Two days later, Alex was in her office researching stones for Mason’s coasters when her cell phone rang. She was going to ignore it because she had too much going on. Hardly anyone ever called her and if they did it was probably some stupid phonebot.
She should have gone with her gut when she saw the caller was Keith. The urge to ignore it was more massive than if the Devil came knocking at her front door. But since she’d been stopped by that reporter, she figured the least she could do was find out what Keith wanted this time.
“Hello,” she said after the fourth ring.
“I told you not to talk to anyone. You never listen,” he all but shouted into the phone.
“Excuse me,” she said, getting ready to hang up on him. She didn’t need this headache.
“I told you to reply with no comment. How hard was it to do that? I didn’t think you were that stupid.”
Her finger was itching to end the call, but she didn’t want him to have the final word.
“I did. I did several times, but he was following me in the parking lot. That’s harassment. Then he asked if you’d ever hit me or pushed me around. Sorry if I wanted to make it clear that that wasn’t the type of relationship we had. I thought you’d appreciate a denial for something like that.”
“What I would have appreciated was a no comment statement like I told you. By denying it, you confirmed we did indeed have a relationship,” he said, his voice strained.
She wouldn’t let his insulting tone hurt her. He’d never shown it early on in their relationship. When things didn’t go the way he’d planned, she saw more and more of this side of him. But he’d never been violent with her.
“We were together for three years, Keith. It’s hard to hide that. Especially when you dragged me out in public as much as you had when I moved there.”
“Dragged is the right word,” he snapped.
“What’s this all about? So this reporter knows we dated. He knows you didn’t abuse me. Why is that a bad thing? And why is he even asking that?”
“Because he’s a reporter being paid by my opponents and they’re out to find dirt on me any way they can.”
“They aren’t going to get any from me. Now if that’s all you’ve got to say, we’re done.”
“No. It’s not all I’ve got to say. I’m sending you a link so you can see the results of your stubborn impulsiveness. If you don’t do what I tell you next time, I’m going to see that the family business that means so much to you is nothing but ash in the wind.”
“Are you threatening me?” she asked, standing up from her desk as if he said that right in front of her face. “That’s arson and you know it.”
“Don’t be so ignorant. That was always your problem. You were too blind to see what I was offering you to take it and be happy. Fine, I was thrilled to have you gone from my life. What I’m saying is I can ruin your business many states away with just some bad publicity leaked to the press. Check out the link I’m sending you and you’ll understand.”
The phone clicked in her ear, then she heard a ding and looked at the text and clicked the link. Keith Stevens Ex Denies Abuse Claims And Is Now Seen Slumming With a Bartender.
“What the hell!” she shouted. That reporter was so stupid he even got Brody and Cade mixed up. Neither one of them was going to appreciate being associated in a negative light. Didn’t Cade tell her his parents tried their hardest to keep up a good image? That the reputation was everything to them. They barely drank more than one beer in public, owning a bar and brewery no less!
She sat back down at her desk, not even aware she was gripping her phone so tightly, then tossed it over the papers.
“What’s wrong, Alex?”
She turned and saw her mother standing there. “Nothing,” she said.
“I don’t believe you. You look like you’re ready to cry and I heard you yelling before I even got down here.”
There was no way to avoid this, even if she wanted to, and she desperately did. “I just got off the phone with Keith.”
“What does that prick want?” her mother asked. Alex loved it when her mother got angry, which wasn’t often in life.
“It’s not a big deal.”
“It is if you’re swearing and you look like you want to cry,” her mother said again. “He has no business coming back into your life after almost two years.”
“He’s not coming into my life like you think.”
“Then tell me what it is.” She didn’t want to tell her mother but felt she had no choice, so she did. “You need to talk to Cade about this.”
“He already knows some of it. He was with me, hence the reason for this picture. That’s me and Cade in the photo in the background. The reporter is too much of an idiot to realize he confused Brody and Cade. And trust me when I say it’s far from slumming. The guy didn’t even list their names, which was at least one good thing.”
“You said the reporter never came into the bar though, right?”
Cade had told her Brody had never seen the guy, and he’d looked. “Not that any of the recordings showed. Who knows? The reporter could have shown that picture to anyone leaving the bar and asked if they knew who it was. Someone could confuse them if they didn’t know them personally, I guess.” It was the only thing that seemed possible in Alex’s mind.
“I still think you need to tell Cade what is going on.”
“I already told him why the reporter stopped me,” she argued.
“But he doesn’t know about the call and this article in the paper in Texas.”
“True.” Nor did her mother know that the business was threatened. “I don’t know what he could possibly do about it. All it’s going to do is set him off. His name wasn’t released; neither was the name of the bar. It will probably blow over.”
“I doubt it. I don’t understand why anyone is contacting you about Keith. Did you stop to think that maybe there is some truth to these allegations and someone is looking into his past?”
“I guess. I didn’t think much of it. I learned later on I was just window dressing for him. You know all about it. But if he’d ever laid a hand on me, I would have broken every bone in each one of his fingers.”
“And he probably knew that, Alex. The question is, what do you know about his past before you met him at Duke? Maybe he got into trouble as a kid. He had enough money growing up to make things go away. Do you think maybe it’s coming back to haunt him?”
“I don’t know. I don’t really care either. He’s not my concern.”
“He is right now. There is more going on and you know it, but you’re not telling me. For some reason, you feel you need to shield me from it. So be it then, but don’t do it alone. Call Cade.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“Don’t think. Do it. You need someone in your corner and you know he will be.”
As much as it pained Alex to agree, she knew her mother was right. Cade would be there for her, but the question was, did she want to drag him into her mess?