Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 130512 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 653(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130512 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 653(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
Also, we’d never been poor.
“Honey,” I started, speaking softly.
She drew in a breath.
“Where did you hear that your grandfather shot himself?”
She sucked in some air, her eyes bulging. “He shot himself? That’s how he did it?”
Fuck. “No. I—”
Tears began streaming down her face.
I’d made it worse. “Maddy—”
“Nolan.”
“What?”
“Nolan. She knew, Dad. She knew. She told us the night it happened. We knew before you even got home.”
I stared at her, not wanting to accept that, but I couldn’t dispute it. Nolan knew things when the only way was intuition. But they’d known? This whole time? “I’m so sorry, Maddy.” Fuck.
More tears slipped down, and she sniffled, trying to clear the emotion away. “I just need a heads-up. Are you going to sell Grandpa’s company?”
I shook my head. “No.”
She held onto my eyes and swallowed. “Really?”
“Really.”
She sniffled. “Promise me?”
I inclined my head, wishing again for the ability to take pain away from the people I loved. All I could do was be honest. “I don’t need to. The company’s fine. We’re not going to sell it.”
“But then…” She looked away, hugging her knees again. “Why?” Finally her full question came out, choked, “Why did he do it?”
My heart broke as my little girl slid open a door and let me see the pain she was enduring. It was a gift, though it shattered me at the same time. I wanted to pull her into my arms, but Maddy didn’t work that way. If she wanted comfort, she went to her mom. From me, she wanted truth.
“We don’t know. I—what I can tell you is that your grandfather said some words to me that suggested he felt he was under threat. He said he knew I’d be able to protect the company.”
“So the company is going under?”
I shook my head quickly as panic rose in her gaze. “No. I haven’t gone through all the accounts. It’s too much for that to happen in one day, but I’ve seen enough to know that the company is fine. It’s more than fine. It’s doing good, which I’m not surprised about. Your grandfather was a phenomenal businessman over the last twelve years. He built a strong empire. It’s not going anywhere, not that I can see.”
“Then why?” Her voice broke again.
Staring at her, seeing her pain, I had to remind myself that right now all I could do was love her. “I don’t know, but we’re going to find out. That I can promise you. We will find out.”
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.