Page 88 of Kade

He had no clue. No goddamn clue. I snapped, exploding out of my seat. With one arm, I swept everything off my desk, moving the computer to the edge. All the papers went flying, the stapler Maddy had played with, my phone, paper clips. And I didn’t see any of it.

All I saw was red.

Zeke jumped up, backing away from me. “Hey, man—”

“You have no fucking idea what you’re messing with!” I thundered. “They’rethe mafia.”

Zeke’s eyes widened. He took another step, missed the floor, and crumpled.

I didn’t care to help him, not one fucking bit. I stood over him. “Stop fucking hacking into Kai Bennett and his family. He came to me, dipshit. If he’d gone to you,you’d already be dead!” I bellowed.

Zeke winced, making no attempt to stand up again.

“The connection is me, dumbass. Someone told my father a lie, and that lie had to do with Kai Bennett. He came to me within a day of you hacking into his family’s business. One fucking day, Allen. He told me flat-out that if you’d gotten into his account or his wife’s, you’d have a bullet in your forehead.”

Zeke began breathing hard, raking a hand over his face. He was visibly shaken, and his eyes took on an unfocused glaze. He wasn’t here in this room with me anymore. I didn’t know where the fuck he was, or what kind of thoughts were going through his mind.

I stepped away, giving him some space. He didn’t seem to notice.

“You have to stop hacking.”

He looked my way, his eyes flaring. “Like fuck I’m stopping.” He climbed to his feet, a storm on his face. “Fuck you, Kade. Hacking is—I hack. I’ve done it all my life. No one’s caught me—”

“Until now.”

He stopped, blinking, as my words hit him. “Well, yeah. I’ll just be smarter.”

I shook my head, knowing a lost cause when I heard one. “You’ll stop looking into Kai Bennett and his family—”

“I’ll be smarter.”

I’d planned to follow that up with a threat, but the way he said those words—so earnest, so determined—I swallowed it instead. He was going to do it anyway. I pointed to the door. “Get the fuck out.” Once he got himself there and opened it, I added, “When he kills you, I’ve had my funeral quota. I’m not going to another. And if you violate my goddamn privacy, my family’s privacy, my kids, my brother, his family, anyone I love, I’ll come back for you. I won’t be bringing my brother.”

He stared at me, long and hard. His jaw clenched. A myriad of expressions crossed his face, but none of them were good.

He was pissed. How dare I take away his passion. That’s what he was thinking. I didn’t know him. I didn’t know how good he was. Maybe I didn’t, but I did know how easily it’d been for Kai Bennett to get between my daughter and myself.

That shook me.

Once he was gone, I made a few calls. Security was told to make sure Zeke Allen was escorted off the premises and put on the banned list.

Next I called Channing Monroe.

“Are we going for a beer tonight?” he said in greeting. “I figure I’ll need a few to have the conversation I’m owed.”

“Logan and I needed to blow off steam,” I told him, getting the business talk done first. “I reached out to the Red Demons thinking they could help with that. I was looking at a potential war against an adversary in a world that I knew nothing about, and I thought I might need more than one alliance. I don’t believe I’ll need that anymore, because Kai Bennett himself showed up. I’m not sorry that I made the call to reach out to the Red Demons. I can’t. It was for my family. They have a bigger footstep in the same world that also has Kai Bennett, bigger than yours. But I am sorry that in making that decision, I needed to cut you out. I hope you can understand my reasoning, but I’ll understand if you can’t.

“Incidentally, Kai Bennett is also the reason I had you check for my security guards at my place. His men disposed of them to ensure he and I could have a private conversation, and by private I mean that he got between Maddy’s vehicle and mine, and went on a walk with me and eight of his own men patrolling with their guns.

“The topic of that conversation was that he had nothing to do with my father’s death. I’ve looked into things a bit more since then, and I’m inclined to believe him.”

“Mason.”

“I’m not done.” I was absolutely done giving Zeke Allen any leeway. “Check your phone because Zeke Allen just informed me he picked up a text you sent yoursister,one where you asked her about Kai Bennett. You do what you want with that information.”

Channing was quiet for a long moment. “Whatthe fuckare you talking about?”

Channing was going to filet Allen alive, and if he didn’t, his sister would. Despite him giving her some cute nickname, people did not mess with Channing’s sister. Zeke knew this. He dug his own grave.

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