Chapter 3

Now what?

Stepping into Vince Maddox’s office nearly thirty minutes later, Zack felt that punch of the inevitable still ricocheting through his senses. The second Grace exploded like dynamite in his hands, he’d known he was in more trouble than he ever imagined he could be. And he’d imagined quite a bit of trouble where she was concerned.

And she was madder than hell at him.

The thought of her flushed face, anger gleaming amid the pleasure sparking her eyes, had left him wanting nothing more than to feel her coming for him again.

Damn, she made him hot. It had taken everything he had to pull back—to keep from crawling over her, tearing his jeans from his hips, and pushing inside the sleek, wet depths of her. As she’d climaxed, her nails had dug into his shoulders, her body bowing, pushing closer to him, unconsciously seeking more, searching for every second of pleasure to be found.

“’Bout time you showed up,” Cord growled from where he sat in a heavy leather chair next to his father’s desk. His brothers, twins Deacon and Sawyer, sat on the other side, sprawled in matching chairs as they glared back at him.

“Call Jazz and Slade off,” Vinny demanded as soon as the door closed behind Zack. “Those two are like a coupla junkyard dogs.”

With an arch of his brow, Zack took a seat in the leather sofa facing the desk. “What are they doing?” he drawled, knowing damned good and well what they were doing.

Vinny leaned forward, propping his elbows on his desk, his dark green eyes shadowed with grief and the knowledge that his wife had been murdered by her own sister, his own daughter nearly killed more than once by the same woman.

The past two months hadn’t been easy on Vinny or his boys. The truths now being uncovered had the power to chip away at the faith they had in the work they did. And Zack couldn’t blame them, but he was damned if he’d let that lack of faith destroy Grace.

“They’re parked at the gates, refusing to move. Kenni actually threw a tomato at the guards stationed there, and now she’s threatening to neuter them!” he snapped furiously.

Something resembling a smothered chuckle came from one of the twins at his right, but when Zack glanced at them, both men were staring at the rounded tops of their boots with intense concentration. Turning back to Vinny, he caught the other man glaring at his sons.

“That sounds like Kenni,” Zack agreed somberly. “They’re lucky she hasn’t used the Taser Jazz bought her.”

Vinny’s eyes rounded in something akin to horror. “He gave her a Taser gun? Did he lose his mind?”

Zack’s initial reaction had been similar.

“He didn’t want to lose another of his antique corkscrews, I guess.” He shrugged. “I thought it was a smart move.”

Kenni was nearly murdered by a henchman of her aunt’s. She’d killed him by plunging one of Jazz’s antique corkscrews straight into his heart.

Zack was still impressed with the move.

Vinny shot him a killing look rather than agreeing with him.

“As for her current threats,” Zack continued. “I suggest you let Kenni check on her cousin, let Jazz and Slade in on the situation, we share info, and we all get along.” He let his look harden. “Or I take Grace out of here, hide her myself, and Jazz, Slade, and I handle all this on our own.”

Four sets of varying shades of green gazed back at him with suddenly icy expressions.

“Do you want to die, Zack?” Cord asked softly then, his beach cowboy look doing little to soften the cold emerald gaze.

“Not today, Cord,” Zack assured him facetiously. “Check back with me tomorrow. I have a feeling dealing with your cousin will be more detrimental to my careful control than I ever imagined she could be.”

“Just kill him now, Dad,” Cord grunted, not in the least amused.

“You could do that.” Zack gave a short nod of his head. “Of course, if you do, I won’t be able to tell you about my little visit to the Brigham Estate yesterday.” He met each man’s gaze once again. “I’m sure you want to hear about that.” Zack relaxed back in the sofa, propped his ankle on the opposite knee, and watched the three men silently as they exchanged looks.

Finally, Vinny gave a hard shake of his head, his expression becoming heavy and filled with grief once more. “You’ll break her heart,” he said, his tone saddened. “You’ve already wounded it with your disregard for her over the past eight weeks.”

“Better her heart broken than her life taken.” A broken heart would keep her breathing, at least. “Alex Brigham had a file detailing Lucia’s interrogation. She claimed Grace was helping her and that she was holding a flash drive containing evidence pointing to Lucia’s partner. The leader of the silent coup you’ve been battling since Grace’s father died. The only way we’ll save her is if Brigham is convinced she’s my lover. He won’t strike out at her if she belongs to me. Not for any reason.”

“And what makes you so fucking special?” Cord burst out just as his father lifted his hand for silence.

“Dad, you can’t believe that—” Deacon leaned forward in anger only to receive a silencing look from Vinny.

Sawyer sat still, simply watching. He was the only one who would have worried Zack, if he’d had anything to worry about.

“You’re going to play that card, Zack? After all these years?” Vinny asked softly. “For a girl you’ve steered clear of since she first showed any interest in you? You wouldn’t play it for yourself, but you’re playing it for her?”

The implication that he was letting this get personal wasn’t lost on Zack.

