Page 46

Kai

The smell of fresh coffee, toast, and eggs fills the kitchen as I sit back and watch the twins argue between bites of breakfast. Lana alternates between shooting them stern looks and suppressing a laugh at their antics.

I try to focus on them, not on the phone within arm’s reach on the counter.

Lana has a rule of no tablets or phones during family time. And since the last thing she needs is a ‘but Uncle Kai’s doing it’ undermining her authority, I wait even as my foot taps a restless rhythm beneath the table.

First thing this morning, I sent the warehouse address Nicole gave me to Vin. Less than an hour later, he found a lead but said he needed to double-check details before confirming the owner’s name.

A guarded response that made my gut twist because I knew I’d fucking hate what he was going to tell me.

“It’s definitely going to be a stretch limo,” Liam declares, shoveling eggs into his mouth. “It’s a rule or something. Let’s see Tina Davina ignore that!.”

Lucas snorts. “You could grow bat wings and ride a dragon to class, and she still wouldn’t speak to you.”

Lana sighs, rubbing her temple. “Eat first and argue later, boys.”

Lucas jabs his fork at his brother. “But Mom, Liam told the entire class that Tina Davina farted.”

Lana’s hand freezes around her coffee mug. “Liam Adam Withers!” Her tone is the perfect mix of scandalized and exhausted.

“What?” Liam whines. “It’s true! She did fart. And I thought it was funny.”

“Well, that was douchebag-y,” Lucas points out, dunking a piece of toast into his runny eggs.

Their bickering fades into the background as I flick my wrist to check my watch, wondering when Ash will get here.

Ash now drops and picks up the boys from school, a move Lana didn’t question since she doesn’t like to go out much, and David has gotten so busy with the influx of business in Primal Fit.

". . . Isn’t that right, Uncle Kai?”

I blink. “Isn’t what right, Lucas?”

“I said, if you like a girl, you should give her flowers, not pull her hair and make her go all red.”

I nearly snort my coffee, then cover my laugh with a cough. “That’s . . . very correct, Lucas.”

Lana smirks knowingly from across the table, then mouths over their heads. “Speaking of, how is Nic?”

I force my face into a dismissive scowl and mouth back. “History. We’re done.”

Her eyes widen in shock, then the corners of her mouth turn down. Christ, she looks about to cry. Lying to her feels wrong, especially when Nicole’s family already knows the truth.

I shove down the guilt and push off from the table, heading to the window.

The moment I spot the black G-Class SUV rolling up the driveway, I sigh in relief. “Alright, boys. Time to go.”

Lana starts rounding up the twins and checking their backpacks. I drain the last of my coffee, gripping the mug like it’s the only thing anchoring me to the present.

As soon as the front door clicks shut behind them, my phone is in my hand.

Refreshing my emails, I find a new message from Vin. I tap it open.

No frills. No preamble. Just one name.

My body locks up, my muscles coiling so tight my chest barely moves with my next inhale.

The sounds of the kitchen—the hum of the refrigerator, the subtle tick of the kitchen clock—blur into nothing. All I hear is the erratic thump of my own pulse roaring in my head.

No. This has to be a mistake. I swipe to call. The line connects before the first ring even finishes.

“Is this a fucking joke?” I growl at Vin.

There’s a sigh on the other end. “Unfortunately not.”

“How the hell is this even possible?” I demand.

“The warehouse is officially rented out to a front company. But the front company is owned by the same person who owns the property.”

A ploy to avoid being directly linked to it.

Vin continues. “I’ll admit, if you didn’t mention the warehouse’s connection to Aldridge Orchards, we wouldn’t have nabbed him this fast.”

“How did you find him?” I ask.

“Jack Aldridge’s cash-strapped and loose-tongued foreman. Turns out he doesn’t give a shit about protecting the identities of their non-Bratva clients.”

I stop pacing. Nicole was right. That smart, stubborn woman. “So there’s no mistake.”

“None,” he confirms.

“Thanks, Vin.” The urge to hurl my phone across the room claws at me, but I tamp it down just as Lana returns from outside, shaking off the morning chill.

“Ash seems capable,” she says, brushing a stray lock of silky dark hair behind her ear. “Although he’s a bit young for a chauffeur. Don’t they usually have military training . . .”

I don’t hear the rest. I’m too busy looking at her. And for the first time in years, I see her scars. Not as something she’s lived with and learned to carry, but for what they really are: wounds inflicted by the same bastard who’s murdered those women for being with me.

White-hot rage flares to life in my chest, curling my hands into fists. That son of a bitch did this to my sister. Only—something doesn’t quite add up.

One inconsistency.

One gap in the timeline.

Lana’s shoulders sag in a sigh and she comes to put her arms around me. “Kai, I’m so sorry you and Nic didn’t work out. I know you’re hurting. I saw how you kept zoning off at breakfast . . ."

“Lana.”

She lifts her gaze to mine. “Yeah?”

