I wince at the callous way my sister talks about just killing someone, at the way Caleb’s chin trembles as he looks away from her, as if he can’t bear to look at her.
“What?” Jax cuts in.
He prowls forward a step, and the movement pulls every nerve in my body tight.
“It’s better!” Nix stands up stupidly, and I can’t help but grimace at the hill she’s decided to die on. What is she thinking?! She just killed theirfather.
“I’m fucking sorry but it’s better,” she continues. “God, I don’t think I’m the crazy one here—”
“No,” Jax cuts her off sharply, and I brace for him to finally lay into her.
She would deserve it, needs it even, but God if it isn’t going to be hard listening to it. She’s still my sister, my baby sister, killer or not. I could never dish out the punishment this requires. I suddenly realize that maybe that’s why she’s done this, because I never actually disciplined her.
Nix shrinks back just slightly, clearly still in possession of one sane brain cell. “Wha—what do you mean? Just what I said.”
“AboutKira,” Jax snaps. “Why would she get to stay out of jail?”
Nix blinks, her brows coming together before she seems to understand something, and then she juts out her hip.
“Are you serious right now?” My little sister all but scoffs at the son of the man she just shot, and I swear, I don’t know her.
“Nicole,” I try, but she doesn’t even look at me, and that right there shows how well I’ve done in the parenting department.
“He’s dead!” She motions to James’ body dramatically, trying to prove a point, but it’s the last point she needs to be drawing attention to right now.
What iswrongwith her?! I take back my assumption that she had a brain cell left. She has none. Not one.
“I can see that,” Jax growls, his patience clearly wearing thin.
Despite this, Nix rolls her eyes and clicks her tongue in a way that insinuateswe’rethe stupid ones, and I’m just about to stand and wrench her from the room when she gets to the real point.
“Dead,” she repeats, emphasizing it like she’s teaching us a vocabulary word. “As in, you can go to the captain. You can make sure Kira doesn’t get arrested.”
Jax stills, his brows coming together, and I hold my breath.What?
“You’re the head of the Landon firm now,” she adds, like it’s obvious.
Jax blinks and turns his ear toward her, as if he didn’t hear her. “I’m the what?”
“His will leaves everything to you. Caleb said as much, but I double-checked. His last will and testament is in the third drawer of the black cabinet in his office. It’s not even locked.” She rolls her eyes again. “How are you not following? You inherit everything, including all his connections. You. Are. The. Head. Of. Landon. Enterprises.”
Jax doesn’t move as Nix flips her hair over her shoulder, and my jaw goes slack, either at the fact that my sister is truly, truly crazy, or the implication that Jax can really keep me out of jail. Guilt stirs that I can even be thinking about me when there’s a body on the floor, but… the weight that’s been crushing my chest lessens a little, and I let my knees lower.
“Really?” I ask.
She shrugs. “You’re welcome, by the way. Now can we clean this up? The adrenaline crash is really kicking my ass.”
Chapter Fifty-Six
Jax
She’s right.
The little snoop is right.
James left everything to me. It’s in plain ink as I shuffle through the papers, but I just can’t believe it. I know I’m his oldest son, but fuck if I wasn’t sure he’d rather give the company to a stray dog.
“When did you come in here?” Kira whispers to Nix as if she’s in a mausoleum, looking around James’ office and hugging herself.
