by Lora Leigh
Long black hair was pulled into ponytails that trailed down their backs while dark sunglasses were pushed to the tops of their heads. The only difference between the two women was the thin white scar that marred one suntanned face.
Both watched her and Jazz with violet eyes surrounded by thick inky-black lashes and reflecting both amusement and steely determination.
And Kenni had no idea who they were, or what they were doing there. If they were Jazz’s ex-lovers there would be problems.
She wasn’t the only one unsettled by their appearance, either.
The two adult Rottweilers stood in front of their puppies, low growls rumbling in their throats while glancing at Jazz every few seconds for direction.
“Why aren’t Marcus and Essie biting them?” Kenni muttered.
The two women might not be raving beauties, but they obviously knew Jazz really well.
Flicking her a look from the corner of his eyes, Jazz shook his head before jerking his T-shirt from the floor and pulling it back on with quick, obviously frustrated movements.
As the material covered his hard abs Marcus gave a low, warning growl.
“He wants to bite them,” she said behind him, keeping her voice low.
“Sugar, I can hear you,” the one with the scar informed her with mocking sweetness.
“Sugar, do I seem like I care?” Before she could stop herself she jabbed her fist against Jazz’s ribs. “Sugar? Is she for real?”
His head jerked around, surprise in his blue eyes as they met hers.
Essie growled, the low rumble of a concerned momma, a dangerous sound.
“Ease up,” Jazz ordered the animals firmly, resignation filling his voice as he replaced the handgun beneath the couch and sat up slowly, glancing back at her for just a second.
Frustration filled his brilliant-blue eyes, but if she wasn’t mistaken there was also a hint of anger there. He wasn’t happy with the interruption.
“Annie, meet Kate and Lara Blanchard,” he breathed out heavily. “They’re friends as well as business associates.”
“Hmm.” Propping her elbow on the cushion behind her, Kenni’s eyes narrowed on the back of his head before turning to the two women once again.
“Hey Annie,” Kate, the one without the scar, greeted her with uplifted brows. “Could we borrow Jazz just for a minute? There’s a problem with a job we’re working on and we need to talk to him about it.”
They were kidding, right?
Lara gave a soft, knowing laugh. “Now, don’t be so suspicious, sugar,” she advised. “We really are friends. I swear, neither of us introduced ourselves in the Biblical sense to Casanova here. And we just need to chit-chat, I swear.”
She turned to Jazz, seeing the hardening of his jaw, the dangerous set of his expression. Whatever the hell was going on, it was more than she was being told and she didn’t care much for that at all.
“When you’re finished, Casanova, I’m going home,” she told him softly. “So try not to take all night because I may leave without you.”
The look he shot her was brooding and filled with latent male dominance and warning.
Yeah, she was really going to let that one intimidate her.
“I won’t wait all night,” she promised. “When I’m tired of waiting, I’ll walk home.”
“And when I catch up with you there’ll be hell to pay,” he growled back at her.
Rising to his feet, he strode to the dogs then bent and spoke close to the male’s ear. Marcus lifted his ears, his proud, intelligent gaze watching everyone behind his master. As Jazz straightened and motioned the other two women to the kitchen, the male Rottweiler focused on her.
Kenni had a feeling Marcus had been given his orders to keep her there. And that dog was big enough to make damned sure she stayed.
Narrowing her eyes on their retreating backs, she decided they had half an hour and that was it. At that point their little meeting would be finished. Then she was going to kick Jazz Lancing’s ass.
CHAPTER 8
Kate and Lara Blanchard looked like the girls next door until you paid close attention to their eyes. A hint of the bitterness and disillusionment lingered in their violet gazes. It wasn’t their eyes Jazz was concerned with tonight, though, it was the information he knew they must have, otherwise they wouldn’t have shown up like this.
Arriving without notice indicated they’d learned something they wanted no one else to hear, and these girls didn’t trust phones. Not cell phones, landlines, or any other traceable form of communication.
They were paranoid, suspicious, and distrustful. A hell of a combination in two women who were a little on the short side, curvy, and decidedly feminine. They were also damned loyal when it came to those they chose as friends, and willing to fight to the death to protect someone they believed in.
Those traits added to their surprise arrival sent tension racing through his body. Muscles tightened, all his senses went on alert as that gut-deep awareness warned him that their information could be far more important than he could guess.
Closing the door as he stepped to the porch, he let his gaze move between them. They wouldn’t have shown up if it wasn’t important, but there was a hesitancy about them that warned him of their uncertainty in telling him whatever they’d learned.
He’d never seen these two uncertain.
Twilight filled the valley now, not quite dark yet daylight had given its final farewell just before their arrival. Shadows stretched out along the porch, helped along by the heavy vines of honeysuckle that grew thick and heavy along the front of the porch.
Kate and Lara slid along those shadows to the porch swing hanging in front of the windows next to the door while Jazz moved to the chair, his back to the honeysuckle, across from them. He watched the two women silently, sensing the tension emanating from them as they stared at him consideringly. It had been a lot of years since they’d been this uncertain around him.
