Coldhearted Read online

  What the hell?

  Jordan shot up out of her chair and muttered under her breath, “Oh, Lord, what now?”

  When they both headed toward the door, Rick falling into step behind Jordan, Tammy Harris came flying into the room, a wild-eyed expression on her face. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she rushed to Jordan. She wrung her hands together, all the while gulping for air.

  Jordan grabbed Tammy’s trembling hands. “What’s wrong?”

  “Help, please help,” Tammy blurted out, her voice shaky.

  Jordan squeezed Tammy’s hands. “Calm down. Everything will be all right. Just tell me what’s wrong.”

  A loud thump followed by another and then another gained their attention. Tammy glared through the open doorway, sheer terror in her eyes.

  “You have to stop them before they kill each other,” Tammy finally managed to say on one long, hurried breath.

  “Who?” Jordan asked.

  “J.C. and Wes,” Tammy told her. “They’re fighting.”

  “What happened? Why are they fighting?”

  “Stop them, please.” Tammy jerked her hands free of Jordan’s tenacious hold. “I can’t stand it. I can’t. You have to stop them before they kill each other.”

  “Okay, okay. Just calm down.”

  Kendra Brannon’s appearance halted Jordan outside her study.

  “Jordan, you have to do something,” Kendra said. “Wes and J.C. are fighting and it’s all my fault. J.C. was sort of flirting with me and Wes went berserk. You know how protective he is. He thinks J.C. is too old to be flirting with me.”

  “Damn!” Jordan huffed loudly. “J.C. is too old to be flirting with you. But Wes shouldn’t have started a fight over it. Come with me. Now.” Jordan glanced from Kendra to Tammy. “We’ll put a stop to things before someone gets hurt.”

  Kendra eyed Rick, who stood inside the study. “Shouldn’t he come, too? He looks like he could handle J.C. and Wes.”

  “Want me to take care of this for you, Mrs. Price?” Rick asked, dreading the thought of breaking up a fist-fight.

  “Please, come with us,” Jordan told him. “But let me handle things. I’m used to playing referee and peacemaker in this family.”

  By the time they made their way to the scene of the brawl, the fight that apparently had begun inside the house had moved out onto the veranda. Just as Jordan opened the front door, Wes knocked J.C. down the steps and onto the lawn.

  “I want you two to stop this stupid fighting right this minute!” Jordan shouted in an I-mean-business, authoritarian voice.

  J.C. came up from the ground swinging, his face bloody and sweat dampening his silk shirt. Taking a stand, Wes prepared to defend himself, a look of pure hatred on his face.

  “Enough!” Jordan ran across the veranda and down the steps.

  Shit! She was heading straight toward the two battered fighters and neither one seemed aware of her presence.

  Don’t do it, honey. Don’t step between them.

  But that’s exactly what Jordan did, walked right between J.C. and Wes, with both men ready to continue clobbering each other. Rick went after her, but didn’t reach her in time to prevent her from putting herself in harm’s way.

  “Don’t interfere, Jordan,” Wes said. “I’m going to beat the crap out of him, so help me God. After I finish with him, he’ll think twice before he touches Kendra or any other girl young enough to be his daughter.”

  “Oh, for goodness sake, Wes, all he did was kiss me,” Kendra shouted. “And I didn’t try to stop him!”

  Jordan glowered at J.C. “Leave. Now. Go home and stay there. We’ll talk later.”

  J.C. wiped the blood from his mouth. He smirked at Jordan. “Just keep the kid away from me.” He glanced at Kendra. “Hell, keep both of those brats away from me.”

  When he started to walk off, Wes lurched for him, but Jordan grabbed Wes by the shoulders and shook him. J.C. meandered away, around the house, whistling to himself. Wes threw off Jordan’s hold, obviously intending to go after J.C.

  In his peripheral vision, Rick noted that the entire house-hold had come out on the veranda—Roselynne, Darlene, Rene, Devon and both servants—just as Wes shoved Jordan’s hands off his shoulders. Rick realized that Wes had pushed Jordan harder than he’d intended and she was falling backward. Only when Rick dashed straight to her and caught her just before she hit the ground did Wes realize what he’d done. That realization stopped him cold.

