Page 102 of Kade

“I could tell him I know what sort of lingerie she wears, that I bet she hasn’t worn it for him in a while. Course, maybe she’s got more than one set, but I’m betting he’ll go straight home to look through her drawers himself. He’d be so angry. He won’t stop to consider that he’s cheating too. Or that he probably cheated first. He’ll just care that his wife is fucking you, and moments earlier you had the balls to blackmailhim.”

“You’re lying. This is all a massive bluff.”

“I got pictures.” I smirked. “None of the sales have gone through. You think he’ll still sell after I show him those pictures?”

He scowled at me. “I don’t think you know what you’re doing. This is the big leagues. We don’t play around with empty threats. We deal with lawyers and—”

I stepped back, a part of me wishing I could put bruises all over this guy. “Yeah, yeah. You give the cops a good annual donation. You golf with a local judge who’s interested in running for public office, and you’ve promised him a nice sum of money for his campaign. Christ, you’re annoying. You think I don’t know all of that?”

He fell quiet. Finally.

I glanced around. We’d drawn a fair amount of attention, but Brett and Mark hadn’t moved. Sam had come over, but she stood to the side, her back to us. She was keeping watch on who might be recording us or paying attention to us that shouldn’t be.

“I was going to wait until Monday to crash your party. I was going to release all the shit I know, and I was going to keep it at the office. But then you swagger up to me, acting like we’re bros at my dad’s funeral. You come over here, putting hands on kids.” I looked at him a moment. “Here’s what we can do. You withdraw everything. And you’re going to sellyourshares. I want you out of the company. You do that, and I won’t destroy you. There’s my offer. And in the meantime, you’re not going to shove your kid around, or any kid. You’re not going to grab a player by his helmet and use that to jerk him around—not unless you’re okay with someone like Broudou doing it back to you.”

Brett lifted his chin up, interjecting, “I’d love to do that.”

I kept on, “I don’t think you’d want the shareholders to hear about a board member’s ethical violation. We do have that pesky morals clause in every contract.”

He glared at me, pressed against the shed and rubbing his shoulder. He was having a hard time even standing. But I didn’t see the fear that should’ve been there. I sighed. None of this penetrated him. He was going to go home, drink some more,rage, and probably plan to hurt someone. I was looking at the face of a guy that would hire muscled men to find me in a dark parking lot.

Shit. Had it been me that brought us to this point? I had put hands on him.

Then again, when he shoved his kid and jerked Manning around by his helmet, I saw red. If he was doing that in front of witnesses, what was he doing behind closed doors?

Those were the kids that he—what did he say? He wanted them to meet him behind the shed?

What did that mean?

But I had another thought.

“Kai Bennett says hello,” I told him, watching intently.

He frowned. “Who?”

There’d been no flash of recognition. Nothing. No fear. No reaction at all. He didn’t know him. That meant he wasn’t the one who killed my dad.

He just jumped on an opening he saw to take advantage.

Still, for that alone, I was going to destroy him.

38

MADDY

Maddy: Max! You need to come over here.

Max: What? Why? R u okay?

Maddy: Shit is going dooooooooooowwwwwwwnnnnn. sorrybutnowayImsorry because something is happening.

Max: Fuck, Mads. I’m with the guys. It’ll take me a bit to get out of here. I thought we were meeting up later?

Maddy: Can’t. This is happening now. I have no idea what went down at the game, but something went down. My mom told me to stay by a different gate and wait for them.

Max: Let me guess. You didn’t.

Maddy: No way. I could see something was happening by the players’s entrance. By the time I got over there, Traine’s dad was glaring at my dad. My dad was glaring at Traine’s dad.

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