They were two of the most efficient investigators he’d ever known. They could uncover information others were certain couldn’t be found. Give them a puzzle and it wouldn’t take them long to fit all the pieces in their place, and that was what the job was to them. Each case was a puzzle, Kate had once explained to him. A puzzle that had to be solved.
They weren’t speaking yet. He knew them well enough to know their silence was an indication that whatever they’d learned was either excessively dangerous, guaranteed to piss him off, or both. When it came to the woman calling herself Annie Mayes, he had no doubt it was probably both.
“Is it that bad?” he asked quietly, his gaze flicking between the two of them.
The sisters glanced at each other, sharing some silent communication that only twins have before turning back to him.
“It’s difficult,” Kate answered him as she sat back fully in the heavily cushioned swing and rested her elbow on the arm of the seat while gripping the chain with her hand. “I’ll tell you, Jazz, I don’t think I’ve ever been so torn between information and a friend in my life.”
His jaw clenched with enough force that he wouldn’t have been surprised had he heard his back teeth crack. It was several seconds before he could release the tension enough to speak.
“What’s making it so difficult?” This was one of only a few instances that either woman had hesitated to tell him what he needed to know.
“I’m very uncomfortable with this.” Kate sighed. “I feel like I’m betraying her, even though it’s fairly obvious she distrusted us on sight. What she’s been through, how she’s survived so far, amazes me.”
For all her strength and tough attitude Kate had an incredible soft spot for survivors. Unfortunately he couldn’t afford to allow that soft spot to influence their decision to turn over the information.
“She’s facing a nightmare, Jazz, and it’s about to become your nightmare if you decide to stand behind her. If you’d prefer not, then let us know before we leave. We’ll find her someplace safe to hide. We’
ll do our best to protect her.”
The resources the two women had were extensive, he knew, but there wasn’t a chance in hell he was letting Annie go.
Leaning forward, he gave each woman a long, direct look before speaking. “This morning someone tried to run her down in the middle of the street as she left a café.” He deliberately hardened his tone, his expression. “She’s in danger and I will protect her, with or without your help. But, if you hold back what you have and something happens to her—”
“You would never forgive us,” Kate finished for him, her voice heavy as she rubbed at the back of her neck. “God, it’s been years since they attacked…”
Kate broke off and turned to her sister once again. This time it was more than just concern that reflected in her expression. This time, Jazz saw a hint of fear.
“Tell me.” Lara turned back to him, one hand clenched on the arm of the swing, the other in the cushion beneath her. “How well do you know the Maddox clan, Jazz?”
That was the last question he expected to come from either of them. What the hell could his connection to the Maddox clan have to do with any of this?
The question gave birth to a suspicion, though—one he refused to contemplate.
“Why?” He could feel the hairs rising at the back of his neck now, a primitive response to whatever was coming, a warning that whatever it was could change his life forever.
“From what we’ve learned in the past week—” Kate breathed out heavily. “—Cord Maddox, and possibly his two younger brothers as well, head a mountain militia group stretching God only knows how far. They call themselves Kin. The same Kin that murdered her mother and have chased her across just about every state in the nation as well as parts of Canada and Mexico. They’re tenacious.”
Yes, the Kin were tenacious, merciless, and thorough. Most were former military, all were from the mountains that bred and nurtured them, and every damned one of them inducted into the Kin was bound by loyalty, and in many cases by blood, to the Maddox clan.
How Kate and Lara had gotten so much as a whisper of information concerning them was surprising. The information they had was damned unbelievable.
Every muscle in his body tightened to a breaking point. Jazz could feel the punch line coming and the implications of it had his senses stilling while a cold, murderous rage began to simmer inside his soul.
“The night her mother died she was rescued by her uncle, but not before she was shot. She was only sixteen. Since that night, from what we’ve uncovered, she was nearly killed in three other attacks over the past ten years. Rumor is, two years ago they found her uncle in a Chicago warehouse where he was brutally tortured for information on her whereabouts. They say he died without ever admitting who she was, or where she was. His body was never found, and she was never seen nor heard from again. Now we know why. He sent her to hide right beneath their noses.”
Kate and Lara watched him, their gazes expectant, wary. Did they think he’d have already spat a name out? No, because the only name he could come up with he dared not allow himself to voice. Rousing hope even enough to voice her name and learn he was wrong was more than he wanted to face. It was far more than he could bear to risk.
He shook his head, swallowing tightly.
No. He wouldn’t let himself consider it …
But still, his breath felt suspended in his chest, fury, pride, and disbelief ripping through him.
“Who is she?” He knew, God, in his gut he knew. Just as he’d known the first night he met her as Annie Mayes. When he’d stared into hazel eyes and knew the color was wrong. The hairs on the back of his neck had lifted then as well.
Once again the two women glanced at each other, obviously uncertain how to proceed.
“Jazz…” Lara spoke up, obviously hesitating.
“I asked you a fucking question.” He came out of his chair, his hands plowing through his hair as he stalked to the end of the porch, his fingers gripping the railing in a desperate grip.
