Page 3 of Subtracting the Heart

Cade looked at Jax. “Don’t sit there! Go bring him back. I have a feeling I know who he is. Go get him,please!”

Jax didn’t hesitate as he hurried out the door, much lighter on his feet than Cade expected him to be. Last game he’d watched, Jax had been less than effective on the line, such that he was benched in the second half. Watching the line take the field toCrazy Trainwithout Jax leading it had broken his heart.

When Jax came back towing the boy by the back of his coat collar, Cade giggled. The kid was pissed, but Jax had a huge grin on his face.

“Thank you, Jackson.” Cade gave him a smile.

“Get this fuckin’ gorilla off me. I know you’ve got a social worker coming, and I don’t intend to stick around. I’ll tell ’em you two were gonna molest me. That’ll get me outta here. They won’t put up with that shit.” The kid’s expression was serious.

Jax chuckled. “Sorry, little dude, but we’ve both had extensive background checks, so they won’t buy it. What’s your last name?”

“Nunya.” The boy stared at Jax, who still held him by his jacket in front of the desk.

“Is that Greek or something?” Jax stared at Cade, who couldn’t hold the laugh before he looked up at one of the loves of his life.

“It’s smart-ass teenager if I recall correctly. Where’s your husband?” Cade asked.

“The wedding is on hold because we lost an important element. We bought a house. You’ll love it. Please, chére, come home. You left before we got to the best part of it.”

The door opened and Roberta Stubbe, the social worker with whom Cade had dealt the most, walked in to survey the situation.

“Hello, Kincade. Who are these two?” She pointed at Jax and the boy he had by the collar.

Jax released Ash, not before anchoring the kid to his front with a large arm over the kid’s shoulder. “I’m Jackson Delacroix, ma’am. I’m one of the donors sponsoring this shelter. This is our friend, Ash, who refuses to tell us his last name.”

Jax’s comment surprised Cade. “You own it?”

“Not reallyown, but I donated, along with a lot of guys from the Breeze, to sponsor it. You remember Stan Adams, my agent? Well, Sam is his husband. He’s into the philanthropy thing like you.” Jax grinned.

“Did you…” Kincade began his protest.

Jax stepped forward, taking Cade’s hand. “No!This was underway as soon as I signed with Sam, okay? After he negotiated my new contract, I wanted to give something back, and he presented me with this opportunity. I talked to some other guys, and they got involved. Rainbow House is great, but this place keeps these kids off the street at night by giving them a place to sleep aside from a cardboard box.

“Anyway, Ash, you might as well tell this nice lady your name because she’s not gonna let you walk outta here without knowing it.” Jax chuckled.

Cade took a deep breath. “I believe his name is Ashton Hayes. He’s my half-brother.”

Stunned faces all around.

Chapter Two

Ford

Branford Thomas picked up the phone on the second ring. Jax mentioned he had a line on where Cade might be that morning and he was going to check it out. Ford agreed, reluctantly. If it didn’t pan out like a few of the other leads hadn’t, he knew Jax would be more depressed than ever.

Since Cade had disappeared from their lives, Jax had been in a slump on the field. Tony O’Brien, the defensive line coach, had put him on the Injured Reserve List to try to give him time to get himself together, but Ford knew it was depression, plain and simple. He’d been depressed as well, leaving the day-to-day running of Fairytails to Cleveland and Griffon, who seemed to be a couple.

Finally, one night, Ford had overheard them talking about Griffon’s houseguest. “Just give him the goddamn key and move in with me, baby,” Cleveland pleaded.

Griff kissed him and ran a hand over his handsome, bald head. “Baby, he needs a little TLC right now because he has a broken heart, twice over, okay? I’ll do it soon enough. Let’s just give the kid a little time.”

Ford knew they were speaking of Cade, and he wasn’t proud of his next steps, but he’d threatened both of their jobs to get them to tell him where Cade was hiding. Unfortunately for him, they’d called his bluff and refused.

Fortunately for him, he had Griffon’s home address in his personnel file, or so he thought until he showed up there and a sweet little lady of about seventy-five opened the door, hurrying him away because she was going to be late to her Bingo game.

The two men didn’t want to bully Kincade into coming back to pick up the relationship where they’d left off. Something had gone wrong the first time, but they wanted him back… desperately. They loved him as much as they loved each other. He was the other piece of their hearts, after all.

“Hey, babe. I found him. He’s in Boystown but I’m afraid he’s not going to come easily. He has a conviction about working at this place. What do you want me to do?” Jax was on the line, and Ford was desperate for more information.

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