7. Mason
7
MASON
“ D o you know where your daughter is?” Samantha sidled up to my side.
The wake was over. We’d left the funeral home and congregated across the road, to the patio of a bar. The owner invited us personally. I’d just sat down, after going inside to shake hands with the owner and the staff. They hadn’t asked for pictures or autographs, which I was thankful about considering what I’d just left.
Logan, Nate, and Matteo were sitting at a table. Channing was in the back, standing with a bunch of his crew members. They worked as bounty hunters with his company but were still his crew. It was an old system from their school in Roussou, but that dynamic was strong. Catching my glance, he tipped his chin up in question. I texted.
Me: You know where your son is?
Wherever Max was, Maddy would be. They were joined at the hip, and I didn’t want to think about them fucking. Though maybe I should. Maddy was seventeen. I’d been having sex for years by the time I got to her age, and for fuck’s sake, her mom and I were like rabbits. I didn’t want to think of any of that with my little girl. Not with Max. Not with anyone.
Though, once again, I was certain my kid would be the one to push it. Max had every part of Heather and Channing within him. He had an edge, some darkness. I’d witnessed a rough side of him, but for the most part, he had a good head on his shoulders. He liked getting along, which to him meant not getting in trouble. He didn’t like disappointing his parents. I couldn’t understand why. Channing was still a hellion. He was barely legal with the things he did with his job. He was able to indulge in all things violence and gore.
I was jealous.
He read my text and frowned before hitting a button and lifting the phone to his ear.
“You tried calling Maddy, right?” I asked Sam.
She harrumphed, hitting me in the arm.
The others snickered around the table.
“Of course I did. I haven’t seen her for a while, actually. She turned her phone off.”
Logan snorted before raising his hand. “We do know a hacker in town.” His eyes went to mine. “Just saying.”
I scowled. “No fucking way. I’m not inviting that stalker into my inner circle.”
Logan cracked up. Nate snickered too.
Matteo glanced around. “What am I missing?”
“Nothing.” I gave them a warning look.
Logan kept snickering. “Just what he said. Mason’s had a certain stalker from Fallen Crest for a good while. It’s cute how worked up he gets about him.”
I shot him another look, but Channing came over at that moment. His two giant crew members were behind him. One was Goliath. The other was mini-Goliath, but just as wide. Their crew names were Moose and Congo. They looked like they ate bricks for breakfast with a side of eggs. And their weapons and bulletproof vests were usually out and proud when I saw them. Tonight, if they were wearing them, they were hidden.
Each gave Logan and me a nod, extending their condolences.
“Heather can’t get ahold of Max?” Channing asked Sam.
She hesitated before shaking her head.
I reached over, pulling her into my lap. She melted into me. If none of us could find our kids, that meant we’d be going on a hunt. That also meant we’d have a long night ahead. When we found her, we’d deliver a lecture, and when she got home, she’d get another lecture from her mom. I knew my kid. She loathed the lectures from her mom the most. We all adored Sam, and it was hard when you looked in her eyes and saw disappointment there.
But Maddy took after me. She needed to get into trouble.
Sam and I had made sure she grew up without the sort of shit that haunted us. She didn’t have a lot of trauma, that we knew of, so I figured her need to get into trouble was genetic. Sometimes it made me wonder if I’d wrongly blamed my father as the reason I did half the shit I did growing up. But no, I just had to take a moment and remember being in the house with him and our mom, taking care of Logan back in the day. They’d been horrific parents.
Sometimes I watched our kids with amazement because they didn’t have the deep-seated anger that Logan and I had, or the demons Sam had, and I was always perplexed. How did those kids come from me? They were normal, or sort of normal.
I took my phone out and tried calling Maddy myself. I didn’t figure she’d answer, but it was worth a try. It went straight to voicemail. She’d turned the phone off, which meant she hadn’t figured out how to disable the tracker I’d put on her phone. She’d bitched and moaned about it, but I didn’t care. She was my kid. If someone took her, I was coming for her, and I would be leaving with their head on a plate.
Brett and his wife got up from their table not far from us, looking like they were leaving, but he stopped by our table.
“Hey, man.”
We’d already said hello at the wake. I was surprised they were still here. Billie was a little skittish around the rest of us. She lived hiding from attention, and our group was the opposite. Attention just came our way.
He inclined his head to the rest of the table, holding his wife’s hand, but he frowned when he saw Sam’s face. “What is it?”
Sam stiffened in my lap. “We can’t find a couple of our kids.”
He glanced at his wife. “Stevie mentioned seeing Maddy take off with a couple guys from her school.”
My eyebrows shot up, and a rumble started in my gut. “What guys?”