“Whoever targeted Grace is the same bastard who killed my parents as well as your brother and your wife.” Zack dropped any pretense of casual amusement. Leaning forward, he stared back at Vinny, fighting to control his anger. “Sierra Maddox is the reason I was sent to Toby Rigor.” Vinny’s first wife had seen things even Vinny hadn’t wanted to see. “Losing Kenni all those years nearly destroyed Jazz. I want that bastard, Vinny. I want him bad. And if this is what it takes to smoke him out, then fuck him, it’s time he learns who he’s dealing with.”

Something flashed in Vinny’s eyes, there and gone before Zack could identify the emotion.

“Very well.” Vinny sat back in his chair, that casual attitude Zack had displayed moments before now infusing the Maddox patriarch. “Introduce yourself, then. Let Cord, Deacon, and Sawyer know who they’re dealing with. Let them know why you, Jazz, and Slade hold the potential to divide the Kin.”

His teeth clenched. He should have known Vinny would take this particular tack.

Finally, his lips curled mockingly with the knowledge that Vinny thought he’d back down. “Zackary Richards,” he stated clearly. “Son of Zackary Richards Sr. and Nicole Brigham—Alexander Brigham’s youngest sister.”

Silence filled the room for long moments.

“Son of a bitch.” Cord sat forward in his chair, his gaze sharp, suspicious. “Toby Rigor knew who you were, didn’t he?”

Zack inclined his head. “And he took steps to ensure I’d always be safe. Steps that are still in place.”

His foster father had been one of Vinny Maddox’s most respected team leaders, as were his friends. And now those friends, and the sons of those friends, were sworn to carry on that protection.

Several times over the years, those Kin leaders had backed Slade, Jazz, and Zack equally whenever they’d butted heads with the Maddox family, whenever needed and with such covert precision that Vince Maddox never identified any of the men and women behind it. And they’d tried.

“And you’re willing to extend that same protection to Grace?” Vinny asked then. “As well as holding back the Brigham family, no matter the cost to yourself?”

“To find the bastard who killed my parents and her father,” he agreed, “you’re damned right I am. I want this traitor, Vinny. I want it stopped. Now.”

Secrets.

They were a part of the Tennessee mountains, part of their heritage as well as the very existence of the Maddox family and the government-backed militia they called the Kin.

“And you’re willing to use Grace to catch him,” Vinny sighed, “because you believe she’s guilty.”

“Because I know she’s not guilty.” Zack denied the charge, ignoring the narrow-eyed suspicion suddenly creasing Vinny’s expression. “Grace wouldn’t betray her father’s memory, or the cousin she knew was alive for two years before Kenni ever admitted to Jazz who she was. If Grace were helping Lucia, then Kenni would have been dead before Jazz ever realized she was in trouble.”

Kenni and Grace had already admitted that to the family. Grace’s love for Kenni, for the family, wasn’t in question.

“Then Luce lied,” Vinny stated. “Grace can’t be in possession of that information.”

The disappointment in the other man’s tone was enough to send irritation flashing through Zack. He wondered if Vinny wouldn’t have preferred Grace be guilty just so he could get his hands on that information.

“If Grace even thought she had something the family needed, she’d turn it over in a heartbeat,” Zack agreed. “And she was too young when Benjamin died for him to have entrusted anything in her care.”

“Then how do you intend to learn who Luce’s partner was?” Cord asked.

“I won’t have to learn who it is,” he assured them, tapping the fingers of one hand on the arm of the sofa. “Luce swore Grace has it. Whoever’s been heading this attempted coup will be desperate to get it, or to kill her so she can’t reveal it. They have no idea who within the Kin backs me, or how many back me any more than you do. Whoever it is will get desperate now. They’re going to convince themselves they’re smart enough, strong enough to take her from me. I’m going to prove them wrong. And uncover who they are at the same time, however I have to.”

Sawyer spoke up then, an edge of disgust in his tone. “By using Grace. When it’s over, you’ll leave her broken, Zack.”

He repeated his earlier statement. “She’ll be alive.”

Grace would be alive, and that should be all that concerned her family. At the heart of it, he was afraid that part played too large a role in his own plans as well.

He’d begun thinking of her as his in some ways, long before now. He didn’t like it, but he also tried not to hide from himself. And Grace was a part of him he couldn’t define or make sense of.

“What do you need?” Vinny asked rather than protesting further. “How do you intend to play this little game of yours?”

It wasn’t a game, but so long as the Maddox family believed it was just that, then the safer Grace would be. The Brigham family would know better, unfortunately. Just as Zack knew it. There were secrets they shared, secrets that would end up not just hurting Grace but destroying him as well.

“Grace is too weak to protect herself. You raised her to be the replacement princess when you thought Kenni was dead.” He ignored the shocked anger in their faces. “She’s delicate, with no fighting skills and a trusting nature.” He shot the four men a scowl. “It’s like letting a puppy loose in a den of wolves. You set her up as bait from the moment you took her into your home.”

Grace hadn’t even been born with the fiery, stubborn nature of the Maddox Clan. She smiled sweetly at everyone when she asked for something, and for the most part, they indulged her. The princess could do no harm, until the true princess returned. Now she was a target.

