Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
K aine had known the minute he started searching for the person who killed his grandfather that he would run into roadblocks. Even at his most cynical, he hadn’t expected this level of interference.
“Run it back to me,” he ordered Josiah.
“I tried a few different things on my end, but not only can’t I find the pages missing for the report, but it’s disappeared off the server altogether,” Josiah informed him.
Josiah was one of his cousins on his father’s side.
He had wanted to be involved with the family’s business, but as a favor to his aunt, Kaine had kept him out of the field.
Instead, he’d paid for his college and graduate school and now used Josiah for all the IT needs for their company.
Though it kept his cousin out of the violence, it didn’t mean he kept Si’s hands clean.
But his aunt was satisfied and that was all that mattered.
Kaine sighed and pushed down on his rising tiger.
The file that Griff had dropped to him two weeks ago was supposed to contain everything pertaining to his grandfather’s case, but there were missing pages, along with a post mortem that his cousin couldn’t track down.
This was more than negligence and simple interference.
Someone was trying to hide what happened to Henry.
“Keep looking, but I’ll start shaking shit up myself if that’s what it takes.”
He ended the call and turned his chair to stare out his window.
Kaine had tried to keep his personal investigation under wraps, but now it seemed he would have to use his name to get some motion.
Giving the runaround to one of his employees was one thing; outright telling Ezra Kaine no was a whole other beast. There were few shifters with the power the Aces held.
Money moved motives, and though he had cops on his payroll, someone had clearly paid them more.
His phone vibrating on his desk jarred him out of his introspection. He turned and lifted the device, smiling at the message displayed.
His baby was coming to see him.
Lucky’s security detail informed him that she was on the road headed toward Oakridge.
Satisfaction filled Kaine, replacing the aggravation.
This week had him worried about the state of their relationship.
He’d talked to Lucky every day that they’d been separated, but there was a wariness in her tone that had him worried.
Last weekend, he’d laid a lot at her feet.
Telling her about the Aces wasn’t something he’d planned to do until later in their relationship, but seeing her in the den of vipers had shaken something in him.
He couldn’t afford for his mate to walk around not aware of the position he held and how that put her in danger.
Lucky had said all the right words, but until he put eyes and hands on her, he would reserve some of his worry.
Her traveling to him should be proof enough that she would still give their mating a chance, but despite the power of his position, Kaine still understood that not everything would work the way he wanted it to.
Omnipotent he was not.
No matter how his siblings teased him.
Lucky hadn’t called him directly to tell him that she was coming, but maybe she wanted to surprise him. So, he would take her visit as a good sign.
He gathered his shit to leave. The rest of the office was empty, being that it was a Saturday.
Kaine was only at headquarters because he needed to get out of the house.
While he’d been patient with Lucky, his tiger had been restless at home.
He’d thought being in the office would help, but even as he tried to work, the tiger had been pacing his body, missing its mate.
His mind flipped through a list of tasks he needed to complete to make her comfortable at his home.
The estate was spotless, it always was, but he still wanted to make sure that it was prepared for her.
Kaine went through his memory of their last weekend together, remembering some of the things he saw in her house that she enjoyed.
Her favorite cereal he watched her eat without milk, some of the snacks he sat on her sofa eating with her while she watched the shows she had recorded.
He wanted her to be relaxed in his space, especially since he wanted her to have a good first impression.
He sent off a message to his assistant for things to be picked up and dropped off at his home.
Lucky would eventually live with him, so he wanted her first experience at his house to be comfortable.
Kaine stood and stuffed his laptop into his bag, getting ready to leave. His personal phone rang and he nodded at the caller. He’d been waiting to hear back from Declan about some business.
“You’re overpaying for that company,” the wolf said the moment he connected the call.
Kaine smirked. That was exactly why he and Declan got along. The male was very no-nonsense and to the point.
“Yeah, but they don’t know what they have,” Kaine told the wolf as he joined Griff at the door.
Declan grunted.
“Did they check out?”
“Yeah. Their money troubles are from mismanagement, not theft,” Declan reported.
“That’s all I needed to know, thanks.” He ended the call and stepped into the private elevator that would take him straight to the parking garage.
Griff smiled as he smashed the button for the doors to close. “Never thought I would see the day a woman had Ezra Kaine wrapped around her finger.”
Kaine chuckled, not bothering to deny it.
He was anxious to see his mate, and if the fates willed it, Griff would understand how that felt.
While Kaine had no problem tricking on the females he fucked, giving one time outside of that was a rarity.
In the almost-year Griff was at his side, that would’ve been very apparent.
But his mate was always going to be different.
Treating her like any of the other women he messed with was never part of the program. His tiger was built for loyalty and Lucky was now the top recipient of that.
No one came before her.
