7. Chapter Seven
Chapter Seven
Cade
Cade stood in the line to get coffee at the shop down the street from the club. Things were going well with the family. It was late summer and the three of them were considering going away for a vacation. Cade was all for it. Cleveland and Griff were still fighting with Winnie over wedding plans, so they’d gone away for a week in order to regroup and come up with new ideas.
As Cade stepped up to the counter to order his caramel macchiato, he was bumped from behind, so he turned, happy to see a familiar face. “Vance? Is it you, Vance Blake?” Cade greeted the redhead. He was dressed in a suit which was a surprise, but Cade was certain it was the kid from the shelter.
“I’m sorry, do I know you?” the young man asked.
“It’s me, Cade… From Clark Street Shelter? Wait, I might be mistaken but you look like a kid I used to know, though you might be a few years older than him so obviously, you’re not him. Sorry,” he apologized as he stepped to the side to wait for his drink after he ordered.
After he had his coffee, he walked to the club. Jax was at the Center, and Ford was going to work that night at Fairytails. Cade and Jax were having a date night. It was harsh to say they’d worked out a schedule for their downtime, but with both businesses being so demanding and successful, they’d worked out a schedule.
It had allowed them to have time together with each other and then the three of them, and nobody complained because it was organized. If anything, it gave them time to plan special things, and they’d all had a lot of fun of late.
As Cade was about to unlock the front door, he felt a hand on his shoulder, startling him a bit. He turned to see it was the guy from the coffee shop. “I’m sorry, Cade, but it was too busy in there for me to speak with you. Indeed, I’m Vance Blake, the undercover agent from the shelter. I know Agent Porter never told you who it was, but it was me.
“I just wanted to check on you guys, so I sort of stalked you for a few weeks to get a feel for your schedules. You were all so damn kind to us, and the guilt never went away about how the shelter ended up being closed down because of all that bullshit. How’ve you been?” the tall redhead asked.
“We’re good, Vance. Do you know anything about the other boys?” It was Cade’s only real concern. He’d worried about those boys for a long time.
“Kevin and I were undercover, but he quit the organization not long after we left your home. We were able to get most of the boys into a better situation with a job and a new identity. We worried about those assholes coming after them, but thankfully, they’ll never be found.
“How about you, Kincade? Are you okay?” Vance asked.
“Well, Ford and Jax got married, as I’m sure you saw on the internet. They adopted me, which I’m sure you didn’t see on the internet. We’re all very happy together,” Cade offered with a toothy grin.
When Vance laughed, Cade giggled, too. “No, we didn’t see that on the Internet. We never told you guys, but Kevin and I are a couple and were working on that case together. He’ll be happy to hear you guys worked it out because we were all rooting for you. You were the first glimpse at family that most of those kids have ever had, but we had to make sure you and Sammy weren’t part of the money-laundering scheme.
“I’m sorry about how it went down, but I’m not sorry they shut down the operation. That money was really dirty. Agent Porter and a few others in our white-collar division are still sorting through the mess of it, but the gist seems to be the donations, or most of them, were made with dirty money and filtered through the organizational structure of Chicago Outreach to be paid out again to bogus vendors who had accounts offshore.
“Look, I gotta get downtown, but I’m glad to know you three are doing well and none of that shit is hanging over your heads. Tell Jax and Ford I said hello, please?” Agent Blake requested as he leaned down to give Cade a kiss on the cheek.
“Sure, Vance. Take care and say hi to Kevin. What’s he doing these days?” Cade asked.
“He’s working for the U.S. Marshals Service. He works with an extradition unit. Anyway, if I ever get promoted out of undercover operations, Kev and I will come into the club to have drinks with you. Be safe.” Vance Blake turned and hurried down the street to—not surprisingly—a black SUV.
Cade let himself into the club and locked the door, quickly disarming the security system as he turned on the lights to see the place was clean and ready for another day. He went upstairs to the office to call in the liquor order for the rest of the week and to double-check the deposit from the previous night. He wanted Brady Jones to take it to the bank when he got in before noon.
As he was tallying the credit card slips, he heard a noise downstairs. He glanced at the clock to see it was just after nine, and with Griff on vacation, he didn’t think the dancers were working on any new routines. They’d been recycling some of their old ones, taking turns at being the lead dancer, and thankfully, nobody complained.
