Chapter 22
Kade
My phone buzzed in my pocket.
John: I’ve got something. Call me.
I shut both of the office doors and called him immediately.
“Hey,” he answered.
“What do you have?” I went to sit and found I couldn’t stay that still. If there was something off, if she turned out to be innocent…
“I didn’t get any leads on what happened with the painting yet, but as I poked around, some other information came to light you might want to know. At least, I would.”
“Just spit it out already.” I was glad he wasn’t here because I might’ve shaken him.
“You know her stepfather has a lot of connections in the art world?”
“Yes. He’s an art dealer. It would stand to reason he’s well connected.”
“Well, he might be connected in a way that isn’t public knowledge. He’s definitely doing some shady transactions, or at least that’s what some of my connections implied. There are also two different sources who know him personally, and are on the darker side of the art world, who insinuated that he had some sort of weird obsession with Leah. I wasn’t even asking about that. They offered it up, and that happened twice without any prompting. Whatever was going on there had to be pretty pronounced.”
My skin suddenly felt too tight for my body, my lungs too big for my ribcage, and like my body had just discovered how to produce adrenaline.
“What exactly did they say?” I could barely get the words out because my jaw was clenched too tight.
“One source said he’d met Leah, with Edwin, her stepfather. My guy said Edwin stared at her in a way that made this guy want to punch him in the face. Apparently Leah was only sixteen at the time, and my guy has a daughter her age. He said there was just something dirty about it, considering it was her stepfather.”
“And the other?”
“He mentioned that Edwin had said something along the lines of, ‘Can you imagine what it would be like to be balls deep in that?’ when one of the guys asked about his stepdaughter.”
I couldn’t speak. I felt like someone had just punched me in the throat, reached down, and grabbed my stomach, and was trying to rip it out. I couldn’t form words because I couldn’t breathe. I felt like I was going to combust and take out everything around me.
“Kade?”
I swallowed hard, trying to get a handle on the pending explosion within. If I let this ignite, I’d be on a plane and beating the shit out of Edwin in a matter of hours, and the only proof I had was a couple of criminals possibly running their mouths. Nothing was confirmed, and although utterly disgusting, it didn’t mean anything had actually happened.
“Hey, you still there?” John asked.
“Yeah. Keep digging. I want to know everything you can find out about their relationship. Spend whatever you have to. I want answers.”
“Already on it. Be in touch soon.”
I threw my phone on the desk, the past luring me back a decade in time.
She was sitting near the stream, low on the bank. If her blonde ponytail hadn’t been sticking out, I never would’ve seen her. She’d be gone soon and I shouldn’t care. I had too much to do here. I couldn’t handle anything or anyone else, especially someone who pulled at me so strongly. It was a daily struggle keeping this ranch afloat as it was.
Still, I couldn’t walk past her. I never could. I dropped onto the bank right beside her.
“I’m leaving in a week,” she said as if she were getting pulled under by the weight of those words and a future looming like a storm on the horizon.
It wasn’t new information. We’d known she was leaving for months, but each day she seemed to lose a little more of the light in her eyes as the fear crept in.
“It’s change. You hate change, but it’ll be great.” And it would be better for her. Everyone in town knew her mother had barely functioned since the death of Leah’s father.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. I mean, my mother sure does love him.”
“He’s a good guy. He wants the best for her and you.”
There was a flicker in her eyes, like the storm gathering steam.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Nothing. It’s probably just the change, like you said. I hate change.”
That was the answer I’d been hoping for, the one that let me go on and do what I had to in order to survive.
Had I missed something? Or more accurately, had I wanted to miss something? I’d been so buried in work at the time, it had felt like I hit my bed at midnight and barely slept before starting all over again. Alec had washed his hands of the ranch in favor of a future in tech, refusing to “waste his life,” as he’d put it. My father had been nearly bedridden.
Thinking about those moments before she left were like poking at an arm that was turning black with gangrene.
I needed to leave it alone. Wait and see what John came back with. I couldn’t let a few shady criminals make me get on a plane and commit murder.
Missy appeared at the door. “Hey, Kade? You got a second?”
“Not a great time. Can it wait? I’ve got a list of things to get through tonight before I can sleep.” I would’ve said I had a kidney stone if it would get her to leave. I couldn’t handle one more thing tonight.
“Not really. We’ve got a problem.” She was twisting her fingers and her feet weren’t budging, like she was standing in cement.
I let out a sigh so that I didn’t snap and tell her to get out anyway. Anyone else, I would’ve let loose. It had taken Missy months to be confident enough to say no to me, and I didn’t want to smash that flare of confidence that’d just started to burn, even if I did feel like I was in emotional hell at the moment.
“What’s the problem?” I asked, breathing deeply to keep my tone calm.
“Leah.”
I ran a hand through my hair as I leaned back. This was going to take more than deep breathing. This was going to take monk-like meditation skills to stay calm.
“What’s the problem?”
“I think she’s broken.” She crossed and uncrossed her arms.
“What do you mean?” I came around the desk, heading to the door. “Did she fall? She knows better than to ride at night.” I didn’t see Leah out in the field.
“No. Her body is okay. I think it’s more of a mind thing.”
I swung back from the door I’d been about to run out of. “What do you mean?”
“I was talking to her and tears were running down her cheeks. She said she was fine, maybe even good. I can’t remember exactly, because all I could think was that she didn’t seem like the crying type, and yet they just kept coming.”
“Are you sure she was crying?” Leah didn’t cry. I’d seen her break her leg when she was twelve and she hadn’t cried.
“Yeah, they were just running out of her eyes like she didn’t have any control of them.”
“Where is she?”
“In her cabin.”
I didn’t wait for more information before I took off in that direction.