A few days later, James Kade sat behind his desk, squared off against Mason, Logan, and myself. Logan and I sat in the chairs, and Mason stood to the side. At the moment, however, James Kade only had eyes for his eldest son.
He leaned back in his chair, his fingers tented. “Let’s hear it. What’s the reason you brought an audience to this meeting, Mason?”
Mason dropped a file on the desk.
“And what’s this?” James leaned forward, bringing it in front of him.
“That’s a file on one of your employees.”
“Jared Caldron?” James skimmed through the papers. “He’s a laborer for my landscaping company.” His eyes lifted back to Mason. “Why am I reading about him?”
“Because he was best friends with Budd Broudou in high school, and what you don’t know is that we had a hand in getting Broudou sent to prison.”
James didn’t seem to react. His face remained passive for a full fifteen seconds before he shot to his feet, sending his chair flying into the bookshelves behind him. “What did you do?”
I stood up. “They didn’t do anything. I mean, not really.”
Mason said over me, “She’s lying for me. I did do something.”
Logan stood up, too. Everyone paused and looked at him, and he held up his hands. “I wanted to fit in. Everyone’s standing.”
Mason cursed, rolling his eyes.
James’ attention went right back to Mason. “You’re going to explain everything to me.”
“Budd Broudou and his brother were our rivals in high school. They did shitty things to us. We retaliated—“
“Of course you did. Why would my sons ever not get revenge?”
Mason kept going, ignoring his father’s sarcasm. “Brett turned to our side—or kind of on our side.”
I felt Mason’s eyes linger on me.
“And Budd got pissed. He said he’d been waiting for me to get a girlfriend so he could destroy something I cared about.”
“Oh, God.” James swung his gaze to me. “Samantha…”
“So I pretended to be dating someone else.”
“What?”
“For a weekend, I was with someone else.”
“You cheated on Sam?”
I’d been staring at the desk, reliving the past, but looked back up now. “No,” I said fiercely. “He did not cheat on me.”
Logan slid his hands into his pockets. “He set up his ex to take the fall for Sam.”
“I didn’t enjoy touching someone else, but I had to, and I had to do it where Budd Broudou would see me. I only touched her when he could see. He had to buy the lie.”
“And let me guess.” James’ disapproval was thick. “He tried to hurt this girl?”
I cleared my throat. It was my turn now. “He was going to rape her, but I came running by. I poured gasoline on his truck and set it on fire to distract him. Someone called the cops, and he was arrested. The girl testified against him.”
“That’s what put him away, and this guy wants payback now that you guys are back in Fallen Crest.”
Logan gave him a half-grin. “Look at Pops here. All smart and catching on quick.”
James shot him a look as he sat back down. “Not now, Logan Nathan.”
Logan’s eyes widened, but he shut his mouth and sat down, as did I.
Mason leaned against the wall beside us, crossing his arms over his chest. “Now you know the details. We need your help dealing with him.”
“What’s he doing?”
All three of us shared a look.
“I can’t discipline him if I don’t have a reason to,” James said. “I need a reason.”
“I don’t want you to discipline him. I want you to promote him,” Mason explained.
James fell quiet, staring for a beat. “You want him to have incentive not to do something. Give him something to lose, and he’ll work even harder to keep it. Something like that?”
“Yeah. Something like that.”
Logan snorted. “Something exactly like that.”
“It’s a good plan,” James said. “Except it won’t work.”
“What?” Mason stepped away from the wall. “What do you mean?”
James pointed at the file. “Reading his history and last review comments, I’d say he’s got a chip on his shoulder. You give him power, he’ll want more. He won’t be content to stay where he is, even if it does mean he’ll lose a significant raise if he acts up. I don’t know what he’s been doing—” His hands shot up when Logan jerked forward in his seat. “And I don’t want to know. What I do know is that this is not a kid you can bribe or threaten.”
“What are you talking about?” Mason’s tone was quiet, eerily quiet. I looked over to him, but he was watching his dad with rapt attention.
“Is it within reason that this kid is doing something illegal?”
