Page 139 of LA King

Fuck. I won’t be that careless again. But he never should have gotten past my guards. He looks unassuming enough, but they need to do better.

“What exactly did Foster Carmichael do to you?”

“I told you. He took everything from me. He took everything from me.” Tears squeeze from the corners of his eyes.

“I’m going to need a little more than that, Layton. Or would you like me to pull out your fingernails until you feel like talking?”

He blinks at me, terror in his eyes. And then Layton Cooper tells me all about why he hates my father-in-law so much.

I walk out of the warehouse and wipe the blood from my hands. Jax is two steps behind me as the rest of my men clean up the mess inside. In a little over an hour, there will be no trace of Layton Cooper left to be found.

Jax and I climb into the car. “Take me to the hotel. Use the underground entrance. I need to get cleaned up,” I tell my driver.

“Of course, Boss.” He nods and puts the car into drive.

I tell Jax about Alana’s revelation last night, and he’s as furious as I am. “Find out where that piece of shit is because I intend to pay him a visit very soon.”

Jax pulls out his cell phone. “Already on it,” he says, tapping on his screen. I have no idea how he does it, but the man has tabs on everyone of any importance to our business.

“So we know Carmichael is a lying, deceitful piece of shit, but what Cooper just told us is …” He blows out a breath, eyes still on his phone screen. “Did you have any idea he was involved in anything like that? I have the guy on my radar, and I’ve never dug up anything on him even hinting he’s capable of it.”

I shake my head, angry with myself as much as anything. “No. Although nothing should surprise me.”

Jax lets out a low whistle. “It’s fucked up.”

If what Layton Cooper told me was true, I almost feel bad for killing the guy, but nobody gets away with putting a gun in my wife’s face. He should have taken his grudge up with Foster Carmichael and not his daughter.

He cocks an eyebrow. “Do you think Alana knows about it?”

“No. No way.” Alana thinks her father is a good guy, but I didn’t realize how wrong she was.

“Bingo,” Jax announces. “He’s in Nevada until tomorrow.”

“Nevada?”

He nods. “Meeting with some solar energy company.”

That works out perfectly. I can be there and back before my meeting with the mayor at four. “Have the jet ready to go as soon as possible.”

“Already on it,” he repeats.

Foster Carmichael is about to learn what it means to cross me.

I wait until I’m alone in my suite before I call Alana. I don’t intend to tell her anything about Layton Cooper and her father’s involvement with him or about my planned visit to him this afternoon. I know she’ll ask about the former, but until I know for sure what happened and whether I can trust her with that kind of information, she’ll remain in the dark.

She picks up on the second ring. “Hi.”

Her voice is an instant balm, soothing my frayed edges. “Hey. How’s the head?”

“Throbbing,” she groans.

“I told you to be careful with that Scotch.”

“Yeah, well. The thing is, if you tell me to do something, I’m likely to do the opposite, especially where you’re concerned.”

And I could have so much fun punishing her for it. “Is that so, princesa?”

She hums. “So, did you find out who that guy was last night?”