Chapter 28
BLAIZE
There were no leads on the person who burned my hotel.
I had Kala check in with her people and even reach out to the FBI.
She was looking to see if they knew anything about it, but they were fucking clueless.
Whoever did this knew my operations, and it made me nervous for Friday.
I closed the club last weekend, but I couldn’t do it again this week.
We had new patrons to keep happy until our next round.
Hades was abuzz with regulars. Everyone thought I was absent and didn't care about the club's well-being, but that wasn't true. I was always watching from the shadows or the cameras in my office. Nothing happened without my knowledge.
It felt like everything was falling apart around me, but showing weakness was not what I did.
I would find who was messing with my operations, and their death would be slow.
They would bleed. They would pray to whatever god they choose for a merciful death.
I was not the woman to fuck with, and this person was ruining my livelihood.
After I had my drink at the bar with Kadence, I retreated to the shadows to watch her.
She was hiding something. I didn’t know what it was, but I saw it in her body language.
My job was to watch the people I let into my ranks and my club.
Reading people was a specialty I had, and Kadence was hiding behind fake smiles.
She was putting on a performance, but I saw the look in her forest gaze.
Most people would miss it, but I wasn’t most people.
Kadence was softer with women, opened up to them, but she tensed around men—even Jax sometimes, if he got to close.
If a man was too loud, she braced herself ever so slightly, but it vanished quickly.
It made me wonder why she wanted to work here.
Yes, Hawke told her, but she was a grown woman.
There was something…off about her. It wasn't a weakness, but being too strong was a weakness in itself, and she was barely holding herself together. She didn’t want people to see her shatter or break. Parts of herself were hidden, and they came out in the form of nightmares and panic attacks.
It raised a question.
What the hell happened to her to make her like this?
Fuck. Why did I care?
There were other issues I had to focus on, and she wasn’t it. I didn’t like the blind spot she created, and I detested the issues that started happening when she stepped foot into my town. Coincidences didn’t happen, and I would find out the truth.
In this life, one clocked threats and handled problems. Studying and learning was beneficial in certain cases, but in most, it involved a weakness.
That wasn’t something I would do here. With Kadence Hayes, I was watching her, studying to learn what made her tick.
She was cautious of her surroundings, always aware, and watching even when she didn’t think anyone was paying attention.
People like her didn’t end up in my town by accident.
Westhaven wasn’t a tourist attraction. Bellevue had more adventures than my town.
She came here to hide, but now I wanted to know what she was hiding from.
Kadence was a professional at hiding because she was under my nose for two weeks.
It told me she didn’t want anyone to know her secrets or why she was concealing herself.
Secrets caused problems, and I didn’t want her issues plaguing my town.
“You’ll catch flies if you keep gaping at her,” Hunter said as she found me in the shadows. “She’s doing good at the bar.”
“She’s jumpy.”
“Yeah, trauma does that to a person.” My gaze found Hunter’s. “I didn’t find anything on her, but it’s not hard to put two and two together. She beat someone with a drink tray. I’m honestly surprised.”
Now I want to know more.
I watched her again. If I was honest, it wasn’t just a weakness I was looking for—I couldn’t deny how beautiful she was.
Her body was sinful, and her spitfire attitude drove me insane.
She had a chokehold on me. I wanted to devour her, destroy her, and see how far I could push her before she completely crumbled at my mercy, but giving into temptation would be my downfall.
“Did she tell you anything?”
“Nope. No ID or history told me everything I needed to know. She’s hiding, but she doesn’t want to say why.”
“Find out. I don’t care what it takes. I need to know what danger she could bring to my town.”
She was a problem, and I was the only one who saw it.