Page 13 of An Unexpected Everything
The Cages owned this building.Andthey owned a few buildings around it. Cage Enterprises worked in real estate, development, and countless other ventures that were split into three main areas. Aston, Flynn, and James handled those. I, on the other hand, wasn’t really involved.
I might have just found out that we shared the same father, but I didn’t have the same stake in this company as they did. And it wasn’t as if Iwantedit. Much. I didn’t feel like I earned it just because one of my last names happened to be Cage. I had always found it odd that my mother had decided to put Cage as our middle names instead of making a second last name like our dad wanted. And now it made sense. Because we were related to these Cages.
I wasn’t the boss here. I didn’t own the company. If anything, I was a newbie trying to figure out exactly where I stood. If we went down the path the will laid out for us in the allotted time, and followed each of the steps that dear old Dad had filled out, I wasn’t going to be a board member of Cage Enterprises. I wouldhave a small stake in the company, which would be completely different than what I was used to. But I was never going to rise to the ranks of CEO. That wasn’t my lot in life, and not something that I was trained for.
Aston, Flynn, and James had taken this company to a new level after Dad had moved on. Yes, they had grown up in a different tax bracket than us, but they had increased their revenue and businesses exponentially in the time that they had come on. So even if Cage Enterprises was broken into countless pieces and dissolved like our father had stated in the will, they would still have their own nest eggs. And I was pretty sure the rest of the family was the same way.
Dorian, while not a member of the day-to-day Cage Enterprises, owned and operated one of the biggest nightclubs in Denver. It served high-class clientele, and he had his fingers in many other pots. Hudson was an award-winning painter, and I knew some of his pieces sold for way more than I could ever afford. I had looked it up when we first found out about this new family arrangement, and I had been in awe of his work. But it still felt odd to think that he was my half-brother.
Theo was a chef and owned multiple restaurants, and did very well for himself, while Ford owned a security company, and was probably the most blue-collar of the family. Not that you could call him blue-collar at all.
While on the other side of the family, we were slightly different.
Kyler was the one you could say was well off, and that was only because of a recent surge in his popularity. My brother was an amazing musician and singer, and now he was out on tour making it big as a rock star. It was still funny to even think that my baby brother had countless fans screaming for him as he toured in stadiums.
And I was an accountant. A forensic accountant, but still an accountant.
I paid rent, paid my bills, and counted pennies. However, most of that was due to the fact that I enjoyed it.
A far cry from those who shared my DNA.
I made my way out of the elevator and down the hall on the main floor of Cage Enterprises. Blakely’s office was on the other side of the building, and I knew soon I would go over to say hello. She had been my best friend for years. The fact that she had fallen in love with my half-brother had been a little weird for me when it had all begun. But in the end, Aston was good for her. Just like she was good for him. If anything, I had a feeling that their relationship thawed the initial awkwardness of blending our two families.
While at first, I wanted to rail against anybody who would dare come near the siblings I had known all my life, now I would do anything to fight for these other Cages.
They were my brothers, and that meant I would be their protector.
They would just have to deal with it.
“Hey there, you’re in early,” Flynn said as he came forward. He reached out to hug me, and then thought better of it before squeezing my shoulder. We were still in that awkward stage, neither of us knowing what to do. Yes, we were at work, yes he was technically my boss, but we were still awkward siblings.
When we’d first met, I’d been standoffish and done my best to protect my family. I wasn’t proud of how I’d acted. Now that I knew it was the twelve of us against the world, I was trying my best to reach out as much as they were. “Hey Flynn. If you’re here, I can’t be too early.”
“You worked late last night, and you just came back from a three-day weekend where Blakely ratted you out.”
I rolled my eyes. “I was only going over some paperwork. It wasn’t really work. I was just studying.”
“You know that’s still work,” he said dryly. Flynn was the vice president of the company. He was the one who worked with the site planners and was also the one who was usually out in Cage Lake to work with the small businesses. I knew Hudson lived there so he had a say in it, but Flynn was the one who helped with growth. I had to wonder if he was the one who kept adding the word Cage to all the names of the places. It was a little ridiculous when I thought about it.
“It’s really not work if you’re enjoying yourself.”
He rolled his eyes, and we made our way to the break room to get coffee. What I loved about this building was their coffee. It was so different than my old place.
Just as this conversation was completely different.
And I wasn’t sure I was ever going to get used to it.
“You don’t have to work eighty-hour weeks anymore for low pay. And you’re allowed to delegate.” Flynn handed over the creamer, and I poured some into my cup and shook my head. “I don’t think I know what that word is. And for what I’ve seen between the three of you, you guys don’t know what delegating is either.”
“Hey, we hired Blakely. That’s called delegating.”
“And she does organize you guys quite well.”
“She’s probably one of the best hires we’ve had recently. With you being there as well.”
I snorted. “You don’t need to suck up to me.”
“You are a steal, you know. Your last company? I can’t believe you stayed there for that long.”
