Page 170 of Wreck Me

“You… what? You got a job, Dad?” I exclaimed, excitedly. I knew he’d been going stir-crazy, but he’d also wanted to find the right fit and not just jump into something.

He grinned. “Yeah, Jer and I are working out the details, but it’s a go.”

“That’s amazing!” I looked out at Mom. “Why haven’t we been celebrating this? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Your mom is just taking some time to get on board.”

Of course. “Mom, this is right up Dad’s alley.”

“It’s also dangerous work, the very thing he just got away from.”

“It’s not the same,” my dad told her, rubbing her arm. “I promise.”

“I guess we’ll find out either way seeing as though you already took the job,” my Mom rebutted.

“Maria, listen, I—”

“It’s the middle of the night. Not the time to have this discussion.” She frowned as she looked between us. “So, if it wasn’t the job, what were you two talking about that I’ll apparently come around on?”

I sucked in a breath and said, “Mom, there’s something I need to tell you about Luxe.”

27

~Caspian~

Another takedown slated for tonight.

More Jackals justice to deal out.

So much.

It had been a blur of violence and fucking over and over.

Rinse and repeat.

“Unless it’s getting to you? I mean, you already have a lot on your plate with King.”

Bastian’s words to me at the convention.

At the time they hadn’t rung true, as we’d only just begun. Not to mention, I hadn’t intended to have us out there every night or at this non-stop pace.

But then I’d seen their reactions to it all, how much they each needed it in their own ways.

To say it was getting to me now would be a definite understatement.

I did have a lot on my plate.

King was a great deal as it was, but now there was also the situation with Elijah Bane and the separate one with his brother, Jett. Both were fraught with complications. After what Skylar had disclosed to us of the abuse and horrific things he’d subjected her to, the urge to take him out had been overwhelming. Not to mention both Caleb and Bastian pushing me to do so. There was also the fact that he was considered an active threat.

But the notion of putting a threat down was one thing and the actual execution a whole other deal.

If I eliminated Jett now, it risked negatively impacting my overarching goal to decimate Elijah and the entirety of Bane Industries.

However, he still needed to be removed as a threat, even if I couldn’t actually kill him. There were still ways to do that, it just had to be done covertly without any link to my involvement. Fortunately, Jett being a loose cannon was a thorn in Elijah’s side. That was my opening. I could manipulate things in such a way that Jett would be seen as negatively impacting his brother’s business. Frame him, basically.

That was already in the works.

It would’ve been much further along if so much time hadn’t been eaten up with our nightly activities, which was where I took care of things outside of the legitimate scope of King.

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