Page 57 of Cade

“Cade and I will not go along with this stupid plan of yours. What the hell is wrong with you?” Catherine shouted at her father. “If you think either of us would want to, then you’re crazier than we gave you credit for.”

“Your brother will see things my way. You’ll see. If he doesn’t, then it’s the last hope for your mother to have obedient children. I have other children who are ready and waiting to do what needs done without so much fighting.”

Catherine paled and sat back on the couch. April reached over and took her hand, both of them squeezing tight.

“See, here’s where you’re wrong. Anyone given massive amounts of money will eventually turn on you and get tired of doing your bidding,” came Cade’s menacing voice from the doorway.

Ryker was right behind him and looked murderous. “I sure would be curious who these other children are, though. I think I have a lead.”

“Ha! You’re just a fool who got lucky once and made some money. You are of no concern to me and need to stay away from my daughter,” Mr. Hawkins had stopped yelling and turned completely calm at the arrival of the men.

“You need to step away from them, Father,” Cade said, making slow steps in her direction.

“You need to be a better son. I have given you everything and I will not have you behave as though you have no sense,” Mrs. Hawkins was saying.

“Shut up, Mother. Stop going on with what he says. Can’t you see that he’s losing his mind?” Catherine cried out for her mother.

“Catherine, let it go,” Cade said evenly.

April looked back to him to see he and Ryker had separated, both giving his parents a wide berth, but they were slowly approaching.

“If you don’t listen and do as I say, I will end her and the baby that you don’t need. You can support them both from afar, but there is no need for you to be married to her! She wasn’t the right one, and you messed everything up.” His wild moods were scaring her, the way he went from calm to shouting and threatening her and the baby told her he would do it.

“Is that what you did?” Cade asked.

“Of course it is. That whore was supposed to be on birth control, but no, she just had to give me a set of twins. Didn’t tell me until after they were born. I set them all up real nice and I have two other obedient children that I can start over with.”

“And how would you do that?” Cade asked. “I kind of run a company and I feel like people would miss me.”

“You wouldn’t disappear, you’d be dead. If you can’t fix this, then I will be, so it’s me or you.”

“Fix what. What did you do?” Cade pressed.

“All you had to do was marry the right fucking bitch. That’s it! Now I have to have someone else do it and you have no heir to pass the company on to, so I guess my next in line will have to do,” he smiled smugly.

“You know that’s not how this works, right? The company isn’t family owned. They would be free to find a new CEO,” Cade pointed out.

“You’re wrong,” his father’s voice turned menacing. “I could just kill you now and solve all of my problems. The baby too. No one would miss him.” He pointed at Ryker. “And Catherine would come around, eventually.”

“That’s enough, Mr. Hawkins,” came another voice from the doorway.

Several police filed in as Cade and Ryker ran to the women. Cade lifted her off the sofa and hugged her tightly, before pulling back to look her over.

“Are you hurt?” he asked.

April shook her head. “He just threatened and talked.”

“If you ever do something so foolish again, I don’t know what I’ll do.” He pulled her into his chest again, holding her tight.

To their left, a weird reunion was happening between Catherine and Ryker. She turned back to face Cade’s chest, giving them a bit of privacy, but had plans to ask Catherine about that later.

“Do you know who I am?” Mr. Hawkins was shouting.

It was almost comical in that cliche way of rich men thinking they were above the law. His wife was being cuffed as well, though she was being surprisingly quiet.

“We know exactly who you are and that’s why we’re here. Ms. Hawkins has security cameras everywhere, so soon a judge and jury will know who you are, too.”

“Best thing I ever did,” Catherine added.

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