The Exception (31 page)

His face softened a bit.

“He called me and I told him to never call me again. I didn’t tell you … I should have, I guess. But I didn’t want to cause a bunch of drama for nothing.”

“Yeah, for nothing. Right,” he said, holding my gaze for a few more moments. He looked down at Decker and removed his foot from his face.

Cane peered down at my ex-husband. “I am going to let you up. I want you to get in your fucking car and get the fuck out of here. Got it? Move on with your life because her future? It’s with me.”

He shook his head as he bent down and grabbed him by the shirt, helping him to his feet. “Now get.”

Decker spit a mouthful of blood onto the porch as he looked at me. “This was your last chance.” The eyes that I once knew so well, that I once saw my life in, seemed so alien to me. “I won’t be around when you decide you’ve messed up. You are on your own.”

With that, he turned and walked to his car, got in, and backed out of the driveway.

My chest felt tight, like a band was wrapped around it, squeezing the life out of me. I bent over and put my hands on my knees, trying to get air into my lungs, trying to calm myself down.

Cane walked slowly across the room. He wrapped me in his arms and rested his cheek against the top of my head. He took a deep breath. “You will never be on your own.” He squeezed me tighter as my tears overflowed my eyelids.

I sighed as I wiped my face and sagged against him.

“You know,” he said, kissing the top of my head, “it doesn’t matter what’s in front of you as long as you know who’s behind you. And I’m always going to be behind you.”

I smiled into his chest.

“Even when you fail to tell me shit like your ex-husband called you.”

“I’m sorry. I should have told you.”

“Damn right you should have told me.” His voice was crisp, laced with frustration.

I let out a breath, causing my shoulders to slump with it. “Things just seemed to have calmed down, to be going right for once in my life. And I didn’t want to rock the boat.” I raised my head to look into his eyes.

He placed his hand beneath my chin, angling my face up. I watched as the anger melted from his face as he searched my eyes, his jaw slacking, his eyes softening. “Jada, it really bothers me that you didn’t tell me that.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

Cane’s body relaxed as he looked away. “My feelings are hurt. I’m turning into Max,” he said, wincing, making me laugh. “But seriously, are you all right?”

“Yeah. These blasts from the past are going to have to stop at some point, right?”

“Let’s fucking hope.”

“Forgive me?” I reached up and cupped his face in the palm of my hand.

He tried to look stern, but a grin crept its way in. “I suppose. But you’ll have to make it up to me.”

“Deal.”

“Oh, my beautiful girl. You should always ask for the fine print before agreeing to a deal.”

I shrugged. “I trust you.”

“Famous last words,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows. “Let’s go back inside. Someone has some baking to do.”

JADA

I smoothed down my 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 was pretty 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 grey dress pants and a white dress shirt, sleeves rolled up as usual. His blond hair was a little longer than normal and the ends fell just to the tip of his collar.

I had hoped that going out to dinner 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 towards 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 now, so it will be a little bit, 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 somehow still maintained an underlying blaze that had me worried.

“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 towards the front door. “She’s coming home; 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 of 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 that looked like Simon the night of the waterline bust isn’t going to talk to the police. He’s a young, gangster-looking type and he doesn’t want any involvement with law enforcement.”

“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 at the 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 jobsites and assaulting my girlfriend? Fuck that!”

“Cane,” Nick said, his voice even, “stay calm. We are 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 PI’s in the state and one of the few that was willing to take on a case from a rambling kid that 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 the two of us.

“Max is right. Simon will slip up and we will 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 24/7. 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.”

JADA

“This looks great,” Cane said, flashing the waitress a brilliant smile. He looked devastatingly handsome in a pair of dark dress pants and a blue dress shirt, sleeves rolled up. “Thank you.”

The waitress flushed and glanced quickly at me as if to apologize for being charmed by my man. I smiled back at her, telling her it was okay. I understood. Females just didn’t have a chance around him.

My father always said you could tell someone’s true nature by how they treated waiters and bellboys. If that was true, Cane was a keeper.

The only problem with that was that he wasn’t around much lately to keep.

Maybe I just got used to being with him so much …

Since the night he canceled our dinner plans, he had been very hit or miss. Some days I would see him as he crawled into bed with me, some days I would just get a phone call at some point in the day, and even when he was with me, he seemed so preoccupied. So distant.