What she hadn’t known was that her mother had murdered her only sister and nearly murdered her niece, Kendra “Kenni” Maddox. For ten years Kenni had been on the run, often attacked by cousins she’d been raised with, men sent to kill her by Lucia and their demented belief that they could overthrow the Maddox family as commanders and overseers of the Kin. Lucia and the men following her, the men she’d whored herself to, had actually believed they could fool the Maddox men so effectively. Her uncle Vincent, his sons Cord, Deacon, and Sawyer, his nephews, loyal Maddox men and commanders of the mountain fighters known as Kin.
She’d destroyed so many lives—for what? Some demented belief that the Maddox family held stores of gold and top-secret government information?
Grace wanted to laugh at the thought.
She wanted to laugh as the reverend spoke so solemnly, so kindly of a woman who had fooled him as she had fooled so many others. She wanted to stand up and tell them all what fools they were. But how could she, because she had been the greatest fool of all. She’d loved her mother, despite her cold nature, her criticisms, and subtle cruelties. That was still her mother, until the day Kenni had returned to her home. Until Grace had stood outside the living room and heard her mother furiously admit to killing her sister. And she’d seen the pictures one of her mother’s hit men had turned over to Jazz Lancing and his brothers. There were pictures and videos, reports of jobs and the low-level, weaker members of the Kin who had followed her.
Six weeks she’d kept the knowledge to herself that she’d gone through the information her uncle had thought was hidden on his computer now. Six weeks.
That day Lucia had been taken from the house by several government agents. Four days ago, her body had been returned, a report of an auto accident that killed her accompanying it.
Auto accident, her ass.
She had no proof, but she had no doubt that whoever had taken her back to DC had executed her. Knowledge of the Kin, of what they did, what they were a part of, couldn’t be allowed to be revealed during a trial. She knew that. She’d known that when Lucia was taken away.
Heads bowed as the reverend solemnly recited prayers and asked that Lucia’s soul be held in God’s heart and everlasting light. Grace glared at the coffin. She remembered sitting there ten years before, sobbing, destroyed at the loss of a beloved aunt and cousin. Aunt Sierra and her cousin Kenni had been such an integral part of Grace’s life that at times she’d felt as though she’d lost her mother instead.
God knew Lucia hadn’t been much of a mother.
Finally, the prayers were finished, mourners dismissed, and it was over. The coffin would be lowered once everyone had left, dirt heaped on top of it, and Lucia Maddox’s legacy would be buried with her. She would no longer torment, torture, or attempt to kill those who trusted her, those who would have loved her.
All that was left now was the fallout, and that fallout had once again destroyed her daughter. Lucia had ensured that the only dream Grace had held in her heart for so long was ripped apart.
“Grace, come on, sweetheart. Let’s go home.” Uncle Vinny laid his hand on her shoulder, pulling her from her musings as everyone began to drift away.
“Go home and host a wake she didn’t deserve?” Grace sighed, ensuring her voice was too low for others to hear. “Pretend to grieve, Uncle Vinny?”
“Just for a little while,” he promised. “Life will return to normal soon, I promise.”
He promised.
It was a promise he couldn’t keep.
As she turned to follow the others, a strong, broad set of shoulders drew her gaze.
He hadn’t even spoken to her. She’d waited, hoping, believing he would, but he hadn’t said a word since her mother had been taken. In the six weeks after Lucia had been taken away, she hadn’t even glimpsed him. Before that, she’d seen him as often as once a week. He’d teased her, flirted with her, he’d looked at her with hooded gray eyes that grew darker, that grew hungry.
He didn’t do that anymore either.
“It’s time I move, Uncle Vinny.” She held herself distant even as he offered her his arm.
“Not yet.” There was no arguing with that tone, usually.
She steadied her voice and lifted her chin in determination. “Yes, it’s time.”
“Why?” The hard tone of command was simply impossible to ignore, but that didn’t mean she had to obey.
“Because I need to think.” She wouldn’t lie to him, he deserved far better than that. “I need to learn how to live, Uncle Vinny. If I stay at the house with you, Cord, Deke, and Sawyer, then you’ll just hover over me and try to protect me from what she’s done. I have to deal with it, now.”
He was silent for long moments and she actually expected him to argue. Instead, he breathed out heavily. “You’re like a daughter to me, Gracie. Kenni returning hasn’t changed that. When I thought she was gone…” He cleared his throat as emotion thickened his voice. “You were there, and you made me hold on when I didn’t want to. Not Lucia, you. Because I knew you were grieving just as hard and just as deep as the rest of us were. I couldn’t leave you alone. You didn’t leave me alone.”
Her eyes filled with tears. Had Lucia expected that? No doubt she had.
“No one blames you, Grace,” he promised her. “Least of all that oblivious young man you have your heart set on.”
She swung her gaze around, surprise surging through her at the statement.
Rueful amusement filled his gaze as he watched her affectionately.
“Think I didn’t notice?” he asked her.
“He didn’t.” Turning, she stared back at that broad back as the man she’d had her heart set on paused to talk to one of the women who stopped him.
She hated those women. Hated how they were so comfortable with him they could touch his arm or shoulder, smile up at him so confidently, so certain of their effect on men. Perhaps on him.
“He’s a good man,” Uncle Vinny said softly. “An honorable man. Sometimes, though, honor stands in a man’s way when there’s no reason that reaching out for what he wants would tarnish that honor. You’re young, but he doesn’t understand the quiet maturity that’s so much a part of you. I have faith in him though. I think he’ll get his head out of his ass soon enough.”
She wanted to laugh at that. Six weeks ago, she would have laughed over it.
“Perhaps it was for the best that he hasn’t done so before now,” she decided. “He is honorable, Uncle Vinny. And a damned good man. He deserves far more than a traitor’s daughter.”
Before he could protest or make up any excuses his sons and the daughter he’d thought he’d lost were striding to him. Grace stepped back before slowly drifting away. She thought no one noticed either. She believed no one noticed that she walked to her car alone, and that she drove away alone. And she thought no one saw the tear she brushed from her cheek.
Most of her things were packed and waiting to be loaded in that car. If she was lucky, very lucky, she could take care of that before the family even arrived at the house. The question was, exactly where would she go?
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