31

31

STACEY

No one speaks as Aria rushes for her phone, dialling a number with flying fingers and pressing it to her ear while covering her mouth with a palm. She’s muffling a sob, her body shaking.

It’s a silent cry. A scream is trapped in her throat as the line rings. And rings. And rings.

It’s all we can hear in the silence of the room.

I glance over my shoulder to see Kade staring at the monitor, the screen paused on the reporter’s face, the banner text at the bottom mocking us about Tobias’s possible death.

It knocks the breath out of me, thinking it might be true. There’s a hole in my chest, and if I feel like this even though he wasn’t my father, then what the hell do his family feel?

Kade’s tapping his middle finger on the table with haunting slowness, his jaw clenching, his breaths steady but harshly exhaled through his nose.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Over and over again. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

He’s thinking. The mind of a killer in overdrive. Dangerous. Deadly.

The footage Tobias and I saw of Kade draws my mind away from the present, and I feel like throwing up. I see him stalking his victims in alleyways and dragging them into darkness, stabbing them, leaving no trace behind so he’ll never be caught.

Driving over someone’s skull repeatedly because he stepped on his foot.

Tying rapists to chairs and carving the names of their victims into their skin.

Putting bullets into a man to finish a contract before fucking me beside the dead body.

Shooting a gang leader for touching my ass.

Pulling the trigger and nearly killing me.

Strangling.

Smashing his lethal fists into a face until its owner is unrecognisable.

Driving a knife into the skull of a woman for giving him a dirty look then leaving her body in a Russian river.

He’s unhinged and completely off the rails when mad.

And he’s thinking.

With his state of mind and everything going on, I know that’s a really bad thing. Destruction ready to happen. He’s the son of Tobias Mitchell; it’s in his blood to rain havoc down on everyone.

If it wasn’t for his love for me and how much he cares about his family, I’d say all of the trauma and abuse had made him sociopathic.

I know his new therapist has spoken to Aria about dissociation, and the possibility of Kade compartmentalising certain emotions, keeping them on a shelf in his mind and making sure they stay there. He told his therapist that when the abuse took place, he would go elsewhere mentally, which is what may have caused the disorder.

Aria pulled me aside and told me that Kade was in a dangerous mindset, and that he had no idea how to pull away from it. The only thing that could help is if he gets revenge.

And he will. He’ll kill everyone to protect us. I’ve watched hundreds of videos of Kade brutally taking lives with his bare hands and with weapons. He’ll use those same hands to kill Bernadette and Archie. They killed his brother, and now possibly his father. He’ll not think of the consequences of his actions.

His gaze flickers to me, and my heart skips a beat at the look in his eyes. He’s dropping into the abyss, and he doesn’t want to stop himself.

“Stay with me,” I whisper to him, but he looks away.

A soft voice gets our attention. “Aria Miller. I’m Tobias Mitchell’s next of kin.”

I lower into one of the chairs and sit on my hands, in complete denial as Aria’s facial expression contorts into pure rage. I jump as she slams her palm down on the table. “Then put me through to someone who can fucking help me!”

It takes a lot for her to get angry. She did years and years of therapy after what happened with her and Tobias.

Now I see another side as the mask drops, and flickers of Kade shine through. She grits her teeth as someone speaks, and angry tears slide down her cheeks.

She repeats, “Then put me through to someone who can help me.” Her tone is calm, yet she’s anything but.

Kade pushes from the desk and huffs as he jams in an earpiece and has a whispered conversation with someone on the other end. I hear him mention Archie, files and exposing something. He also asks them to get information about Bernadette’s current state and what hospital she’s in.

I furrow my brows at him as his eyes lift to me; it’s been just a few minutes since he had me bent over a desk and was inside me.

I can still feel him.

My neck hurts. He gripped me too hard, and I know I have marks on my skin. He’s staring at them, and as I press my palm to my throat, hiding them, he fists his hands and turns away from me.

There’s silence, and Aria starts pacing , her hand over her mouth again. Then her footsteps falter. “You’re putting me through to who? Why are you…?” Her eyes widen, and they land on Kade, who doesn’t pay her any attention as he starts muttering into his earpiece again. “Is Tobias really dead?”

Whatever they say as a response knocks Aria off her feet, and guards rush to grab her from the floor as she lets out a harrowing scream that shakes my bones, just like she did when Jason was shot in the head.

The sound cracks my chest open and painfully squeezes my heart, knowing that I’ll never see Tobias again or hear him call me little one.

No. Tobias Mitchell cannot be dead.

I refuse to believe it. He took two doses of something that should’ve knocked him out cold, yet he still managed to push through and attack Bernadette. There’s not a chance in hell his end comes from crashing a damn car.

