The Exception (The Exception #1)

It could have been because my blood pressure was so fucking high that my head was about to shoot off of my body like a cartoon character.

That would have been a funny vision, if I hadn’t been ready to lose my shit. And losing my cool in front of the private investigator sitting on the other side of my desk at Alexander Industries probably wouldn’t be the best idea. Max gave me a look to keep myself in check and I glowered at him all cool and collected.

How can he always be so calm? One of these days, I’m going to make sure he goes ape-shit crazy, just for the fun of it.

I rolled my head around my neck, trying to loosen the straining muscles in my body.

“So what do you suggest we do?” I asked, sitting back in my chair.

I really hope he suggests that I just destroy him …

“Well, Cane, there isn’t a lot we can do at this point. The witness that says he saw a man that looked like Simon the night of the waterline bust isn’t going to talk to the police. He’s a young, gangster-looking type and he doesn’t want any involvement with law enforcement.”

“Fucking punk,” I muttered, waiting for Nick to go on.

“But there is security footage of an Avalanche in the area that night?” Max glanced at me and then back to Nick.

“There is. But do you know how many dark Avalanches there are in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area? It isn’t clear enough to get a license plate number, so there’s no hard evidence that we can do anything with.”

I scrubbed my hands over my face. “I should have killed him when I had the chance.”

“Do I even want to know what that means?” Nick raised his eyebrows.

“No. No, you don’t.” Max flashed me a warning look. “Cane’s just running at the mouth.”

I leaned forward on my desk, frustration eating away at me. “So what? I just wait around like a sitting duck while he goes around tearing up my jobsites and assaulting my girlfriend? Fuck that!”

“Cane,” Nick said, his voice even, “stay calm. We are doing everything we can at this point to ensure Powers doesn’t do anything else to you, your assets, or Ms. Stanley.”

I looked Nick over. His face had changed in the roughly ten years since I had met him. It was harder, more seasoned, but his eyes were still the assessing, evaluating ones I remembered.

He was one of the best PI’s in the state and one of the few that was willing to take on a case from a rambling kid that had just lost his dad. As his investigation progressed into my dad’s case, Nick and I became close. He never had gotten married nor had children, so I don’t know if he looked at me like a kid or a friend. Regardless, he saved me from drinking myself to death on more than one occasion.

“I know, Nick. But you know who this son-of-a-bitch is. I want him eliminated as a threat and, since I’m guessing you aren’t going to support me killing him …”

Nick shook his head. “If anyone knows what that family is capable of, it’s me, Cane. But we have to do things in order.”

“He’ll slip up,” Max chimed in, looking between the two of us.

“Max is right. Simon will slip up and we will nail him to the wall. Think about it: we know that the police are watching him due to his involvement in apparent drug activities. We have a guard watching Jada 24/7. We have undercover security at Benjamin Estates as well as rewards out for information leading to the waterline burst. We are doing everything we can.” Nick eyed me shrewdly. “What would have helped the most is for Jada to have contacted the police after the assault.”

I shook my head, scrubbing my hand down my face again. “They wouldn’t have done anything anyway. It would have been her word against his and you said so yourself; the security cameras there didn’t catch anything.”

“He’s a slippery one, but I think that’s genetic,” Nick said, shaking his head. “But we will get him, Cane. I promise you that.”





JADA


“This looks great,” Cane said, flashing the waitress a brilliant smile. He looked devastatingly handsome in a pair of dark dress pants and a blue dress shirt, sleeves rolled up. “Thank you.”

The waitress flushed and glanced quickly at me as if to apologize for being charmed by my man. I smiled back at her, telling her it was okay. I understood. Females just didn’t have a chance around him.

My father always said you could tell someone’s true nature by how they treated waiters and bellboys. If that was true, Cane was a keeper.

The only problem with that was that he wasn’t around much lately to keep.

Maybe I just got used to being with him so much …