Mason shrugged. “You mean besides assaulting people?”
“You can charge him with that?” James frowned.
Logan snorted again.
Mason sighed. “Nothing he can’t charge us with, too.”
“My sons,” James bit out, standing up again. He gestured to both of them. “Such saintly examples.” He turned to Mason, his neck becoming red. “You’re fighting again?!”
And the pleasantries were over.
Mason jerked forward, but Logan was on his feet as well. He said, “Dad.”
“Will you never learn? You’re almost a senior in college, Mason! You’re doing the same shit you were doing when you were a freshman in high school!” James’ voice rose louder and louder. His hand curled in a fist, and he shook it in the air. “What’s your excuse this time? You blamed me for the divorce back then. Well, you can’t anymore. I’m not whoring around, as you like to say. I’ve been faithful to the same woman since—” He glanced over, and his eyes found mine.
In an instant I was back there, back to the first time Analise told me we were leaving my father. I felt the same emotion I had then. Nothing, because it was all too much.
His voice quieted. “I’m sorry, Sam.”
I closed my eyes, hanging my head.
She had been on the floor, sitting in between boxes already. Two empty bottles of wine had lay next to her, and I knew she was only starting.
I barely heard myself as I said, “I remember feeling like I was suffocating when she told me we were leaving him.” I’d never known it, but there were words I needed to say to this man, and right now he was listening.
Now was the time.
I took a calming breath. “You were the catalyst for all of it. I mostly blamed my mom. I knew she was the one who went after you. And I knew I’d find out Jeff was cheating on me, and I should’ve lost my two best friends, because it turns out they’re really shady assholes. But I blamed you for ripping apart my family because you were stupid.” I frowned, biting the inside of my lip for a moment. “I still think you’re stupid.”
Logan covered a laugh.
James’ gaze had fallen to the desk.
I felt Mason next to me. He was right there, if I needed him.
But I was okay on my own. “She cheated during her entire marriage. You cheated during your entire marriage. How am I supposed to believe both of you won’t cheat when you marry each other? How am I supposed to know that cheating’s not a part of every marriage?”
Now I really felt Mason watching me, but I couldn’t look. There was no way, because he’d know.
“Samantha,” James started, his posture that of a broken man.
But I knew he wasn’t broken. That was the problem. People like him never broke. They did the breaking.
“You broke your family. She broke my family. You guys are going to break it again.”
“Is that what you think?” he asked.
I nodded. “That’s what I know.”
“Samantha.” He started to walk out from behind the desk.
Mason was right there, blocking him, and when James looked over, Logan moved closer to me, too. Neither of them was going to let their father close to me. When he saw that, he nodded, a sad laugh coming from him.
“This, right here.” He pointed to us. “This is how you know we won’t be breaking another family. My sons love you more than they love me. I lost their love so long ago, and I’ll never really get it back. I’ve made my peace with that. But with you, that love is solid. It’s the only beautiful thing Analise and I have done together, and we can’t take credit. You three found each other.” He looked at Mason. “I know my son will never cheat on you, and my other son will never stop being your brother. We’ll never break the three of you again.”
He turned to sit back down. Some of the tension I felt from Mason ebbed, and Logan stepped back.
“But you will,” I said, stopping everyone.
“What?” James tilted his head to the side.
“You’re asking them to love you. And even though she hasn’t verbally said anything to me, I know my mom is asking the same. You both want to be let back in, maybe not as deeply as before, but still behind our walls. That gives you the power to hurt us. Again.” I looked at Logan and Mason. “They don’t want to let you in because that’s what you’re going to do. Maybe not with my mom, but somehow, you’re going to hurt them again. That’s what you do. You hurt people.”
“Samantha—”
I cut him off. “If you want to do something, help us with Caldron. He’s a problem we need dealt with. Do that for us.”
“And what do I get in return?”
“Nothing.” I leaned forward, resting my hands on the desk to stare him in the eyes. “Because that’s what parents do. They give without asking in return. Do the right thing for your sons, for once.”
