Page 83 of When Kings Fall

I jolted. “Excuse me?”

Levi cursed and slapped his hand to his face.

“Levi,” I pushed. “Why have I never heard about this evidence?”

“It was only me on the tape,” Mason explained. “Lev was at the other end of the house at that point. When your cleanup team was there, my dad paid one of them off to hand one of the tapes over.”

“A physical tape?”

“Nothing online,” Levi told me. “It’s why I couldn’t destroy it instantly.”

“Why didn’t you come to me about this? All these years, son?” I looked at Colton and Mason. “You too.”

“Dad, you’d already busted your ass to cover up five murders that night. You were at the end of your rope. We couldn’t pile on.”

“I was at the end of my rope because you were hurting, Levi. Not because I was angry or disappointed. I’m not exactly a conventional father, am I?”

“No, you’re not.” He smirked. “In the best ways.”

“I didn’t want to risk the hell that would rain down if I let Levi or Colt tell you down the road, Roman,” Mason informed me. “There would have been war between you and my father. And he’s a vindictive bastard.”

“I appreciate that, but there’s no need to protect me. Besides, I’m sure your father will be along soon enough to attempt to drag you kicking and screaming back to college. Of course, that won’t be allowed.”

Mason looked mortified. “No. I don’t want you getting caught in—”

“This is your chance.”

He frowned. “Chance?”

“To stand your ground. To show him you’re a grown man. No longer a boy he can push around.”

“We need the evidence first,” Brianna told me. “I’m working on it.”

I arched an eyebrow. “How so?”

She then proceeded to tell me all about a network she’d created named Vixen. She certainly had a gift for details and subterfuge because it had even escaped my knowledge and I was plugged in to a great deal.

“Extremely impressive.”

She blew past the compliment and reported, “The location of the tape has been narrowed down to two locations by my girls. Either the safe behind the abstract painting in Peter Hall’s office, or the other in his study at the Hall mansion. I’ve called in one of my girls who’s a professional thief—a master thief, actually. We’re coordinating a strategy to hit each one two days apart, while keeping Hall none the wiser.”

“She’s damned good, hmm?” Levi said, looking at her with so much admiration and pride.

“I’ve also had my girl planted at his law office get him on tape. It will reach me early tomorrow.”

“On tape doing what?”

“The usual with him,” Mason grunted.

Colton spelled it out bluntly, “Fucking his assistants.”

I screwed up my face. “No line between business and pleasure makes for complications and mistakes.”

“Especially with him being a married man,” Mason said with clear disgust.

Best not to tell him that his father had been cheating on his socialite wife since before he was born.

I’d caught him once.

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