“I didn’t get the chance.” He would have, if he’d known who to kill, if he’d had a chance to question him first—but not without first observing the pact they had. “I hadn’t learned who took a swipe at her yet.”

For a moment Cord’s jaw bunched, the carefully banked anger finding no release, no relief.

“It wouldn’t have taken you long.” Cord breathed out, the sound rife with frustration as a grimace contorted his expression. “Dammit, Jazz, what the fuck is going on? What’s that woman involved in that had Fallon trying to race right over her ass?”

Demanding, arrogantly presuming he deserved an answer, Cord faced them, his gaze meeting Slade’s and Zack’s first before turning back to Jazz.

“She’s not involved in anything, Cord.” There were days that dealing with more than one Maddox was more than a man could handle. “What the hell was Fallon involved in that had him racing down the street like a fucking maniac?”

Slade and Zack watched the exchange silently, but Jazz could see the look on Slade’s face. The other man was ready to jump between Cord and Jazz at the slightest provocation. Slade was still trying to play the big brother, though Jazz hadn’t needed a big brother in a lot of years.

Cord shifted his shoulders before placing his hands on the counter behind him and staring back at all of them fiercely. He wasn’t happy and wasn’t bothering to hide it.

“That the story you’re sticking with then?” Cord questioned with obvious doubt. “Come on, Jazz, this is me and we both know better than that. Fallon hasn’t been off that mountain in months, then one day he just decides to run some little schoolteacher over? Does that make sense to you?”

None of this had made sense since the night Cord had revealed that Annie Mayes wasn’t Annie Mayes.

“That makes more sense to me than your suggestion that she somehow deserved it,” Jazz bit out.

A grimace tightened Cord’s face. Evidently, he was enjoying dealing with him about as much he was enjoying dealing with Cord.

“That wasn’t what I said, dammit. I said she’s involved in something and you damned well know she is.” Maddox straightened then, the glare on his face increasing as his gaze swept the room. “And every damned one of you is going to play innocent?”

Deep-green eyes finally settled on Jessie. “You playing this little game with them?”

“It’s not a game.” Jessie smiled sweetly as she propped her chin on her hand and regarded him with a far-too-pleasant smile. “They’re very innocent.”

Cord could only shake his head to that one. “Jessie, you used to be such a good little girl,” he sighed heavily. “Slade’s corrupting you.”

“That’s beside the point,” she assured him with a smile. “In this case, they really are innocent. If Annie was up to something, I would know it. And I know she’s not, so mind your manners, please.”

For a moment Cord’s face softened and Jazz remembered hearing Kenni tell her brothers that a few times. Mind your manners, please, or I’ll tell Momma was the full threat.

“Mind my manners.” Shaking his head once, he turned back to Jazz. “You know nothing, right?”

“That about covers it,” Jazz agreed.

And Cord wasn’t buying it.

“I’ll remember that when I prove differently. When I do, Jazz, we’re going to have problems,” he warned, heading toward the door he’d used to enter the kitchen. “I’ll go before you end up pissing me right off. That wouldn’t be good for either of us.”

Wasn’t that the truth, Jazz agreed silently.

“And Jessie.” Cord turned to her slowly, his gaze implacable as it met hers. “Only one person ever said that to me—to mind my manners, please. She was the best of all of us, but she’s been gone a long time now. I’d appreciate if I didn’t have to hear it again.”

With that, he stalked from the kitchen, the door closing silently behind him before he strode from the back porch and into the yard.

The grief and agony he’d glimpsed on Cord’s face when Jessie spoke only strengthened his belief that Cord would never be a part of a plot to kill Kenni. Discounting her fears and telling Cord the truth wasn’t going to help her trust him, though.

“Poor Cord,” Jessie whispered then, her brown eyes filled with remorse. “I guess I should watch repeating those little asides Kenni’s bad for, huh?”

Yeah, that might be a good idea, Jazz thought ruefully. A damned good idea.

CHAPTER 13

She was the best of all of us, but she’s been gone a long time now …

Kenni tried to tell herself her brother could have faked the grief in his voice. After all, it had been ten years, not ten days since her supposed death.

Cord had been her favorite, and she’d believed she was his favorite sibling. It was Cord who nicknamed her Princess when she was only two, and Cord who had always gotten her out of trouble with her parents as she grew older. He’d taught her to shoot, to hunt, to hide. He’d tried to teach her how to lie, but that lesson had been much harder to learn. If it hadn’t been for him she never would have survived the night her mother was killed until Gunny got to her.

God, this wasn’t supposed to happen. Cord wasn’t supposed to check her background to the extent he had, and Jazz shouldn’t have had friends capable of linking her mother to Gunny, and Gunny to the missing Kendra “Kenni” Maddox.

The fact that it had happened had her off balance, teetering between the need to run and the need to fight. Ten years of her life were gone, she couldn’t get those back, but the thought of running, of being someone’s prey for another ten years, was too much to bear.

She wished with all her heart she could believe the grief she’d heard in Cord’s voice when he’d told Jessie that the person who once told him to “mind your manners please,” was the best of all of them.

Her desperation, her own grief at losing her family, had her searching for reasons, excuses, anything that could allow her to trust in her family again.

That trust was gone, destroyed in a single night, she reminded herself. Until she found out who had been sending Kin to kill her, then she didn’t dare trust any of them.

After Cord drove away from the house, Kenni returned to the kitchen and listened to the plans Jazz and his friends were putting together to reveal who wanted her dead.

Kate and Lara had driven out several minutes after Cord’s departure, leaving only Zack, Slade, and Jessie to discuss who could be suspects and who couldn’t. The fact that her brothers weren’t on that list but her father was sent agony piercing her heart.

“Why Dad and Luce and not Cord, Deacon, or Sawyer?” she asked, her voice low as she pulled Jessie’s list to her and began going over it.

“There was no reason for your brothers to strike out against you or your mother, Kenni. But your father married within eight months of your mother’s death,” Jessie answered gently. “Luce’s name is on there because she stood to inherit the maternal trust that passes down from eldest daughter to eldest daughter—the trust your mother’s great-great-grandmother set up. With your mother’s death, Luce and her daughter Grace moved up to inherit. I believe it passes to them at the end of this year?” Jessie asked curiously.

Kenni could only shrug. “It’s not really a big thing, though. Some profits from real estate mostly. According to Mother it didn’t add up to much.”

“The rumors that your father and Luce were slipping around behind your mother’s back can’t be discounted, either. Was there any merit to them?” Slade spoke up, the compassion in his voice noted, but ineffective against the pain radiating inside her.

“Mom knew about the rumors before her death,” she breathed out wearily. “She and Luce argued over it before we left, but Momma didn’t believe Dad was actually having an affair with her.”