He turned back to them slowly. “The two of you owe me, Kate,” he reminded her. “Don’t think you can hold back on this.”
“Dammit, Jazz…”
“Answer the fucking question. Who is she?” he snarled, suspicion and blind fury surging through him.
* * *
Kenni stood perfectly still, silent at the side of the door that hadn’t quite closed securely.
There was no way to save the situation, she thought. Kate and Lara Blanchard had brought the truth and there was no way to keep that truth from Jazz now.
Her fists clenched at her side.
Every fear she’d lived with every day of her life for the past two years rose inside her, tormenting her with the knowledge of what could happen now. He could betray her to the Kin, or he would die for her at their hand. Once he learned the truth, he’d realize that, too, and she wasn’t certain she could bear it if his choice was betraying her. But neither could she bear it if he died for her.
She should have never returned to Loudoun. Surely there was some other part of the world where she could have hidden. With the identity in place and already established by the real Annie Mayes, there must have been a safe place to exist other than here.
She hadn’t wanted to exist, though, she realized. She hadn’t wanted to keep running, being found, watching friends die. She hadn’t wanted to continue living a lie and she hadn’t wanted to die never knowing if the family she had loved had ordered their mother’s and sister’s deaths.
But neither had she wanted Jazz to know the truth. Not yet. Not now.
How had he known she wasn’t really Annie Mayes? What had she done to make him suspicious? And what was she going to do now? Because she knew there was no way to keep the truth from him.
* * *
A sudden awareness of her had Jazz turning his gaze from Kate and Lara as the kitchen door pushed open and she stepped to the porch.
Darkness shrouded her, wrapped around her. What little light was available allowed him to glimpse the pain and fear in her expression, though, and the sight of it had every protective instinct he possessed rising hard and fast inside him.
The twins rose slowly to their feet, surprised, more than a little nervous as they stared between Jazz and the woman he’d known as Annie.
“How did I give myself away?” she asked the twins. The fear he heard in her voice stripped him to his soul.
From the moment he’d met her something had stilled inside him, going alert, waiting, watching. Aching for her.
Somehow, he’d known, Jazz realized. He had known who she was, he just hadn’t wanted to see it. Admitting it seared him with guilt and the knowledge he’d failed her.
“You didn’t give yourself away,” Lara told her softly before Jazz could answer her. “It was the Kin that gave you away. Cord Maddox’s curiosity tipped someone off, I assume. His search into Annie Mayes has caused several other searches from what we’ve learned. Each of those searches turned up the same information we found.”
“That Annie Mayes is actually in China,” she answered. “Wonderful.” She turned to Jazz. “Why would Cord give a damn about some schoolteacher?”
Cord’s suspicious nature was well known. He would have wanted to know who was teaching any child he’d taken under his protection.
They were all watching him now, waiting for an answer.
He was going to kill Cord, it was that simple. And if he learned the other man knew or even suspected who she was, then he would make what the Kin could do look like a picnic.
“Kenni,” he whispered, knowing—God, could it be true? “Kenni…”
A bitter smile tipped her lips. “You should have just let me leave earlier, Jazz,” she replied. “It would have been so much easier for both of us.”
Oh, he really didn’t think so.
“Kenni.” Lara shifted restlessly at the comment, forestalling Jazz’s instinctive rejection. “They know you’re still alive and they know where you are, but running isn’t go
ing to save you. You already know that.”
Jazz kept himself still, silent. The rage coursing through him was like a fever, a furious, burning surge of such force it was all he could do to remain standing in place.
“No, but it would save those I care about, Lara,” Kenni stated as she acknowledged Lara’s argument, bitterness filling her voice. Shoving her hands into the pockets of the capris she wore, she stared back at Jazz. “They killed Gunny.” Her voice almost broke. “I came back to the warehouse and there was so much blood—” Turning her head she stopped, one hand lifting to cover her lips before she drew in a hard breath. “They will kill anyone who tries to help me.”
Her shoulders straightened then, her slight body giving a small, almost imperceptible shudder before she stilled it. God he wanted to see her face, her eyes. He wanted those contacts out, he wanted the color out of her hair. He wanted to see the woman she had become, the woman who had been stolen from him.
There was no getting those years back, no way to take the horror of what she had lived from her memories. That innocence was gone forever, but the woman was still here. She was here and she was alive, and by God he intended to make certain she stayed alive.
“Kate, Lara, you can bunk in the guest room,” he growled at the other two women as he stomped across the porch, gripped Kenni’s arm, and despite her instinctive attempt to break free pulled her into the house.
“What are you doing?” There were no tears, no anger, just hard determination in her voice now. “Let me go, Jazz.”
Let her go? Yeah, he was going to get right on that.
“Shut the fuck up. And stop fighting me or I swear to God, Kenni, I will paddle your ass.”
* * *
This was the second time he’d made that threat. She was getting rather tired of it, Kenni thought dismally as Jazz all but dragged her through the kitchen, television room, then up the short flight of stairs to the master suite at the top.