“Why would your family do this for me?” Alex asked him later that night.
“Because they like you and they love me,” Cade said, grinning.
She wasn’t sure what to make of his smirk right now. Or the fact that his family liked her so much. Someone that was barely holding her life and her parents’ business together. “That’s nice, but this isn’t anything for them to get involved in.”
“It is,” he argued. “They know how I feel about you even if you don’t want to talk about it, let alone admit it.”
She didn’t know what to say at that moment. She didn’t think now was the time to even consider talking about their relationship. “Even after your family is being dragged into this?”
“First off. Our name wasn’t in the article, just my picture. It wasn’t even that good of a picture, so if I’m annoyed over anything, it’s that.”
She shook her head. Sometimes he could make her laugh at the craziest of times. “What’s the second thing? You said first.”
“Second of all. I’m not someone who walks away when I’m annoyed, upset, don’t get my way, or what I want. Well, that isn’t true. I know what I want, but I’m going to work even harder to get it now.”
Her face flushed, but she didn’t comment on that. “What do you need from me now?” She’d rather focus on her problem with Keith than a potential one with Cade.
He stared at her long—long enough that she was squirming, thinking he was going to put her on the spot, but instead he said, “Tell me anything that stands out about Keith. His family business. Any stories he told you about growing up. Anything at all. You’re a good judge, so tell me something that might have seemed odd at the time, rather than everything you know.”
She never thought of it that way. “It’s easier when you say it like that. I’ve been trying to think of everything and was just getting confused. I guess one of the things that stood out the most was how he was always so nice and accommodating in the beginning. Then when he got what he wanted—when I moved there, and he was annoyed that I wouldn’t move without a job—that’s when he started to change.”
“Did he ever berate you? Talk down to you?”
“Not until we were done. Then he was a whole different person.”
She remembered that now. That the last week when Keith had told her she had a month to get out, she rushed because he was nasty, cruel even. Not to her face, but he was saying or doing things in the community, she knew. She couldn’t go anywhere without someone looking at her differently. People she didn’t even know were staring at her then like she’d robbed a bank and gotten away with everyone’s last dime, including their children’s piggy banks.
She could barely show her face at her job and it wasn’t like many knew she was even dating Keith. She was too embarrassed to voice this all to Cade though. That she’d been so wrong about the guy she thought she was going to marry.
“What else?” Cade asked.
“He didn’t talk about his exes. He talked in general, but never listed names and never gave specifics. I always thought it was strange. Most guys at least slip and say a name, but he never did.”
“That is odd. Do you think he made up the fact that he even had exes?”
“No. I believe he did. I can’t explain it, but he’s the type of guy that probably had a lot. I just always felt he was a private person. That is one of the reasons I thought we got along so well. It’s how I am.”
“But he really wasn’t that way by the sounds of it? He was just masquerading behind someone he thought you wanted.”
“That’s a good word for it. I feel like a fool when I look back now. That I wasted so much time with him.”
“You loved him, didn’t you?” Cade asked, his face not showing a lot of emotion, but she got the feeling he was putting a mask on right now too.
“I thought I did. It’s like I was more in love with the idea of getting out of here and starting a whole new life. One where I didn’t have to worry about every dime I had. That’s wrong and selfish of me, but at the root of it, I think that might have been a huge driving force back then.”
“It’s not wrong to want to get ahead in life,” he said, his hand reaching for hers. “The five of us did everything we could to give my parents that life.”
“But you all reaped the rewards too.”
He smiled. “We did. We do. But it was for them, not us. They’re great parents and we just wanted them happy. We all got together and figured if we did this, it’s a legacy to pass on to our kids someday too.”
“Do you want a family and kids?” she asked, surprised to hear him say that. The playboy that got around. She wouldn’t be surprised if she was the longest he’d ever been with someone.
“Of course.”
She nodded and didn’t say anything else, not even knowing what to say.
***
A few days later, Travis McKinley knocked on the door to Cade’s condo. He rushed forward and opened it, still taken back at the sheer size of the man he’d dubbed Mountain Man to the rest of the family.
