Chapter 491
“Mr. Yates, nobody told me to do it. I was drunk and stupid — I thought I could cause trouble for the most powerful man in Gridron. I know I crossed a line. Let me go, and I’ll make it up to you however you want.”
Colton looked down at him without a trace of sympathy. “If you want to stay quiet, that’s your choice.”
Kaleb exhaled, thinking he’d found a way out. “Thank you, Mr. Yates,” he whispered.
“Don’t thank me yet,” Colton said evenly. “I have plenty of ways to make you talk.” He stepped back and made a calm, unhurried call to Bobby.
Bobby arrived shortly with his men and had Kaleb and the guards removed from the building. The bar manager called for ambulances to take the injured to the hospital.
The evening had been intended as something special. It had ended in wreckage, and Colton’s irritation showed. He walked over to Kristine, reached down, and lifted her into his arms. “Come on. We’re going home.”
Kristine didn’t resist. As the elevator doors closed around them, she looked up at him. “Don’t you get tired of carrying me everywhere?”
“Not even a little bit.”
She studied his face. “Do you honestly believe Elyse was the one who restored that deer sculpture?”
Colton’s expression shifted. “She never once mentioned knowing how to restore antiques. But we don’t have proof she’s lying yet.”
Kristine’s patience thinned. “Then who do you think sent those men after us tonight?”
Colton’s frown deepened. He had a feeling he already knew — and he was hoping he was wrong.
Back at the Yates family residence, a bodyguard slipped into the room and leaned down to murmur something to Bryanna.
Her expression darkened, and then a slow, unpleasant smile spread across her face. “No wonder Padgett was so fond of him. The boy really is something else.”
Victoria was seated nearby, completely in the dark. “What are you talking about? What’s happened?”
Bryanna glanced at her with barely concealed disdain. “The men I sent were taken apart by your son. You really did raise a worthy successor for me.”
Victoria couldn’t tell whether she was being mocked or genuinely praised, and settled for an uncertain smile.
Bryanna regarded her with barely concealed impatience. The son had a sharp mind. The mother was a different matter entirely — which was precisely why Bryanna had never warmed to her.
In a rare moment of good humor, Bryanna mentioned that she had sent a street thug to stir up trouble for Colton. Victoria’s face fell. “Why would you do that?”
Bryanna’s satisfaction evaporated. “Because I want your son to understand that without the Yates name behind him, he has nothing.” She rose from her seat, accepted Faye’s arm, and went upstairs, leaving Victoria alone with her thoughts.
The following day, after twenty-four hours of questioning, Bobby finally had his answer.
“It was your grandmother who arranged it,” Bobby said, his disbelief evident in every word. He couldn’t wrap his head around why Bryanna would orchestrate something like that against her own grandson.
Colton understood her reasoning immediately.