Chapter 1 #2
Why, after all these months, am I wondering if I’ve misjudged Adam?
I don’t need doubt affecting my decisions.
Not when calling out the casino is the right thing to do.
Blackwell and the men he has lapping at his heels are guilty of a whole slew of crimes—I just need to find hard evidence; rumors aren’t enough.
But Adam? I don’t want to question Adam’s guilt.
This is about justice. For the women who work at Blue Casino and God knows who else the CEO and his Blue Stars have manipulated and hurt over the years.
And if Adam Cade is involved…I’ll take him down too.
Adam
“Mr. Cade, let me get that for you.” James, the valet, holds the driver’s side door for me as I exit my Jaguar XKR—an MBA graduation gift a couple of years ago from my father.
I toss James the keys and enter Club Tahoe through the back door, striding down dark hardwood floors and plush area rugs, past a vase with red flowers on a polished stone table. Even in the business offices, Club Tahoe is a thing of beauty.
Esther, my father’s sixty-five-year-old secretary, glimpses my approach from her desk near his office, and grins.
She’s wearing a light gray skirt suit, the ruffle of an amethyst blouse peeking above the lapels of the jacket.
The combination accentuates her silver hair and presents a sophisticated older woman.
Esther is as much a fixture at Club Tahoe as the ten-foot glass-and-wrought-iron chandelier over the entrance.
“Adam.” She stands and engulfs me in a warm hug.
What few know is that along with being put together and elegant, Esther is like a second mother to my brothers and me. Or a first mother, given our own died when I was a child and my youngest brother an infant.
My mother chose to give birth to Hunter rather than fight the breast cancer doctors discovered during her second trimester.
I sometimes wonder if she would have made the decision to hold off treatment until after his birth if she’d known how Hunter would turn out.
Hunter is one of my favorite brothers, but he is also an unrepentant hedonist.
“How’s the old man’s temper today?”
Esther returns to the desk I’m certain still houses the first-aid kit she used to patch up my brothers and me when we were kids. We went to Esther for comfort because our nanny was a royal bitch. “Mild. His masseuse paid him a visit an hour ago. It was good timing after his investors’ meeting.”
It never matters how well Club Tahoe performs, or that it is world-renowned, Father is never satisfied, his investors equally greedy.
They want more. More publicity. More wealthy patrons, though the price for a standard room exceeds the cost of a cross-country plane ticket.
Whatever my father has, it is never enough.
Which is why my brothers and I stopped trying to impress him long ago.
School and sports accolades meant nothing compared to the resort our father built.
After our mother died, Ethan Cade checked out emotionally. Oh, he made sure we were taken care of, but he paid people to deal with those details. He provided for us financially, but even that came at a price. I am the only Cade still willing to pay it.
I have standards, and I like the lifestyle the family money affords. So I play our father’s game, and I live in luxury, while my four brothers flounder in a world of their own making.
I’m envious as hell of them.
After rapping twice on the rustic mahogany double door, I wait for my father’s voice. His deep baritone calls out for me to enter, and I do, with all the Cade assurance born to me. If there’s one thing I’ve learned as Ethan Cade’s son, it’s never to appear weak, never to doubt myself.
I stride into the room and take a seat across from the patriarch, who studies me raptly, searching for a crack in the exterior. He won’t find it. He trained me well.
“Adam, what brings you in today?” He tosses a fountain pen on the desk. His gaze appears distracted. “I’m assuming all goes well at Blue Casino?”
“Better than well.” I try to hold back my satisfaction.
What I have to say won’t impress him. I’m not sure why I drove here to share it when a phone call would have sufficed.
The fact that I did proves I still desire to please him, which will likely result in the opposite effect.
But I wanted to see his expression. To see if, for once, I’ve done something that makes him proud, even if it is never verbalized.
I tug at my slacks and cross my ankle over my knee, attempting to keep things cool. “I’ve been promoted to manager at Blue. Effective immediately.”
My father’s stony expression doesn’t crack. When he fails to respond, I uncross my legs—and wish I hadn’t. Wish I’d stayed the fuck still.
“This is a surprise.”
I feign nonchalance. “Not really. I graduated at the top of my class from Cornell, if you recall.” Which he probably does not.
“The CEO has been generous from the start.” A fact even Hayden noticed, and one that seemed to bother her.
She’s not the petty sort. I’m not sure what that was about.
“I was overqualified for the position you encouraged me to take,” I remind him. “The promotion is a no-brainer.”
My father drops his gaze. He lets out a heavy sigh and spins his full-grain leather chair to the window and the infinity pool beyond, where pine trees dot the landscape for a natural appearance.
The deep blue of the lake and its sandy shore lie just past the pool.
“You’ve always been loyal. I never realized how that might have held you back. ”
For a moment, I’m struck mute.
My father doesn’t back down, let alone admit wrongdoing.
His entire world revolves around Club Tahoe.
I would have bet my life he wanted my world to revolve around it too.
In fact, he stated as much when he insisted I work at Blue Casino to broaden my experience before returning to Club Tahoe full-time.
Is this some sort of trick? Is he testing my loyalty? “I’ve enjoyed the work I’ve done at the club.”
He doesn’t look away from the view. “Yes. Your brothers never did.”
Was that longing in his voice? What the hell?