“Holy fuck!” Logan burst out as soon as we were through the main doors. “That was amazing, Sam! I don’t care what I do; I want you to work with me. You’re a fucking closer. You can end any shit you want.”
I grinned, but I wasn’t feeling it. I shrugged. “Once I figure out what I want to do, we can make a plan how to work together.”
“You’ve inspired me,” he said. “Fuck communications. I want to be a lawyer. What school is Quinn going to? I’m going to go there, just to piss him off on a daily basis.” He snapped his fingers at us. “Maybe I’ll even take a quick poke at Beck—ahhh, and I just went back to single Logan for a bit. Don’t tell Taylor. She’ll ream my ass for real.” He pretended to take in the fresh air. “I was just so moved, Sam. I felt like we were back in high school, taking pieces of scum down one at a time.”
He frowned over at Mason. “Why you so quiet? Your girlfriend kicked ass for us. Dad said he’d deal with Caldron, and we don’t owe him anything for it.”
I knew why Mason was quiet. He’d read between the lines back there, but he only grinned. “Maybe I’m turned on and trying not to let you see? Ever thought of that?”
“God, no.” Logan groaned, wrinkling his nose. “And now I do. Thanks for that.”
“Do you know how many jokes you make about being dick-deep in Taylor? You think I want to hear that stuff from my little brother?” Mason squeezed my hand a bit, moving ahead.
I knew what he was doing—distracting Logan for me.
“Agh! Shut up, Mase.” Logan shook his head, moving toward the Escalade ahead of us. “You can’t talk about my dick any more. No more dick jokes between us.”
Mason let go of my hand, keeping pace with Logan. “What about all the hashtags? Hashtag limp dick. Hashtag my dick is in my girlfriend. Hashtag I’m the rocket man.”
“Shut up!”
I had started to laugh with them when I heard a car door shut. They hadn’t seemed to hear it, but I did.
Maybe I knew. Maybe I just felt it coming, or maybe it was finally right to face her, but when I looked over, I knew who would be standing there. I felt her there.
My mom. And unlike the previous two times, she looked prepared to see me.
She stepped up on the sidewalk, wearing a flowy red dress. The material whipped all around her, but her hair was pulled up under a black hat.
“Hello, Samantha.”
“You can talk this time.”
A small laugh slipped from her, and she looked down to the sidewalk for a second. “I wasn’t expecting you at the grocery store, but I know Mason is interning here. I’m prepared to see you every time I come.”
“Prepared?”
“Excited.” Her eyebrows pinched together and she amended, “Hopeful. I’m hopeful every time I come here.” She held a hand out, indicating me. “You look lovely.”
“Not like you.” I smiled. “You’re always beautiful.”
“So are you.”
“Spoken like a true mother would normally say.”
She heard my biting tone, and her smile lessened. “And we both know this is not normal, is it? You and me. Our relationship never was.”
My anger was rising, rolling into a massive cloud. I couldn’t hold it in. “Because you were never a mother, were you?”
Her eyes went flat, and she didn’t respond. She drew in a deep breath, closing her eyes for a beat. “You have years of anger built up toward me.”
She was damned right, I did.
“And you have every right to feel that anger,” she added, her voice soft. “You have every right to have your say, to express that anger, and to have a mother who will finally listen to you.”
Because I was feeling petty, I said, “Don’t worry. I have a mother now.”
The blood drained from her face.
I could see Mason and Logan coming back for me. “And unlike with you, I have no reason to be angry at her, so everything worked out in the end. Now, I have to go because if they see you here and think you’re the reason I’m upset, you’ll be dealing with all three of us.” I stepped past her off the sidewalk, but I turned back around. I had one last thing to say. “I’m not scared of you any more.”
She frowned. “You weren’t before.”
“I know. I just wanted to say that because this time, you should be scared of me.”
“Hey.” Mason was coming. Two steps and he’d clear the last SUV that blocked his view of Analise.
I waved him back, hurrying my pace. “I’m coming.”
“What’s wrong?”
Of course he’d know. I only shook my head, though. “Just thinking. I’m fine now.” I moved past him and took his hand, pulling him behind me. “Let’s go home.”