Page 11 of Kade

Heather and Channing came over and they barely left. The house was big enough so their kids slept over.

Nate and Quincey arrived the next morning, so they were there when we told the kids. I watched my children, all three of them. Not one of them looked surprised when we broke the news. It was as if we were just confirming what they already knew, and once we had, the dam broke. The tears began falling. When Maddy saw my unspoken question, she motioned to Nolan.

Ah, I forgot. She was convinced Nolan was psychic. Maybe she was.

Logan mostly focused on Taylor, and we all understood his concern.

Taylor, on the other hand, was rock steady. This wasn’t a surprise either, considering her personal history and how she loved working in the emergency room. She tended to lock downwhen there was a threat in the air, and that quality came in handy during times like this.

Not that she was the only one. All the women banded together, taking care of everyone and everything. They managed the kids, and with help from Malinda, they planned the funeral and everything that came along with that.

Which was a fucking blessing for the rest of us.

Channing called it with the press. They got wind of James’s death almost right away. It might’ve been a leak from the police, but however it got out there, it spread fast. Kade Enterprises had grown in the last decade. It was ranked in the top fifty businesses in the state and considering some of the biggest companies in the world had headquarters in our state, our standing was saying a lot. When Dad fixed things, he really succeeded.

I was proud of my dad. Proud of the man he became at the end.

When I went into the office and got a look at all the files, I choked up, my pride just reaffirmed. And then I almost broke again because no matter what, he hadn’t needed to do what he did. There would’ve been a way.

Bitter regret blasted me because why hadn’t he called us in earlier? We were here. I was here. We were coming back more and more. I would’ve helped.

I would’ve done everything—

I had to stop those thoughts.

I laid a foundation down inside of me. It was shaky, but I was standing on it. It was the way I was getting through this, being there for my kids. Nolan cried herself to sleep in our bed last night. When I got up in the morning, I found Nash on the floor outside of our door, a blanket and pillow with him.

I scooped him up and crawled right back in bed; him with us.

My foundation trembled when I heard Nolan crying all night. It shook even more when I found my boy in the morning.

Business. I had to get back to business.

Shoving aside the grief, I made calls next. To my business manager. My agent. My publicist. Along with the PR and marketing team from Kade Enterprises, a statement was drafted and given to the press. It was nice and polite and said nothing at all. A basic bullshit statement to appease assholes who demanded to know what was going on. But it was necessary and would buy us some time before more pressing questions would be asked. At this time, they were given a story about how he’d had a heart attack.

That’d been earlier in the week.

“When are you going to need me?” Sam trailed me into the bedroom. Shutting the door, she crossed the room barefoot, wearing a black lace dress she’d picked out for the day.

The house was bursting with people—our family, Channing’s sister, and their entire network of friends, people they considered family. Nate’s sister had flown over, but his brother-in-law hadn’t been able to get away from his soccer schedule in Europe. Matteo would arrive in the morning. Samantha made room for him in the pool house. He was newly single again, and Sam was likely hoping if he wanted to meet someone, he’d feel comfortable bringing her over for the night. Unfortunately, she was a little blind. We had teenagers in this house. The pool house would be the first place they’d hang out.

There’d be no privacy for Matteo unless he got a hotel room.

But back to my wife’s question.

Sam knew there was a threat, but we couldn’t move forward until we got further clarification there actually was a war coming. We were in the waiting phase, though Sam wasn’t really asking me about that.

I couldn’t let myself get lost in her, not fully, not until I knew what else was coming our way.

That hadn’t stopped me fromtryingto lose myself in her the couple nights when it was only her and me. I could’ve fucked her from sunset to sunrise. It was only the fact that we both neededsomesleep I forced myself not to reach for her for a fourth or fifth round.

When that time came, when I would “need” her, I didn’t know how our interaction would go. Would I be fine breaking down, or would I do what Channing worried I’d do, and travel cross country to burn down a certain fucking nightclub.

I was tempted. I was really fucking tempted.

I wanted to ask for forgiveness later, but I couldn’t. Two innocent people would be hurt because of my actions.

I needed to wait for more information. I needed to understand who I was fighting before I made any moves, but someone would pay. That vow and my family kept my rocky foundation from shattering to pieces inside of me.

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