Page 18 of Crossfire Creek Vengeance

Jessa looked down at her hands. Her fingers were trembling. “So now,” she went on, “Wynn has just enough truth to burn Roman and me. And if he dumps everything he knows? Roman could go down and I could as well for accessory after the fact to whatever illegal wranglings he did for my mother so she could keep her inheritance. My grandparents are still alive, too. They’re in their late eighties and are both in assisted living. This kind of scandal would no doubt crush them.”

Deacon sat back on his heels, shaking his head slowly. “If Wynn loved Lauren as much as he claimed he did,” he said, “why the hell would he smear her name by spilling that she gave birth to a child out of wedlock? Why drag her reputation through the mud?”

Jessa closed her eyes for a heartbeat. God, she wished she had an answer that didn’t make her stomach twist. “He doesn’t care about her reputation,” she whispered. “Not anymore.”

That got Deacon’s attention.

Jessa forced herself to keep going. “Wynn wants to hurt Noah. That’s the point. That’s all of it. He thinks Noah crushed Lauren. That Noah broke her heart and left her alone to raise a daughter she couldn’t claim.”

The words felt wrong and right all at once. Too heavy. Too close to truths she wished she hadn’t heard.

“And Wynn…” she added, biting gently into her lower lip, “he’s always been jealous of Noah.”

Deacon frowned. “Jealous?”

“He worshipped my mother.” Jessa’s voice thinned, fragile around the edges. “Even when she tried to set boundaries or push him away gently, he clung harder. And when she talked about her past, about her regrets, Wynn twisted it into proof that Noah was the man who ruined her life.”

Deacon stared at her, searching her face. “Regrets? Jess… what regrets?”

Jessa’s stomach clenched. She looked down at her hands, twisting together in her lap.

“Before Lauren died,” she murmured, “she said some things that… made me think she was still in love with Noah. She wouldn’t say it outright, but she talked about him with this… softness. This ache.” She paused. “I think she never stopped loving him. Not really. And Wynn knew it. Or sensed it. And it broke him.”

“All right,” he said, his voice low. “I can wrap my head around why Wynn would hate me. I was the one who arrested Lauren. And I can sort of see why he’d resent Noah. But why you, Jess? Why the hell try to kill you?”

The question landed like a stone in her chest, dragging all the old guilt to the surface. “It’s because of the rift,” she whispered. “When Lauren told me the truth about Noah, about my birth, I couldn’t understand why she’d hide something so huge. Why she’d lie to me my entire life. And when I found out she did it to hang onto her inheritance…” Her voice cracked. “I didn’t handle it well.”

Deacon didn’t speak. He watched her like he was afraid she might break if he blinked.

“She dragged Roman into it too,” Jessa said quietly. “Into doing something illegal for her. Something that could’ve ruined him if it ever came out. And when I confronted her about that, when I told her she’d crossed a line she had no right to cross… I said things I shouldn’t have. We both did. Wynn overheard. All of it. Every terrible word.”

Deacon’s jaw tightened. “And I’m guessing he was furious.”

“He was,” she confirmed. “He worshipped my mother. Put her on a pedestal she never asked for. And hearing me challenge her, accuse her…” Jessa shut her eyes, the memory slicing deep. “He couldn’t handle it.”

Deacon leaned closer, voice rough. “Jess…”

“She died before we could fix it.” The words cut her throat on the way out. “Before I could… before I could apologize. Before she and I could be okay again. Wynn blames me for that. He thinks I broke her heart. That I… that I sped up her death.”

Jessa blinked up at him, her vision shimmering. “And that,” she whispered, “is why Wynn wants me dead.”

Deacon cleared his throat. “Do you have any details about what Roman did?” he asked, the question yanking her out of her thoughts. “What illegal thing Lauren pulled him into?”

Heat flared instantly in her chest. Of course he’d ask. Of course his lawman instincts would kick in. And of course it would feel like a punch, even if he didn’t mean it that way.

She straightened, spine stiffening. “No.”

He studied her, clearly unconvinced.

Her anger pulsed harder. “I know that look. Don’t.” She shook her head, jaw tight. “I’m not giving you ammunition to go after my brother.”

Deacon’s brows drew together. “I’m not—”

“Yes, you are,” she snapped, the exhaustion catching up with her. “You don’t approve of Roman. You never have. And I get it. He does things his own way, he bends rules until they scream, but he’s not a criminal. Roman did what he had to do because my mother asked him to. Because she was desperate.”

Jessa’s throat tightened, the anger tangled with pain.

“No matter what you think of him,” she said more quietly, “I’m not going to be the person who hands you the details so you can arrest him.”