15. Stress & Mind Games #3
But knowing how vastly different Tristan is beneath his mask leads me to believe the Cade Murphy I’m looking at right now doesn’t come close to resembling the real person underneath.
“So what do I owe the pleasure of your invitation?” Cade asks once the pleasantries have been exchanged and our order has been taken.
“What do you know about Kingston Adair?” I ask, getting straight to the point.
Cade cocks his head a bit to the side at the unexpected question. “What gives you the impression that I know anything about Kingston Adair?”
I shrug nonchalantly at that. “Nothing aside from you being rather famous for knowing a little bit about everyone.”
Cade lets a flicker of confusion cross his face before lifting an eyebrow at me. “I see. So the dinner invitation was to see what I may or may not know about someone who I may or may not even know exists?”
“Pretty much,” Tristan pipes in, his tone as inflectionless as Cade’s.
Cade looks between the two of us with an unreadable expression. It’s a ridiculous conversation to have from the question he asked, but his reputation precedes him. He’s simply one of those people who knows almost everything about everyone, while almost no one knows a damn thing about him.
However, being close to people Cade is close to means he’ll be more likely to open up to us on some level as opposed to most people. Clinging to that belief, both Tristan and I hold his steady gaze as he decides whether to entertain our curiosity or not.
After several moments of the silent staredown, he lets out a sigh and a small shake of his head.
“I don’t really know much about Kingston.
The fact that he has equal reputations for collecting penalties as fast as he collects yards on the field and for being a football golden boy leads me to believe his stellar reputation has been bought more than earned over the years.
“There were some rumors of sexual misconduct at Pine Meadows University that led to his father pulling him out and transferring him here, but other than that, there isn’t much.
“His father, Sterling Adair, however, is an evil son of a bitch. Whether his son is just like him, or a bullied pawn waiting to be pushed centerstage like a next-generation puppet, I don’t know.”
“His father is evil, how?” Tristan leans in.
“The Adairs are old money, but by the time Sterling inherited the legacy, he inherited more debt than profit. From there, he rebuilt their empire from the ground up by soaking his hands in drugs, prostitution, weapons distribution, illegal gambling, you name it.
“Some of the stories I’ve heard of that man’s dealings could make the sun shiver. One of them was how he was arrested under suspicion of murdering his own wife. Supposedly, the witness conveniently died before they could testify, and Sterling walked free,” Cade explains.
“Wife? As in Kingston’s mother?” Tristan asks, his mask dropping a bit at the unpleasantness of the conversation.
I think he was thoroughly expecting some serious ick from Kingston’s family, but I doubt he expected it to be that deep. Not gonna lie, I’m a bit surprised it’s this dark too.
“One and the same,” Cade confirms.
“Does Kingston know?” I probe for more information.
Cade leans back in his chair and sighs. “His father, being a suspect of his mother’s murder who got off by a technicality, is common knowledge. Whether he knows more beyond the rumors, or of his illegal dealings in general, I have no idea.”
I furrow my brow at the news. I’ve seen enough instances where kids in families like these are ordered into submission. It begs the question of whether Kingston is an active participant, an unwilling participant, or completely unaware of any of these things.
“Well, we’d like to know,” I say conclusively, bringing the conversation around to why we called Cade in the first place.
Cade looks completely unsurprised, but there’s something in his face that tells me he’s sizing us up before he agrees to give us anything more.
“Why?”
“Does it matter?” Tristan asks, and I know he’s hesitating on revealing anything about Qiang, since that’s the reason we’re really here.
I’m on the same boat as Tristan. As much as I want to find something on Kingston to get him the hell away from Qiang permanently, it doesn’t mean I want to achieve that in a way that’s going to hurt Qiang more.
Cade’s hard gaze locks with Tristan’s. “It does, because I know your name, but I don’t know who you are.
The only reason I’m really entertaining this at all is because Gio and Holt speak so highly of you, and of course, you’re a Donovan and a Bauer.
I have a sneaky suspicion that you wanting to know, and you calling me here means you’re about to ask me to dig into the Adairs for you, and before I agree to any such expenditure, I need to at least know why. ”
“Well, for one, I think he just unfairly bought himself onto the football team,” I point out.
Cade snorts at that with amusement. “It amazes me how football players are so convinced that life ceases to exist off the field. Gio and Holt sometimes drive me up the wall with how deeply football is embedded in them. However, regardless of how immoral buying his way onto the team is, it’s not altogether evil, just grossly nepotistic.
I do apologize, but I don’t think this is something I wish to be involved in. ”
“How about, years ago, he hurt someone I care about rather badly, and the first thing he did when he got here was go after them?” I ask, realizing that nothing of what I said makes him evil either, just altogether shitty, but also hoping Cade understands the personal stakes of wanting to protect someone I care about.
Something soft and almost concerned passes through Cade’s eyes for a moment before he shrugs it off and throws his mask of disdain back on.
“That’s a bit ick, but what kind of hurt are we talking about?
Like, did he step on their foot, or something more drastic?
” he asks, with something flickering in his eyes that looks an awful lot like amusement.
“I was told you don’t get into details,” Tristan points out, his lips turning down just slightly enough for me to know he’s unhappy with the turn the conversation is going. But he’s missing the little telltales I’m seeing in Cade.
Cade isn’t resisting because he’s going to say no; he’s playing the game to see how much we’ll give up. He’s feeling us out, a tactic to pick up as much as he can about us to file away in case he ever needs it.
Cade’s eyes meet Tristan’s, the two of them staring each other down with those expressionless, impossible-to-read gazes, but something tells me Cade’s picking up a hell of a lot more from Tristan than vice versa.
“I don’t need to know who your friend is, or even details really, but once again, if something happens and I get caught under fire, I need to know what I’m getting myself into, and if it’s worth getting into it,” Cade says.
“The guy used my friend and then publicly outed them in a humiliating way,” I tell him, pulling his attention from Tristan back to me.