Chapter 25 Kade
KADE
I needed to get my credit card unlocked.
My father had frozen it and I was tired of relying on the goodwill of parents who'd made it clear they had none left to give.
The bank was my last option before I'd have to grovel, and I hated groveling.
It felt like I'd spent the majority of my adult life groveling in one way or another just to stay on their good side.
Lately, however, I'd started to see why they were so hard on me.
Watching how hard Lainey worked for the things she had really showed me a different side of life.
At twenty-one years old she'd done more to build a future for herself than I had in my eighteen years of being an adult.
It put me to shame and challenged me to be a better man.
But even a better man had needs, and life wasn't free. I had to get my card unlocked so I could function.
I pulled into the parking lot at the bank and parked my car—legally this time, not in the handicapped section like normal. It made me feel better about myself to start making good choices, and the more I made them, the better I felt.
But when I slid out of the car with my wallet in hand, chaos descended around me.
A news van pulled up and parked near the curb, then another.
In less than fifteen seconds there were reporters and cameras swarming me, like they'd been waiting for me to leave the Atlas and go somewhere, and they'd followed me here.
"Mr. Kingston, is it true you've been giving money to a woman in Boulder City?"
"Your credit card was tracked being used at multiple businesses in the Boulder City area. Can you comment?"
The questions were rude and invasive and pointed to the fact that someone had been tracking my financial information, which explained why my father froze things.
Unfortunately the mob of flashing lights and microphones didn’t stop my financial needs, and I was used to a little pressure from the press now and then.
I kept walking but they surrounded me, blocking the path to the bank entrance. Microphones shoved closer and cameras clicked in rapid succession as wide eyes and eager gossip-hungry questions continued to pour out of them.
"Mr. Kingston, people want to know if you're being taken advantage of."
I stopped walking. My father's voice echoed in my head from that phone call, calling Lainey a gold digger while she stood right there listening.
I'd said nothing to truly defend her back then, but this rhetoric now felt like a mirror image of that conversation.
It made me wonder where they were getting their news from, but to say I'd outright blame my father for leaking information was absurd.
He'd impale himself on a rusty sword before he let his name get tarnished.
"Excuse me," I said, trying to move around them, but the stubborn fools stood in my way and refused to budge.
"Mr. Kingston, do you have a comment? Folks are saying you're spending a lot of time in Boulder City."
The intensity had gotten turned up severely. It was just speculation before. Now they knew I was in Boulder City a lot. It was only a matter of time before they tracked me to Bake Me Happy and learned who Lainey was. She'd been so hurt when I didn't defend her to my parents.
I wouldn't do that again.
I had no choice but to stop and try to put an end to this the only way I knew how. I had promised to keep the wedding out of the press and on the down low. If I didn't do something, they'd uncover it all and she'd be mortified publicly.
I turned to address them directly. "I made a donation to help a local bakery with a cancer research fundraiser," I said, keeping my voice steady.
"It's for a good cause and I think it'll show you all that I'm not just a rich playboy.
I do care about things." Cameras flashed and they shoved their microphones closer.
"So you admit you're giving her money?"
"Like I said, I'm helping with a fundraiser for cancer research." I pushed forward, but they pressed tighter around me.
"What about the wedding ring you've been wearing?" A woman with a camera pointed at my left hand. "Sources say you've had it on for weeks."
I looked down at the simple band I had failed to take off, and every nerve in my body buzzed with tension. The cameras zoomed in, waiting, recording every second as my blood pressure rose and my own tonsils choked me.
I pulled it off slowly and slipped it into my pocket, feeling like a total idiot.
"Are you married, Mr. Kingston?"
"No." The word felt like glass in my throat, but I'd promised Lainey I'd keep it quiet. It was her choice to tell people, not mine. It didn't matter that the annulment wasn't finished yet or that I didn't want to go through with it. This wasn't about me. "I'm not married."
"Then who's the woman in the photos from Atlas Casino? Why wear the ring?" This reporter, a nosy man with an aquiline nose, pushed his mic so close I could smell the stench of his bad breath on the foam cover.
The question was so pointed it was impossible to answer in a tactful way. If I even hinted that we were an item in any way, they would devour her. It was how they were.
"I wore the ring to keep women away from me. A single man needs some peace now and then," I said chuckling.
"Not the brunette in Boulder City?" he pressed and I swallowed hard.
"She's nothing more than a means to help my reputation. A business arrangement." I looked directly into the nearest camera as I felt my phone buzzing in my pocket. "I'm donating to her bakery to help the cancer research fundraiser. Leave her alone. She's not part of any story."
The questions exploded louder but I shoved through the crowd toward my car. There was no getting into the bank now. They'd follow me inside and turn it into a circus, which would only prove my father's point that this was out of hand.
Their camera flashes continued as I climbed into my car and fired it up. I wasn't out of the parking lot when my phone started buzzing again. Seconds later it rang through to my hands-free unit and Gavin's number scrolled across the touch screen.
"What?" I snapped the instant the call connected through to my car speakers.
"Your father's asking for you. He says it's urgent." Gavin sounded unamused. When was it not urgent?
"Everything's urgent with him," I grumbled as I turned onto Las Vegas Boulevard, heading back toward the Atlas.
"Kade." Gavin's voice dropped. "He sounds serious.
