Page 74 of Chad's Chase
“Off the guy who installed the cams in your apartment.”
I straightened. “He waslivingat The Chess?”
“Yep.” His thumbs massaged deep into my soles and I emitted a low, appreciative moan. “For a month, he told me when I questioned him. Claimed he meant you no harm. Said he was assigned to protect you. But of course, I didn’t believe him. So I offed him. When you left to tail me, my dirty cops moved his body to your apartment and set it on fire.”
“Then if you killed him, who were you putting on a show for in Excelsior? The handcuffs and the bike bombing?”
“The two who’d followed you there,” he filled in. “I guessed whoever sent them to spy on you was whoever sent you to kill me. So the burnt-out apartment, the bike bombing, me taking you as hostage, was to send a message that you failed. If I had you, the general assumption would be that I’m going to imprison and torture you for information, then kill you. The goons would report back to their boss, and that would hopefully throw them off you, marking you as a lost cause.”
“You think it worked?”
Massaging paused, Chad looked at me like I was an imbecile. “No, Jhay. Now that I know your boss is my father, I’m positive he saw right through it. He knows I’m never going to kill you.”
My shoulders sagged in disappointment. “Well, that’s comforting.”
Cruising his hands up my left leg, he squeezed my thigh. “You’re safe, Jhay. Someone powerful, extremely powerful, more powerful than my father, is protecting you. Rafail will have to get through those men before he can get to you. I’m the only one who’s wide open. The gun is at my head, they couldn’t give a shit. The gun is at your head, your assailant meets his death before he can even pull the trigger.”
Oh God. I removed my feet from his lap and crawled over to him. “But I’m withyou. Why won’t they protect you, too?”
“Because I killed your mother.”
It was like a dagger twisting in my heart, that harsh reminder.Because I killed your mother.
He killed my mother.
He. Killed. My. Mother.
Why, then, should I care about his safety? Oh, but I did. Greatly. As though his life meant more to me than my mother’s ever did. “These people protecting me, what does my mother’s death have to do with them?”
His gaze drifted from mine and to the clock on the wall behind me. “It’s getting late, Jhay. You should go showe—”
“Don’t do that,” I said, getting onto my knees. “Don’t shove me back into the dark. Tell me.”
“Stop pushing, Jhay,” he grumbled, leaning forward and dropping his hands on his knees. It was like keeping the truth from me was taking every ounce of strength in him. “I don’t want to keep anything from you, okay? But I wasorderedspecifically not to tell you…”
“Specifically?” I asked in utter shock, almost cackling in disbelief. “Since when did you, Chadrick Niiveux, start taking orders from people?”
Slowly, he turned his head to shoot me an annoyed glare. “Since I decided, like you, that I don’t want to fucking die.”
A pause from me, then, “Is this person really that high and powerful?”
“Yes,” he stressed with extra emphasis. “If he wants me dead, I’m dead.”
I eyed the fading bruise on his cheekbone… “That’s how you got that shiner, isn’t it?”
Chad shoved a hand through his hair and nodded. “I got blocked off on a backstreet in Sonoma Valley yesterday. By Feds. Heavily armed.”
“Whoa.”
“Knocked me out. When I woke up, I was in a room with… Org.”
“I thought you said you didn’t know the person.”
“I lied, okay?” he snapped. “I’m not even supposed to be telling you this.”
I kept quiet and let him continue.
“He was pissed. I’d already been on his shitlist for assassinating Isabel….now one of his men was killed by me again.”
