On Wednesday, Cade was the first one of his brothers to show up for their meeting. Ella came into his office and asked, “What’s going on? You’re never this early unless you’re excited and I can tell you’re far from excited but are definitely pissed off.”
“I’d rather talk to everyone at once,” he all but growled.
He hadn’t slept a wink last night after Alex called him before bed and told him what happened with Keith’s phone call.
First he was pissed she didn’t call him right away, and then he was ticked enough to want to try to track that reporter down and put his fist through the guy’s face just like Brody had threatened to do to him so much as a kid.
“Does this have to do with that reporter that stopped Alex at the mall on Saturday?”
He should have known Brody would say something to the rest of them, which was only boiling his blood even more. “Yes.”
“Come on,” she said walking forward and putting her hand on his shoulder. “We’ll go in the conference room and relax. They’ll be here soon.”
“I’d rather try to gather some more information,” he said.
He didn’t get very far last night on anything more than finding the social media pages of Delvin Smith and pretty much nothing on Keith Stevens that he didn’t know from past research. Once when Ella brought his name up weeks ago and then a deeper dive a few days ago when Delvin stopped them in the mall parking lot.
“We’re better as a team than on our own. Go get a coffee, maybe get some breakfast and take a few calming breaths. You’re never tense and right now you’re wound tighter than Mom when she is supposed to be keeping a secret from someone and you know she wants to run her mouth.”
He laughed. “You say I get that from her.”
“You do. You can’t keep a secret either.”
He nodded and walked downstairs to grab a cup of coffee. There was no way he was going to even consider touching anything in the kitchen to cook, so he started looking for some food he could grab. “What are you doing down here?” Aiden asked him.
“Looking for food. I’m hungry.”
Aiden looked at him carefully, probably read the same body language as Ella did, and offered, “What do you want? I’ll make you something quick. You’re never here this early.”
“Whatever you can make me before the meeting. I’ll eat it upstairs.”
“Have a seat right here while I cook,” Aiden said.
“I’m not going to talk about it, so don’t ask like Ella. I want to tell all of you at once.”
“That’s fine,” Aiden said, “But you can still sit here and watch me. Maybe you’ll learn something and can impress Alex with it the next time you make her breakfast.”
Cade let out a laugh. “You taught me all the basics. I doubt there is anything you can teach me to make in this short of time.”
“Don’t insult me,” Aiden said.
A few minutes before the meeting, Cade was walking up the stairs with pancakes stuffed with layers of fruit and whipped cream in his hand. Somehow Aiden managed to make the whipped cream by hand while he cooked pancakes and sliced fruit. Cade couldn’t multi-task like that if he wanted to.
“Where’s mine?” Ella asked when she saw them walk by the door.
“You wouldn’t have eaten it even if I made you a plate,” Aiden said.
“True. But I would have eaten the fruit.”
“Then go down and get some. It’s in the bowl on the counter. I didn’t have time to clean up. Not unless I wanted to get yelled at for being late,” Aiden said.
“Wow,” Ella said. “You left a mess. You never leave a mess. What does that tell you, Cade? Aiden left a mess just for you.”
“Yeah, I know. Thanks,” he said to Aiden, then walked past him into the conference room. He still heard Aiden ask Ella what was going on, but she wouldn’t be able to tell him since she didn’t know.
A few minutes later, Brody and Mason walked in, each with pancakes that Aiden had left downstairs for the guys to grab on the way up when they came, along with the fruit for Ella.
Once everyone was seated at the table, Mason looked at him. “You’re here early enough for Aiden to voluntarily make you breakfast. Something is going on, so you better tell us and get it over with.”
It was almost scary how well his family knew him. But the truth was they knew each other so well, there wasn’t any need to worry about keeping secrets.
While he ate his breakfast, he gathered his thoughts, which he didn’t do often in front of family, then told them what happened the past few days.