He stood from the desk and quietly walked over to the one-way window, seeing two figures dressed in black with stocking caps over their faces. He picked up the phone and dialed 9-1-1 immediately. After he gave his location and told the operator what was happening, she insisted he stay on the line, so he did.
He pulled out the bottom drawer of Ford’s desk and opened the gun safe, pulling out the .38 revolver Ford had there. He checked to see if it was loaded, and then he remembered Tao was coming in early to finish power washing the patio and the outside furniture where the smoking customers liked to party. Cade didn’t want the kid knocking on the door and possibly getting shot, so he had to come up with a plan.
He put the gun behind his back, between his belt and his trousers, before he grabbed the baseball bat Ford had behind his office door, hoping to scare them off. He made a loud racket, bouncing the bat against the stairs as he walked down, but he saw both of them standing at the bottom of the stairs looking up at him. “Fellas, turn around and leave the way you came in. I already called the cops, and they should be here in about thirty seconds,” he warned.
“Cha-cha, I told you this was a bad idea,” the shorter one hissed at the taller one.
“Shut the fuck up, man. He ain’t gonna stop shit . Get upstairs, stupid,” the taller one ordered. As the shorter one started up the stairs, Cade picked up the bat and held it like he’d seen batters do in the baseball games he watched with Jackson in the media room.
They were kids, he could tell, and he didn’t want to hurt either of them. They reminded him too much of the kids he knew from the shelter. “I’m guessing he’s too chickenshit to do the dirty work, so he’s got you doing it. Hey, if you wanna get your head caved in, come on,” Cade threatened.
“Fuck that shit,” he heard before a loud blast ripped through the silence and a sting on his head sent him tumbling down the stairs, where he struck his head several times and the world went black.
Cade sat on the stairs of the club leading up to the office and considered the situation as he looked around, seeing police hurrying in after breaking down the front door. That was going to have to be fixed, and Ford would be pissed because those doors were custom-made and very expensive.
Based on what he was seeing, he could only imagine he was dead, and he hated it more for his husbands than for himself. He knew they’d be hurt with him being gone, but he had faith they’d help each other get through the grief.
Someone joined him, and when he looked to see who it was, he was surprised to see it was his father, Hudson. “Did they send you to tell me I’m going to hell?” he asked sarcastically.
For the first time Kincade could ever recall, Hudson laughed. “No, not at all. I am coming to apologize to you. I’ll skip the itemized list because you need to go back, but I’m sorry for every crappy thing I ever did to you, Kincade. I’m proud of the man you’ve become. It was admirable of you not to draw the gun and shoot them. You’re a better person than I ever was.
“Could you keep an eye on your brother? I did him no favors either, but I believe with your influence, he can be as great a man as you’ve turned out to be,” Hudson told him.
“I don’t know how much of an influence I can be from this side. What happens now?” Cade asked as he watched the paramedics working on him.
“You’re not dead, Kincade. You have a severe concussion but that bullet just grazed the side of your head. You’ll have a messed-up part, but you’ve got my thick hair so nobody will notice.
“Your husbands want children, Cade. How do you feel about it?” Hudson asked, surprising Cade. But then, again, he knew Ford and Jax loved kids, based on the way they treated Carlotta. With him gone, they had a better shot at having a family.
“So, can you give me any answers to the great mysteries of life? Did you get any profound insights when you died? No, better yet, why the fuck did you get yourself involved with Clary Radcliffe? You had money, Dad. We always had enough to eat, and we had a wonderful home. We didn’t need cooks and housekeepers or fancy gadgets. We just needed you,” Cade told him.
“As for any answers, I don’t have any more answers now than I did when I was alive. I have a lot of regrets but voicing them won’t change anything. All I have for you is some advice, if you’ll listen,” Hudson told him as they loaded Cade’s body onto a gurney.
It looked gruesome, all the needles and tubes in his arms. There was an oxygen mask over his face, and he was really glad Ford wasn’t there. He’d have passed out for certain.
At that point, Kincade didn’t have anything to lose, really. “Sure. Advise away.”
“Be grateful for the people in your life. They make it worth living every day. Make certain they know beyond a shadow of a doubt you love and cherish them.
“Look for the wisdom in failures. When we fail, we learn, and everyone can stand to learn something new.
“Cherish the simple pleasures like a good cup of coffee; the smell of flowers in the spring; and the feel of snow on your tongue in the winter. The Creator makes no mistakes, so cherish the people in your life, and learn to forgive before bitterness settles into your soul like it did mine.
