Page 102 of Restitution

“What?” I ask, frowning as the man stands in front of me. “Kade…”

He doesn’t look at me. “Stay in the fucking room, Stacey.”

I bite my lip, wanting to refuse, but I know this is a side of him that thrives on power and control. Uncontrollable rage. His blinking is worse than ever, and his body is rattling with anger as he slams the door.

Aria is back on the phone, demanding she be allowed to view the body, to identify him. But when she’s told to call back later, she screams at them until they hang up. Her phone smashes off the wall as she slides down it. The guard who was to keep an eye on me rushes to her.

Against Kade’s wishes, because I’m an asshole who doesn’t want him doing anything alone, I check no one else is looking as I dodge another guard and run out of the room. He shouts for me to come back, and even tries to chase me along the landing, but I duck from his hands and make him tumble. Although I’m in a dress, it isn’t tight or restricting my movements, and I’ve been back in the studio often enough now that my stamina is getting back to what it used to be, so I easily outrun him and make it to Kade’s side of the manor.

Stopping at the top of the black, metal spiral staircase – the one he once made me crawl up while he touched me – I raise my fist to knock on the door but drop my hand on a breath. I falter and decide to turn the handle, and it opens.

I see him pulling a black hoodie on, his face covering in place to hide the scar. It matches his gloves, boots, combat trousers and hair.

Kade Mitchell is the haunting definition of darkness.

“I told you to stay in the room,” he says without looking atme, pulling his hood up over his head to hide his hair, barely concealing his wavy fringe. Blue eyes burn into me as he turns. “Go back.”

I gulp. “Your mum needs you right now. We need to tell Luciella about your dad. I don’t want you to act on impulse.”

“Then go tell Luciella,” he snarls, his voice laced with venom. He snatches an army pocketknife from a bag and tucks it into his boot.

I try to grab his arm, but he flinches away from me.

“Seriously, go back to the fucking room, Stacey.”

“What’s your plan?”

He glares at me for a second then averts his gaze. “I won’t repeat myself.”

He grabs a blade from his bedside unit and slots it into a leather strap on his thigh, then fits a gun into his holster under his hoodie before pulling a second weapon from his dresser and settling it into another holster on his thigh.

Kade fills a bag with more weapons as he sternly speaks to someone in his earpiece about a tripod and live-streaming networks. Then he grabs a duffle bag and packs it too. Handguns, blades, and…

“Why do you have grenades? What are you going to do?”

He grazes my arm as he reaches for something behind me, and when his hand rests on my hip for a moment, the world stops moving. I stare at him as he caresses his thumb over my hip.

“Let me do this, Stacey.”

His eyes are on my neck again, then he frowns, lets go of me and turns around.

“Anything from Barry? Good. Tell him not to come here, justto stay where he is. Contact Sebastian Prince and tell him to fuck off his wedding and get his ass here. Whereabouts in the manor is my sister? Right, make sure she’s watched. Ensure my mother is escorted to her room. Turn Dez and Tylar away at the gates. And take Archie Sawyer to the main office.”

Whatever they say in his ear, it pisses him off. He closes his eyes and grits his teeth. “That was a fucking order.”

“Where are you going?”

He ignores me, continuing to pack even more weapons and ammunition.

His shoulder touches mine as he passes. I release a shaky breath, and my voice breaks. “Talk to me, Kade.”

He stops and shakes his head, then turns and walks to me. He grabs the hair at the back of my head and pulls our foreheads together as my fingers instantly wrap around the strings of his hoodie.

“They took everything from me. Everything. We had a chance, but they took that as well.” He presses a firm kiss to my lips then shoves himself away, backing to the door while putting a fresh magazine in his gun and loading it. “Watch me destroy every last one of them, Freckles.”

I follow him in a rush back to the office, taking two steps for each of his, where Aria is sobbing in the arms of one of her closest workers – a lady named Vera with long grey hair who’s here to cook and clean but gets annoyed when Aria helps her around the manor. Vera strokes Aria’s head and tries to shush her comfortingly while tears soak her face. Aria is muttering about how she was supposed to keep him safe – him, Jason, her children, all of them. She failed, and she doesn’t know how to fix it.

Kade ignores her, settling two of his bags in the middle of thetable. Two minutes later, as he sits on the desk chair and taps his finger, a guard drags in a thrashing Archie, completely covered in dry blood, smelling like shit, in only a pair of briefs that are stained with blood, piss and his own mess.