“Seriously?” Brody asked sarcastically. “How could someone confuse the two of us?”
“It’s not the time, Brody,” Mason said. “Only you would get annoyed over that.”
“Speak for yourself,” Cade said. “I don’t need to be compared to the Neanderthal over there.”
Brody just laughed and went back to eating his pancakes.
“So now what do we do?” Aiden asked. “This guy threatened Alex and her business. Why? What could be his reason?”
“I’m not sure,” Cade said. “Alex insisted that Keith never raised a hand to her and I believe it.”
“She’d kick any guy in the balls faster than me if that happened,” Ella said.
“No one could kick a guy in the balls as fast as you,” Cade said, snickering. He knew first hand.
“Ella,” Aiden said, “you hold the record for the fastest feet in Charlotte. Maybe even the US.”
She smiled. “I had no choice when it was four against one.”
“Let’s get back to Cade’s problem,” Mason said.
“Yeah,” Cade said. “Can we focus on me here? I just need to know more about this guy Keith. Why a reporter thinks he needs to track down Alex and ask that. Keith is engaged right now, why not go after the fiancée?”
“I’m sure he did,” Ella said, “and I’m sure he got nowhere. She’s probably sticking by her man. I looked into Keith myself when I heard the name weeks ago.”
“Really?” Cade asked, not surprised in the least. “What did you find?”
“Not a lot on him, but more on his fiancée. You need to know where to look, Cade. The society pages had an article on how they met and some of her background. Working middle class. Very attractive. Played sports, extremely active, but also could be feminine. Kind of quiet in general, but could mingle when needed.”
“Sounds like Alex,” Brody said.
“Exactly,” Ella said. “So I tried to find more on Keith. I didn’t get very far. But the bottom line is, if what you’re saying is this guy is running for the Senate and he comes from money, he’s targeting the middle class. He is showing he can relate to them and is marrying someone from that class to prove his point.”
“You think he sought Alex out?” Cade asked. “To exploit her background for his own gain? Even back in college?”
“It sounds it, in a sick twisted way,” Aiden said.
“Why did they break up?” Ella asked. “Did Alex tell you?”
Cade hadn’t wanted to share too much on a personal level that Alex had told him, but felt that he didn’t have a choice at this point. “Let’s just say you figured it out. Or started to. When she rebelled about being put on display and said that she didn’t want to be in the public eye, he ended things very quickly and very sharply.”
No one else said a word and he was glad for that. “I think the first thing we need to do is see if anyone else even tries to contact Alex,” Brody said. “If they’re going to leave her alone, then maybe it’s over with.”
“Would you leave it alone if Pick came back into town and started showing up at the bar?” he asked Brody. “Or if Nic’s mother showed up at your door when she got out of prison?” he asked Aiden. “No, you wouldn’t. Because you know deep down there would be a reason for it. Something is in this guy’s past and I don’t want this hanging over her head.”
“Let me talk to Travis,” Ella said. “I’m sure he can find out a lot more than any of us. If Keith has any type of past he’s trying to cover up, Travis may be our best bet or at least fastest option for the moment.”
Travis McKinley was the owner of the security company they used. The same guy that helped Mason out when he was being attacked during a robbery in the brewery a short time ago. The same guy that Ella hated to spend any more time with than necessary.
“I can call and ask him if you want. I know you try to avoid him in general,” Cade said.
“I’ll do it,” Ella said. “You try to figure out anything else from Alex for me to pass on to Travis. If we can get the ball rolling now, maybe it would be better to be on the offense than defense.”
Cade looked around the table at everyone. “Thanks, guys.”
“The Fierce Five stick together,” Ella said.
“If Cade doesn’t blow this,” Brody said, “we might be adding another woman to the mix.”
Everyone laughed around the table. He’d love nothing more than making Alex a permanent fixture in his family, but now he had a better understanding of why she wasn’t knocking down the wall of steel in his way but might just be adding several layers.