Page 121 of Kade

“Steele is a nickname, and Manning is from my mother’s side. My actual name is—”

I gasped as I saw it.

It happened in a flash, so fast. All the pieces connected, but I’d been wondering in the back of my mind all evening myself.I’d been focused on other items, more prominent issues first, but since that double-take, there’d been something nagging at me, a whisper from the back of my mind that I knew this boy. I may never have met him, but I knew him.

His name wasn’t Steele. Not his real name.

The truth rocked through me.

He started, “Stirling—”

“—Brickshire,” I ended.

He was my brother.

46

MASON

“You’re my brother.” Sam said the words quietly, a slight hint of wonderment mixed in.

Beltraine fell back a few steps, his entire head rearing back. Axel had moved his hands up, grabbing onto two fistfuls of hair, but at Sam’s statement, his mouth fell open at the same time his hands slid slowly down, landing with a thud against his legs. Their eyeballs were almost bulging out.

Steele chanced them a look, hesitating before his head hung down again. “Yeah,” he said it almost as softly as Samantha. His eyes remained on her, a wall in place between them.

I watched in real time as my wife fell in love.

She’d reached out a hand to him, but seeing the distance he put between them, she blinked, her eyes shining with unshed tears, and let her hand fall. She swallowed tightly. “I—Steele?”

He blinked rapidly a few times, his own Adam’s apple moving up and down. He drew in some air, readying himself. “It’s my nickname. I—” His gaze swung to his friends, his mouth flattening before curving down. “They didn’t know. I…” His eyebrows pulled together again, his gaze swinging my way. “You knew.”

I raised my own eyebrow because this little prick had the balls to sound accusatory to me. “I know everything. You tell her the rest,now.”

Sam drew in more air, her chest rising and holding. She was preparing herself for what was still to come.

Just then, we heard a crash upstairs, followed by a door opening. One set of feet pounded the hallway. A second set of feet pounded after, until—thud. Thump.

Maddy yelled, “Ow! Fucker.”

Max grunted. “You need to give them time. Jesus, Mads.”

Her voice went low, but we could still hear it. “If you don’t let me go, I swear to God, Max, I’m going to do permanent damage to your dick.”

Enough was enough. I went to the stairs and shouted, “Logan Malinda Kade.”

They fell quiet. The sounds of their wrestling ceased.

“Dad, I—”

“We are figuring some shit out. Go to your room and wait.”

Thunk.

Max groaned.

“Do not hurt Max’s—anybody part of his. Just go to your room.”

“But, Dad—”

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