Page 13 of Finding Forever

Nobody spoke on the drive to the airport.

Only after they were on board the private jet, winging their way to an unknown destination, did she allow herself to relax. Her hand dropped to her abdomen and she silently promised her baby that she would never allow him to be placed in harm’s way again.

“She’s an odd wee thing,”Cade’s father murmured, his gaze glued on the small sleeping figure curled up on the two-seater across from them. Cade, who’d been going over the legal paperwork she’d provided regarding her trust fund and inheritedassets, looked up his dad over the rims of his reading glasses.

“Hmm,” he agreed, too exhausted to speak. She was right, Abernathy had screwed her over and vastly overreached his duties as the executor of her mother’s estate. He suspected the fucker was on the verge of applying for a conservatorship on her behalf. He didn’t know from where she’d swiped these documents—probably her stepfather’s safe—but she was clearly sneakier and more resourceful than Abernathy had given her credit for. It infuriated Cade when he discovered that the bastard had already begun laying a trail of breadcrumbs pointing to her incompetency due to diminished mental capacity.

It was all bollocks of course. While Fern was afraid and desperate, she was not mentally or emotionally incapable. And yeah, maybe Cade had only known her for a hot minute, maybe Abernathy wasn’t a sneaky motherfucker trying to steal his stepdaughter’s inheritance out from under her, but somehow Cade doubted he was wrong about her.

“He was going to have her committed,” he finally told his father, and the old man’s gaze sharpened in concern as they flew back to the sleeping woman.

“You don’t think she?—”

“No, Dad… I don’t. You met Abernathy, he’s a worm. He wanted her money, control over her assets. And in just three years he was going to lose that control. He was trying to fix it so that he never would.”

“This doesn’t have to fall to you, Niall. You don’t have to save her like some knight in shining armor.”

“It’s a business deal like any other, Dad. Better even. We get a two hundred-million-pound company for nothing, and get to play the heroes while doing so. She needs our protection, we get her company. After that we all go our separate ways. No fuss, no mess. I’m okay with that.”

“What if you meet someone, fall in love in the next three years?”

Cade’s eyebrows flew to his hairline at the unexpected question, which—as far as he could tell—came from a place of genuine concern.

“If it’s the real thing…” he said slowly, his voice thoughtful. “It’ll keep.”

“I never wanted you or your brothers and sister to sacrifice your happiness for the sake of this company,” his father said fiercely. “If Gideon had listened to my demands all those years ago, he would never have met Elizabeth Finch, and he’d be miserable right now. I want the rest of you to have what Gideon has.”

The vehemence and emotion in his father’s voice shook Cade and he sent the older man a searching look.

“Dad? Are you okay?”

“Oh, fuck off, Niall,” his father blustered, his cheeks going ruddy with embarrassment. “I’m not dying or anything. I just want you all to be happy, aye? And I don’t think marrying this wee mad lass is going to make you happy.”

“It won’t be permanent. And getting Lambecretewillmake me happy for now.” Because obtaining Lambecrete had always been Cade’s vision more than his father’s

The older man stared at him sadly before sighing and shaking his head.

“Well, then I suppose she’ll soon be ourwee mad lass, aye?” his dad said, his voice soft. “And we take care of our own. I dare Abernathy to try and come for her then.”

Chapter

Four

Fern awoke in Denmark.

She hadn’t once thought to ask where they were going, and when Cade shook her awake hours after they’d departed from the airport in Cape Town, she was shocked to realize that she’d slept through the entire flight. And that someone—likely Cade—had somehow managed to move her from the seat where she’d fallen asleep, onto the comfortable double bed in the sleeping quarters of the plane without waking her.

She hadn’t recognized how tense she’d been since discovering her pregnancy and how the sudden absence of her fear and tension would leave her utterly wiped out. She also hadn’t understood how much she trusted this relative stranger until she’d left herself so utterly vulnerable in his presence.

“Why Denmark?” she asked in a groggy voice, while tugging a comb through her hair which she would usually braid before bed. Instead, it had been left loose and was now a snarled mess.

“Easiest place for tourists to get married quickly,” Cade said,his eyes following the movement of the comb through her hair before he quickly looked away. “Also, no visa requirements for any of us.”

Fern—like her soon-to-be-husband—had a dual British/South African citizenship. It made travelling to Europe much more convenient. And, since her school had been in Switzerland, it had been useful.

“I see.” They were in a limo en-route to God knows where, Fern trusted that Cade and his father—who was sitting across from them watching them with a furrowed brow—knew what they were doing.

“You’ve placed a lot of faith in us,” James Hawthorne suddenly said, as if he’d read her mind.

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