He turned away a moment, remembering. “Stevie only mentioned it because Billie asked if she wanted to go find Maddy and Max. She said that was a flat no because she didn’t like the guys she saw take off with Maddy.”
Suddenly we were all sitting up straighter. Every single one of us.
“Did she give you a name?” Logan asked, bristling. He stared at Brett’s wife.
She shook her head.
“Ask her.”
His wife jumped, her eyes swinging my way. I grimaced. I hadn’t intended to speak so sharply.
Brett spoke up. “Stevie’s no narc. She won’t say anything unless we trick her, and when she finds out we did that to her, she’ll be pissed. We’re not fucking up any progress we’ve made with her.”
I didn’t like this, not knowing where my daughter was.
Sam leaned back against me, tucked her head to her shoulder, and whispered, “She grew up with Shannon.”
Shannon Broudou. Or that’s what she went by in high school. I almost forgot about her, but Sam was right. Stevie was her daughter and from what I heard about her, Shannon only got worse as she got older. Well, fuck. I forced the anger to ease out of me and gave Brett a quick nod. “We’ll find ’em a different way.”
Brett’s eyes flashed. He tilted his head to the side. “You know… I might’ve also noticed the car and the kids driving it, and when Stevie mentioned that, I might’ve asked a buddy to look up the license plate. You know, because maybe I might want to know what kind of assholes Stevie doesn’t like or what kind of assholes your girl is hanging out with.” He was enjoying this, and he held his phone up.
A text came through on my phone.
I opened it to find a driver’s license for one Beltraine Moreaux, along with the car’s owner, Phillip Moreaux, a name I recognized from the board at Kade Enterprises.
I grunted. “Thank you.”
“Have fun hunting.” Brett gave a wave before leading his wife out.
Sam shot off my lap, hurrying after them. She’d give them her thanks, but she’d also try every card in her arsenal to charm Billie Harm into being her friend. Sam had made the decision she was going to befriend the woman, come hell or high water.
I used social media to look up this punk. When I got to his TikTok, it wasn’t private, and I clicked on his last live, which was posted forty-three minutes ago. My blood went cold when I saw they were at some place for underground fighting.
I shoved up from the table.
Everyone took notice. Logan frowned.
I sent him the link, and his eyes flared when he saw what kind of place they were at. “Oh. Those little fucks are ours.” He shared his phone with Nate, who passed it to Matteo, and in the meantime, I had a little difficulty curbing my excitement.
I’d been missing the violence that used to be part of our lives.
This was different. Being home was different, being in Fallen Crest.
Outside of this city, I was Mason Kade, NFL Hall of Famer and a retired football star. But here, to an extent, people didn’t care. I loved that. I was just Mason Kade, and where this little shit had taken my daughter, I was going to hurt him. And I was going to enjoy every second of it.
“His dad’s on the board,” Nate remarked, standing with the others.
I grunted, pulling out a wad of bills to cover everyone’s tab. I held it out to a passing waitress. “How old are you?” I asked her. “You know where this is?”
She took the money, her eyes widening before she focused on my phone. I had pulled up the kid’s live video. “Oh.” She tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear, squinting at the phone. “Oh!” She jerked back. “That’s out at the old county fairgrounds.”
Channing started laughing.
It was the same place Channing used to fight.
Logan laughed with him. “Nice to know some shit doesn’t change.”
I thanked the girl and nodded to the money. “That’s for the owner. If it doesn’t cover everyone, he can reach out. I’ll come in and pay it off.”
“Oh. Uh…” She blushed, trying to hand it back. “He won’t take it. He’s real proud that the legendary Mason Kade came to his establishment.”
I shook my head. “Then use it to cash out as many as possible. Keep thirty percent tip for yourself and whoever else waited on us. We need to take care of something now.”
She nodded, speechless, as I pushed past.
Nate and Matteo headed outside.
Moose and Congo were waiting on the sidewalk. Channing cut across the section to talk to Heather, his hand at the small of her back. Sam headed my way, her eyes dark and worried.
Logan intercepted her first, giving her a kiss on the cheek and saying something into her ear before throwing me a wink. He was almost skipping out the door. Like me, violence was in his blood.
Sam finished her walk toward me and glanced at the group of guys now lingering on the sidewalk. “You found her?”
“We know where she is.”
Her eyebrows pinched together. “What does that mean?”
“They took her to an underground fighting ring.” I didn’t mince words. This would give Sam time to decide on the best punishment. Maddy was allowed to hang out with friends, but she was never, under no circumstances, allowed to turn her phone off. And she always had to notify us where she was. She’d broken three rules—the last was roping Max in with her. Because even though Broudou hadn’t mentioned him, I was a hundred-percent certain he was with her and she’d gotten him to turn his phone off too.
