Page 17 of Cade

Cade picked up his phone again, looking at the message from April. He hadn’t opened it yet and couldn’t preview the entire thing. It had been there since last night and he still couldn’t decide if he wanted to know what she had to say.

Before she messaged him, he had convinced himself that he was never going to hear from her again, even if it meant one of them avoiding all mutual social situations. Whatever she wanted now probably wasn’t good news. The side eye that Lauren gave him this morning pretty much confirmed it.

“Lauren?” Cade hit the mic on his desk.

“Yes, Cade,” Lauren replied.

“Did my next meeting cancel?” Cade checked the clock. It was already five minutes past.

“I would have told you if I had that information,” she said, annoyed.

“Thanks. Just checking.” He let go of the mic and leaned back in his chair. He needed to see what April had said so he could start his own damage control.

Cade swore and grabbed his phone again, just as it started to ring. Half expecting it to be her, he looked at the unknown number and knew it wasn’t. It was his father again.

He declined the call and unlocked his phone, going to his messages to read hers. Before he could read it, the phone rang again from the same unknown number.

“What?” Cade said, answering the call and putting the phone to his ear.

“I’ve already told you about answering the phone like that,” his father’s scolding voice came through the speaker.

Cade bit back a swear and gripped the phone tighter. “I’ve also told you to leave me alone.”

“I will not. You are my son and, like it or not, you have responsibilities to live up to. One of them means getting married and carrying on the family legacy.”

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Cade ground out. “This isn’t the dark ages and things don’t work like that. I don’t need to get married or produce an heir and a spare.”

“Just because you refuse to accept it doesn’t make it less true,” his tone had gotten calmer.

Cade sighed. “I’m not doing with you. I am not getting married until if and when I want to. Leave me and my friends alone.”

“If you want me to leave them alone, then you need to do what I want,” he replied, his tone even and calculated.

He’d walked right into that one. “Ah, so you admit that you are behind all of this?” Cade asked, trying his best to sound nonchalant.

“I’ve done nothing of the sort. Now, Amanda is a brilliant choice in a wife and I will send you her contact details.”

Cade’s mind hatched a plan, and the words were out before he could overthink things. “All you want is for me to get married?” he asked.

“Almost. You need to bed her fully and produce an heir,” his father said matter-of-factly.

“I can’t guarantee how long that will take. Is the marriage enough to get you to leave all of us alone, me and my friends, their partners, and my sister?”

“You let me worry about your sister,” his father pushed back. “The rest, yes, for now.”

“Fine,” he gritted his teeth even as he agreed to the nonsense.

“Good. It’s about time you showed some good sense. I’ll send Amanda’s contact information over and she will be waiting for your call.”

Cade didn’t argue. He had absolutely no intention of contacting her, but his father could believe whatever made him happy.

The call ended and sure enough, a contact was sent via message shortly after. Cade opened it so it would show read, but then closed it back out.

He went over his plan in his mind a few times before returning his thoughts to work. Ignoring April’s message for the moment, he finished out his next meeting. The message notification teased him as he tried to ignore it for now.

It was a damn good thing that his client was late as it was because Cade had also been late to the meeting and was completely distracted. His plan would work. It had to. He tossed the ideas around in his head as the other man talked business and looked for flaws in it.

He was playing a dangerous game, and he knew it, but there was little he could find to fault the plan. Now, to convince the other person might be a little more difficult.

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