and the baby sister they could now realize as part of their lives again.

  Swiping his hand through his hair, he looked around the room. He wasn’t needed here now, he thought wearily. This was a time for Kenni to share with her family; with her father and her brothers. He had no place here.

  Turning, he left the room slowly, glancing back when he reached the doorway and letting the scene sink inside him. Kenni was home, that was what mattered. When everything had settled and she’d shed her tears with her family, then he’d come back. Maybe talk to her father again. Vinny was big on tradition sometimes.

  Until then, it was time to go.

  “Jazz?” The sound of her voice as he slipped past the doors drew him back. “Jazz, you can’t leave.”

  Tears covered her face, and that need for him that he’d longed to see in her eyes was there.

  She’d stepped away from her father, from her brothers, and they all stared at him like the interloper he’d feared becoming. All of them but the one who mattered most, the Maddox Princess.

  His Kenni.

  She reached out her hand to him. “You can’t leave…”

  He shook his head slowly but went to her and took her hand to pull her against him and lay a kiss at the top of her head. “I’m not going anywhere, baby, just right outside with Slade and Zack. I’ll be here when your Poppy’s ready to let you go for a minute. How’s that?”