Chapter Thirty-Three
Present Day
The day had progressively gotten worse. Feeling bad about Cayden, he called it quits and headed home. According to all the news sources, a storm would blanket the Midwest. He figured they could grab a bite to eat before it hit.
“Hello, dear.” As he walked into his house, his mom and a melody of smells greeted him.
“To what do I owe the pleasure?” he asked. She seemed to be a permeant fixture in his kitchen. She stirred some gooey concoction in a bowl. He kissed her on the top of her tiny fairy head.
“Potluck. Our favorite recipes for Thanksgiving from the quilting club. We’re having it down at the V.A. Do me a favor and pick me up when it’s over. Margret’s a little heavy-handed with the moonshine.”
“Oh yeah, don’t you usually have that here?” Levi dug out his phone from his front jacket pocket and read the text alert.
“Your father refuses to drive home anymore of those drunk, harpy shrews … his words.” She dipped her spatula into the bowl and licked the slop off of it. “Hmmm, want some?” She pointed it at him.
“Never.” He leaned away from the gunk and read his text. An Amber Alert for a missing fifteen-year-old girl from Yorktown crossed his screen. The girl’s picture strongly resembled Shana Waters. He immediately dialed Cayden’s cell before he ran out of the house.
“Don’t forget to pick me up at eight,” his mom sang after him.
While her phone went to voicemail, he trucked out the back door. No longer a teenager, the distance between the two houses at a full sprint seemed much harder to tackle than he remembered.
“Hey!” He threw open her door as he tried her number again. The sound of her cell echoed throughout the cabin. To beat back the edging panic, he took a deep breath and counted to twenty. Levi searched around for the source of the ringing.
He finally found it on the desk. As soon as he disconnected his cell, a series of texts scrolled across her screen from her CEO.
Levi picked up her phone.
Apparently, Cayden’s CEO Gil didn’t understand why she sold the resort at such a low price without consulting him with first knowledge.
****
Determined to find what she wanted, Cayden lost track of time. The temperature dropped, but not too low for snow. She marked the spot where they found Shana with flags and began to dig toward the position her head had fallen. Hours had passed and she made no real progress. As Belle growled at something in the distance, a flurry of dry white stuff twirled around her head.
She stood up and tried to see into the woods where the pit bull stood. Past the faint snow and dim lighting, she couldn’t make out anything. The dog lowered her ears and growled again.
Sufficiently spooked, Cayden didn’t doubt Belle’s instincts. “Come on, girl.” Patting her thigh for the dog, she whistled and started down the trail. “Belle!” she hollered at the dog. Once she got a good baseball-field-sized distance away from the spot they discovered Shana’s body, Belle began to bark her head off.
Whatever she scented in the woods, the dog wanted to sink her teeth into it. She held out hope that she could beat Levi home, but Belle’s antics slowed her down. “Dammit, come on!” From the top of the trail, she could see the lights in her living room.
Belle went nuts over the smell of her master. While she ran to her front door, Belle’s barks changed to yippy excitement. Not half as happy to see the blue beast’s master, she took her sweet time getting to the cabin.
“Go ahead.” She let the crazy dog in first. Levi sat on the edge of her couch with her phone in his hand. Mentally, she cursed herself.
“Went on the trail, huh?”
Belle continued to bark. Cayden couldn’t blame her. Thick tension choked the room.
“Yep. And look, I’m not dead.”
“Sure, but maybe the girl who was just kidnapped from Yorkville is?” he said.
“Shit!”
“I tried to call, but you left your phone.” The pulsing vein in the middle of his forehead showed his anger, but his calm tone meant something else. “Long story short, while you were playing on the trail, you got a text from your boyfriend. I got to say he is seriously pissed that you didn’t consult him about selling off the resort. You know, my resort.”
Levi tossed her phone. “Gil’s not my boyfriend.” She picked the cell off of the couch where it landed. “You taught me not to fuck the help a long time ago.” Ticked he went through her phone, Cayden unlocked the cell and flipped through her texts. It appeared Gil had quit.
The day slid downhill at an amazingly fast rate. While a slight pulse of pain started behind her eye, Belle’s incessant barking got worse.
“That’s cute. So how many guys have you fucked?” The muscle in his jaw tightened.
“Sorry, baby, you forfeited the right to ask when you got engaged.” Cayden took off her coat and flung it on the couch on her way past. The weight of it and everything else had become extremely heavy in that moment.
“Oh, sweetie, I bet you’ve been dying to use that one.” He followed her into the kitchen, while Belle barked her way between them. “At least Sarah was available.”
“Or just easy.” As her tight web of control fell apart, everything she shoved down for years fought its way out of her. Cayden opened the refrigerator and grabbed one of his beers. Faster than uncorking a bottle of wine, she popped it open and chugged.
“Trust me, nothing in my life has been easy with you around. Belle, shut it!” he screamed at the dog before he opened the back door and ushered her out.
“Oh, you think the increased level of difficulty in your life has something to do with me?” Cayden hissed. Without the endless barking, the gaps of silence filled itself with strained toxicity from years of resentment. Unable to stop the rage that he deserved, she held up her hand and ticked off each of his transgressions. “First, you scraped college for the Marines … which made no sense, because your parents had the money to pay.”
“How would you know?” he growled, while his face turned a vicious red.
“Because I invested it! Yeah,” she spat at his stunned expression, “the spoiled brat strikes again. How the hell do you think they were able to retire so young?” She put up her middle finger, dropping the first one. “You exchanged your background in law enforcement to run the resort…”
“Don’t stop now,” he demanded. “Let’s get to the part where I trade in Cayden for Sarah. That’s where you were going, right?” Every muscle in his body appeared to tighten. She shrugged before she took another hit from the beer bottle.
“Picking the poor girl over the rich one wasn’t that easy, was it?”
“Money isn’t the only thing that makes someone poor,” he snapped.
“Don’t I know it.” Cayden pointed in his direction while she took another healthy swig from the beer bottle and hurried to swallow. “I’ve wasted so much time on you.” He flinched at the low blow she dealt. “Besides, I’m just giving you what you asked for.”
“Three years later, Cayden?”
“Had a couple of things to take care of before I came back to deal with Shana’s death … and your crap.”
The bright blue sheen of his eyes dulled considerably while he stared at her. After some time, he nodded his head. “Well, I don’t want to hold you back any longer. You should get cracking on packing.” He drew up to his full height and put his face in front of hers. “We wouldn’t want the new owner to see how miserable I make you.”
Levi turned his back on her and walked out the door.
Finishing off her beer, the bitter taste coated her tongue. She finally let go of the tears that threatened to fall in his presence. A long time ago, she taught herself to never be vulnerable in front of Levi.