CHAPTER TEN #3
This morning he said little when Zane came over and told Cade he had to call Ethan.
Apparently shit went down yesterday after practice.
Turns out Ethan doesn’t give empty threats when he tells someone in his organization to get their shit together.
He must not have liked what he saw because yesterday after practice he came into the clubhouse and announced that Zack had been traded.
He wasn’t out of the Union, but he wasn’t traded to any of the local teams. When Ethan threatens a trade, he means it.
He just sent Zack to the Palmetto Punishers in South Carolina.
It means no one on the team will play against him unless it's in a tournament or something, but he’s gone.
I could tell by both Zane and Cade’s expressions that they weren’t broken up about it at all.
Sounds like it’s gonna be a good move for the team.
I don’t know who the Axemen got in return because, I’ll be honest, I quit listening at that point and zoned out in thought.
What does get my attention is when Ethan was still on the phone, and Logan came barreling into the house.
“I think I figured out who is sending that creepy-ass shit to your house!” He scurries over to the dining room table and sets his laptop down.
Asher comes into the house a few seconds later, glaring at Logan.
He stops next to him and bends down to get close to his face.
“I know you’re excited to share the information, and I get it’s fucking important, but next time let me put the truck in park and let it stop moving before you hop out of it! You could’ve been hurt!”
Logan rolls his eyes and looks at his husband. “It was stopped. I’ve never hopped out of a moving vehicle and don’t plan to start. Calm down. Let me work. I’m fine.”
Asher grumbles but goes and sits down next to Pops and Dad. Logan looks at Cade, who’s got his phone out with Ethan still on speakerphone. Cade gives Logan a chin lift. “What did you find? Who the hell is doing this?”
He shakes his head. “I don’t think it’s one person. I think it’s two. Or I guess, it’s more like it’s one person and they have an accomplice or helper.”
Ethan’s voice projects from the phone. “Keys from the Norse Rebels just sent me a message thinking the same thing. Why do you think it’s two people, and who are these two people?”
Logan types away on his laptop for a moment before he answers the question.
“I think the accomplice or the helper was one of your teammates. Zack. I think he’s the one who got the letters to the clubhouse.
None of those went through the actual mail, and on the days they were delivered to your locker, Cade, well, those were about the only days this Zack guy was ever early for practice or a game.
” I can feel the anger coming off Cade, and I reach out and find his hand, needing to hold it right now.
Logan continues to share what he found. “Now, having said that, I don’t think he wrote the letters or sent the packages. In fact, I’m pretty sure he didn’t even know what the letters said and that he was just the delivery person.”
Zane asks what’s on the tip of my tongue.
“How the hell do you know that?” Logan turns his laptop, and on it is cam footage from the field before the last game Cade played.
It shows the sidelines and some of the guys talking.
Logan points to Zack, Justice, and Anders, all standing, drinking water, and talking.
“I can’t get the volume higher for you all to hear it, but when I isolated the sound as much as I could, it was this older guy telling both of them about what was found on your porch that day and about the letters that were in your locker and the type of shit they said.
Watch Zack’s face.” I move closer to the monitor so I can see Zack’s face better, and a look of disgust and horror comes over his face.
Zane sighs. “Well, maybe the fucker has at least a little bit of a conscience after all. That or he just realized who he’s associated with is completely off their rocker and could come after him next.”
Cade lightly squeezes my hand, but the tension hasn’t left him. “So if he’s just an idiotic accomplice, who the hell is doing all of this?” Logan moves his laptop back in front of him and types for a few more moments.
“I think it’s one of the girls who you had that…interaction with.”
Cade asks with clenched teeth, “Which one?” Logan types again and shakes his head.
“That’s where things get murky. I don’t know if that Keys guy found out more, but I’m thinking, in my opinion, that it’s either that Cindy or Katie chick.” Wait. What?
My mouth asks the question before my brain can process it. “Those are the last two of the four that I would’ve guessed. Why do you think it’s them and not the other two? I mean, one of the other girls claimed to have slept with Cade and everything.”
Ethan’s voice fills the room again. “Keys just texted the same thing, though he’s leaning toward Cindy. He mentions something about her background.” Logan nods, then realizes Ethan can’t see him.
“Yeah, that’s what I found too.” Logan looks at us and drops a bomb.
“Cindy ain't her legal name. She’s also wanted in two different states for questioning regarding the questionable disappearances of two different women. The more recent one, well, that woman’s name was Cindy West. That’s the same name she’s been going by for the last year and a half. ”
Ethan mutters a reasonable question. “I wonder if that’s why she quit when I moved her to a different department.
It was right when I took over, and the paperwork was a mess.
I had all the staff fill out new paperwork and needed copies of identification and such.
She couldn’t slide under the radar with that name anymore, could she? ”
I ask what we need to know now, as in this moment. “Where is Cindy, or whatever her real name is?”
Logan looks at me. “Now this is the part that I got help from Samson and Juan. Samson can find medical records. Let’s just say I never want to be on his bad side.” Asher, reading the room, nudges Logan.
“Focus, babe. Tell them what they need to know.” Cade gives a chin lift to Asher, in one of those silent thanks that men give each other.
Logan looks around the room. “Her legal name appears to be Trixie Smith. She’s spent much of her teenage years in and out of mental institutions.
It looks like doctors diagnosed her with schizoaffective disorder.
She’s rarely, if ever, on her meds, and that’s where the problem lies.
She gets ideas and latches onto them and can’t let go of them till she’s either caught and put back in the hospital to get medicated or till she ends up arrested because something happened.
I lost track of her about five days ago.
Her phone died, and I haven’t been able to find a trace of her. ”
Ethan cuts in. “Keys says the same thing. He also mentions that she’s not going to just drop this idea of you, Cade, being hers and Hanna being in the way.
I’m going to hire security when you come back down here.
We aren’t going to take a chance that something may or may not happen.
Until she’s found, we’re going to take every measure possible to keep the two of you safe. ”
I must zone out for the rest of the conversation because I don’t notice that a few people have left the room as Cade kneels down in front of me. He’s got a concerned look on his face and reaches up to cup my cheek.
“I’m so sorry about all of this. You didn’t sign up for this when you moved in with me. I—” I stop him because I don’t want him going down that road.
“You aren’t responsible for another person’s behavior. I wouldn’t change anything between us, ever. I love you. I choose to love you every day, and I’m going to keep choosing you till the day there’s no more breath in my body.” I lean in and give him a quick kiss.
“I mean, I never thought I’d be the focus of a certified crazy stalker. I thought I’d only read about them.” That gets a sigh and a chuckle out of Cade. He looks at me with that sexy-as-sin smile. “Woman, I love you.”