Page 55 of Kade

She shook her head, looking away. “I don’t think it’ll ever make sense, but if someone made him do it, that’ll make some sort of sense. Right? And if someone did make him do it, that’s who’ll pay.”

When she said those last words, with a promise of vengeance, I didn’t know what to say. If someone hurt you, you hurt them back. I used to live by that mantra. Apparently it was genetic.

I hadn’t thought that way since college, but here it was again. Coming from my daughter.

I didn’t know the right way to handle this. “I love you, Logan Malinda Kade.”

Some of her anger melted, and she rested her chin against her knees. “I love you, too, Dad.”

I coughed. “Don’t tell Mom about the HB—about that terminology. Or your siblings.”

She rolled her eyes and scoffed. “No kidding.”

21

MASON

When it was time to leave that night, I had Maddy go first.

There were separate entry and exit gates, and as the exiting gate opened for her to pass, the entry gate began opening as well. Maddy leaving shouldn’t have done anything to open that gate, but as she went through and paused on the other side, four black SUVs raced through the entry gate and whipped around to circle me.

I wanted to gun the acceleration, but I couldn’t. Maddy blocked me without realizing it. If the gate swung closed, it would’ve come down on me. I considered ditching my vehicle and running for hers, but another SUV drove in, wedging its way sideways so it was between myself and Maddy.

I was effectively blocked in.

Her brake lights were going off and on. I cursed. She probably didn’t know what was going on or what to do. My phone began ringing through my dashboard. It was Maddy. I hit accept and ordered, “Go!”

“But Dad—”

“GO! Now.” I laid on the horn.

She took off. “What do you want me to do? Where do I go?”

“Go home.”

“But—”

A man got out of one of the SUVs and leaned back against his door. He did nothing except stand there. Everything dried up in me because I recognized his face. Kai Bennett. He was here, and right now, he was waiting for me. His hands were folded over each other. I didn’t know if this was certain death or something else. I closed my eyes, for one second, and sent a prayer that it wouldn’t be the last time I talked to my daughter.

“Maddy.”

“Dad—Daddy?”

“I want you to go home. Call Uncle Channing.”

“Uncle Channing? Why? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, honey. Just tell Uncle Channing that KB made contact. He’ll know what that means. He’ll take it from there.”

“KB? Who’s KB?”

“I love you, Maddy.” I reached forward and ended the call.Fuck. My heart raced.

Kai Bennett was waiting for me, standing outside his SUV. I’d Googled this fucker, and there should’ve been way more images of him online than there were. He also should have been in his sixties, not just a few years older than me. He had dark features. Short black hair. He was powerful and feared. He was mafia, the real deal. There was a real possibility I could die at the end of this talk with him. And unlike the other enemies I’d faced against, this time, his menwouldshoot and theywouldkill me. I’d be just another execution to them.

The phone started ringing. Logan. Maddy had called him before Channing.

I declined the call, leaning forward to see if I could glimpse the guard at the gate. We had four guards. Where the fuck were they?

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