  “Oh, God, Jordan, I’m sorry,” Wes said.

  Rick swooped a dazed Jordan up in his arms, something primeval inside him wanting to protect her, needing to keep her safe from this swarm of vultures hovering around her.

  Chapter 7

  Jordan grabbed hold of Rick by instinctively throwing her arm around his neck. Momentarily stunned by what had happened, she stared into his eyes. Their gazes connected and instantly locked. Knowing she had to remove herself from such intimate contact with this man, she inhaled and exhaled a deep, steadying breath before saying, “Please, put me down.”

  Rick hesitated for a split second, then eased her onto her feet.

  “Thank you,” she mouthed the words quietly.

  He didn’t get a chance to say anything before the adoring Jordan Price tribe swarmed around her, each person professing their concern. But Devon Markham cut through the other groupies and all but pushed Rick aside.

  “Are you okay?” Devon asked, genuine worry marring his handsome features.

  “I’m fine.” She patted him on the arm and then turned to the others. “The show’s over. Everything is going to be fine. Please, all of you, go back inside.”

  Tobias and Vadonna returned to the house immediately, while no one else hurried back inside; instead they began mumbling among themselves.

  “Wait up, Wes,” Jordan called to her stepson. “We need to talk.” She looked from Wes to his sister. “You, too, Kendra. Both of you go sit down. I’ll be there in a minute.” She turned to Rick. “Please, go eat breakfast and get your day started. I have to do my job as their stepmother and sort things out with them before I send them both back to school.”

  “I don’t mean to interfere, but shouldn’t you confront your stepbrother about making advances to a teenager first?”

  Jordan grimaced. “No, the children first. I’ll deal with J.C. later.”

  Rick nodded, then left her to handle the family situation on her own. She squared her shoulders and walked across the lawn, up the steps and onto the veranda. Wes sat in one of the big wicker chairs, his legs spread, his shoulders and head drooped, and his hands clutched together between his knees. Kendra paced back and forth. Pausing when Jordan approached, she looked at her in a wide-eyed, pleading manner.

  “Wes overreacted to something that was none of his business in the first place,” Kendra said.

  Pointing her index finger in Kendra’s face, Jordan gave her a stern, disapproving, maternal glare. “J.C. kissed you, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did anything else happen?”

  “No.”

  “Has he kissed you before?”

  “Once.”

  “Kendra Diane Brannon, you are eighteen years old. J.C. is thirty-six. Do the math. He’s twice your age and has had five times more experience. He is a sweet-talking womanizer who uses and discards women as if they were Kleenex.”

  “But—”

  “No buts,” Jordan said. “Whatever he’s said to you, whatever you think you feel for him, forget it.”

  “You’re not being fair,” Kendra whined, reminding Jordan of just how immature her stepdaughter was.

  Maybe it was her fault that Kendra still saw the world through rose-colored glasses, but she had so wanted to protect her from life’s harsh realities as long as possible. When Jordan had married Boyd, Kendra had been a shy, starved-for-motherly-affection little girl of ten, the same age Jordan had been when she’d lost her own mother. She had reached out to Kendra immediately, offering her the love and att
ention she had so desperately needed.

  “I’m being sensible. I am protecting you because I love you. And in case you have any doubts, let me spell this out for you. This subject is closed. After breakfast, I want you to go upstairs and pack your bags. You’re going back to university today instead of this weekend.”

  “Oh, Jordan, do I have to…” Kendra stopped mid-sentence, heaved a deep, overly dramatic sigh and said, “Okay, I’ll go.”

  “You know I’m doing what I believe is best for you under the circumstances.”

  “Yes, ma’am. I know.”

  “Go on inside. I need to talk to Wes. Alone.”

  As soon as Kendra left, Jordan turned to Wesley. He wouldn’t look at her. Instead, he stared at the floor. Even though he was now a young man of twenty, broad shouldered and six feet tall, she would always see him as he’d been when she first married Boyd, a hostile twelve-year-old who was determined to hate his new stepmother. It had taken her a year of hard work to win him over and make him realize that she didn’t expect to take his mother’s place, that she wanted her own place in his life and his heart.

