“Yeah.” He nodded. “She wanted me to ask you to look into whether her aunt and uncle have some sort of policy out on the resort. She thinks there’s something legal you can do to help her find out the truth.”
“Policy?” Sean asked.
Cade shrugged. “It’s what they were in her office asking her about that day.”
“I can’t officially request a subpoena on their finances unless I have cause,” Sean admitted.
“I figured as much.” Cade sighed.
Sean narrowed his eyes. “I do have a friend that can look into it though.”
Cade smiled. “Thanks.” He moved to get up but stopped and sat back down. “So, you and my mom…”
“I thought we worked through this already?” Sean said with a chuckle.
“That was before you decided to put a ring on it,” Cade tried to joke.
Sean nodded. “I should have talked to you before…”
“You didn’t have to,” Cade admitted.
“Respect for you and for my brother would have dictated it,” Sean said, setting his hands on the desk. “You know that I love her.”
“That’s obvious,” Cade admitted. “I think the entire town knows it now.”
Sean smiled. “We don’t have any real problem, do we?”
“No, it’s just taken me a while to get used to the idea of having a dad again.”
Sean’s face changed. “I have no intention of taking the place of Henry. You know that, right?”
“No more than I had any intention of taking Reggie’s place with Raven,” he agreed. “Love happens.”
Sean nodded and looked a little more relaxed. “Love happens.”
“Okay, now that that’s over.” Cade made a move to stand again.
“There is one more topic of business we need to discuss.” Sean stood with him. “I need a best man, and I was sure hoping you’d fill the vacancy.”
Cade smiled and held out his hand for Sean’s. “I’d be honored.”
After leaving his uncle’s office, he headed to the diner to grab a sandwich with the guys. His workdays weren’t too demanding, except for a few days a month when they trained in the tower.
The tower was a large, state-of-the-art steel building that quite literally was lit on fire. Once a month for three to four days, they filled the tower with fire and smoke, all in the name of training. At this point, since he’d gone through the drill so often, there was a hint of fun to the task.
Not that he’d let on to the newbies, since they were all sweating bullets whenever he called for drill days.
Today was the calm before the storm. He’d already given a twenty-four-hour warning that drills started first thing in the morning. Today, his men were calm, relaxed, and enjoying themselves. Tomorrow, they’d be sweating and training as if their lives depended on it. Which they did.
“Hey, chief.” Tony waved him over to the table where all his men were gathered.
“Hey.” He grabbed the empty chair and sat next to Tony and Andre. The two men seemed to always be glued to each other’s sides. He knew they were best friends and had grown close now that Tony was officially dating Darby, and Andre and Carrie were… well, that was more complicated. Andre happily told everyone that they were dating, while Carrie adamantly denied it.
Raven’s opinion on the couple was that Carrie was trying to save Andre from his father’s wrath. After all, when the only black woman in town dated the man whose father was the biggest racist, things tended to get ugly.
As far as Cade could tell, word about the relationship hadn’t reached Andre’s father yet. At least that was the working theory since Andre’s old man had yet to have one of his famous public drunken scenes. Even though he was one of the wealthiest men in town, the man liked to drink. A lot.
“Ready for tomorrow?” he asked Andre.
“As ready as I ever am.” Andre gave a weak smile.
“This will be your fifth time?” he asked.
“Seventh,” Andre corrected.
“Wow, seven? I guess time does fly.” Cade shook his head. The fact was, Cade had lost count of the times he’d hauled his butt through the burning building himself. Within the first year, he’d run the course more than a dozen times. “Are you nervous?”
“Naw, I lost my nerves after the second time,” Andre told him, then his eyes moved beyond Cade. Without glancing over, he knew instantly that Carrie had walked into the building.
“You sure look nervous now,” Cade leaned in and whispered, smiling.
“Why won’t she agree to date me?” Andre ran his hands through his hair.
“It could be because she’s afraid of your old man,” Kevin broke in. “He does own half the town.”
“Naw,” Andre replied, his eyes following Carrie as she sat on a barstool near the front. Her eyes landed on the group and locked with Andre for a split second.
From where Cade sat, there was no denying the fact that Carrie was extremely interested.
“Maybe it’s nerves?” someone else threw in.
“Shut up,” Andre hissed. “My love life is none of your business.”
That statement set off the entire table. Carrie’s name was said loudly several times just so it was totally obvious to everyone in the diner that they were talking about Andre and Carrie.
Finally, Darby walked over to the table and glared down at him.
“Can’t you control your men?” Darby narrowed her eyes as she spoke.
“Me?” He pointed to his chest. “I don’t…” Darby’s eyes got even narrower. He sighed and turned to the table. “Enough,” he said in a steady voice. To his surprise, everyone stopped talking. “Place your orders and leave the teasing to teenage girls.”
“Thanks.” Darby patted his shoulder as she started making her rounds to collect orders.
Somehow the talk at the table turned to the murders. Each of his team had speculations about who the murderer was and theories as to why people in Cannon Falls were dying.
The craziest of the theories was that Kim was Rachelle and Joseph’s love child. Why they had all been murdered wasn’t discussed.
The only theory that caught his attention was that Kim had been killed because she had overheard Raven’s aunt and uncle discussing stealing money from Raven and murdering Rachelle and Joseph.
At least some of the townspeople were on Raven’s side.
After leaving the diner, he had a few more rounds to make. One was his monthly call to old man Dove’s residence. The man was at it again, trying to burn his trash in a pile by the edge of the road.
Cade made it there before the fire truck this time and easily put the fire out with the extinguisher in his trunk.
When the crew on shift showed up, they riled him and claimed that with him around, there wasn’t any reason for them to be on duty.
After his last stop for the day, he headed to the store to pick up a bottle of wine and something to make for dinner. Raven was heading to his place once she was done with work.
He grabbed a couple of steaks and some fresh salad fixings and was heading towards the wine aisle when he spotted Julia walking towards him. She was pushing a cart full of items, including several bottles of wine.