It’s not like my father hates my brothers, but he hasn’t spoken to some of them in years. They never did what he wanted, and their presence tended to make his blood pressure rise and his face turn a mottled burnt red.
I strain my neck and look around, expecting someone to jump out and yell, “Gotcha.”
When I turn back, my father’s eyes are forlorn. I have the strangest urge to soothe him, which has never happened in my entire life. Ethan Cade isn’t soft. He doesn’t need comfort. He’s a damn self-possessed man. What’s gotten into him?
“My brothers took umbrage at your shoving the company down their throats,” I remind him.
There. That’s more like our typical conversations.
He looks me dead in the face. “That was my mistake. I should never have pushed so hard. Should have given you and your brothers more freedom to pursue other careers.”
Who is this man? To hear my father even suggest he’d be open to us working anywhere other than Club Tahoe sounds foreign. And why is he saying it now? “Dad: Levi, Wes, Bran, and even Hunt—they’ve made lives for themselves, regardless of the past. You don’t need to…to worry.”
He nods tightly. “You think they’ll visit?”
I chuckle without humor. “Since when did you want us to visit? Work here, sure, but—”
He looks at the family photo of the six of us taken a year after my mother’s death.
In the picture, my father is standing behind us near the front gates of Club Tahoe.
My brothers and I are wearing identical blue polo shirts and slacks we weren’t permitted to so much as touch with our fingers, let alone get dirty.
What’s not revealed in the picture is that my brothers and I waited for over an hour for our father to show up.
He’d been too busy with work to make the shoot on time.
Which left four boys and an eighteen-month-old restless and confused.
“I’ve not been there for you,” he says, shocking me further. “I shouldn’t have put Club Tahoe first. I plan to change that.”
Something is wrong here, or this is a setup.
He’s lost his damn mind. I’m twenty-seven; my brothers range in age from twenty-two to twenty-nine.
We’re adults. Even if this weren’t a joke, it’s a little late.
“Look, Dad. I don’t know where this is coming from or what you have planned, but don’t push the others. They’re happy.”
I nearly wince at the intensity behind the gaze my father sends me. “Are they?”
“Happy?” I ask, just to be sure I’m following. Because this entire conversation is surreal.
He nods.
I’d like to say, yes, of course they’re happy, but the truth is, I don’t know. Sometimes I suspect my brothers are as lost as I am.
I sit forward. “They’re grown men. They make their own choices.”
He studies me for a long moment before his gaze flickers away. “Congratulations. On the promotion. You like it there?” He looks over at this last question as if my answer is important, when my happiness has never been important to him. In my entire life, my father has never asked what I wanted.
“I enjoy the work.” Better to agree and get this uncomfortable conversation over with, but as soon as the words leave my mouth, I realize they’re true. Working at Blue has felt right from the beginning. Or at least, from the moment I set eyes on Hayden Tate.
Hayden is…different. She doesn’t cower. For some twisted reason, I like that.
She’s refreshing in a lifestyle that grows stale.
Or maybe it’s the way her curvy hips swish back and forth after I’ve pissed her off and she’s storming away from me—I haven’t decided.
Either way, she’s made Blue bearable, and now I’ve been promoted. It can only get better from here.
From what I’ve heard, management bonuses, coupled with the increased income I’ll be receiving, will keep me in comfort. I won’t need my father’s money to stay flush. And I’d give anything to prove to my brothers that I can make it on my own.
I lost my brothers’ respect when I started cashing in on the trust fund payments our father dangled while they walked away to live their own lives. My brothers have my back, but they’ve never understood why I put up with our father’s crap.
I thought the job my father ordered me to take at Blue Casino was to ensure he still had me as his lackey, just more experienced.
Some part of me still believes it. But if his words are true, and he’s open to me working somewhere else, I’d just as soon never work at Club Tahoe again.
I’d like to become my own man, the way my brothers have.
Which means I can’t screw up the opportunity Blue has given me.
I stand and reach across the desk, shaking my father’s hand with a firm grip, the way he taught me to when I was four years old. “I’d better get back. I’m meeting with friends to celebrate.”
“Don’t be a stranger, Adam.” He squeezes my palm, the look in his eyes sincere.
“No,” I stammer. “Of course not.” But I have no idea what he’s talking about. My brothers and I are all strangers to him. It just so happens I’m a closer stranger than the rest of them.
I exit his office and stop in the reception area, staring blindly at the opposite wall. Whatever is going on with him, it can’t be important, or I’d have heard about it in the local news. He’ll be back to his overbearing, ornery self in no time.
“Everything all right?” Esther is sitting at her desk, her eyebrows pinched in concern.
“Fine.” I grin and pull a butterscotch candy from my pocket, placing it in front of her. My brothers and I used to leave Esther her favorite candy whenever we visited. Now, I’m the only one who sets foot in this place.
I walk toward the exit, and Esther’s soft voice drifts toward me. “He’s proud of you, you know.”
My back stiffens and I freeze, a prickle of unease floating across my neck. The atmosphere in here is off. I’m not used to heart-to-hearts with my father. Or with Esther, as kind as she’s been over the years.
I thought I wanted my father’s pride in me. Now that I have it, I’m too disturbed by his behavior to feel anything but confusion.
I offer a confident smile that I don’t feel over my shoulder, and exit Club Tahoe.