Our girl was going to be grounded.
The blood drained from Sam’s face, and her eyes widened.
Maddy earned a strike for putting that look on her mother’s face. I was tempted to take a picture so I could show Maddy later. It would haunt her.
She chewed on her top lip. “Okay. Be safe. Bring her back. Don’t kill anyone, hmm?”
I cupped Sam’s elbow and stepped in, kissing her forehead before flashing her a grin. “It’s like you don’t know me. Telling me to be safe.” I was teasing.
She caught my hand as I began to pull away and gave me a mock glare. “I do know you so do I need to repeat what I just said?”
I gave her another kiss before giving her a smirk. “Don’t worry. No heads will literally roll, and I’ll collect our daughter. You can start thinking how to make her next two weeks hell. That should be fun.”
She growled as her eyes flashed. A hint of a grin lifted up the side of her mouth. “I love my daughter, but you’re right. Instead of worrying about her, I’ll channel that into brainstorming. Heather will help.”
I winced, now almost feeling sorry for my daughter, but no. I remembered the look on Sam’s face only a moment ago. Maddy knew not to turn her phone off. She needed to regret that decision.
I headed out, and Logan fell in step with me. Just as I opened the door, Malinda called our names. She was weaving through the tables, coming our way.
I moved to the sidewalk. Logan was beside me.
Malinda joined us.
The others waited to the side.
I started to ask her what was up, but Malinda shook her head. Tears filled her eyes and she opened her arms. Stepping to us, she pulled both of us in for a hug at the same time. “Nothing. I’m not here for anything. Just—I love you boys. Men. You’ve both grown into remarkable men. You take good care of your wives and I’m proud of you. I wanted to tell you that. When I fell in love with David, I had no idea that I’d be getting Samantha and the both of you as well.”
She tried to squeeze us close before letting go. She swiped at a tear that fell down her cheek.
Malinda stepped in as a mother to all of us, not just Samantha. We were the ones grateful for her. I opened my mouth, intending to tell her that, but the words got choked in my throat. There was a lot of repressed emotion in me at the moment. The words couldn’t come out.
She shook her head again, catching my hand and giving it a last squeeze. “You don’t have to say anything. I mean it. I just wanted a moment to let you know that I love you both. That’s all. David and I love you both . We don’t need to get anymore mushy, but just know I’m here for you. David too.”
Tenderness washed through me. I tugged Malinda in for another hug and said softly, “We know. Trust me, we’re the lucky ones here.”
“Oh.” Her hand flung out and Logan caught it.
She hugged me back, one last time, before waving us on. She was blinking, trying to stop more tears from falling, but they were already trickling down her face. She used the back of her arm to wipe at her face. “Okay. Go on. Do your thing. I need to get myself under control here.” The corner of her mouth lifted up. She gave us a wink. “Don’t worry. I’ll keep an eye on the rest for you.” She went back inside, and paused on the other side of the door for a moment. Then, her head snapped up and seeing Sammy running for her, she moved forward to sweep the little guy up.
“Damn,” Logan said quietly. “We lucked out getting her in our lives.”
I exhaled. “That’s the truth.”
“Guys.” Channing slid his hands in his pockets, waiting with the others. “Shall we do this?”
Yes. Right. Track down Maddy needed to commence.
I tipped my chin up. “Let’s go.”
Everything else got shoved down, way down inside of me.
We crossed the street, returning to the funeral home where we were parked. He dropped his voice, shoving his hands in his pockets. “If she’s fighting…”
My gut tightened. I didn’t like hearing that possibility, but it was within the realm of possibility. She was my daughter.
I bit out, “Then we’re getting her into a training program, and we’ll monitor her closely.”
He nodded, his shoulders relaxing a little. “She’s got the bloodlust. Same as we did growing up.”
I gave him a look, raising an eyebrow.
He met my gaze, and the tops of his cheeks flushed before he looked away.
He wasn’t going to admit it and I had to wonder about that. Why not? Why wasn’t he going to admit it?
Because we still had the bloodlust. Maybe it was there to act as a distraction from the last week and what we were going to deal with tomorrow? Maybe I was leaning on it for a slight reprieve from burying my father tomorrow. Either way, our bloodlust was here. Right now. In both Logan and myself. He was every bit as excited as I was to head off into whatever the fuck we were going to find ourselves in. Into the fray? Into the chaos of Fallen Crest? Into what?
I didn’t know, but I was buzzing.
I should’ve been worried about it.
I just wasn’t.