Chapter Twenty-Six
THE BACHELOR AUCTION site had been hacked. All the bids, all the money gone, disappeared. Watching the bid totals climb had given Eli the confidence boost to keep smiling for the camera even though he preferred a behind-the-scenes life. But this morning with Amarie out of bed before the morning humidity to complete the full hike with Bethany, he’d logged on under a red-and-gold sunrise. Immediately the day descended into the bleakest of nights. The website had posted a message.
Dear Customer, Auction Luv Buzz has been the target of a data breach. Until further notice, all bidding accounts and monetary payouts are suspended. We are working diligently with our IT team to get every account restored in a timely fashion.
What the heck did that mean?
And Eli had spent the better part of an hour tearing up his office looking for the Kitty Kibbles contract. The dreaded option of him being beholden to a faceless behemoth company, not that Kitty Kibbles was a household brand, had become the only one to save his family.
He had maybe an hour to meet the deadline to accept their current offer. It was too late to negotiate if the terms favored their time above his practice. Cara and her pooch in a tote had vacated the premises when he arrived; he was grateful she wasn’t here to witness his death spiral. No doubt she would’ve sold tickets. She really did have a vicious side when things didn’t go her way.
He reached for another stack of papers on the bookshelf, but his brain short-circuited as he ransacked this pile of peer-reviewed journals twice. In a fit of panicked frustration, Eli shoved the tower of veterinary medicine reference textbooks. The four-tiered structure tilted away as if afraid of what he might do next. The entire weight struck the wall, releasing a volcanic boom. Loose paper scattered to the floor. Without that check, he would lose everything… again.
Hiccup pushed his head against Eli’s hand, his whimper tugging at Eli’s heartstrings. His best friend, the one companion who had stuck with him during the most difficult year of his life, was anxious.
“Sorry, boy.” Eli gave his hand a soft stroke. “Don’t mean to scare you.” But Eli was terrified. Every cell in his body stretched thin, on the verge of snapping.
“Cara, I swear if you’re trashing—”
Leah Calvary stormed in, ready for battle, with her rolling pin in hand. She froze. With her eyes, she roved over the cyclonic condition of his usually organized chaos of an office.
“Cara walked into town for breakfast.”
His mother visibly exhaled; her hunter-green button-down accentuating eyes clouded with concern. “If it’s not her causing you grief, what’s wrong?”
“The auction site—it got hacked. We’re not going to get the auction money in time to stop the foreclosure.”
“Okay, breathe, Eli.” She mimicked the gesture as if it was something she needed to demonstrate on his behalf.
“I am breathing, Momma. But what I need to do is sign that Kitty Kibbles contract,” he said through gritted teeth, “and have that check deposited into the business account by Monday morning.”
“If it’s that off-putting to you, Eli, to continue the TikTok page, just ask the Pendletons for more time. The whole town knows we have money coming.”
“Momma, would you stop with the Pendletons. They are not friends to this family. Amarie told me yesterday that she printed the Kitty Kibbles contract. I can’t find it.”
“Slow down, honey. Take your time. If Amarie said she took care of it, then it’s here.”
“Why can’t I find it?
“It’s in the computer, right? Print out another copy.”
“She handled the communication.” He’d done this to himself. Relegated parts of his responsibilities to Amarie, now look at him: helpless. The single most critical piece of paper of his lifetime and it was locked away in Amarie’s email account behind two-factor identification.
“Let’s call her, Eli.”
“Mom, I have been trying to reach her. Even called Tobias and Noah to get up the mountain after them.”
“Where is she?
“Well, Bethany wanted to explore the falls. Amarie and her set out this morning on foot.”
“She probably doesn’t have a signal that far up the mountain.”
“Okay, fine. But what am I gonna do if we miss this contract? I mean, our whole future is hanging on that check.”
“Eli, calm down. That isn’t so. Look, tonight is the bachelor auction. You’ll know the winner by tomorrow. And you still have a day to spare until the deadline to pay the mortgage. Maybe the website will be up and running by then.”
