Page 114 of Kade

He straightened up but shook his head. “I’m good.”

“Well, okay then,” the nurse said. “Then they’re all yours.”

Beltraine swaggered past us, going over to Axel and Steele. Max and Maddy also sat in that part of the waiting area. Brett was by me. He glanced down at his phone, a heavy frown on his face. “What’s your plan?”

I thought he was speaking to the phone for a minute until his eyes lifted to me.

“I’m taking ’em home,” I said immediately. Without question.

His eyebrows rose. “All of them?”

I nodded. “Except Max, but yes. Those three. I don’t trust the adults in their lives. At this point, they’ll have to go through me to get to their kids.”

“Has Mason checked in with you?”

I shook my head. “He knew we were heading here first. I’ll give him a call when we go to the house.”

His gaze moved to Maddy. “Are you worried about them being there with her?”

“Are you…” I cocked my head to the side, sharpening my focus on him. “Are you offering to take them into your place?”

Surprise flashed over his face before he shook his head. “No. No, I—the media is still crazy about Billie. It wouldn’t be a relaxed environment. Billie would love it, though. Each kid would have his own pet chicken within a week, and if they did anything to harm them…” He trailed off.

I suppressed a smile. “I’m not worried about Maddy,” I assured him. In between smiling around the entire room, Maddy kept checking in on Max. He hadn’t moved from the five seconds before she looked at him, but she was still making sure. “She’s, uh, pretty focused on someone already.”

“So you’renotworried about them being there with your girl?”

“Let’s put it this way. My daughter… Yes, with most daughters, I would worry. But Maddy…” It was the opposite. If the boys did anything to Maddy, I would have to protect them from her. “She’ll be fine,” I told him.

“If you’re sure.” He motioned to the door, looking at his phone. “I’m going to head out. Billie’s here to pick me up. Let your man know that if he needs anything, just reach out. I’d like to think if I needed help with Stevie, he’d be there for me.”

“He would, Brett. We both would.” I gave his arm a squeeze before he said his goodbyes and headed out.

Heather came over. “Channing has a guy who’s going to look into these kids’s situations, but he said Mason probably already has a handle on it. There’s some business stuff going on too. Something that has to do with Kade Enterprises. Have you heard from him?”

I checked my phone, shaking my head. “He’s not called, but he will. We’re both supposed to check in when we’re on the move. I’ll call him when we leave here.”

She nodded and turned to look at the kids. She understood. She really did. I moved closer so my arm brushed hers. My best friend. I’d missed her, and I was grateful she was with me inthis. Some people would look at these boys and see their wealth and entitlement. I got that. I saw it too. It was easy to see they were the popular boys, probably the bad boys. But I also saw the absence of their parents and the absence of love.

I wanted to gut Phillip Moreaux.

Feeling choked up, I whispered, “Thank you for being here.”

Heather looked my way.

I held her gaze, letting her see the storm inside of me, the magnitude of it.

She pulled me in for a hug. “Back at you, Sam,” she murmured.

43

MASON

Ihad two hours to deal with this prick, but I’d lost the bloodlust when Maddy showed up—well, Sam and Maddy. Things had started to shift when Sam slid in like the Rapunzel of bedsheets, but I’d really had to stomp that shit down when my daughter made her entrance.

Everyone left so it was just me and this abusive waste of space now.

I squatted near him, considering what to do. I wanted to kill him, but in this latest chapter of my life, it turns out that I was the good guy. Murder was my hard line. Logan was in the air. If I was going to blackmail this guy, I wanted to wait for my brother to be at my side.

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