  “Look at me, Wes.”

  He hazarded a quick glance up at her.

  “You should have come to me when you saw J.C. kiss Kendra and let me handle the problem. All you achieved by physically attacking J.C. was to bruise and bloody both of you and create a hullabaloo within the family.”

  “Yeah, well, it did more than that,” Wes told her. “It made me feel damn good to hit him.”

  Barely managing not to smile, Jordan laid her hand on Wes’s shoulder. “I suppose it did. There have been a few times when I’ve wanted to knock some sense into J.C.”

  “I don’t see how you can stand having that sleazeball around. He’s worthless and everybody knows it. Even Devon, who likes just about everybody, has no use for J.C.”

  “J.C. is my stepbrother. He’s family.”

  “Have you considered the possibility that he killed Dan?”

  The question genuinely startled Jordan. “No, I haven’t because despite all of J.C.’s faults, he’s not capable of murder.”

  “Yeah, he is,” Wes said. “Everyone is. He kept hitting up Dan for money and when Dan didn’t come through the last time, J.C. got really pissed. What if he thought by killing Dan, you’d inherit and—”

  “J.C. did not kill Dan. We don’t even know for sure that Dan was murdered.”

  Wes shrugged. “Just don’t trust him, okay? You’re too smart for that, but at the same time, you’ve got a really soft spot when it comes to taking care of friends and family.” Wes rose to his feet. “Please, be careful around him.”

  “I appreciate your concern.”

  “I’ll go pack, too.” Wes grinned. “I figure you’ll want me to leave when Kendra does.”

  Jordan slipped her arm around her stepson’s waist. “It’s for your own good. You two have missed more than enough school this semester and I know y’all stayed on because you’re concerned about me. Don’t be. I’m going to be all right. Devon’s here, as is Roselynne and Darlene, not to mention Rene.”

  “Gee, that makes me feel a lot better,” he said sarcastically. “Devon’s a basket case since Dan died, and Roselynne and Darlene both need keepers, so Rene’s the only person left you can actually count on. Her and that Carson guy. I know you don’t like him, but I have a feeling he’s okay.”

  “Yes, I have the same feeling. If I can ever convince him that I’m not some black widow who’s killed two husbands and a fiancé—”

  “You’re joking? He can’t possibly think you whacked Dan or that you killed Dad or—”

  “It’s his job to find out the truth,” Jordan said. “And that’s what I want, what we all want.”

  Wes hugged her and kissed her cheek. “If you need me, I’ll just be a phone call away. I wish…”

  “What do you wish, honey?”

  “I wish you had someone to take care of you the way you take care of all of us. More than anyone I know, you deserve to be happy.”

  A knot of emotion tightened Jordan’s throat, making it impossible for her to respond. She and Wes exchanged a tender mother-son moment that needed no words.

  Tammy yanked open the front door to the home she shared with their mother and marched into the living room. J.C. took a puff on his cigarette, then blew out a spiral of smoke. His little sister looked spitting mad.

  “What’s up, buttercup?” he asked, trying to lighten the mood.

  “How could you? Are you out of your mind?”

  “Me? Nope. You’re the sibling with a few loose screws, not me.” He twirled his index finger beside his temple to indicate she was crazy.

  Tammy bristled at his attempt to be funny. “Kendra is Jordan’s stepdaughter so that makes her off limits to you.”

  “No woman is off limits to me if I want her and believe me I want Kendra. I’d like to pop her cherry if one of those college boys hasn’t already done it. And if they have, then I could show her the difference between being diddled by a boy and fucked by a man.”

  “You’re disgusting. You know that, don’t you? Mama should have put you in a sack and drowned you in the river when you were born.”

  J.C. chuckled, then took another draw on his cigarette. “Sugar, you’re the one who should have been put down like a rabid dog. You’re nothing but a burden on Mama and on Jordan.” He placed his cigarette in the ashtray on the side table. “Poor, pitiful, little Tammy.”

