Page 80 of The Alpha's Second Chance Mate

Ignoring him, I spoke to Claude again. “Hey, Claude? Me and Trent have some stuff to discuss. Can we trust you to keep it all confidential?”

Claude nodded and grinned. “Do you one better,” he said, and plucked his hearing aids out of his ears. “Silence is bliss,” he said in a somewhat louder voice than he’d spoken with before.

The old man was almost completely deaf without those hearing aids.

“Fair enough,” I said, pulling up a seat to sit beside Trent as Claude started in on Trent’s hair.

“Kyle called Avery,” I said.

Trent’s eyes widened. “Are fucking serious?”

“Wish I wasn’t.”

Trent snarled, his lip curling in disgust. “That piece of shit has his eye on her for some reason.”

“I’m heading to the store to meet her and Ashton in a minute. Don’t want them alone out in the open for too long.”

“You already know my thoughts on this,” Trent said, giving me that savage look he got when he’d reached his limit. “I could end this quick and easy. You say the word, and the fucker catches a bullet tonight.”

Murder was not something I was okay with. I hadn’t lived the life Trent had—had never been trained to kill and look at it as nothing more than a job. If push came to shove, though, I knew I’d do what needed to be done, but I didn’t think we were at that point yet. Not yet, anyway.

“Not now. We’ll keep playing this game and see how it goes once we pay him. Maybe he’ll back off at that point. But,” I added wearily, “I don’t know that this is really about money. You want to know what Kyle told Avery today?”

“I don’t think so, but go ahead.”

“He said something about the stuff with Farrah being a gift either from or for Dallas. Something like that.”

Trent snorted. “That sounds like bullshit. I’m with you—this feels like something bigger than money—but I don’t see your brother being involved.”

“I don’t think so, either. I think he’s just a henchman or something. A guy on Kyle’s payroll. But that’s what scares me about the possibility of taking Kyle out.”

“How so?”

“What if Kyle is a middleman of some sort? What if he’s working for someone else the way Dallas works for him? We could knock Kyle off and end up with an even worse monster coming for us.”

“True,” Trent agreed. “Probably best to figure out exactly what the hell is going on first.”

“That’s my thought. We can’t act until we’re completely sure what we’re dealing with.” I sighed, collecting my thoughts. “Speaking of acting, did you think of anyone we could approach for enforcer?”

“Not off the top of my head. We’ve got time. I’m here, I can do the job for a while. At least until we find someone full-time.”

My phone buzzed.

Avery:Just got to the store.

I stood. “I need to get out of here.”

“Almost forgot,” Trent said. “Realtor called me back. The sale is all good. Wire transfer is heading to a bank in Atlanta. Should be available tomorrow at the latest. We got more than we actually thought, but I’m only having twenty-five thousand sent there. Enough to get this prick off our back for a bit.”

“Fantastic,” I said, sighing in relief. “I’ll see about heading that way tomorrow. I may take Avery with me. We haven’t had a weekend away in about sixteen years. She might like that. Would you be down to keep an eye on Ashton if we do?”

“Say the word, bro. He’s a cool kid.”

“Thanks. I’ll let you know what she says. Might try to get her to leave tonight.” I raised a hand to say goodbye to Claude. “See you later.”

The old man waved a hand at me, then put his hearing aids back in as I departed.

The drive to the store only took a few minutes. I spotted Avery’s rental and mentally cursed myself. We still needed to pick up her new car. The whole thing with Farrah had pushed that to the back of my mind. I’d call the dealership later and arrange to have it delivered today.

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