“Do you want to risk this house, my practice, Dad’s legacy on a maybe? What do we know about that auction site, huh? It could all be an online scam. I should’ve never agreed to it in the first place.”
“Okay, Eli, what is it that you want me to do?”
“I have rules in place for a reason. That’s why I’m the boss. And I like sticking to my policies. Amarie came in here, and she’s just changed everything. Now I’m lost without her. I can’t find what I need when I need it.” And there it was, his worst fear. He’d made another wrong turn and his family would suffer the consequences for his failure.
“Then wait till Amarie gets back.”
“I shouldn’t have to. This is my business. If she printed the contract, where is it? Without a contract they won’t release the funds. Bosses don’t wait on employees.”
“Amarie is more than your employee, Eli. If she said it’s here, then it is. We just wait until Amarie gets back.”
“Mom, what is it that you don’t understand about the timeline?”
“Eli Calvary, what it is that you don’t understand is that you are not too big for me to swat your backside. Now I’ve had enough disrespect from men in this house in the last twenty-four hours.”
“I’m not taking advantage of Amarie, so don’t lump me in with Dr. Russell Feldman.” Eli loaded every syllable with the contempt he felt for the man. “What did she ever seen in him?” he murmured.
“The way you’re snapping and carrying on, I’m wondering what she sees in you. Now you get it together.”
“Mom, this is it. Our ninth life. Without that contract, we’re done. The house. The cabins. The land. The clinic.”
“Listen to me. I knew Cara coming into town would put you on your ear. That woman had you in a perpetual bad mood for years, now it’s back. You’re barking, and I’m here trying to help you. We have time.”
“This ain’t got nothing to do with Cara. Amarie had one job and she didn’t do it.”
“Well, I say she did. Now focus and keep your head on straight.”
“The only thing wrong with my head is I’ve allowed too many hands in the pot.”
“Well, no work gets done with hands in pockets, Eli. It took the family working together and Amarie to get here.”
“Here is relative. Without that money, we’re all going to be homeless and unemployed.”
“I’ll call your brothers.”
“Why?”
She hit Eli with that mother stare. “If they have found Amarie, she’ll come back and take care of everything.”
“And that’s what I hate. I don’t want her to take care of my business.”
Just that moment, Cara, Russell, and Lourdes Pendleton walked into his establishment, laughing and giggling.
“Eli.” Cara beamed. “Look who I bumped into at the little restaurant in town!”
Cara and Dr. Russell Feldman were still in town… and they’d found Lourdes, the great white hunter. Just what he didn’t need, an attack from three sides.
“Hey Eli.” Lourdes smiled. “You looked stressed? Guess you saw the demolition equipment on the side of the road this morning.”
“Lourdes, go spread your venom somewhere else,” Eli spat.
“Oh honey,” Cara cooed, walking up to him and cupping his cheek. “She’s right. You’re flushing beet red.”
He pushed her hand away. “Were you messing with my desk?”
Amarie and her mom walked in the door, big smiles on their faces. Tobias and Noah on their heels.
“Found Amarie,” Noah called. “And the construction equipment.”
Eli ignored that last part. “The Kitty Kibbles contract. Where is it, Amarie?”
“Good morning to you too, grumpy. It’s on the printer.” Amarie bypassed Russell and Lourdes without a word. She peeked around Cara. “It should be right—”
“Not there, sunshine,” he rumbled, voice dripping with sarcasm. “I have exactly seven minutes to get the contract signed and scanned.”
“I’ll grab my computer. We can get it done.” She turned to head for the house. “Oh, shoot.”
“No. Not shoot. What?”
“My laptop is in the cabin.”
“What?” Eli bellowed.
At his thunderous outburst, Amarie winced.
“Take it easy, brother.” Tobias took a cautious step forward.
Dr. Russell Feldman laughed.
“Shut up, Feldman,” Eli snapped.
“I tried to warn you.” Russell’s laugh grew louder. “She baits you, and then chop. Business losing money. Clientele disappearing.”
