Chapter 31
Kade
I’d kissed Leah yesterday, and even though we’d acted as if nothing had happened since, my brain couldn’t move past it—or how to make it happen again. Would it be the smartest choice I’d ever made? No. Did I care? Didn’t seem to.
Alec walked into the office, where I was sitting thinking.
“Do you know what’s going on out there?” he said, hooking a thumb toward the chaos right outside the door.
Even if I couldn’t see it, the noise was impossible to ignore. I hadn’t quite been ready for what Cassie had planned, which was nothing short of erecting the Taj Mahal in a few days. There were fountains, ice sculptures, and I’d heard talk of swans this morning.
“Unfortunately, yes. How was your flight?”
“Total shit. There was so much turbulence it felt like I’d gotten tossed into a bouncy house with a bunch of cracked-out five-year-olds.” He took the seat opposite me and kicked his boots up onto my desk, running a hand through tousled hair. “Why am I here? You never did tell me why I had to come to this wedding. I have to say, the angel wing archways? It doesn’t look like it’s going to be my scene.”
“Leah wanted you here. I didn’t really give a shit.”
“Oh, did she now?” He smiled at me in a way that was going to get him knocked off his seat.
“Not like that. She wanted more people she was comfortable around.” I wasn’t mentioning a word about Missy. No need to direct attention that way.
“When did you start caring about what she wanted? Wait, let me correct that. When did you start admitting to caring about what she wanted?”
Leah was out near the stables, but just in case, I got up and shut the connecting door to the main living area.
“That’s not the only reason I asked you to come out. There’s something not right about this situation,” I said.
“I’ve been saying that for weeks.”
“Maybe you might’ve been hinting at an issue, but I needed to be sure myself.”
“Hinting at?” He straightened, getting to his feet as he scanned my office. “I’ve been screaming it for weeks.”
“Fine,” I said, holding up a hand. “You’ve been screaming it. Point is, there’s something off.”
“What has brought you to this great epiphany? Enlighten me.” He leaned on a filing cabinet and crossed his arms, waiting for the lowdown. Knowing him, he’d only stay still for another five minutes.
“There’s some stuff that my guy has dug up on her stepfather that looks off.”
He tilted his head slightly, studying me. “You finally got your head out of your ass and got John to working on this. Good for you. And now you think her stepfather has something to do with tossing Leah in a shitload of trouble?”
I nodded, shoving my hands into my pockets. “He’s got an art collection. He’s dabbled in trading, as far as we know, and I’ve got a hunch he’s behind this somehow—whether he put her up to it or forced her, I don’t know, but it’s something. He’s got his hands in this.”
“Did you try to ask her?” His tone softened as he unfolded his arms.
“She shuts it down immediately. She’s never been an open book, but this is like it’s locked in a vault.”
“You should still ask her about it. Just put it out there that you know something is going on.”
“And what? Tell her I called in a quasi-PI? No way.” I fidgeted with a folder in front of me just to have something to do with my hands.
“You think that’s overstepping?” He laughed. “After the stories I’ve heard, that’s the least overstepping you’ve done in weeks.”
“Sometimes I’m not sure why I tell you things.”
“Because if you held any more in, you might explode.”
He had a point.
The door to the office swung open, Missy storming in with more fire than she should be able to carry in her little frame.
“You need to stop being mean to her,” she said.
Alec cleared his throat from where he was leaning in the corner.
She looked over, spotting him. “Oh, sorry. I didn’t realize you had company. Hi, Alec.”
“Hey, kiddo.” Alec straightened. “He’s all yours. I’m going to go unpack and get a shower.”
He reached out and ruffled her head like she was a kid before he walked out.
Missy stared at his back as he walked out of the office, and then continued to stare at the door. And Alec called me blind.
“Missy,” I said, drawing her attention, “I can guarantee I have not done anything mean to Leah in the last week.” Actually, I’d done some pretty nice things for her, but I wouldn’t be sharing those.
“Then why is she so sad today?” she asked.
I scowled but couldn’t stop myself. “Did she say she was sad?”
That was one thing Leah never did, period. She held her emotions in tighter than a homeless man holding the Hope Diamond. I’d seen her break down one time, recently, and even sobbing, she had still fought admitting being upset.
“She doesn’t have to. I could tell she was out of sorts, and you’re the only one around here who makes her sad, so obviously you did something.”
“I didn’t, or at least not intentionally.” She’d been weird at lunch. I just figured it was because things had been awkward since the kiss. What had upset her to the point that she was sad?
“Where are you going?” Missy asked as I walked past her and toward the stables.
“Missy, you’re pushing it.”
“ You’re pushing it, mister.”
If it had been anyone else, I would’ve told them to go fuck themselves, but I didn’t have the heart to quash the progress she was making.
“Actually, take a walk with me.” I got up and walked to the door, holding it open for her to follow me.
She nodded, falling into step with me. We weaved in between the many workmen setting up around the place.
“Am I getting fired?” she shot out.
“Should you be?”
“No. I work damned hard around here, even if I do yell at you sometimes.”
“I know, which is why I’m not firing you. This talk has nothing to do with you at all, really.”
Missy was as solid as they came. Her only issue was a touch of paranoia, which occasionally worked to my benefit around the ranch, as she was continuously looking for things that were about to go wrong. The yelling was getting a little old, but I’d put up with it. Hopefully it was just a phase.
“Then what do you want?” She might be a valuable hand, but she definitely lacked a certain finesse. As long as she wasn’t planning to go into politics, she’d probably be fine.
“You and Leah have gotten pretty tight.”
“She’s good people. I don’t care what they say she did. I don’t buy it.”
“She ever talk to you about that?”
“No, it’s just a hunch, but my hunches are usually right,” she said, almost as if she were on the fringe of betraying a confidence.
“I’m not asking you to tell me her secrets. I’d never do that.” Mostly because she’d never tell me, but I wasn’t above using whatever I could to find out what was going on. “You just sound very convinced of her innocence.”
“Yeah, I don’t know what happened, but I’d bet she had nothing to do with that painting.”
“I’ve know her since she was a child, and I’ve never known her to steal anything.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s something to do with that stepfather of hers. He is in the art field. Have you noticed how weird she gets when he’s brought up?”
How had this slip of a girl, barely a woman, figured this out while I’d been completely blind? Willfully blind was more like it. I’d met Leah’s stepfather, and I’d swallowed the good ol’ boy act the same way it seemed most did.
“Yeah, that’s interesting,” I said, not having much more to add. I couldn’t. Leah had never brought him up in front of me. “I’ll talk to you later, but thanks for sharing.”
“Where you heading?”
“Where do you think?”
She just nodded and smiled.