Page 36 of Cade

He was working on his phone in the car on the way to the airport. Despite knowing that he needed to acknowledge April, he couldn’t bring himself out of this situation and talk to her. Working quickly was important here, as he had Ryker’s man looking for his father.

Cade didn’t care where his mother was. If she was involved in this, then it was at his father’s insistence. He just needed to find his father and put an end to all this once and for all. The man had money in so many places, probably under aliases, and it was making things hard.

Not once had they caught up to them. They could have been in the same place for the last six months and Cade wouldn’t know it. Shit, they could be down the street. Which begs the question of who he had reporting back to him what was going on.

His marriage wasn’t a secret, people knew, but it hadn’t gone public yet. Something that his father would be pissed about when it did. Cade wasn’t taking it back, though. He’d done as he’d been told. His father was just pissed that he’d been outsmarted. The man would just have to get over it.

Cade helped April onto the plane, but outside of a few words here and there, they hadn’t spoken still. As they buckled in, Cade leaned forward and rested one hand on her knee.

“We will be home shortly,” he told her.

April just nodded and turned her head to look out the window. He let her be and went back to his phone, working just as diligently to find his father as he could. She didn’t realize it, but by marrying him she was at more risk that all of his friends, which meant he’d really fucked up.

Now his only goal was to find a way not to need to admit that to her and solve this situation before it blew up on him. April hadn’t asked him what was going on, probably knowing he wouldn’t answer, so for now, it was on only him to solve it.

She sniffed a few times, and Cade wondered if she was crying. He shrugged it off. Surely there was no way that she was in tears right there beside him. It wasn’t until they landed and he went to help her stand that he realized she had been in tears.

“April,” he started. He didn’t get any further before his phone rang again. “Shit. One second.”

Stepping away from her, he put the phone to his ear.

“Fix it,” his father demanded. “I know you’re looking for me and it won’t change a damn thing. Fix this mess you made now and marry the right woman.”

“I did exactly what you asked, and that’s just going to have to be enough. I will figure out where you are, I guarantee it.”

His father’s dark laugh came through the phone. “No. You won’t. Not until I want you to know where I am.”

The call ended and Cade punched at the air, pissed. “Let’s go,” he said to April, way more harshly than he needed to. She flinched at his tone, and Cade cursed again. When would anything go right in his life again?

Chapter Seventeen

April

No honeymoon was in their future, with no explanation forthcoming. She had spent the rest of the weekend directing people where to put her things as she settled into Cade’s home.

What had started out as a great wedding day had dissolved into the coldness she had expected in less than 24 hours. Cade was distant, engrossed in his phone, and hadn’t spoken much.

She had also been moved into a spare room next to his. They were not going to live as man and wife behind closed doors, and April had to shove the disappointment down as far as she could.

Nothing had changed about their arrangement because they’d had sex. Even if it was the best sex of her life. The only person to blame for the feelings she’d let back out after so long dormant was herself. She knew what she was signing up for and despite her better judgement, she’d agreed to it.

This morning, she had decided to go back to work. Sitting around idle wasn’t in her nature, and she really wasn’t going to do it in Cade’s house. She hadn’t seen him before she left, so she’d sent a text letting him know where she’d be.

Settling back into the monotony of her job after a few days away was just a reminder that she needed to find something else to do. Maybe after this contract marriage was over, she could job hunt more seriously, especially with a child.

Her mind wandered to what that child would look like and how much her life would change when she had a baby. Working at this pace was definitely not doable and she wouldn’t want someone else to raise her child for her like so many people in her office did.

“I’m surprised to see you back so soon,” Mark appeared at her desk.

April pasted on her best work smile and looked away from the contract she’d been typing. “You know how it is. Work wasn’t going to wait, so we will have to honeymoon another time.”

“Yes. It’s important that you both understand that. It will help you go far. I did hear that your husband is in the building, though. I suppose non-working lunches and early days will be a new thing to expect from you…” he trailed off.

Cade was here? That was news to her. “Unlikely to be a regular thing, I assure you. It’s just all so new right now,” she told him.

“Yes, well. I did plan on not having you here, so I suppose shorter days for the next week will make sense.” He practically choked on his own words.

“April?” Cade’s voice interrupted anything she was going to say.

---