Insatiable (Steel Brothers Saga #12) - Helen Hardt Page 0,52
that. Not yet.”
“Why the hell not?” I was tempted to sic my gun on him, but what good would that do? His weapon was sitting right next to him, and I was no killer.
“That’s all I can say.”
“Where’s Cade?” I demanded.
“I don’t know. It might surprise you that he doesn’t tell me when he disappears.”
“Then he’s disappeared before?”
“Lots of times. His law partners put up with it because he funds the firm.”
“Hold on. He funds the firm? With what?”
“His father was loaded. He died intestate, and Cade was his next of kin.”
I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t considered this fact. Of course Cade’s father had been loaded. My father had paid him off. Bert Valente had bought real estate that had increased in value, and who knew what else he had invested in?
“Right,” I said. “He got shot at a convenience store.”
“How did you know that?”
“I have my ways. Do you know how Cade’s father got his money?”
Dominic shook his head.
“He sold his son. He sold Cade. To my psycho father.”
Dominic shuddered slightly. If it weren’t night, I was sure I’d see his tan face turning white.
“How do you know this?”
“I found documentation hidden in my father’s things.” I wasn’t about to tell Dominic the whole story—that Joe and I had been responsible for my father even knowing about Cade.
“He’s right,” a low voice said.
I jerked around, looking for the source of the sound. “Who’s there?”
“The person who wants to talk to you.”
“Get out here, then,” I said harshly. “Show yourself.”
A figure approached, a black mask covering his face. He was tall, easily as tall as I was, possibly taller.
“I don’t talk to you unless I know who you are,” I said.
“I’m the person who’s trying to protect Marjorie and her mother.”
His voice was laced with familiarity. Depth and familiarity. It was a voice I’d once loved, I’d once respected.
“You’re not…”
“Brad Steel?” The figure sighed and slowly pulled off his mask.
Bradford fucking Steel stood before me. His hair was still dark, as I remembered, though it was speckled with silver that shone in the light from the moon. Though I’d felt the ghost of my father more than once, this was no ghost. This man was alive. Alive and well.
“Fuck it all,” I said. “You’re supposed to be dead.”
No response.
“And weren’t you dying of cancer? Pancreatic, I think?”
“No. That was a lie. If Wendy hadn’t tried to kill me, I needed another reason to die.”
“You did this to your kids again. You’re a fucking freak of nature, Brad.”
“I have my reasons. I meant to stay covered, but once I saw you, I knew it wouldn’t work. You recognized my voice, didn’t you?”
I nodded.
“I’m counting on your discretion, Bryce. I love my children more than anything. You know that. You were an honorary child of mine, and I loved you nearly as much.”
“But how…?”
“Pretty simple, actually. A bulletproof vest equipped with blood pellets. Then a payment to the coroner ahead of time who pronounced me dead and disposed of the body.”
“Marjorie said you were cremated.”
“Someone was. It wasn’t me.”
“They never saw your body again…”
“No, they didn’t have to. They identified it at the scene. Everything was in order long before Wendy shot me.”
“No one checked you for a pulse?”
“Would you want to touch a dead body? Marjorie fell on me, but her brothers pulled her off.”
“How did you know what would go down?”
“I knew Wendy. Once I was back in Colorado, I knew she’d come for me and for Ryan. If Ruby hadn’t killed her first, I had plans in place for Wendy before she could harm my son.”
“I don’t believe it. Marj told me what happened. It happened so fast she hardly remembers, yet she describes it as almost being in slow motion.”
“Trust me when I say I’m sorry to have put my children through any of this. But they’re strong, and my first duty is to their mother. My children can take care of themselves. My wife can’t.”
“So you took her from the facility using Joe’s name.”
“I did.”
“You wrote Joe Steel instead of Jonah Steel.”
“Did I? I was thinking only of getting Daphne out of harm’s way.”
“Does he work for you?” I gestured to Dominic.
“He does. He’s well paid. And well trained.”
“You never went to UCLA, huh?” I said.
“No. That’s my cover. I’m a hell of a trainer, though. I kicked your ass during that sample session.”
I couldn’t deny it.
“An associate of mine approached Dominic and Alex when they turned eighteen,” Brad said. “I knew about their brother’s return,