Page 3

At first, the walk was a little stiff because Isla only answered Kade’s questions with one word. She didn’t mean to be rude; she just… no one had ever tried to get to know her before.
It took her more than half of the walk to open up more, and Kade’s strange smile or the perfectly round dimple on his left cheek that pressed against her face made her feel better with almost every answer.
She was surprised to learn that he had a sense of humour; maybe his scary behaviour had led her to believe otherwise. But he definitely liked to tease her. When she told him she had just turned 18, he called her a baby.
His teasing made the little girl laugh, and she bit her lip before asking him how old he was.
“Me? Oh, I’m old, baby.” Kade laughed. Isla’s laughter was contagious.
“Please tell me!” She pushed him, her hand innocently grabbing his forearm as she begged.
He smiled at her actions and high-pitched plea, and the corner of his lip twitched up.
“I’m 24.”
Isla’s mouth dropped open a little, but she moved closer to him, looking for warmth without meaning to.
“That’s…that’s not old.”
Kade hummed and leaned down a little so he could talk to her in her ear. Isla shivered when his lips brushed against the soft skin of her lobe because he was so close.
“No? Well, you’re still a baby.” He teased, and he liked the way she gasped in shock as he stood up straight.
The cool autumn air was a big change from the warm, minty smell of his breath.
They were almost at the orphanage when Kade looked down at her with a question in his eyes, but Isla wouldn’t look at him.
The structure was actually a small house with two floors. The house was old, with paint peeling off the siding, and the front yard was full of weeds and grass that had been cut unevenly. The orphanage had definitely seen better days, but it was hard to get kids to go outside and do chores in the cold.
Isla laughed nervously and rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet. She was happy to be back home, but she couldn’t help but feel sad that she would be leaving the only person who had ever tried to be her friend.
She was embarrassed to say how much she cared about a stranger.
“Give me your phone,” he said.
She was always shocked by how forward he was, and she hesitated before fumbling to get her phone out of her back pocket. Sadly, her nerves didn’t let her give the device over with a steady hand.
When Isla’s phone slipped out of her hands and fell on the grass, she said she was very sorry. She bent down to pick it up right away, without thinking about it.
Kade swallowed hard as her head dipped down to be level with his crotch. He was once again confused by how naive she was when she stood up to give him her phone, not knowing that she was in a compromising position.
He was also grateful that she didn’t notice because he knew that anyone else would have seen the hard-on that was pushing against the fabric of his jeans. This girl was really testing his ability to control himself.
Kade put his number into her phone and saved it as K in her contacts. He gave Isla the device back and walked to the door while he waited for her to catch up.
Isla smiled to herself as she hurried to open the door for Kade, remembering that he still had her groceries. She now had two contacts in her phone. Just thinking about it made her happy.
The two quietly entered the house, and the eerie silence made Isla think that everyone was asleep. She looked at the clock on the wall and her eyes got big when she saw that it was almost half past nine. It was definitely too late to start dinner; the kids must have gone to bed an hour ago.
Isla thought that Clarice was still upstairs working on paperwork. She was surprised that the carer didn’t text her to ask where she was.
The blonde led Kade to the cute kitchen, where he put the two bags of groceries on the counter, even though he was still confused.
He stayed quiet and walked back to the front door with Isla. There, he turned around and looked down at her one last time that night. She squirmed under his gaze, and he let out a breathy laugh at how uncomfortable she was.
As he kissed her left cheek, Kade whispered, “Goodnight, baby girl.” Her porcelain skin gave way to his kiss, and as he pulled away, it turned bright red.
Then he turned around and walked down the steps of her house, disappearing into the night.
**************
“Where are they?” Kade asked.
He had just gotten to his off-site warehouse after stopping by his house to get dressed. He marched through the secure building, adjusting the cufflinks on his suit as he went. The front door slammed behind him.
“Can you just chill out for two seconds? I swear to God, you always walk around like you have a stick up your a*s.”
Because they had been friends for a long time, Micah Raines, Kade’s right-hand man and best friend, answered his question in a way that only he could understand. If it were anyone else, they would have a bullet in their head and their body would be in an unmarked grave.
Because of this, Kade just rolled his eyes at the comment. As he turned the corner on his way to work, his face stayed stone-faced and eerily calm.
Guards stood at the door with their faces showing the same look as Kade’s, but their eyes didn’t meet his. They opened the big room’s double doors so that Kade and Micah could walk in and greet their guests.
A boy who looked to be about 18 years old stood up right away to greet the strong man.
“Sir, my name is Kylen Holt. I’ve heard so much about you. It’s an honour to meet you.”
Kade raised his hand to stop the talkative teen, even though the look of surprise on his face didn’t bother him. Kade didn’t usually say hello to people who wanted to be his couriers because his own employees usually did the vetting. He did, however, check in on the people who worked for him from time to time. Most of the time, he found himself dealing with overly eager teens who were part of an amateur street gang.
“Age, name, credentials,” Kade said in a bored voice.
The boy’s smile faded a little, but he quickly pulled himself together by straightening his back and sticking out his chin.
“Kylen Holt, 18 years old, is a member of the Graveborn and Ronan Slade’s right-hand man. We’ve delivered drugs to Bruno Leclair, Curtis Faulkner, and Vincent Rhodes, and they were all happy customers, I can tell you that!”
Kade walked around Holt while he talked, then sat down on the black couch across from him. He threw his leg over his knee and let his ankle rest on the dress pants that cost more than the leather he was sitting on.
“Vincent Rhodes?” Kade asked as he rubbed his chin.
Just saying the name made his blood pressure rise and his jaw twitch as he said it.
“Yes, sir!” the possible recruit said with pride. His chest swelled with pride.
Kade hummed in agreement, and the air became tense with silence. Micah’s eyes flickered down to where his friend was sitting, waiting for a reaction that he knew that name would cause.
But Kade’s answer shocked his group.
“Great. I have a high-profile client who wants ten packs, peelers, poppers, and Anna. He wants it by 8 p.m. tomorrow. Sharp. This is your test run, and if he’s happy, I’ll be happy too.”
After his announcement, Kade got up and barely noticed the boy’s killer smile or the endless stream of thanks the boy gave him.
Kade sighed as he left the room and thought about the name that had come up: Vincent Rhodes. He didn’t think most people were worth his time, but Rhodes was someone he hated. He was a competitor in almost everything he was good at, and he was a threat to everything he had built.
“Yo, Kade, what the f**k was that?” Micah yelled as he slapped Kade’s back.
Kade’s jaw tightened and he clenched his teeth when the curly-haired man touched him.
He pushed Micah’s hand away and kept walking to his bedroom, which was a different room he used for late-night meetings.