Page 102 of The Colour of Revenge

“Fucked-up men like my father have given you every reason to believe someone might be using you. I just need to prove I’m not like them.”

“No, you don’t.” I shake my head vehemently, pulling back to meet his gaze. “I know you’re nothing like them, Nate. I just… I got in my own head.”

“It’s okay,” he reassures me, his tone calm but firm. “We’ll talk about this later. Right now, we need a plan.”

Right. Shit.

My brain scrambles to think past the body on the floor, past the blood splattered everywhere.

How do we explain Nate’s father’s death? And then it hits me.

Evelyn. His mother.

“Oh, God,” I breathe. “Your mum. She’s going to be devastated.”

Nate’s face crumples over once more as he realises just how fucked this situation is. He just killed his own father and now we need to work out how to cover it up and tell his mother that Edward isn’t coming back.

He runs a hand over his jaw then strides over to his kitchen counter where his phone sits and types out a message—presumably to Kai.

“Let’s see what Kai says.”

Kai arrives in record time, dropping everything as soon as Nate calls. His face is grim as he takes in the scene.

He exhales sharply. “This… this is bad,” he mutters, glancing at the bloodied floor and the lifeless body.

“No shit, Sherlock,” I snap, frustration sharpening my tone.

“Hey! This is on you. Don’t get pissy with me,” Kai fires back.

Before I can respond, Nate's voice slices through the air, low and dangerous.

"Don't fucking talk to her like that."

The room plummets into silence.

Nate's glare is lethal, his entire body coiled, taut, ready to pounce. The kind of fury that could make even the hardest men flinch.

Kai isn't stupid. He holds up his hands in surrender, eyes flicking between us. "Sorry, man."

I roll my eyes and huff. “Can we focus? What’s the plan here?”

Kai takes a deep breath, running a hand through his hair. “Okay. This is a lot harder to cover up because it’sNate’s dadwe’re talking about.”

Nate goes still.

Then, slowly, he sneers, his voice dripping venom. "That man is not my father."

A sharp, cutting silence.

Enzo, ever the voice of detached efficiency, leans against the wall. "I can make it seem like he left the country."

Kai nods. "That could work. We'll leave a trail like we did with Carmichael."

“And the body?” I ask.

Kai smiles mirthlessly. “Getting it out isn’t an issue. I’ve moved bodies from much weirder places. Remember that time I had to get one out of an art gallery in the middle of an exhibition?”

Nate’s lips twitch into a dark chuckle as he shifts closer to me, one hand resting protectively on my lower back. “Fuck, yeah. You had to stuff the guy into a duffel bag and pretend you weren’t carrying around a chopped-up corpse.”