“Contact the Russians and tell them the deal is off. Demand their presence immediately,” Kade says, completely monotone, and an older man from his team leaves the room with his phone to his ear. “Barry, I need you to set up a live feed and get every single one of our team on foot. I want everyone called in over the next week.”

A lady in a suit nods and goes to a computer, typing rapidly into a coding system that sends out a signal to every member of Kade’s company.

Is it a company? A gang? An organisation? His own empire? I have no idea. All I know is that he has hundreds of bodies beneath him – they get paid a hefty amount for their work, and he’s the boss of them all.

If the Russians do get involved, I think this will be quite the battle, possibly a war. I know Base will do everything he possibly can to get them over here, or at least get Luciella to him.

Aria is still crying, and my nerves are shattered, because I’m either too numb to let tears fall, or I’m terrified about what Kade is going to do.

I want to grab his face and force him to look at me, to breathe through it, to focus on my voice and not the ones in his head. But when I stand up, he punches the desk with so much force, the wood cracks and a monitor falls on the ground.

Kade pushes from the broken desk, grabs his gun and marches out of the room. I try to follow, but he points at me and speaks to his tallest guard, who’s wearing a black suit. “Keep her in here.”

“What?” I ask, frowning as the man stands in front of me. “Kade…”

He doesn’t look at me. “Stay in the fucking room, Stacey.”

I bite my lip, wanting to refuse, but I know this is a side of him that thrives on power and control. Uncontrollable rage. His blinking is worse than ever, and his body is rattling with anger as he slams the door.

Aria is back on the phone, demanding she be allowed to view the body, to identify him. But when she’s told to call back later, she screams at them until they hang up. Her phone smashes off the wall as she slides down it. The guard who was to keep an eye on me rushes to her.

Against Kade’s wishes, because I’m an asshole who doesn’t want him doing anything alone, I check no one else is looking as I dodge another guard and run out of the room. He shouts for me to come back, and even tries to chase me along the landing, but I duck from his hands and make him tumble. Although I’m in a dress, it isn’t tight or restricting my movements, and I’ve been back in the studio often enough now that my stamina is getting back to what it used to be, so I easily outrun him and make it to Kade’s side of the manor.

Stopping at the top of the black, metal spiral staircase – the one he once made me crawl up while he touched me – I raise my fist to knock on the door but drop my hand on a breath. I falter and decide to turn the handle, and it opens.

I see him pulling a black hoodie on, his face covering in place to hide the scar. It matches his gloves, boots, combat trousers and hair.

Kade Mitchell is the haunting definition of darkness.

“I told you to stay in the room,” he says without looking at me, pulling his hood up over his head to hide his hair, barely concealing his wavy fringe. Blue eyes burn into me as he turns. “Go back.”

I gulp. “Your mum needs you right now. We need to tell Luciella about your dad. I don’t want you to act on impulse.”

“Then go tell Luciella,” he snarls, his voice laced with venom. He snatches an army pocketknife from a bag and tucks it into his boot.

I try to grab his arm, but he flinches away from me.

“Seriously, go back to the fucking room, Stacey.”

“What’s your plan?”

He glares at me for a second then averts his gaze. “I won’t repeat myself.”

He grabs a blade from his bedside unit and slots it into a leather strap on his thigh, then fits a gun into his holster under his hoodie before pulling a second weapon from his dresser and settling it into another holster on his thigh.

Kade fills a bag with more weapons as he sternly speaks to someone in his earpiece about a tripod and live-streaming networks. Then he grabs a duffle bag and packs it too. Handguns, blades, and…

“Why do you have grenades? What are you going to do?”

He grazes my arm as he reaches for something behind me, and when his hand rests on my hip for a moment, the world stops moving. I stare at him as he caresses his thumb over my hip.

“Let me do this, Stacey.”

His eyes are on my neck again, then he frowns, lets go of me and turns around.

“Anything from Barry? Good. Tell him not to come here, just to stay where he is. Contact Sebastian Prince and tell him to fuck off his wedding and get his ass here. Whereabouts in the manor is my sister? Right, make sure she’s watched. Ensure my mother is escorted to her room. Turn Dez and Tylar away at the gates. And take Archie Sawyer to the main office.”

Whatever they say in his ear, it pisses him off. He closes his eyes and grits his teeth. “That was a fucking order.”

“Where are you going?”

He ignores me, continuing to pack even more weapons and ammunition.

His shoulder touches mine as he passes. I release a shaky breath, and my voice breaks. “Talk to me, Kade.”

He stops and shakes his head, then turns and walks to me. He grabs the hair at the back of my head and pulls our foreheads together as my fingers instantly wrap around the strings of his hoodie.

“They took everything from me. Everything. We had a chance, but they took that as well.” He presses a firm kiss to my lips then shoves himself away, backing to the door while putting a fresh magazine in his gun and loading it. “Watch me destroy every last one of them, Freckles.”

