Unless Essie and Marcus were able to clear a jump to the balcony without the smaller deck next to the pool that Jazz had removed to keep Essie from hurting herself or her babies while she was pregnant.

Maybe it was time to install steps after all.

*   *   *

Marcus and Essie both must have been forced to hold themselves too long, Kenni thought she heard them race to the dog door with enough force that the hard rubber flap cracked behind them. A second later Squirrel yelped painfully.

Kenni rushed from the kitchen expecting to soothe him from his indignation at having his nose tapped by the rubber. What she didn’t expect to see was a full-grown male booting her baby out the dog door before sliding the metal partition back in place.

The real shock came when he turned to face her, though.

“Colby?” shock dulled her senses for a moment as betrayal knotted her stomach with a strangle hold.

Colby Weston? It had been years since she’d seen him and his twin, Phoenix. They were—once again—cousins. But these cousins were much closer; their mother was actually a Maddox.

Turning, she sprinted for the hallway and the safety of Jazz’s bedroom. Phoenix stepped around the corner before she could reach it, a weapon in his hand pointing straight to her.

“Shower just turned on,” he told his brother. “He’ll be a few minutes.”

Colby sneered at the comment, his gaze raking over her maliciously.

“Jazz will kill both of you.” She backed away, moving into the kitchen again and the little corner shelf on the other side of the room.

If she moved toward the knives, they would stop her. She knew they weren’t completely stupid, otherwise Marcus and Essie wouldn’t have been fooled.

“We’ll have our business finished and be gone before he’s out of the shower,” Phoenix assured her, narrowing his eyes gleefully as she bumped into the corner shelf, her hands going behind her back to steady herself against it, and to grip the handle of the antique corkscrew lying on it.

She hoped Jazz wouldn’t be upset if she bloodied it a little.

Or a lot.

Her fingers curled around the handle of the corkscrew as Colby advanced on her.

“And what the hell do the two of you think you’re doing?” she snapped, so furious that the bastard had hurt Squirrel that holding on to her control was next to impossible.

“Come on, Kenni, you’re not completely stupid,” Colby drawled. “You know why we’re here.”

“If I knew I wouldn’t ask,” she bit out, hoping, praying to delay them long enough for Jazz to get downstairs.

“That fucking marine that was there the night your mother was killed?” he reminded her. “He had something we want. I assume you have it now?”

He actually sounded convinced that she had whatever it was he was talking about. This was the first she’d heard of Gunny having anything her mother gave him, though.

“He would have told me if he had anything,” she snapped. “Mom was dead before he arrived that night.”

“And she didn’t have it,” Colby snapped, growing angry, his expression turning cruel. “She gave it to him and you know it. So just hand it over.”

“I’m telling you, Gunny didn’t have anything.”

Colby sneered again.

“Killing him was fun, Kenni. Almost as much fun as killing you will be if you don’t have that SD card your mother stole and slipped to her bastard brother.”

Gunny? They had killed Gunny? How? Gunny was so much stronger, more intelligent. It made no sense that they’d been able to do such a thing. Colby and Phoenix were far weaker in strength and intelligence than any who’d been sent after her.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. If Gunny had anything he would have told me,” she snapped, waiting.

Colby was close, moving slowly closer as Phoenix kept watch from the doorway.

“Come on, Kenni,” Colby mocked her cruelly. “Give us the card and we won’t hurt you like we had to hurt Gunny.”

Kenni stared back at him, ice moving through her veins now, a calm settling over her as he moved closer. Almost close enough.

“You didn’t kill Gunny. You’re not capable of it.” She was certain of it.

Colby laughed at the response. “He should have never returned to the warehouse alone. That was the mistake he made.”

He smiled and stepped closer. That was where he made his second mistake. The first was breaking into Jazz’s house to begin with.

When he was close enough to actually touch her, to lift his hand and strike her, Kenni struck. Gripping the wooden handle of the corkscrew she brought it from behind her back, slamming it in beneath the sternum on an upward angle. Feeling the twisted metal crunch through tissue before entering the heart with a hollow pop, she gave a quick little turn, watching his eyes widen as his heart ripped open.

Blood spilled around her hand as Kenni gritted her teeth, forcing herself to hold his gaze.

“Colby?” Phoenix called his name from the doorway.

Life bled from Colby’s eyes just as Phoenix jumped forward. Pushing the lax body weight to the side Kenni moved quickly, sliding out of the way as the twin caught his brother’s body in time to keep it from collapsing to the floor.

As satisfying as that was, she now had no weapon and Phoenix moved fast once he realized what happened. Though she was desperate to avoid the blow she saw coming, Phoenix still managed to deliver a fist to the side of her face, sending her to the floor as pain dazed her senses.

Damn, she hated this part. She’d never been able to take a blow to her face and come back easily. It was one part of the self-defense training Gunny had never been able to condition her to.

“Son of a bitch, you killed him.” Phoenix sounded dazed. “He’s dead.”

Corkscrewing the heart seemed to have that effect, Kenni thought, pushing herself into a sitting position as she searched desperately for a weapon.

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.