“That night. The night of the fire,” I begin.

The change in her is instant. Her face drains of color, and she steps away from me. Her fingers twitch as her hand rises automatically in a reflex—to cover the puckered skin that runs from her cheek down her neck. It’s if the memory still burns.

“Kai,” she whispers, her voice tight. “We’ve been over this so many times.”

“I know. Tell me again.” I insist. “Who was in the house that night?”

She presses her lips together. A flicker of hesitation flashes in her eyes. “I told you. It was just Mark, Cass, and me,” she finally says.

I close the gap between us. “Was there anyone else in the house? Anyone who may have been there earlier, maybe?”

Lana studies me, her brows knitting like she’s trying to piece something together. “Why do you ask?”

I hold her gaze. “Just answer me, Lana.”

A breath.

Then, slower, “Well, David came over earlier.”

My body locks up. “What for?”

She doesn’t notice the shift in my stance and keeps talking.

“You know how I always thought Cass was hiding something?”

I nod.

“Well, I must have mentioned it to David at some point. He came over that night and offered to take Mark out for a boys’ night so Cass and I could have space to talk.”

She frowns, like she’s remembering something she hadn’t thought about before. “They got into an argument. Mark refused to go with him, so David left.”

The roaring in my head drowns out everything else. David was there the night Cass died. He was there the night Sara died. He owns that secret warehouse full of banned hallucinogens. The pieces slam together with sickening clarity.

I’m moving before I even realize it. Her voice stops me.

“Kai! Where are you going?”

“Just wait here for me, Lana. Don’t go anywhere.”

Her brows furrow. “But I have a meeting—”

“Lana, do not, under any circumstances, leave this house until I get back, do you understand?”

Her worried expression melts into full blown panic. “Why, what’s going on, Kai?”

I cross the room, take her in my arms and drop a reassuring kiss on her head.

I’m fucking praying is what’s happening dear sis. Praying that my security finds a way to put your fiancé behind bars. Otherwise, I’m going to have to kill him.

“Just trust me on this, Lana.”

The coffee in my hand is cold.

I don’t remember when I stopped drinking it. The half-empty cup sits abandoned beside a mess of paperwork, a laptop screen glowing with legal jargon, and a whole lot of fucking nothing.

Outside the window, Chinatown stirs with early morning life—the clatter of delivery trucks and street vendors setting up their wares.

The faint scent of incense drifts in from the herbal shop next door, mixing with Vin’s cigarettes.

I lean back in my chair, pressing my fingers against my temple. Across from me, Vin flips through a stack of documents, his expression blank.

Finally, he speaks. “It’s not enough, Kai.”

“Walk me through what we know again, Vin.”

Vin slides the top sheet toward me. I don’t need to look. I already know what it says.

“CX3 is a banned poison, true,” Vin begins. “But possession alone won’t hold David in custody. We need proof of intent to distribute or harm—a live shipment, a witness, something tying him directly to the movement—”

“He owns the fucking warehouse!”

“Yes. But unless we can prove he knew what was inside, the legal system will play it safe. He could say it was leased out, or claim ignorance.” Vin sighs. “The other option is to have forensics find chemical traces on—”

“That could take weeks!”

“One or two, yes” Vin replies.

Two weeks. My chair scrapes against the hardwood floor as I shove back from the table.

David could vanish in two weeks. Kill Nicole in two weeks.

I start pacing the room, the slow burn of frustration solidifying into something colder. I already knew going by the book wouldn’t give me the satisfaction I crave.

Vin watches me, likely reading the tension rolling off me. “Kai.”

I stop pacing and snap. “What?”

“Don’t do anything that’ll get you locked up. This isn’t some faceless internet creep we can put in an unmarked grave. This is your sister’s fiancé . Your girlfriend’s landlord. A business owner. Not only you, but Lana and Nic will be people of interest should he wind up dead.”

My breath punches out in a sharp laugh. He has a point there. That doesn’t mean that my brain accepts it, though.

Vin’s phone buzzes. He checks the screen then looks back at me. “Your woman is already waiting for you at the meeting point.”

My pulse kicks and I grab my jacket, heading out of the cluttered office. “We’re done here. We’ll talk more tonight.”

The elevator hums softly, numbers blinking overhead as I struggle to shove a tight lid on the raw-edged rage riding me all morning.

I just hope like hell Nicole can handle me when I’m like this—because she’s exactly what I want right now.

I cross the suite’s bedroom in a few strides to find her sitting in lotus fashion on the bed, her back against the headboard, her hair piled messily on top of her head reading a paperback novel.

Her eyes flick up as I enter and a slow grin tugs at her lips.

“Hey. You look ready to kill someone.”

Leaning back against the door, my throat works as I take her in.

My woman.

My sub.

She’s so effortlessly herself, so completely unruffled, despite being the mastermind behind the chaos unraveling my life right now. All that sweet resilience, begging to be bottled up.