She more than had him wrapped around her finger, she now controlled the leash of the beast that resided within him. Lucky alone was responsible for keeping his tiger tame.
The ride up was silent as the elevator rushed to the parking level on the top floors.
As the doors parted on his elevator, Kaine spotted two men standing in all black and masks, their guns raised.
Griff cursed, but neither shifter moved as the doors opened fully and masked men opened fire.
Kaine growled and set down his laptop bag as his tiger primed to take over his body.
The violence that lived under his skin had been held back ever since he stepped into his new position, and his animal relished its upcoming release.
The shooters clearly hadn’t been given the correct intel.
If they had, they would’ve known that Kaine’s personal elevator had two sets of doors for this exact reason.
The shooters realized that their bullets weren’t penetrating the second set of doors and took off.
“Release the door,” Kaine growled, and as soon as Griff put in the key to open the bulletproof partition, his tiger exploded from his body.
Kaine chased down the would-be assassins as they tried to jump into a van idling with its side door open.
He caught the first one as the male turned and fired.
The bullet missed him, and his tiger leapt to take him down.
His claws slashed through skin and muscle, and Kaine took pleasure in the male’s screams of pain.
The van door closed and tires squealed as the occupants tried to speed away.
Griff was right there, though, firing his weapon, busting the back window along with the tires.
The vehicle swerved, slamming into parked cars as the driver lost control of it.
Kaine left the now dead male, heading for the van as the sliding door opened and the occupants staggered out.
One was already bleeding, but his tiger didn’t care.
He clamped down on the male’s shoulder where Griff’s bullet had hit him.
Killing the shifter was as simple as snapping his neck beneath his tiger’s strong jaws.
By the time Griff made it next to him, all three males were dead on the concrete. His enforcer sucked his teeth.
“So, no questioning them, then?”
Kaine chuffed before shifting, his animal easily relenting now that it had gotten its pound of flesh.
That was the risk with letting the killer loose.
His tiger didn’t leave enemies alive. He rolled his shoulders and stood, irritation still riding him because Griff was right.
They couldn’t get information from dead men.
He prowled over to his SUV as building security rushed from the service elevator and surrounded him.
They were late as hell and that was a problem he would solve ASAP.
Griff popped the back and Kaine grabbed clothes from the duffle bag he kept on him at all times, a simple black jogging suit and sneakers that he didn’t bother sliding on.
He would be home shortly and able to change after a shower.
Griff passed him his computer bag and phone he’d dropped in the elevator. “What you wanna do?”
“I want to know how the fuck they got into this garage without anyone knowing, first and foremost. And whoever let them in had better be dead before I make it home,” he ordered, his voice gruff, more tiger than man while he wrestled the animal back under control.
The security around him looked worried, but he didn’t give a damn.
Had they been on their jobs, this wouldn’t have happened.
For a moment, he wondered if his new position was the reasoning behind the attempt.
First, his grandfather was murdered, and now this?
Was someone trying to take out the Aces as a whole, or did they specifically want the Ace of Spades gone?
Taking down their guild would leave control of Florida’s underworld wide open and chaotic, but he wouldn’t put it past their enemies.
But attacking him at his office where he was most protected felt like an inside job, and if that were the case…
His mind started racing with the implications.
Before he could get too carried away, he needed to warn his siblings.
But first, Kaine grabbed his phone from his bag and called his cousin.
He slid into the back of the car, ignoring the males cleaning up the mess his tiger made of the attackers. Josiah answered immediately.
“I want the security team in the building vetted again. From the top to the bottom,” he ordered.
“I saw the alert. What happened?” Josiah asked.
Kaine wiped a hand down his face and breathed out. “Two shooters waiting for me at the elevator.”
The click-clack of typing keys stopped. “Your elevator at the HB center?”
Kaine grunted in answer and Josiah cursed.
Nothing else needed to be said, so he hung up the phone and laid his head back as Griff slid into the driver’s seat.
Who in the fuck would try and hit him at his office?
The only place more protected than this building was his home.
How had they gotten into the employee garage?
He texted Lucky’s team for them to be on high alert because he wasn’t taking any chances when it came to her.
Next, he texted his sibling group chat to be extra vigilant.
Griff started the SUV and sped out toward the exit, his movements jerky, broadcasting his irritation. “You hit at all?”
Kaine shook his head. “I want to know how they breached our security.”
“Trust, I’m on that shit. You have plans to take your mate out at all this weekend?”
“We’ll play it by ear. I’m not about to run scared.”
“Heard.”
They rode in silence as Kaine worked to corral his temper and his animal under control.
He didn’t want Lucky to see him like this, especially after their conversation about the guild.
He had a feeling he was already on thin ice when it came to his mate.
He didn’t want anything else to possibly scare her off.