Chapter 32
THIRTY-TWO
Jada
I smoothed down the dark brown dress I had bought right before leaving Boston.
I had never worn it before, and it felt nice to be dressed up.
It was the color of my hair, a chestnut brown, and tight around the waist. I had accented it with gold hoop earrings, bangle bracelets, and a pair of strappy heels.
I curled my hair into beachy waves and felt confident as I made my way into the kitchen.
I rounded the corner, and my eyes fell on Cane, standing with his back to me, overlooking the pool. He had a pair of gray dress pants and a white dress shirt, sleeves rolled up as usual. His blond hair was longer than normal, and the ends fell just to the tip of his collar.
I had hoped that going out to dinner tonight would ease the strangeness between us that had seemed to linger since the Decker incident.
Cane had seemed to be busier at work since then and a lot quieter around me.
He promised nothing was the matter, but it just wasn’t the same as it had been before Decker showed up.
I leaned against the doorframe to adjust a strap on my heel and just watched him. He ran one hand roughly through his hair, the muscles in his back rigid. In his other hand, he was holding his cell to his ear. The sound of my heel hitting the tile caused him to turn toward me abruptly.
His face was stern, his forehead creased in frustration, his lips a thin line. He raised an index finger to me and turned his back to me again.
Something about the way he was standing there made me nervous, and I spun the ring on my finger.
“No, I understand.” Cane stretched his neck side to side. “Are you sure?”
His head fell as he nodded it subtly, more to himself than anything. My stomach dropped.
“Yeah, I get it. We need to get to the bottom of it. I don’t like the way that sounds.” He exhaled harshly. “No, I can absolutely meet you now. I’m in Tempe, so it will be a while, but I’m on my way.”
He shoved his phone in his pocket and hesitated before turning to me again.
“I’m sorry, Jada. I have something I need to take care of, so I’m going to have to cancel our dinner plans.” His face was stern, his body rigid. His eyes were soft yet still maintained an underlying blaze that worried me.
“Okay. Is everything all right?” My mind rolled through a million possibilities, causing my heartbeat to spike.
Calm down.
“Yeah. Nothing for you to worry about.” He strode over and kissed me on the head. “When is Kari coming home?”
“Uh, I’m not sure. I think she is getting off work in an hour or so, but I think she’s going to Max’s house after that.”
Cane started toward the front door. “She’s coming home as Max will be with me. Follow me to the front and set your alarm, okay?”
My heart began pounding in my chest. “Should I be worried about something, Cane?”
He stopped in his tracks and turned to look at me. “You should be alert. You should always be alert. Eyes open. But I wouldn’t leave you here if I didn’t think you would be fine. You should know that.” A small smile spread across his face. “You’re my priority.”
“Cane,” I whispered, my heart swelling. I took a few steps forward and wrapped my arms around his waist. “Will you call? Let me know you’re okay?”
“Of course. Now set this alarm. I have to go.”
CANE
My fucking head hurt. Pounded. Throbbed.
It could have been because my blood pressure was so fucking high that my head was about to shoot off my body like a cartoon character.
That would have been a funny vision if I hadn’t been ready to lose my shit.
And losing my cool in front of the private investigator sitting on the other side of my desk at Alexander Industries probably wouldn’t be the best idea.
Max gave me a look to keep myself in check, and I glowered at him all cool and collected.
How can he always be so calm? One of these days, I’m going to make sure he goes ape-shit crazy, just for the fun of it.
I rolled my head around my neck, trying to loosen the straining muscles in my body.
“So what do you suggest we do?” I asked, sitting back in my chair.
I really hope he suggests that I just destroy him …
“Well, Cane, there isn’t a lot we can do at this point. The witness that says he saw a man who looked like Simon the night of the waterline bust isn’t going to talk to the police.”
“Fucking punk,” I muttered, waiting for Nick to go on.
“But there is security footage of an Avalanche in the area that night?” Max glanced at me and then back to Nick.
“There is. But do you know how many dark Avalanches there are in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area? It isn’t clear enough to get a license plate number, so there’s no hard evidence that we can do anything with.”
I scrubbed my hands over my face. “I should have killed him when I had the chance.”
“Do I even want to know what that means?” Nick raised his eyebrows.
“No. No, you don’t.” Max flashed me a warning look. “Cane’s just running his mouth.”
I leaned forward on my desk, frustration eating away at me. “So what? I just wait around like a sitting duck while he goes around tearing up my job sites and assaulting my girlfriend? Fuck that!”
“Cane,” Nick said, his voice even, “stay calm. We’re doing everything we can at this point to ensure Powers doesn’t do anything else to you, your assets, or Ms. Stanley.”
I looked Nick over. His face had changed in the roughly ten years since I had met him. It was harder, more seasoned, but his eyes were still the assessing, evaluating ones I remembered.
He was one of the best PIs in the state—and one of the few willing to take on a case from a rambling kid who had just lost his dad.
As his investigation progressed into my dad’s case, Nick and I became close.
He never had gotten married nor had children, so I don’t know if he looked at me like a kid or a friend.
Regardless, he saved me from drinking myself to death on more than one occasion.
“I know, Nick. But you know who this son of a bitch is. I want him eliminated as a threat, and since I’m guessing you aren’t going to support me killing him …”
Nick shook his head. “If anyone knows what that family is capable of, it’s me, Cane. But we have to do things in order.”
“He’ll slip up,” Max chimed in, looking between us.
“Max is right. Simon will slip up, and we’ll nail him to the wall.
Think about it: we know that the police are watching him due to his involvement in apparent drug activities.
We have a guard watching Jada twenty-four seven.
We have undercover security at Benjamin Estates as well as rewards out for information leading to the waterline burst. We are doing everything we can.
” Nick eyed me shrewdly. “What would have helped the most is for Jada to have contacted the police after the assault.”
I shook my head, scrubbing my hand down my face again. “They wouldn’t have done anything anyway. It would have been her word against his, and you said so yourself; the security cameras there didn’t catch anything.”
“He’s a slippery one, but I think that’s genetic,” Nick said, shaking his head. “But we will get him, Cane. I promise you that.”