Chapter 1 #2
The Caged Bean was close by and was the town’s gourmet coffee shop. While we sold drip coffee, and any type of sugar or creamer that you wanted, the Caged Bean was where people got their cappuccinos, Americanos, specialty coffees, and even a coffee flight featuring sweet and elaborate lattes.
We worked together, rather than as adversaries. They sold my baked goods, and I made sure that my customers knew exactly where they could easily get coffee, and at a discount if they found my card.
It worked well for me, and for them, and I was just happy that things were working out.
Even if, once again, the Cages were involved.
As Melody worked the front, I went back to decorating a few cakes that we had as orders, as well as a few that I wanted to set out front. Sometimes people bought cakes on the fly, and that was always a sight to see.
By the time lunch rolled over, I remembered I hadn’t eaten, but I knew I would get to it eventually. I had a few big orders to get through, thanks to a family reunion taking place up at the lake, and I didn’t want to get behind.
However, as I turned the corner, my chest seized, and I had to stop and slowly let out a breath. Thankfully Melody didn’t see and wouldn’t ask questions.
She didn’t know after all.
No, the only one who did was Joshua, and I was glad that my brother wasn’t here yet.
I told myself to breathe, going through the exercises I had learned as a child. When I caught my breath, I looked down at my phone, and realized it was later than I thought.
Joshua should have been here by now.
Well, I’m sure he would text soon. Maybe there was traffic getting up the mountain.
I went back up front to work with Melody, when a familiar face walked into the shop.
I smiled at Hudson Cage, one of Dorian’s numerous brothers. The fact that Dorian had not only one family, but two thanks to his dad’s philandering ways, still surprised me. He had eleven siblings.
I wasn’t sure how that had happened, but then again, remembering Dorian and Hudson’s dad, I guess I knew exactly how it happened.
The man had always been a jerk to me, but then again, he had been rude to anyone he thought beneath him.
Hudson however was not like his father. In fact, other than the growliness, he was the exact opposite.
He was a loner and liked being the cabin man.
You know, the type of guy who lived and worked in the woods, and you never knew exactly what he did.
Some of the women in town couldn’t help but fall for him, you know because he was the broody, bearded type, the one with secrets and stories to tell even though he would never tell them.
I just thought he was Dorian’s brother.
There was probably something wrong with me. Okay, there was seriously something wrong with me and I knew what it was.
A crush that wouldn’t quit.
I opened my mouth to tease Hudson since he rarely showed his face these days. He liked staying out of the spotlight now that one of their many sisters had moved to town and had taken up some of the Cage responsibilities that Hudson had been forced into.
But then I saw the paleness of his features underneath his beard, and my throat went dry.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, my voice soft.
“Oh my God, there’s been a plane crash out on the private airfield!” Ms. Patty screamed before Hudson could say a thing. She was the mayor’s wife, a busybody with a heart of gold, and bile crept up my throat.
Because I knew exactly what airfield she was talking about. Because if it had made the news here so quickly, there only had to be one.
The one where my brother worked occasionally.
“Hudson?” I asked, my voice shaky.
A beat of silence. A growl of a voice. “You need to come with me.”
Everyone stopped moving as they stared between us.
“Oh my God, is it Joshua?” someone asked even though I couldn’t pay attention well enough to figure out who it was.
Hudson didn’t answer, instead just stared at me in that stone way that he always did. I immediately undid my apron and grabbed my bag from under the counter.
“Melody.” My voice cracked and I cleared my throat. No. I would not react. Not now. Not when others could see and gossip. All was well. I had to show that. I couldn’t break on the outside when it was as if I were ready to shatter on the inside.
Melody, my full-time employee and friend gave me a sad look, her eyes filling. “I got it. And I’ll make sure that Scarlett or I can take care of Lucky too. Just keep us updated.”
“Okay,” I said, my voice low.
Melody looked over my shoulder. “Take care of her, Hudson.”
“Don’t worry, she’ll be safe with me.”
I wanted to believe that, but I wasn’t sure I was going to be safe ever again with the way he just stared at me. The way he wasn’t giving me a single update as to what he was thinking.
“Hudson?” I asked after we got into his truck, and I pulled out my phone. “What am I going to see when I look up the news?”
He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel and took a moment to respond. I hated how careful he was being. “Small plane crash. They don’t know what happened, though I’m sure they’re just saying that. There were two people on board.”
My hand squeezed my phone so tightly that my knuckles whitened. “Who was it? I mean, if you’re here, it’s got to be Joshua. Right? Is my brother okay?”
“Joshua and Dorian were in the plane.”
Silence.
A void of emotion.
A crack in the world that began to erode beneath my feet.
My throat tightened, and I just stared at him, wondering if the ringing in my ears would go away soon. “Do you know anything else? Hudson. What happened?”
“I don’t know, Harper. All I know is that there was an accident.”
I studied the line of his jaw as he wove down the mountain with such ease and practice like he had been doing it all his life. But then again, other than the time when he had been overseas, he had been.
And so I knew he was lying to me.
“Hudson? What else do you know?”
He let out a breath, and it took me a moment to catch the stress and cracking beneath it. “Harper.”
“Just tell me. If it’s both of them, I need to know. Because it’s them.”
My family. Two men that I loved. Not that I could tell Hudson that.
Not that Hudson didn’t already know or could guess.
Hudson’s growl of a voice filled the cab of the truck. “One is alive. In surgery. The other didn’t make it.”
And with that, a screaming void wrapped its skeleton-like hand around my neck and squeezed. I didn’t say a word, I couldn’t. Instead I turned to face the front and tried not to focus on the trees passing by, or the others going about their life as if the world hadn’t ended.
“I’m sorry, Harper. I wish I knew more.”
I reached out and grabbed his hand, and he squeezed it back. The man who didn’t like touch, who didn’t like most people, gave me comfort when he didn’t know if his younger brother was dead or not.
We made it to the hospital in a little over an hour, with our service spotty at best. Nobody had texted me or reached out. I had a feeling that Ms. Patty and Melody had ensured that none of the town would bother me. And that the Cages were all talking with Hudson.
But when we walked through the emergency room doors, and I saw so many of the Cages there, so many of Dorian’s family members, I’d never felt more alone.
I didn’t know who was dead—Joshua or Dorian.
I didn’t want to think about what would happen when I knew the answer.
I didn’t want to choose who I needed, who I wanted to be alive.
Amy, Dorian’s girlfriend, came forward and wrapped her arms around Hudson tightly before giving me a nod and going back to the group.
Dorian’s mother was there as well, speaking in hushed tones to one of his brothers.
I knew she had a complicated relationship with the rest of them, but right then and there, I couldn’t focus on anything but needing answers.
And then Aston Cage, the eldest of them all walked forward, and I knew. In that moment of peace before a shattered soul, the guilt, the worry, and the absolute pity on his face.
I knew.
My knees gave out, and Hudson was there, trying to keep me steady, and I screamed.
Because Dorian’s family was there. Nearly all of them, filling the waiting room to the brim. Because he had family. A big one. One that loved him with every single complicated and tangled relationship they had.
And I had lost the only family I had left.
And I ignored the part of me that screamed in relief that it hadn’t been Dorian.
Because my brother was dead.
And I let the darkness take me.