Page 10 of Kade

I shook my head. Maddy and Max. Those two couldn’t get enough of each other, and I didn’t know if I liked that, but I also knew Maddy got my stubbornness. And there was some extraness in my daughter. Just extra. Extra attitude. Extra grit. Extra…we were still learning, but my daughter was unpredictable and uncontrollable. She was also loveable at the same time. If she was going to rob a place, she’d waltz in, give the cashier the gun, and somehow get them to help her rob the place. Not saying she would do that, but if she did, that’s howshe would pull it off. There was no telling what she would do. Max was a good kid. If anyone was the bad influence, it was my daughter. As for Brett’s niece, Maddy had only mentioned the girl a few times since she’d started at Fallen Crest Academy.

I wouldn’t say they were friends.

Hell, I wasn’t sure who my daughter’s friends were besides Max, and he went to Fallen Crest Public. “Max mentioned Brett’s niece?”

Channing shrugged. “Only reason I mentioned them was an added connection. If you needed Broudou, he’d throw his hat in the ring because of his niece.”

I shook my head. I didn’t want to get to that stage. I’d handle my business. Channing should remember that part of me. If we needed to do something, we’d do it, and I didn’t want to owe anyone favors.

My phone buzzed.

Sam: We’re all drunk at Manny’s.

I snorted, showing Channing my screen. A thin ray of light pushed through the storm clouds. It hurt to feel it, but it was needed. A small pocket of air to a vacuum where all the oxygen had been sucked out.

He chuckled as he grimaced at the same time. I understood that reaction. Now that we were back, it was as if Sam and Heather made it their mission to have daily adventures. They went down town in Fallen Crest for a book club and three hours later, Sam called to tell me she joined a marathon that was running through downtown and won. She was pissed they weren’t giving her the title. Their argument, she never registered to run. Her argument, she won. That’d only beenoneof their adventures.

“How do you want to proceed?” Channing was back to considering me.

The slight reprieve was gone. The light was snuffed out and the pressure was back on my shoulders. “I’ll call my publicist and have her do damage control as long as possible. Hopefully we can keep it out of the press about how my father died. We’ll break it to the kids in the morning. You guys should come over when we do. Maddy will want Max there. The twins will want Natessia there.”

“And this business?”

“Family first. We’ll tackle the business stuff after. Even if they’re going to try to push in, they’ll wait to see how everything pans out with Logan and me coming in. We already have shares. Nate too. No matter what, they can’t get the majority. We have it.”

He grunted, raking a hand down his face. “It ain’t good, and I’ve got a feeling shit’s going to get worse.”

I had the same feeling.

“Let’s go get our wives. I’ll check in with Logan, see where his head is. He’ll want to know all of this.”

Channing led the way after we returned to our cars, turning in the direction of his wife’s bar. I followed him but made a call on the way.

My private investigator picked up, her voice wary. “I know whatever you’re about to ask me won’t be good, not with a call at this hour.”

I told her the basics about what had happened.

She was quiet for a long while. “This isn’t good, Kade. This is so fucking not good.”

I remained silent. She wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t know.

She sighed. “Okay. I’ll find the specifics on what they’re doing. We’ll go from there. But what I know—apparently more than what Monroe told you—is that Kai Bennett is another animal. He is smart, ruthless, and calculating. If you look up thewordmastermind, his picture would be next to it. He’s not a normal human being.”

None of that made me feel better. “Get everything you can. I have to go.”

“Hey, Mason?”

I was pulling into Manny’s, and as I parked, I held off turning the engine. “Yeah?”

“I’m sorry about your dad.”

“Yeah,” I said, rougher than I’d intended. “Call when you have information for me.”

5

MASON

The next week sucked. There was no good way to explain it, and there was no good way to deal with it. We plowed through. That’s all we could do.

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