Page 252 of Cowboys & Navy SEALs

“No, I don’t think you stole it,” she sneered. “Jordan gave it to you.”

Addie’s eyes narrowed. “Did you kill Jordan?”

Piper grunted. “If you mean, did I hit him with the car? Yes.” Piper rattled out a hard laugh. “But I didn’t kill him.” She shot Addie a look of malice. “You did.” She clenched her teeth. “You took Jordan from me and destroyed any chance we had for happiness.” A sadistic look came into her eyes. “It’s time for me to repay the favor.”

Addie’s heart slammed against her ribs like a caged animal. Repay the favor? Meaning hurt Maddox? Her heart shrank in despair as a prayer rose in her mind.Please, help me and Maddox.Piper wasn’t making any sense. “I don’t understand.” Addie got the feeling that none of this was real, that she was in the middle of a nightmare. Tears rose in her eyes. “Why’re you doing this?”

Piper sighed. “Determined to play Miss Innocent, huh? Fine, I’ll play along. Everything was going along just fine until Jordan gave PZT to your precious grandmother,” she spat.

“No, he didn’t give PZT to Gram, remember? That’s why he asked me to forgive him.” Maybe Piper was insane. Why had Addie not noticed the signs before?

“No, stupid! Jordan gave PZT to your grandmother. As my rotten luck would have it, she was the one in fifty who developed a brain tumor.”

The only sound in the room was Addie’s sudden intake of breath. An invisible fist squeezed her lungs. “I can’t breathe,” she uttered.

“You can give it a rest, Addie. Your tricks won’t work.”

Addie felt like her head would explode. Jordan had given Gram PZT. She died because of him. Piper killed Jordan! She would kill Addie, had possibly killed Maddox already. Addie willed herself to relax. The only chance she had to make it outof this was to keep her wits about her.Breathe!she commanded herself. Her lungs expanded, allowing in a margin of blessed air. She tried to rise above the tide of hysteria threatening to sweep her into oblivion.

“Jordan felt guilty because of your grandmother and suddenly developed a conscience. He wanted to pull the plug on PZT.” She wrinkled her brows. “Do you think he gave a crap that Dad and I had hocked everything to finance the research of PZT? That we had investors breathing down our necks, threatening to pull their backing? No!” she barked. “Not in the slightest.”

Addie tried to connect the dots. “Does PZT really cure Alzheimer’s?”

“Or course,” Piper snipped. “You saw the video.”

“But it causes brain cancer.”

“In one out of fifty patients.”

Addie exerted her strength, trying to break free of the band that bound her hands together with a spindle of the chair. It felt like hard plastic cutting into her wrists. Probably a zip tie. “When Jordan realized it caused cancer, he wanted to stop the process, which is why you killed him.” Her mind raced to something else. “Are you the one who ransacked my house and hired the man to kidnap me?”

A hard light streaked in Piper’s eyes. “Well, duh. It would’ve been so much easier to handle this if your SEAL hadn’t stepped back into the picture. Now we’ll have to do things the hard way.”

“Why did you want to kidnap me?”

A raucous laugh issued from Piper’s throat. “That’s the ironic part. I was trying to find out what Jordan had given you the day he came to see you.” Accusation shot from her eyes like arrows. “I figured Jordan would run to you. You were his true love.” She spoke the words nastily.

“No, that’s not true. What Jordan and I had was over a long time ago. Jordan loved you.” The urge to charge out of herchair and wipe the smirk off Piper’s face was overwhelming. “He trusted you.” Her stomach churned acid in her throat as she eyed the woman she’d thought was her best friend. “How could you kill your own husband?” she seethed. Piper was lower than low.

“You took Jordan from me!” Piper screamed, rage filling her eyes. She clenched her fist and raised it at Addie. “You knew Jordan loved you when you introduced him to me.” She snorted in disgust. “That’s how you are, Addie. You rack up hearts, pining away for you, while pretending to be oblivious.”

Addie realized that any argument she put forth would be shot down by Piper. It was better not to waste her breath. “You were looking for the item that Jordan gave me—the key.”

“Yes.”

“Maddox and I handed it to you on a silver platter.”

Piper lifted her eyebrows, her eyes dancing in amusement. “Pretty much.”

Addie connected the rest. “Dr. Gentry said he had to meet with the funeral director, but he’s the one who stole the hard drive.” It all came rushing back with a hard slap in the face. She’d thought the voice of the masked gunman was familiar, but had pushed it to the back of her mind. Regret punched through her. Maddox had been suspicious of Piper the entire time, but she’d dismissed his assertions, confident Piper was innocent. The sting of betrayal hit her so strongly she felt like her chest might collapse. “Jordan was never having an affair with Blanche Richey, was he?”

Piper giggled like a teenager. “That’s the part I was most surprised about—your willingness to believe that. Your opinion of Jordan was almost as high as his opinion of you. I’m sure the two of you would’ve ridden off happily into the sunset had it not been for your SEAL.” An expression of mock pity masked her face. “Poor Jordan. He never did get over you falling in love with another man.” She sighed. “He tried to make do with hisconsolation prize—” she touched her hair “—me. That was so kind of you to throw your leftovers in my direction,” she pouted.

“The money trail that led to Brent Barrett, you framed him.”

“See, you’re getting it, Addie. You’re not as dumb as you look. Blanche was all too happy to help implicate her former boss.”

“Because Brent Barrett fired her for embezzlement.”

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