“Russell, you used me as free labor for years. Don’t pretend like I sabotaged you. When I packed up my unappreciated skills and talents, that’s when you realized how much money I made for your business.”
“I thought he abandoned you with nothing?” Eli frowned. Isn’t that what she had told him?
“Lies. She dismantled my website and social media in order to ruin me, and then packed up in the middle of the night in that ancient death trap on four wheels.”
“That’s not actually true.”
“Which part?” Eli questioned. “You sabotaged his business.”
“I wouldn’t do that. He’s twisting everything. I built those sites. He had nothing before I came along.”
“Oh please. She came with the clothes on her back and terrible eating habits. No real job experience besides working in her father’s practice. No resume.”
“I more than proved myself capable, Russell.”
“Yeah, tell that to the next man who lets you upend his life. You did the same thing to him, didn’t you, Amarie? Hmm, seems like a pattern to me. Make it impossible for the men you lure to function without you.”
“Nobody lured you, slut-nuts,” Amarie retorted. “I helped him. Just like I helped you.”
“One more word out of you about Amarie and you’re going to get a barroom brawl beating,” Noah defended.
“You conveniently forgot to mention you left him high and dry. Tried to ruin his business,” Eli challenged.
“This man told me he loved me. Gave me a fake diamond and a prepaid credit card, and then screwed any woman with a willing vagina under my nose and eventually in my face. Literally, I found him screwing the receptionist I hired in our house.”
“So, my ex-wife comes to town to screw me over. But you beat her to it. When will I learn my lesson?” Eli was done. With all of them. “You know what? I knew it. I knew it. I knew I should have never trusted anyone else to handle this for me.”
“Eli, you’re overreacting. Websites get hacked. The money will be there. Whatever it is, we can figure it out together. Partners, remember?”
“I’m sick of women telling me to calm down. I don’t want to calm down. I didn’t want to calm down when it came to Cara. Don’t want to calm down when it comes to you.”
“Eli, please.” Amarie pleaded with sad brown eyes. “Don’t say any more.”
“I was so wrong to let you come in here and change everything. And you didn’t even ask me, and you should have. I mean, now you got me all hyped up on this contract. And now we can’t even find it and the opportunity is gonna pass us by. So, you don’t tell me what I can and cannot say. It’s my name on the sign out front. I’m done listening to you. I never wanted any of this. Not the auction. Not the TikTok account. Not you. Should’ve never hired you. I let you talk me into Hollywood dreams with a dollar-store budget. Now I’m worse off.”
“You wouldn’t even have this opportunity if it wasn’t for my work.”
“Oh, so now you think I’m beholden to you? That I can’t save my family business without you?”
“Eli, you’re saying too much now.” Leah’s voice held more than a note of warning. “Lourdes, call your father and tell him I want a meeting. We will make arrangements for a temporary loan—”
“No,” Eli snapped. “Momma, the Pendletons want this land. They bid on it before the Calvarys owned it, but the previous owners sold it to Dad instead. They’ve been trying to rip it out from under us for years.”
“Levi never told me that.”
“It’s true. My sophomore year of college. The year Dad hurt his back. He got behind on the mortgage. He asked Pendleton for help. When he refused, I used my college fund to pay off the loan, so we’d never have to worry again about them coming after us. That’s why I joined the Army instead of coming back home. To pay off my student loan debt.”
“You and your father kept the truth from me?”
“We wanted to protect you. Dad didn’t want you to know.”
“Amarie, come on, baby girl,” Bethany interjected. “Let’s—let’s leave them alone.”
“No. I need her to do her job, the job that I’m paying her to do.”
“You know what, Eli Calvary. You don’t pay enough for me to subject myself to an angry pit bull of a man who’s too foolish to realize the one true opportunity he’s about to ruin.”
“I don’t pay you to lecture me on what’s most important to my business.”