You should go." As annoyed as I was, Gavin was probably right.
If I had managed to get into the bank, they might very well have told me to speak with my father anyway.
Elias Kingston might've been my father but he was a shrewd businessman, and chances were that he'd done this just to force me to come to him on my knees.
I hung up and changed direction, heading toward my parents' estate on the edge of town.
The drive gave me too much time to think about what I'd just done, calling Lainey a business arrangement on camera.
It seemed like the right thing to say at the time, but in the aftermath it haunted me.
Taking the ring off was a smart move, but now my gut felt sick over what I'd said.
What if she didn't see it as me protecting her and she thought I really felt that way about her?
The gates opened when I arrived and I parked in the circular driveway. Both of my parents' cars were parked around front, which wasn't usual, but nothing about this was usual.
I walked inside and found my father in his study with Mom standing beside him. A tabloid was spread across his desk and he was on the phone, complaining very loudly to whomever was on the other end of the line.
He hung up when he saw me and gestured to the chair across from him. "Sit down," he ordered but I stayed standing.
"What's going on?" I tried so hard to keep my cool and act more mature. Part of growing up and being a better man required a lot more focus and emotional control than I was used to applying, but I had to do it, for Lainey's sake.
He turned the tabloid toward me. The headline screamed: "Kingston's Heir's Womanizing Ways Continue!"
Below it was the grainy photo from the hallway—the one where Lainey's face was turned away from the camera.
It wasn't exactly news since MTV had already busted the story wide open last night, though I hadn't been able to get through to Lainey about it yet. Still, it wasn’t good.
Dad would never have seen the MTV spot, but there was no way to get around this.
But beneath that was another image from what looked like security footage. The timestamp was visible in the corner. It was me and Lainey in that same hallway, but this angle showed more detail—me kissing her and my hand on her waist. Her face was still obscured but it was damning.
"Where did this come from?" I picked up the tabloid.
"Someone leaked the security feed." My father stood and moved to the window. "Mark thinks it was one of the new guys, but we're not sure. It doesn’t matter... the damage is done. This has to end, Kade."
I scanned the article. They still didn't have Lainey's name, but they had enough to keep digging. If enough people got curious it wouldn't take that much effort to track me back to her. My god, it was out of control.
"This is going to blow up," my mother said, clicking her tongue. "They’re going to make a mockery out of our family name."
"No they won't," I protested, throwing the tabloid back on the desk. "They don’t have anything, no proof."
"Not yet—" My father turned to face me. "—but it's only a matter of time.
How long until someone feeds the notion into her head that she could rake us over the coals for millions of dollars?
" His eyes narrowed on me and I knew he was right about one thing—the press wouldn’t leave this alone.
Lainey would get dragged through the mud no matter what.
"So what do you want me to do?" Exasperated, I ran both my hands through my hair and slumped into the chair. This was out of control.
"Well they're saying you preyed on her and got her drunk.
Some tabloids are painting you as a predator, Kade.
"Mom's voice was softer and more gentle than my father’s, but it still made me angry.
"It's better to be honest than to let them defame you. You won’t come back from that.
You know men in their sixties who still carry the stain of a scandal from life in their twenties. .."
She wasn't wrong either. My father's best friend, a golf course owner, had been accused of rape in his teens and he still had to deal with that nonsense to this day, even though he was acquitted.
I grumbled and covered my face with both hands. The paparazzi infuriated me. They couldn't just keep to themselves and I hated it. They were backing me into a corner I never wanted to be in.
"What do I do?" I asked reluctantly. Asking my father for advice left a bitter taste on my tongue, but if there was one thing he was good at it was managing my public image. He'd been doing that since I was a fifteen-year-old accused of grand theft auto.
"Go public with the marriage," Dad said, standing. "Issue a statement and control the narrative before it controls you."
"No." I stood and walked toward the door. "I told her I'd keep it quiet."
"This is bigger than your promises now." My father's voice hardened. "If you don't go public, the story becomes about you and your womanizing. Is that what you want?"
"I want you to leave Lainey alone," I snarled. She didn't deserve this.
"We can't leave this alone." He slammed his hand on the desk. "The board's already calling. Investors are getting nervous. Your reputation affects the entire company and you're dragging us all down with you."
I stared at the image on that paper and felt conflicted.
Lainey's face was still hidden but I could see her body language, the way she leaned into me, the way her hand rested on my chest. The last thing I wanted was to hurt her, but fallout from a shocking wedding story wouldn't be nearly as bad as if the press ran with a sexual assault narrative.
How would she react to that? Or if they spun it and made her the manipulator and me the victim?
His plan made sense, but I hated it.
"There's no other way?" I asked, already feeling the knot of guilt tighten in my gut.
"No, son. You waited too long."
"Run the story," I said. "Tell them the annulment was always the plan." I met his eyes. "Say it was a stupid thing a drunk man did in Vegas, and we're handling it quietly." Every word made my heart hurt more.
Dad sank into his chair and Mom offered a concerned look, but I walked out, slamming the door behind me. It seemed even with the best of intentions I was still a failure at everything I tried to do. Only this time, Lainey was the one who stood to get hurt by it.
I had to get to her before the press released that story, and I had to make her see how foolish I was. There was no way out but through, and this fire threatened to consume everything I had left.