Page 57 of Kade

“You’re lying.”

“I’m not.”

All the air left me. I didn’t want to believe him, but why seek me out?

There was a ring of truth to his words.

“It would be safer for me to not believe you. Someone coming after my father would probably tell me that—”

“Do you know who I am?” he cut me off, an edge of impatience in his voice. His eyes flared. “I am not looking for you to stroke my ego. But I’m not sure if you’re aware that I don’t need to waste time with bullshit manipulations like a meeting as this if I were coming after your father’s company. I’m assuming that’s why you think I killed your father? I didn’t know the man so there’s no other reason I could fathom I’d want him dead.”

I studied him, listening to him. There was truth in what he was saying.

“A man like me, if he were going to forcibly take over your father’s company, I would kill all the shareholders in one night. I’d have lawyers ready for them to transfer their shares to me, and they would sign them away because if they didn’t, I would kill their families. I would have all the official employees alreadyin my pocket so when each one of them were killed, I would be able to walk into your company the next day knowing it was mine. That’s how I would take over your father’s company if I chose. So trust me, I’m not the villain in this particular instance.”

“Something tells me you’re always the villain in any instance.”

His eyes flashed, now showing some anger. “To be quite frank, I’m annoyed that I had to come here and have this conversation with you.Again. I have no interest in Kade Enterprises. I looked into your family a little bit after we became aware of your private investigator. I looked into you. Your father. Your mother. Your wife. Your brother. Your friends. I hope you don’t take offense to this, but there’s nothing you have that I would want. Kade Enterprises is a good business. It’s doing well. The other part of my scenario is that the way I would force my way into your company or your father’s company. It’s a losing situation for me. This company is too public. You are too public. I don’t like media coverage about my family. I do everything I can to stop it, but if your name was attached, your wife’s, all the plethora of other little celebrities in your group, I wouldn’t be able to contain that press storm.

“That would be my downfall, which you would eventually realize. That’s why I’m assuming your father chose to go the route he did. With the first leak in the press, I have no doubt that your government would leap at the chance to step in. They would think of it as a way to take my family down. Now, that battle, I would win, but all you need to know is that any fight to take over your father’s company would not be worth it for me in the long run. It would be a pain in my ass, to be frank. By the time I beat your government, the company would be useless to me. I’d have to declare bankruptcy on it and then I would have to tear it apart. That would be the only financial gain I mightacquire at the end. The ends would not justify the means. Not to me. Not in this case.”

I frowned. “You’ve put a lot of thought into that.” I was a little bowled over by everything he laid out. None of it had crossed my mind.

He laughed and shook his head. “No, I didn’t. I knew all of that within five minutes of looking into your father’s company and into you.”

“It was enough to warrant a personal visit from you.”

“You’re mistaken again.” An edge returned to his voice. “A phone call would’ve been adequate to let you know your father had been misled, that I’m not the enemy you’re looking for. But it was yourotherinterested party who really got our attention—not just mine, but my brother’s. Both of my brothers. You don’t know my brothers, but generally they’re happy if I leave them to manage their own personal lives.”

My frown deepened. “I only sent my PI. I don’t know who else—”

“Your little hacker.” His words clipped out with bite. “Your PI’s been snooping around for six days. Your hacker took one day toroyallypiss off my brothers. He or she hacked into their personal accounts—theirs and their significant others. He couldn’t get into mine, and if he had tried getting into my wife’s, I wouldn’t be coming to you about him. He would already have a bullet in his head. Or her head, whoever your hacker is.” The impassive bullshit was gone. He’d dropped the mask and let me see how serious he was. His eyes narrowed, very much promising death. “I saw the look in your eye. You know who I’m talking about. Right now, your hacker’s been immobilized, unable to dig any deeper, but that hold on them will only last another day. They will be able to break free by tomorrow morning, and I’m telling you that if they continue going wheretheyshouldnotbe going, we will have them executed within the day.”

Fuck.

“And if you think we won’t be able to find out who your hacker is, that will be a mistake. I came here to see for myself if you were aware of this person, and you are. We have two options now. I’m assuming you won’t willingly give up this person’s identity, so either we torture you for their identity or we let you handle it from here. What is your choice, Mr. Kade?”

Holy shit. If I could murder this guy right here and now, that would be my choice. No brainer. I’d pull the trigger in a heartbeat, but that was the difference between him and me. He’d chosen to pull a trigger. I still hadn’t. That had kept me on the path that led me here, where I would win in a fight if we went to the press.

A shudder worked its way through me, but I suppressed it. I might have a monster inside of me, but this guy was a stark reminder of why I wouldn’t let that monster take over, not fully. Sam was right. I needed both sides. The normal side, but also the side that thirsted for violence when I was here.

“Consider it done,” I told him.

His eyes narrowed, and then he nodded. “Good.” He started back to his vehicle.

I let him get two steps before I said, “I know Cutler Ryder.”

He turned to frown at me, his head cocked to the side.

“He’s a good man. I know there’s some sort of connection to your brother, but I don’t think Cutler knows who your brother really is.”

His nostrils flared. “The hockey player. In Kansas City.” I could see him calculating before his eyes went blank. “You could tell him, but I’ll lay out what will happen. That is my brother Tanner you’d be pissing off. He also likes your friend being hisfriend, but you’re correct. I don’t believe Cutler Ryder knows about Tanner’s family business.”

“And if I educate my friend?”

“You’d be killed.”

I sucked in some air, not expecting that. “My brother thinks less than I do,” he continued in the same careless tone. “He would react, and he’d be wrong to do so, but he would kill you and he wouldn’t care about the fall-out. While I wouldn’t agree with him, I would back him up, because that’s what we do for each other. I believe it’s the same in your family.” He paused a moment. “Do not make a trip to Kansas City or even a phone call.” A hint of a smirk showed. “After all, I do what I do, and you do what you do. One of us has no problem with murder. Now.” He nodded toward the pocket where my phone was. “I’ve no doubt you should call your family and let them know you’re safe.”

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