“Two things, boss. I get paid by the hour, so guess what, you’re on my time, not the other way around. The other, per our contract, my share of the money comes after the auction. So, if the site is out of commission, our arrangement is done. Since you value your policies and rules above the person who believed in your vision, those are my facts. And I’ve decided I couldn’t care less if you ever find your contract. I printed it. You were supposed to bring it home. Common sense says talk to the person who was here.” Amarie jabbed an accusatory finger in Cara’s direction. “Why don’t you ask your ring bearer since she slept here last night?”
“Me?” Cara whined. “Eli, what would I know about any of this? She did this. Now she’s blaming me? And in my condition.” It was then Eli noticed her cradling her stomach.
“What condition?” he mumbled.
“Are you actually considering believing her over me, Eli? I stayed by your side, helping you.”
Eli raised his chin, stubborn, angry. “I didn’t say that, Amarie. Cara, what condition?”
“No, you’re not saying anything to convince me that you trust me,” Amarie continued, but Cara hadn’t answered his question. “Eli, are you even listening to me?”
“No,” He bellowed. “Cara. What condition?”
“I’m pregnant.” And then his ex-wife looked at Amarie. “And the baby might be yours.”
No. No. No. Eli’s mind reeled. Cara and her lies.
“What?” Amarie stumbled back. “I don’t need this.”
“Amarie, she’s lying.”
“I don’t care,” she screamed. “I don’t need a stupid, stubborn boyfriend who hates computers and helping people on the internet. Who handwrites dumb policies for one employee.”
“Two employees.”
“Not anymore. I have a rule of my own and I broke it for you, Eli Calvary. But not anymore. I take care of myself, and I want nothing from you.”
Fury and fear twisted, sharp edges cut him open, severed the synapses in his brain. She was the one who’d messed up. How did she get to walk away from him? Like Cara. She would hurt him. Inflict a wound so deep, no amount of packing could fill it, and then she’d abandon him for dead. If she was going to walk away and ruin him forever, she would feel the pain he felt.
“Amarie, listen. I promise, Cara’s baby can’t be mine.”
She faced him, expression formidable. “So you want me to trust you now, huh? Believe in you?”
“You leaving me now?” he asked.
Amarie lifted her chin, defiant, fierce, unafraid. “Yeah, I am.”
“You’re just like Cara.”
“No.” She shook her head. “I’ll never ask to come back to you. I deserve better.”
“On what planet? Honestly, Eli, I’m having a baby. You said I would always be your number one. What do you see in this girl who inserted herself into your life because she had nowhere to go?”
Cara’s dismissive tone ignited Eli’s fury. Before he could stop the careless words, the poison had spewed from his mouth. “Not just her. You. All of you, I don’t want your help. I never did.”
His regret came in an instant. Like the others, he was paralyzed. But that didn’t stop him from praying. Please. Please. Please. No, he couldn’t have spoken the lie aloud. But one look at Tobias’s clenched jaw and Noah’s tight lips and he knew the truth. Big mouths should come with warning labels because the strike of Eli’s words, his fears unchecked, spread faster than venom, it poisoned what little oxygen remained in the room. Eli stood stock-still, reining in the cords of dread threatening to cut him in two. He loved his family. He loved Amarie. They were the steel reinforcements in his foundation. And he had just taken a sledgehammer to each of them. Stupid. Stupid. He inhaled, lifted his head, ready to pay penance. All eyes looked to him, each conveying a different emotion. His mom, disappointment and anger. Bethany, sadness and pain. Russell, gloating. Lourdes, gleeful opportunity. And Cara, a sly grin of satisfaction. With his eyes he found the only person in the room who he never intended to hurt, Amarie. Their gazes locked just in time for him to witness her light extinguish.
“Amarie,” he whispered her name, a plea that went unanswered. She was already backing away from him, but the hurt radiated in her urgent retreat to escape him.
The worst day of Eli’s life started when Amarie disappeared from sight, leaving him behind. “Everybody get out.”
“Let me grab my stuff,” Cara protested.
“Out,” he bellowed.