“They’re taking you away, but remember I love you. Please be the father to Ashton I never could, and if you and your husbands are blessed with children, remember all of my mistakes and do it right. I love you Kincade,” Hudson said before he stood and walked up the stairs, disappearing along the way.
Cade decided if he wasn’t dead, then his subconscious must be playing hell with his mind. Even if it was just his own hopes and dreams, he’d given himself some damn good advice. If he wasn’t dead, he planned to remember it. Well, he hoped he would.
“I can’t believe this, love. It should have been me.”
“No! It shouldn’t have been either one of you. You need to hire a security service, Branford. If those two idiots could case the place so easily, you and Cade need someone to teach you how to be less predictable. The police said there’ve been a series of robberies in the early morning hours in the neighborhood. Most businesses are open until the wee hours of the morning, so the kids didn’t think anyone would be at the club so early. That’s how they get away with daylight robberies.”
Cade could hear Ford and Jax talking, and he hated they were upset. He tried to open his eyes, but they wouldn’t budge as the blackness took him away again.
“He used to love to play tennis. He tried to talk Hudson into taking him to the club to let him play, but that nasty bastard rarely took time for anyone but himself.”
It was his mother, which meant she’d been called from New York. He hated she’d been dragged back to Chicago over nothing serious. Again, he tried to open his eyes or move anything to show them he could hear them, but his body failed him again.
Cade felt someone holding his hand, and there was definitely sobbing. He had no idea how much time passed between his bouts of cognizant thought and the deep sleep. He hoped it wasn’t months because he wanted to be living his life with Jax and Ford.
“Chére, you gotta wake up. You know we don’t do well without you, and we have so many things we want to do. Places to go and things to see. We miss you too much to even sleep, Kincade. Please, please, come back to us.”
It was Jax, and Cade could tell he wasn’t doing well. He hauled up every ounce of strength in his body to squeeze the big guy’s hand, but before he could, the blackness took him again.
Cade finally opened his eyes to see the room was mostly dark. There was a faint light he determined must be from the bathroom. He looked at the end of the bed to see Griff and Cleveland asleep in a large, orange Naugahyde recliner in the corner of the room.
Cade tried to reach for the button to summon the nurse because he wanted water, but his right arm hurt like hell. He glanced down to see a cast which pissed him off, so he reached over his body and picked up the buzzer, depressing the top of it. He was glad it didn’t make any noise because he didn’t want to wake his friends.
When the nurse came bustling in, he tried to hold up his right hand, but the pain shot up his arm, so he lifted his left, holding his index finger to his lips in the international sign of, “Shhh!”
The petite nurse walked in with a bright smile. “Welcome back, Mr. Delacroix,” she whispered as she began examining the machines around him.
“Thanks. What day is it?” he whispered in return.
“It’s Thursday morning. Do you know where you are?” the woman asked quietly.
Cade looked around and snickered. “Disney?” he joked, bringing a quiet giggle from her as well.
“You’re at Hope Memorial. Your fathers just left at midnight when your brother and his husband came in to send them home. It’s about three thirty. I expect them back in a couple of hours. Can I get you something? How’s the pain?” she asked.
“My arm hurts pretty bad, and I’m afraid if I lift my head, it will roll off. Was I shot in the head?” he asked, remembering vividly the events that led to him being in that hospital.
“The bullet grazed the left side of your head. You fell down several stairs, which is what caused most of the damage. I’ll be back with some ice chips and a shot. I’m sure you’re pretty parched,” she explained. He nodded as he watched her leave.
He looked over at his friends sleeping in the big chair, seeing two gold rings glinting in the soft light from the bathroom. He wanted to wake them and find out what was going on, but they looked too peaceful.
The nurse came back with a cup, handing it to him. “Eat them slowly. You want the television? Of course, after I give you this shot, it might knock you out, but you’ll wake in a few hours. We’re all glad you’re awake, Mr. Delacroix. Your family will be especially happy. They’ve been a bit of a mess,” she whispered, not really surprising him at all.
“Do you know what happened to the two kids who were trying to rob the club?” he asked as he held the cup of ice in his cast hand, digging in the plastic spoon to take a few chips into his greedy mouth. As they melted, coating his dry throat, his eyes closed without his bidding.
He couldn’t stay awake for the answer, but he prayed they were both okay. They were stupid kids to have done what they did, but he honestly prayed no one had seriously harmed them.