Travis had the same military haircut he’d been sporting for God only knows how long. Cade had no way of knowing how old Travis was. He was guessing early to mid-thirties. The guy smiled, when he wanted to, which wasn’t as often as Cade would have liked.
But Travis did good work and saved Mason’s ass big time. The family would always be in debt to him for that.
“Come on in,” Cade said, holding the door open. “I appreciate you doing this for me. You didn’t say anything to Ella about coming here tonight, did you?”
“Do I look stupid?” Travis said, his deep voice almost bouncing off the walls. “Your sister scares me, so the last thing I want to do is get on her bad side. You’re not going to tell her I was here, are you?”
He caught the twitching of Travis’s lips and laughed. “No way. I know from personal experience how scary she is so I don’t get on her bad side either.”
“Leave Ella alone,” Alex said, crossing her arms. “She’s not here to defend herself.”
“Speaking of women that have me scared,” Cade said. “Travis, this is Alex.”
Travis walked forward and held his hand out. “Nice to meet you,” Alex said. “Thanks for doing this. Though I’m not sure what Cade thinks it’s going to accomplish.”
“It will accomplish something, trust me,” Travis said.
“Can I get you a drink?” Cade asked.
“Anything of Mason’s will do,” Travis said and then took a seat.
Cade came back with a beer for Travis and himself. Alex had water in her hand so he was guessing she was sticking with it. “So you did find something?”
“I did,” Travis said, putting a folder on the table. “I’ll let you go through that on your own time. There is also a summary on top.”
“You’re pretty thorough. I can’t understand why Ella gets so annoyed with you,” Cade said.
Alex slapped his arm. “Cade!”
“Sorry,” Cade said grimacing. “It just slipped.”
“I told you she scares me,” Travis said, taking a long drink out of the bottle. “I can’t figure out what it is about me that sets her off.” He shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. The gist of it is, Keith had a case of assault when he was a juvenile sealed pretty tight.”
“How did you get it then?” Alex asked.
“Some things are best not shared. And whatever you do with that information, I’ll ask you don’t share who got it for you. I pulled a few strings as it was, and if it comes back to me or them, it could make it harder for me in the future in my line of work.”
“No need to worry. I’m going to forget you were here tonight,” Cade said.
“Just like your sister,” Travis mumbled. “Anyway. Keith was interested in a girl in high school. Guess the girl didn’t share that interest.”
“She was just middle class, right? Maybe her family barely getting by?” Alex asked. “But pretty, could look good on his arm?”
“Yep,” Travis said. “Keith has a type, sorry to say.”
“It is what it is,” Alex said. “So what happened?”
“She turned him down one too many times. This girl was at a party he was attending. There was alcohol and possibly some recreational drugs involved. She said no; he didn’t hear her. She went home with a black eye and some bruising in more places than that.”
“Did he rape her?” Cade asked, starting to feel ill that Alex was involved with someone like that.
“There was no mention of rape. The girl wouldn’t consent to a rape kit and didn’t even want to go to the police. It was months later that she did. Your guess is as good as mine why she waited or even went after that amount of time.”
“So what happened when they reported it?” Alex asked.
“A rookie took the report at the police station. He didn’t know any better to call someone up when the name Stevens came across his desk. They would have swept it under the rug before it was filed if they could have. But since it was filed, there was a lot of paperwork to get it sealed. Charges were dropped and the girl and her family moved out of the area at the end of the school year. Not only that, there were rumors of a nice payout for silence.”
“Why buy someone off if you’re not guilty?” Cade asked.
“Again, your guess is as good as mine. You can read more in detail there,” Travis said.
“Anything else on Keith?” Alex asked. Cade looked over and saw her face was whiter than the inside of a coconut at this point.
“No. Nothing,” Travis said. “Either he kept his nose clean and learned his lesson, or he’s better at buying people off.”
“I didn’t get bought off. Not that I’d take any money from him. But he didn’t do anything like that to me. Even when we started dating, he was a gentleman. Like I told Cade, I didn’t see another side to him until I told him I didn’t want what he was asking of me.”
“Some people mature when they’ve got their eyes on a prize,” Travis said. “Either way. It’s your information to do what you want with it. Hope it helps.”