Page 51 of Cade

“Have Catherine meet with her somewhere and see what she can find out. Maybe if she can go to her hotel room, she can find anything out about her itinerary,” Ryker said.

“I really don’t have to involve her like that if we can avoid it. Maybe I should try first. Take her to dinner and see if she lets something slip.”

“It’s a solid plan,” Jake agreed.

Cade sent a text off to his mother and then focused back on the conversation.

“I still feel like we have to be missing something here. Sure there’s the outdated notion of heirs and whatnot, but this is coming from somewhere, some trigger,” Evan mused.

“Like me banning him from the company?” Cade suggested. It was what he had assumed started it all.

“But he was acting stranger than normal before then. All the things he said about me and Lauren, for one. Things had been escalating slowly before then because it’s what drove you to make that decision,” Jake reminded him.

“Agreed. I think we need to look back further for something that might have happened,” Evan said.

Ryker stood and paced for a moment before speaking. “Is there anything in his past that would make him think there is a different heir if something happened to you? Someone that isn’t Catherine?”

Cade shook his head. “Nothing that I know of, but my parents don’t exactly talk often and wouldn’t talk about skeletons in their closets.” It was a solid lead. He didn’t know how to dig it up, but it made sense.

“Press that angle delicately when you talk to your mother. It might give you something. In the meantime, I’ll have MY employee see what he can dig up.” Ryker made for the door. “From now on, I want any consulting run by me first.”

They all laughed. It was no secret among them that everyone had tapped his shoulder at some point except from Ryker, apparently. The fact that it bothered him this much was a guarantee that the man would never be short on work from the rest of them without talking to Ryker first.

“You’re all a bunch of assholes,” Ryker muttered before letting himself out.

“What about the woman I replaced?” Lauren asked. “She might know something, though I don’t know if she’d be willing to spill any of it.”

“Now that Ryker is gone too, I think we also need to talk about what is going on with Luke,” Evan said.

“I think we deal with one problem at a time. Luke will come around. He’s just being his usual self when things don’t go his way,” Cade said. It was bothering him about Luke, but he couldn’t split his focus and this was more pressing. He genuinely hoped he grew up sooner rather than later because he was starting to get on Cade’s nerves.

“Set up dinner and let’s see what happens from there.” Jake stood, taking Lauren’s hand.

“We can let Ryker deal with Luke for now, but I think it’s important enough that we all need to have a chat very soon.” Evan looked worried. “Also, I assume I can tell Kayla what’s going on?”

Cade nodded. “In private please? I don’t want it getting out that he’s behaving like this unless I have to. Even then, that’s a Catherine thing.”

“Agreed,” Evan frowned. “I’m also concerned that there’s someone that’s telling him what’s going on even if by accident.”

“None of it makes sense, though. Who would do that and why?”

“Back to the original questions. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens next. Maybe with a lead on where the money is coming from, we will have more ammunition for an interrogation,” Jake said.

“I can go visit my mother and see what she has to say about things. Now that we know where the money is coming from, we might get something from her,” Lauren offered.

Cade sighed. It was a good idea, but he didn’t want her to be in harm’s way.

“Let’s hold off on that for now. We can save it for later if we need to, but I don’t want you going to visit her if you don’t have to.”

Lauren nodded, but didn’t look like she agreed.

“I’ll keep an eye on her,” Jake assured him, catching Cade’s eye.

“I also think we should exclude Luke from these plans for now,” Evan said.

“What are you thinking?” Cade recognized that look of suspicion.

“Nothing I’m ready to share yet. I have a new task for Ryker’s employee, though,” he laughed.

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