Chapter Nineteen
Present Day
Fall leaves blew around the resort’s main driveway. Cayden wrapped her long cashmere sweater around her body and waited for the cavalcade to arrive. Limited in her resources concerning Shana’s murder, she had to cut a few deals.
“Ms. Young.”
She sighed at Katie’s refusal to use her first name.
“Sorry, Cayden. That florist you recommended is awesome.”
“Good.”
“And I was wondering if we can use them full-time.” Katie stepped closer and lowered her voice. “Our florist in town really isn’t very good. A lot of dead and wilted stuff.”
“Sorry, but that’s not my department.”
“Um, we get complaints about that florist and it still doesn’t sway Mr. Scott to change them.”
Dying to unleash to someone about him, Cayden bit her lip to stop the onslaught of bitter words. Of course he wanted to cut costs. It would help him buy her out in the long run.
“Sometimes he makes it hard to do my job. I’m sorry to complain.” She glanced around. “But the only reason I got the pumpkin patch is because I cried a little.”
Cayden chuckled. Levi would probably never be easy.
“Honestly, I’m surprised that even worked. I think he was just tired,” the marketing director finished.
“What day was this?” Cayden asked.
“When Doc came out to see about Stoney.”
The night prior, they had done filthy things to one another. Chipper Katie managed to hit the nail on the head. Cayden had worn Levi down.
“He doesn’t listen to anyone, not even his parents, so I was wondering… Could you talk to him?”
Hiring Bellingham Flowers would certainly help Simone’s family, but she didn’t deal with the vendors. “I’ll see what I can do,” Cayden promised.
“Great. I hate to ask, but the little bit of pride I had left went down the tubes once I cried on the job.”
“It happens to the best of us.” She patted Katie on the shoulder while several black SUVs drove up to the entrance.
“Oh, is this the wedding party you booked?”
“Yep. You’d think it was the president,” Cayden muttered. They waited for the first truck to pull into the driveway. The driver got out and walked around to the passenger side before he opened the door.
“This is exciting,” Katie said.
“Cayden Young, where the hell am I?” Deny Flicker screamed. Socialite, pop star, and all around troublemaker jumped out of the backseat.
At some point, Cayden would have to evaluate her attraction to bad girls. It probably had a lot to do with the heavy sense of responsibility she carried all her life.
As the purple-haired singer air-kissed her cheeks, she figured the free-spirited friends always made the best partners in crimes. “Thanks for saving me,” Deny whispered in her ear. “Hopefully my brother will at least give me a call on my wedding weekend.” The rest of her team of hangers-on, along with her hair and makeup artists, trailed behind the pop star into the resort.
“Um, should I?” Katie asked.
Cayden nodded her head for her to show the ridiculously tacky entourage around. Shorter than everyone by a few feet, Katie tried to catch up.
Once the drivers dropped off the luggage, they drove away from the driveway. Instead of following her friend inside, Cayden waited for one more car to pull up to the entrance.
A laid-back California dude opened the door to the Chevy Tahoe and stepped out. “This place is freaking awesome. I swear, if it wasn’t rustic and hauntingly beautiful like you said I was going to totally bail.”
Snatching off his sunglasses, Wes Richards took in a deep breath. “Wow, you can’t do this in Los Angeles. The smog will kill you.” One of Forbes’ top one hundred tech gurus wanted to marry the high-maintenance but well-intentioned pop star. This union would be the billionaire’s biggest challenge to date.
“Didn’t want to drive with the crew?” The growing numbers in Deny’s entourage had gotten out of hand.
“Trust me, they won’t exist after the wedding.”
“Keep your fingers crossed that this works,” she told him.
“I have every faith in you that it will.” He wagged his eyebrows up and down before throwing his arm over her shoulder. “Now tell me, pretty one, when do we work on your problem?”
As the bellboys ran out with luggage racks, they headed inside the resort. “We have to wait for Teddy to show up.”
“Oh, wow, the lost sheep is coming … this should be fun.”
“What should be fun?” Levi asked with bite.
“The wedding,” Cayden explained. “This is the groom, Wes Richards. Levi here owns Goosebay Lake.”
“Cool place, man. Thanks for letting us crash.” Wes dropped his arm from around her shoulder and extended his hand.
“No problem.” After a beat, Levi’s rigid posture seemed to ease up and he accepted Wes’s hand to shake. “The new ponies just arrived, I’d figured you’d want to check them out.”
“Holy shit, you have ponies!” Wes squeaked. “Can I come?”
Levi glanced between them before he shrugged. “Sure, we’ll take the golf cart.”
Since she told him about Dale, Levi hadn’t been in the best of moods. Surprised that he invited the tech giant to go with him, Cayden closed her mouth before she crossed to the elevator bay and pushed the top floor.
“Go ahead, I’m going to check on Deny.” She needed Wes’s help to solve Shana’s murder, so she hoped the two men got along.