Page 27 of Crossfire Creek Vengeance

Roman’s expression darkened, shadows sliding into the blue of his eyes. “She reached out to him because someone hacked into her files. She thought it might’ve been him.”

“Shade hacked Lauren?” Jessa whispered, disbelief curdling into anger. “Why would he do that?”

“Could’ve been doing Wynn’s bidding,” Roman said. “Or he could’ve been looking for something else. Information. Secrets. Leverage.”

Deacon folded his arms, studying Roman. “You said he’s in debt to the wrong people.”

“He is,” Roman confirmed. “Deep. A hacker with that kind of pressure? He’d dig for anything he could sell. Anything that could save his ass.”

A sick feeling twisted in Jessa’s stomach. “Are you saying he might have been blackmailing her?”

Roman hesitated just long enough to tell her the truth hurt him to say. “Possibly.”

Jessa swallowed hard. Shade sneaking through her mother’s files. Shade digging for leverage. Shade handing out information to whoever paid.

Deacon frowned. “If he was blackmailing her, why kill her?”

Roman stared down at the phone. “Maybe she figured it out. Maybe she confronted him. Maybe she threatened to turn the tables or send Wynn after him.” His eyes lifted, cold and lethal. “Or worse, send Noah or me.”

The idea hit Jessa like a punch.

Her mother, sick, dying. And maybe having to threaten a hacker to stop him from exploiting her. And someone had answered her strength with poison.

Roman’s voice took on a harder edge, each word dropping like a stone into her gut. “If Wynn did this,” he said, “his reasons might not be complicated. He could’ve killed her if he thought she’d rebuffed him. If he was jealous she’d once been with Noah. Or if he convinced himself she’d fallen for someone else.”

Jessa closed her eyes for half a beat, bile rising. Wynn had worshipped Lauren in his own warped, obsessive way. Loving her. Stalking her. Guarding her. If he thought she’d lied to him or loved someone more than him, he could have snapped.

“But,” Roman continued, “if Wynn didn’t kill her… that might explain everything that’s happening now.”

Jessa lifted her gaze. “Explain what?”

“Why he’s coming after us,” Roman said. “Me. You. Our people.” His jaw ticked. “Maybe he thinks you killed her.”

Ice shot down her spine. “He wouldn’t—” Jessa started, but the truth cut her off. Wynn’s rage since Lauren’s death. His fixation. The venom he’d spat in those last confrontations before he stopped speaking to her entirely.

“Maybe he’s convinced himself you’re to blame,” Roman went on. “That your argument with her pushed her over the edge. That you broke her heart. Or worse.”

Jessa’s hands curled into fists. “So he used Deacon to lure me out?”

“Maybe,” Roman admitted.

Deacon had gone very still across from her. “If Wynn wanted Jessa, then why not just kill her outright? Why the games? Why come after me first?”

Roman looked at Jessa, then at Deacon, expression unreadable for a long, breathless second. “Because maybe he wants to punish her first,” Roman said. “Make her suffer. Take away the person she loves.” A beat. “Loved,” Roman corrected.

The word hung there, loves, like a live wire between them. Painful. Electric. Exposed.

Roman cleared his throat, looking away as if giving her a sliver of dignity. But Deacon didn’t look away. His eyes were on her.

Searching.

And in that split-second flash, it hit her that Wynn’s twisted logic wasn’t just dangerous. It was personal. Deadly personal. Wynn believed she’d broken Lauren. And now he wanted to break her right back.

Deacon’s voice broke through the weight of Roman’s words. “I heard something about some kind of inheritance problem popping up five years ago.” His eyes locked onto Roman’s. “Could that be part of this? Could that be why Lauren was murdered? Why someone attacked us tonight?”

The mention of the inheritance hit her like a fist to the ribs. Jessa’s breath left her in a slow, pained exhale. Roman’s reaction was far less subtle.

His scowl snapped up instantly, sharp and dangerous. “You told him?” Roman bit out, his voice a low growl.