Page 117 of Kade

44

MASON

When I pulled into the courtyard, light shone through every window in my house. Everyone was awake. Sam had called and left a message when they were leaving the hospital, so I knew what I was walking into.

I also knew who was in there.

My conversation with Ghost hadn’t been a long one, but it’d been packed with bombshells. Thinking on it now, another conversation came back to me.

“I thought he would’ve called.”

I hated hearing the pain in Sam’s voice.“Your dad?”I’d asked her.

“Garrett, yeah.”She’d fought off tears.“What’s wrong with me? He doesn’t want to know me… Why couldn’t he have room for two daughters?”

I hated this, all of this, but most importantly, I hated what I was about to do.

I parked Max’s truck off to the side so Logan would be able to pull in when he got here. After this night, I was ready to skewer the rest of the shareholders, but my conversation with Ghost took precedence.

I thought back to it now,

“You’re friendly with the head of the biggest criminal organization in the Northern Hemisphere?” he asked.

I was cautious, every cell in my body telling me I needed to wade through this conversation like I was skating on very thin ice with bombs set to detonate at the first crack. “What did you just say?”

“Kai Bennett. The head of the Bennett mafia family.” Ghost had not been laughing. “He runs the entire Canadian mafia syndicate. How the fuck do you know Kai Bennett?”

He swiftly closed the distance between us, getting in my face. “I was under the impression when you paid for a night to let off steam that it was also your first connect with us. When I asked the reason for that, Stripes told me you might want information on the exact same fucking person who called me out of the blue tonight.” His eyes had flashed. “I’m aware you’ve got a big name and that before that, you and your brother had a reputation around these parts. I don’t give a fuck about any of that, because I live here now too. I’ve got family here. I’ve set down roots. My guys are here. We gutted the last charter. Every single one of my guys, I picked. I trust my brothers. And I get dangerous when it comes to protecting those I love. Are you understanding me?”

Jesus. Fuck. This guy. I gritted my teeth and clamped down on the rage that had built inside of me. “Same, Ghost. Fucking same here.”

“Then why the fuck is Kai Bennett giving me a call on my personal phone?” he asked. “Not long ago, he was considered my enemy. You aware of that?”

I expelled a ragged breath. “Why the fuck would I know that? I’m not in your world.”

“You’re standing in front of me, ain’t you?”

“I was told something about Kai Bennett that led me to believe he was possibly an enemy of mine.” I said it calmly. “He found out. He came to me.”

“I’m listening.”

“He told me it was a lie. That he wasn’t my enemy,” I continued. “He came personally to course correct me. I believed him. Should I not have?”

I kicked it back to him and waited, the pressure building in me as he stared at me. Long and hard. When he stepped back, I almost sagged with how that pressure lifted off me.

“Kai Bennett is not known to be a liar. If he came to you, I’d believe what he said. Were his brothers there?”

“Just him and guards.”

“That’s good. Tanner’s a whole different trip. And the other…” He trailed off, staring into the distance.

I frowned. “The other one?”

“Nothing.” He pulled out a piece of paper. “Here. He’s the one who notified us about what was happening here tonight. We run the fighting rings in the area. Moreaux thought he could open his own ring based on the fact that we already have a relationship with him. He thought wrong. Any operation in this area goes through us. We either have a hand in it or we okay it. We didn’t okay this.”

“What business are you in with him?” Could I ask that? But he was giving me the information…

He gave me another long scrutiny. “We use some of his businesses to wash money for us. And you might be wondering why I told you that just now. All casual and easygoing like.” His eyes had fallen to the piece of paper in my hand. “That’s a message from Kai Bennett. He told me to write it down for you, word for word. For whatever fucking reason, Kai Bennett’s taken an interest in you. He’s got eyes here. We knew about this place, but we hadn’t made a move. Timing wasn’t right. He told us ifwe wanted to deal with our local problem, tonight was the right time. We didn’t know what we were going to come up on when we rolled in, except that you’d have a hand in it and Moreaux would be here. At the end of our conversation, he said to give you that message. I don’t have any idea what it means, and unless it has something to do with me and mine, I don’t want to know.” He lowered his head, eyes still pinned on mine. “With Bennett’s interest in you, you’re being read into this world. You need to have a better comprehension how me and mine operate. There’s an agreement in place with some of your friends—Monroe, his people. We steer clear of Roussou and they do the same with Frisco. I’m thinking you’re a new authority in your town so I’ll offer you the same. You steer clear of our business, and we’ll do the same for yours. No more fight nights at our place. We’re not going to be friends.”

---