That . . . that’s the reason the Aldridges couldn’t let her go. Why David lost his mind that night. He’s right. She’s a fucking genie. And now she’s all mine.

“Kai, are you just going to stand there and glare at me?”

“I love you.” The words scrape against a throat that feels like gravel.

Nicole’s eyes widen for a second before she throws her head back and laughs.

My scowl deepens, but fuck—her laughter squeezes something tight in my chest. “What?” I snap.

She wipes a tear from the corner of her eye. “Nothing. It just hits a little different when you say something like that with murderous rage.”

I shove my hands into my pockets and head to the oversized window. “I’ve had a shit day.”

“Gosh. And it’s only ten in the morning,” she quips.

I grunt, staring unseeingly at the L.A. skyline.

The air shifts, and then she’s behind me, slipping her arms around my waist. “Does that mean I won’t be getting what you promised me last night, Daddy?”

My hands ball into fists inside my pockets as lust slams into me. “Believe me, it’s taking everything in me not to push you face-first into that bed and just—” I take in a slow breath—“unwind.”

Nicole’s breath hitches against my back—a needy sound that every cell in my body has been conditioned to respond to. I squeeze my eyes shut, fighting for control.

She does it again.

I grit my teeth. “Stop breathing on me, Nicole.”

Her chuckle is low and wicked. “Or what? What are you gonna do, fuck my ass?”

That’s it.

I’m on her before she can blink, spinning us around and pushing her against the wall-to-ceiling window.

I swallow her gasp, sealing my mouth to hers in a kiss that’s as punishing as it is desperate.

She arches into me, her hands sliding up my chest until her fingers curl into my hair. But as I deepen the kiss, I feel . . . not what I was expecting given my rough handling.

No graze or nip of her teeth. No scratch of her nails. Instead, she sags against me, her tongue brushing mine almost shyly. Her fingers rub slow, soothing circles into my scalp.

Like a fucking massage.

Something immediately settles inside me and the sharp edges of my rage melt. I feel Nicole’s sigh of pleasure the instant I soften.

She may have taunted about getting her ass fucked and would no doubt take me roughly without complaining, but this is what she really wants right now.

Connection. Tenderness.

I lift my head, cup her jaw, my thumb stroking over her damp lower lip. And for the first time since Vin’s call, I take a painless breath.

“There you are,” she whispers.

I don’t realize I’m smiling until she traces the lines at the corners of my eyes.

“What’s eating at you, Kai?”

I pull her closer, murmuring against her temple. “You were right. You fucking smart, stubborn, brave woman.”

“Okay, I’m melting into a puddle here. What was I right about?”

My grip on her tightens. “David Frayne owns that warehouse.”

She rears back, blood draining from her face. “Oh my God!”

Her throat bobs, her eyes scanning my face. “Kai, I’m so fucking sorry. That’s . . . ” She stops, shakes her head. “I only guessed . . . I didn’t even know the warehouse would lead to this. Christ, that’s fucked up. Lana—"

“Has no idea.” The words tastebitter. “He’s been using her to get to me this whole time. David and I grew apart a long time ago. The only thing that kept him relevant to my life was Lana.”

Nicole processes this for a few beats. “You know, I wondered. David is so different from your other friends in Gstaad. But I can’t believe he’d ever hurt—why would he hurt your girlfriends? To get you framed for their deaths? Hatred? Jealousy?”

I shrug. “Both. He’s always believed I stole his life. That everything I have, everything I am, should’ve been his.”

Nicole’s breath shudders out. “Oh my God. I’m . . . speechless. What do you want to do now?”

“Kill him. Slowly and painfully.”

She doesn’t even flinch. Just lifts a brow. “But?”

“I need to play this by the book.”

She scoffs. “I can’t imagine how that’s working for you right now.”

I tuck a lock of hair behind her ear, impressed by how on-board she is. “Have I told you how much I love you?”

She rolls her eyes. “I get it, Kai, you’re obsessed with me. Can you stay on subject for a sec?”

I huff a laugh, kiss her quick and hard, then state the facts. “There’s no evidence tying him to the victims at their time of death. Nothing connecting him directly to CX3 distribution. I can’t even get a fucking warrant without spooking him.”

She frowns. “So what are our options here?”

“To get him contained as fast as possible, I need a confession out of him.”

She smirks, her finger tracing my jaw. "And here I was thinking you might suggest something as simple as making his death look like an accident."

A slow grin tugs at my lips. “You’re fucked up, you know that?”

She giggles. "Oh, please, I’m nowhere as deranged as you.” Then, more seriously, she says, “Why don’t I talk to him?"

My smile freezes. "What?"

“I’ll get the confession out of him. I’ve got to stop by Primal Fit today to sign Alan Thorne’s contract today anyway.

I take my hands off her and calmly return to the large windows, ice spreading through me at the thought of what she just suggested. “I’ll pretend you didn’t just say that.”

“Kai—”

“Absolutely not. You’re never getting in the same room with him again.”