“That’s how you see Grace?” Vinny asked heavily. “Weak and defenseless?”

“She’s a country club debutante,” Zack reminded him, though without scorn. “Through no fault of her own. She can’t survive in this world you’ve carved out for her. The very fact that she is so defenseless has made her a target.”

The four men stared at each other as though assessing what Zack had said, perhaps not believing it, but they had to see the truth of the matter.

“You didn’t train her, even to the extent that Kenni had been trained,” he continued. “At least Kenni knew how to hunt, to shoot, and to fight. Grace has none of those skills. The only chance she has is to align herself with someone who has the strength to protect her, and will spend his life doing just that rather than his job within the Kinship. You set her up to die.”

And it pissed him the hell off. Over the years, it had driven him to distraction to know that Grace had no idea how to fight if the situation warranted it. And with the Kin, the situation would eventually warrant it.

“You didn’t answer my question, son. How do you intend to protect her?” Vinny asked with that dangerously soft voice that seemed to affect anyone who heard it.

Anyone but me, Zack thought. He wasn’t scared of Vinny any more than he was frightened of his uncle, Alex Brigham.

“First of all, the information regarding my parentage goes no further,” Zack insisted. “Secondly, I’ll be taking care of Grace from here on out.” And here was where he expected the blowout: “As her lover.”

Surprisingly, Vinny’s brow lifted in subtle, amused mockery, his green eyes lighting with it before he glanced at her cousins. Each of the other three men was too quiet.

The patriarch finally shrugged. “Grace can choose her own lovers. Any plan you come up with, she’ll be made aware of, though. So it isn’t our agreement you have to procure, but hers.”

Zack stared back at them suspiciously. Well, now, wasn’t he expecting more of an objection?

“Grace is a grown woman,” Vince continued, obviously reading at least part of the wariness Zack could feel tightening through his body. “I’m not stupid, and I don’t expect my boys, Kenni or Grace to live by some antiquated code of moral conduct. If she wants a lover, that’s her business. I may question her taste in men”—his look assured Zack he was the questionable male—“but that’s her business, not mine.”

Her cousins appeared on the verge of outright amusement, though, especially Sawyer. He kept rubbing his hand over his cheek as though trying to hide the twitch of his lips.

“So let me in on the fucking joke,” Zack growled.

“No joke.” Sawyer finally chuckled, shaking his head. “No joke at all, man. I’m still stuck on the ‘puppy in a wolf’s den’ image. I have to remember that one.”

He wasn’t the cousin known for his tact; that was for damned sure.

“Yeah, a sweet little golden retriever, that’s our Grace,” his twin, Deacon, agreed a little too solemnly. “All bounce and fluff and no teeth. We like her like that. She’s a calm, comforting influence on all of us.”

“It could get her killed,” Zack informed him.

“We see the error of our ways now,” Cord injected, anger slipping into his tone as Zack turned to him.

It was time one of them realized what a mess they’d created.

“As Dad said,” Cord ground out, “who she takes as a lover is her business. Whether or not she agrees to actually let you into her bed for the sake of her safety is up to her as well. But she will know what’s going on and what your plans are.”

“You’ll allow me to inform her of them,” Zack demanded, the tension in the room causing the hairs at the back of his neck to lift in warning. “I’ll be damned if I need you turning her against me before I even tell her what’s going on.”

“Agreed,” Vince voiced before his sons could object. “You have twenty-four hours. Get your gear—you can have the suite next to hers.”

He frowned at that. “My home is more secure—”

Vince leaned forward, his weight bracing on his arms as he propped them on his desk. “The suite next to hers, Zack,” he reiterated with dark warning. “Grace will remain here until you can prove she’ll be safer at your home. She has a job to do here, and no one else can do it. Live with it or leave. Your choice.”

The phone on Vinny’s desk buzzed at that moment, bringing a grimace to his lips as he jerked it to his ear with a brusque “What?” His lips flattened and he disconnected the call without a response. “It would seem Kenni is now stalking up the drive along with Jazz and Slade.” He pushed his fingers through his hair in frustration. “Dammit, I wanted her out of this.”

A father’s lament, Zack thought with regret. A father who had already lost his daughter once.

“Grace helped her, Vinny. She won’t stay out of it. Even for you.” As much as Zack regretted it, as much as he hated it, there was no keeping his brother or his brother’s fiancée out of the coming mess.

Vinny glared at him. “You’re going to become a problem, Zack.”

His lips quirked at the accusation. “I’ve always been a problem, Vinny. I just didn’t let you see it. Until now. But I’ll be damned if I watch another defenseless young woman die for this family. Not again.”

Not Grace.

Cord snorted as he rose to his feet, mocking amusement filling the sound. “I almost pity you,” he stated, his green eyes filled with ire as he glared down at Zack. “Almost.”

With that, he turned and stalked from the office, leaving only a tension-filled silence Zack had no intention of disrupting.

Let them think what they wanted. No one hated the thought of hurting Grace more than he did. Just as no one could possibly hate the fact that she was involved in this more than he did. That was the hand being dealt to them, though, and none of them had a choice but to play the cards they were given.

Especially him.