I follow him in a rush back to the office, taking two steps for each of his, where Aria is sobbing in the arms of one of her closest workers – a lady named Vera with long grey hair who’s here to cook and clean but gets annoyed when Aria helps her around the manor. Vera strokes Aria’s head and tries to shush her comfortingly while tears soak her face. Aria is muttering about how she was supposed to keep him safe – him, Jason, her children, all of them. She failed, and she doesn’t know how to fix it.

Kade ignores her, settling two of his bags in the middle of the table. Two minutes later, as he sits on the desk chair and taps his finger, a guard drags in a thrashing Archie, completely covered in dry blood, smelling like shit, in only a pair of briefs that are stained with blood, piss and his own mess.

Is there a nail in his…? Oh God.

Instead of being scared and begging for his life, Archie scowls at me and tries to lunge in my direction, but a blade is through his hand, pinning it to the wall before any of us can blink.

He lets out a strangled scream as Kade sinks the blade further. The void of his eyes is the only thing we can see with his hood up and his mouth covered. “I wouldn’t try that again if I were you.”

Then he pulls the blade free and wipes it on Archie’s chest, slicing the skin there.

“What do you want?” he sneers, wobbling. He can barely keep his balance.

He’s very thin, his bones nearly protruding from his skin, and his eyes are sunken into his skull. I sometimes forget that he’s locked in the basement – just along the corridor from the home studio where I spend so much time dancing.

Kade nods to the computer. “There’s a file I want you to open.”

Archie snorts. “Can’t use your fancy gadgets now, can you, boy?”

Kade grabs his chin and squeezes. “Don’t fuck with me. Open the damn file.”

His rotten teeth bare. “Or what?”

“I’ll put another nail in your dick.”

Archie’s eyes go wide at the threat, and the fight in his eyes vanishes as he tries to get free of Kade’s hold. “What file?”

Kade shoves him towards the desk, and I need to cover my mouth and nose with the smell coming from him.

He snatches the back of his head and digs his fingers into his skull. “Open it.”

“This file? No. Absolutely not! Are you insane?”

“Yes,” Kade says blankly. “Open it.”

He types slowly, because he’s trembling so much that he can’t coordinate his fingers properly. He fails the passcode six times before it cracks, and Kade launches him off the chair, causing him to land on the floor on his back. “We’re both dead if you release those!” Archie yells, spit hanging from his mouth.

Kade points a gun at his head, not looking at him as he scrolls on the computer. “There are over five thousand files here.”

Aria rises and slowly walks to stand beside him, and I follow her. I freeze behind Kade, looking sideways at Archie as he studies the new wound in his hand, rolling his jaw before he picks something from his unbrushed teeth.

A gasp draws my attention back to the computer, and I see Kade scrolling through hundreds upon thousands of folders. Each one has a name, and when he clicks on the contents of one, both Aria and I turn away and gag.

“You recorded everything,” he says, scrolling through more folders and clicking random files. I want to slap Archie when I see an image pop up of himself with a girl who looks not a day over sixteen. In the same folder, there’s a clip where Bernadette joins in.

I feel sick. These people are twisted.

There are so many files. Evidence of their crimes. Like they’ve created their own diary of the times they’ve had. Some have long captions describing their victim’s bodies, and the way they screamed for help.

Kade stops scrolling and opens Cassie’s file. “Why do you have a folder on your—” He pauses, narrowing his eyes at the screen, then glares at Archie in disgust. “You fucked your own daughter?”

Archie spits at him, uncaring. “She was a good girl.”

Kade huffs at the ridiculous comment then nonchalantly says, “I was the one who killed her.”

Archie’s smile falls. “I’m aware.”

Kade cocks the gun and presses it to his forehead. “She was an annoyance. I didn’t even need to think before pulling the trigger. She was just like her mother and irritated me like you do.”

Rage fills Archie’s face. “You’re lucky your baby girl is dead, or I would’ve made a file for her.”

I punch him across the face without thinking at the same time Kade does, and although my knuckles sting, I put as much force into it as possible as I throw my fist at his face a second time, knocking him on his side. Kade boots him in the ribs as my nails score down Archie’s cheek.

Kade pulls me away from him as I scream bloody murder. “You piece of shit!”

“Stop. I’ll make it hurt,” Kade whispers into my ear. “I promise.”

Stepping back on heavy breaths, I shake the pain in my fist out and enjoy the burn searing across my knuckles as he wipes blood from his lip.

“I understand now why my wife was so interested in you. Feisty girl. I like it.”

“Stop talking,” Kade snaps, hitting the butt of his gun into Archie’s head and knocking him into a semi-conscious state. “Fucker never knows when to keep his mouth shut.”

“There’s a folder named Sebastian Prince,” Aria says. “And one for you.” She wipes tears from under her eyes and moves closer to the screen. When she clicks on Kade’s folder, she gasps and pulls away, covering her mouth on a loud sob. “Oh God. What did they do to you?”