  She came at him with teeth bared and claws out, lunging on top of him like the wild creature she was. She managed to rake his cheek with her fingernails before he manacled both of her wrists and forced her to her knees.

  “You’re hurting me,” Tammy cried.

  He increased the pressure, making her scream for mercy.

  “Johnny Cash Harris, what the hell do you think you’re doing?” Roselynne yelled as she came through the door. “For pity’s sake, let her go.”

  He loosened his tight hold, but didn’t release his sister. “She’s gone loco again. If I hadn’t grabbed her, she’d have done worse than scratch my face. She’s crazy and it’s time you put her away someplace where she can’t kill anybody else.”

  Roselynne stomped toward them, hellfire and damnation in her eyes. J.C. jerked Tammy to her feet as he stood and then he shoved her toward their mother. Tammy went running into Roselynne’s open arms.

  Soothing her child with comforting strokes, she murmured endearments. “Now, go to the bathroom and wash your face while I talk to J.C.”

  “Yes, Mama,” Tammy said, meek as a lamb.

  J.C. had never understood how their mother could so easily control Tammy with a few words and a tender touch. The only other person who came close to controlling his crazy little sister was Jordan. But Jordan had a way with people in general, not just Tammy.

  As soon as Tammy disappeared into the bathroom, their mother turned on him. “Damn it, boy, what am I going to do with you? Manhandling your sister is not allowed. How many times do I have to tell you? And as for the other, about her killing somebody—I don’t want to hear you spouting off such nonsense ever again. You hear me?”

  “It’s not nonsense and you know it. Don’t tell me that it hasn’t crossed your mind that Tammy might have killed Dan.”

  “Shut your mouth! Nobody’s proved that Dan didn’t kill himself.”

  “Ryan Price thinks Dan was murdered. And so does that Powell agent who’s snooping around.”

  “Everybody’s got a right to their opinion. Just because Ryan can’t accept the fact that Dan committed suicide doesn’t mean he didn’t do it. And Rick Carson is being paid to be suspicious, to snoop around and find out what’s what.”

  J.C. laughed. “I’d like to be a fly on the wall when he unearths the truth about Dan and Jordan’s marriage.”

  “Whatever he finds out, he’ll keep to himself. It’s a rule of some kind that private eyes have.”

  “Aren’t you the least bit curious about the baby?�
� J.C. asked. “It’s kind of difficult for a woman to get pregnant if her husband isn’t screwing her.”

  “I don’t want to hear anymore talk like that either. The baby Jordan is carrying is Dan Price’s kid, Dan’s heir. You got that?”

  J.C. winked at his mother. “Yeah, I got it. And if she gets more of Dan’s money for that kid, then it’ll mean more for all of us, right?”

  “You’re a greedy, ungrateful—”

  “I just tell it like I see it.” He narrowed his gaze and studied his mother for a couple of seconds. “You didn’t by any chance know, before Dan killed himself, that he had Alzheimer’s, did you, Ma?”

  J.C. was creating problems they didn’t need. She’d probably have to deal with him sooner rather than later. The very thought of disposing of him was abhorrent to her since he was part of the family. She had put up with his bad behavior, excused his misdeeds, and refrained from killing him because he had not posed a real threat to them. Not until now. He had become a liability. Even before she’d killed Dan, she had known it was only a matter of time before J.C. would have to be eliminated. His actions were hurting them more and more all the time. She couldn’t allow him to continue upsetting them, not with a baby on the way. Nothing and no one was more important than their child.

  She would simply have to wait for the right moment and then strike. And it had to look like an accident. If only she could have found a way to have made Dan’s death look accidental instead of like suicide, as she had some of the other deaths.

  Killing J.C. immediately was out of the question. First of all, she never eliminated someone without reason and that required her to consider all sides of a situation. Once she had made her decision, as she had with J.C., she formulated a plan. That took time, days, even weeks. She couldn’t do anything to bring suspicion on herself, especially this soon after Dan’s death. And she certainly couldn’t take any undue chances with a private detective living here at Price Manor.

  But when the time was right, she would remove J.C. from their lives, just as she had removed all the others who had betrayed them, either intentionally or simply by an act of fate.