I catch a glimpse of a naked Kade, unconscious and coated in blood, surrounded by dead bodies, before he shuts it off. “I think it’s time for you both to leave.” He nods to a guard. “Take them to their rooms and make sure they stay there.”

“What the fuck is wrong with them?” Aria yells as her chest shakes. “They are sick and insane!” Then she grabs the gun Kade had set on the desk and points it at Archie’s head. “You monster!”

“You like what we did with him?” He laughs groggily, semi-awake. “Your daughter is next.”

Since she has no idea how to shoot, she throws the gun at Archie and hits him in the face. His nose bleeds all over her polished floor, but she ignores it and turns to her son. “This is what you’ve been going through? I knew they were abusive, but those images?”

Kade snorts. “If you think that one glimpse was bad, then you have no idea.”

He gestures to one of his team. “I want you to send this file to every organisation in our system, and send it to all the police stations, news stations, TV stations, CIA, MI5, even the fucking army. You name it, everyone. And make sure it’s known who they came from. There’s no pushing this shit aside. The Sawyers’ standing in the underworld is about to be blown sky-high.”

Archie’s eyes widen. He’s speechless.

I watch the man type on a laptop, giving Kade one more look. “Are you sure, sir? Your file alone will criminalise you.”

“No,” I say, moving forward. “Kade. Don’t send yours.”

“I’m in hundreds of those folders, Stacey. Who do you think killed them all?”

He blanks me when I try to take his hand, and he glares at the man with the laptop. “When I give an order, don’t question it. Send. The fucking. File.”

He types on the computer, and within a few minutes, it’s done. The incriminating files have been sent, and nothing will ever be the same.

I worry my lip. “Kade.”

“Don’t cry.” He takes my face and wipes a lone tear from my cheek. “Stay here. I can’t focus when you’re around, and I need to focus. Do you understand?”

I nod, and he presses a soft kiss to my forehead. “I’m going to make the world a safer place for you. Let me do this.”

Everything cracks inside me, and I release a sob. “Okay,” I croak as he pulls away from me.

When he opens the door, yanking Archie alongside him by the only ear he has left, Lu is standing at the threshold, completely confused. “Um… What’s going on?”

“Dad’s dead,” he says bluntly, and her eyes go wide. “Comfort your best friend, Stacey. Don’t follow me.”

He did that on purpose.

Luciella stares at her mother, then at me with furrowed brows. “What is he talking about?”

“Lock the fucking door.”

Lu scoffs and folds her arms. “What? No. You can’t keep us here.”

Kade glares over his shoulder before the door closes, and a guard locks it.

“Kade!”

The images in his file keep flashing behind my eyes. He’s been so abused, so brutalised by these people, I kind of want him to let loose his demons and destroy everyone.

But I also don’t want him to get hurt. Really hurt. Whatever comes from these files, Kade will be a wanted man for hundreds of murders.

It was forced though. He was drugged and attacked and made to do all those bad things. Will the law think the same? Will the world of social media know he’s innocent now everything is leaked?

I cross my arms to keep them from trembling, my heart thudding in my chest as I listen to Aria explain to Luciella that Tobias was found dead. Her daughter is in disbelief, but Aria plays the clip of the reporter for her.

Luciella frowns at the screen then wipes her eyes and shakes her head. “I refuse to believe he’s dead until we see his body.”

Aria lowers her head. “I think we should prepare for the worst, sweetheart.”

“Dad isn’t dead,” she says firmly.

I move over to the window and see Kade, holding his gun in one hand, dragging Archie by the ankle across the grass and dropping him there. He scratches the side of his head with the barrel of the weapon then kicks Archie in the face, knocking the man on his back. Then he points to where there’s a tree swing next to the water on the manor’s grounds. It’s at the start of the forest that stretches for miles. He tells the guard beside him something, and the person runs back inside.

Kade walks around Archie, circling him like a lion stalking its prey, and if he didn’t have on the material covering his mouth, I know I’d see his lips moving. He’s probably teasing the disgusting man about how pathetic he looks.

He kicks him between the legs, and Archie throws his head back on a yell and tries to kick him away.

Kade shoots him in his good foot. There’s no way he’ll be able to run.

The person comes running back out with a torch and a tripod, and Kade grabs Archie’s foot again and drags him towards the woods. He drops him at the tree swing then lets his bag down beside Archie, opening it while the guy with the torch sets up the tripod.

Then he fixes what I assume is a phone to it, positions the torch so it’s on Archie and Kade, then gives the thumbs up as he runs back into the manor, leaving his boss to stalk around his new target.

The screen comes to life on the main computer, and I gasp when every single one of the screens lining one wall turns on, showing Kade and Archie.

He’s live-streaming this to the world.