One Quick Obsession

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When I moved back to Cage Lake, I hadn’t thought much of it. In fact, it wasn’t technically moving back as I had never lived there permanently. I’d only been there during the summers and some other vacation times with the family. I’d lived all over the country after high school, because I had enlisted rather than dealing with certain parts of my family. Not my brothers, those I could handle. No, it was the rest of them.

Being overseas hadn’t been a picnic. I held back a shudder trying not to go too far down that path. And yet here I was, in a town that was not my own, but I had nowhere else to go. I didn’t want to live in a big city, didn’t want to live in a place where I had to truly start over again. I just wanted to live in the woods and not deal with people. I was never allowed to do that because apparently when you lived in a small town, all you did was deal with people. That was not in the terms of service when I decided to move here.

Because of course my family owned the damn town. Maybe not the title of each property, but enough of them that they named the freaking thing after us. There was really no going back to normalcy and anonymity after that.

In retrospect, moving to a town that held my last name probably wasn’t the best place to hide, but I hadn’t been thinking clearly when I had come here.

So now I had to deal with people. Daily.

Because once my dad died, may he rest somewhat in peace, somebody had to take care of all the properties. And it wasn’t like he had been doing a good job of it. So Aston, James, and Flynn had been doing a decent go of it—with Flynn being the one who dealt with things in the majority once Dad had walked away from the company. Flynn rarely came to Cage Lake with his full-time job at Cage Enterprises in Denver.

So when I had decided to move back permanently, they’d all been so happy. Not that I was back in the country, well, maybe. But no, because now somebody could do their dirty work. And that of course made it sound like we were part of the mob or something. And I wasn’t sure we weren’t. I mean, I’d been away for a while, and who knew what some of my brothers got up to, but I was pretty sure we were clean on that front. Dad, however? Dad I wasn’t quite sure about.

We owned multiple businesses, residential properties, and land, which we knew we would never develop so we could keep the town looking how it needed to. Like it wasn’t some overrun piece of land in the Colorado mountains. Which, these days, was hard to find. The number of developers who came after my family, including stomping up to my fucking house, was ridiculous. Once they got to know me though, nobody came by my house. They knew better than that. And I hadn’t even shot at one of them. I was growing.

I held back a snort at that. Okay, maybe not growing, but I was too tired to deal with that bullshit. And now they knew it.

So while the Cages owned many of the businesses in town, our biggest source of income was right on the edge of town.

And the source of my annoyance. And possibly my nemesis.

I hated the resort. Full of uppity rich people who did not care about anybody else. They paid for their overpriced hot toddies, cocoa, bourbon, and rental skis. Because while most people brought their own, some people wanted to rent something from the Cages. Because apparently that meant something to them.

If they only knew all of our family secrets. Of course I didn’t even know all of our family secrets, and the media had given most of them away.

But when Isabella had met Weston and decided to spend half of her time in Cage Lake, I was thrilled. Yes, because I liked my sister—not that I would ever tell her that. But also, because she, a brilliant forensic accountant, was also going to take on the responsibility of dealing with the business side of the resort.

While I didn’t go through books or anything, not unless they needed me to, I was the guy that all of the business owners spoke to if they needed something.

It was my worst nightmare.

I just wanted to do my art in peace and pretend everyone else didn’t exist.

It was kind of hard to do that when you had eleven siblings. Many of which were starting to find their significant others so therefore adding more people to my circle.

And since Isabella was out of town, doing something with Weston’s siblings, I really hadn’t paid attention, I had to deal with the resort.

I was just not okay with that.

I rubbed my temples as I made my way inside the back entrance. The place was closing down, although just the public areas. There was twenty-four-hour room service, a full-time concierge, and people would be milling about throughout their rooms, but the main lobby would be quiet.

The daytime staff would be gone, and the nighttime staff would come in.

I didn’t need to speak to any of them. Instead I just needed to fix a couple things. I wasn’t a damn handyman, and I wasn’t in the mood to be alone at home.

And how was that for irony. Because I was the dumbass who pushed people away so I could stay at home alone, and now I didn’t want to deal with it.

And it had nothing to do with that phone call. Or that nightmare.

I walked inside and nodded at a guest who happened to be going to their room. They were decked out in their finery, weaving a bit from their alcohol consumption, but she just smiled before leaning into her husband. Or at least who I thought was her husband. I wasn’t going to judge.

The guy scowled at me, and I scowled right back. I didn’t really fit in with this crowd with my worn jeans, flannel, and beard that I needed to trim. They could just deal with it. My hair was too long at this point too, and I was starting to match my twin’s look of roughness, but then again, he was usually a little cleaner cut than I was.

He just cursed more than me.

At least that’s what I told myself.

I didn’t know why we kept this resort open. Yes, it was great for the town, yes it was good income for the company. Why did we have to do something in which we had to make rich people happy?

And now I was just being an idiot.

I moved down the hall towards the back offices. After I slid my key card to get through security, I tried to think about all the things I needed to get done tonight. I wanted to work on my art piece, but it was turning out to be far more difficult than I thought. Maybe I would head down to Harper’s later and work on another mural. That would clear my head. And I liked my brother’s girlfriend. She might seem sweet and innocent, but she could kick anybody’s ass if they ever decided to come and hurt her family. And the Cages were now her family.

I liked her.

I could be doing art. I could be working on my house. I could be doing anything else. Instead I was at this damn resort trying to fix a doorknob that kept getting stuck.

Again, not my job, but if I kept my hands busy, I wouldn’t have nightmares. And that sounded a lot better to me.

When I got to the manager’s office though, I frowned. The door was open, not locked in place like it usually was. Scarlett was damn good with security. She was damn good at most things, which was why we always butted heads. Because I didn’t like her knowing that I thought she did a damn good job. She got all uppity and looked down at me. And I wasn’t in the mood to deal with that.

But she never left the door open.

I slid my hand in my pocket, gripping my knife, as I slowly opened the door fully. She stood there, alone, as I scanned the room, but it took me a moment to let go of the knife.

Because while she was alone, she wasn’t sitting at her desk working.

Instead the image in front of me made my jaw tense, and anger surged to the surface.

Scarlett, in all her beauty, with her light blonde hair flowing down her back, and that icy way she could put down anybody who tried to hurt her, stood in front of her mirror, her main shirt off and over the chair, in only her pants and tank top.

And there were bruises all over her. She pulled up part of her shirt since I knew she hadn’t seen me yet, and the dark bruises turning blue and green there put a metallic taste in my mouth.

“Who. Hurt. You?”

She met my gaze in the mirror, her eyes widening. Her face went deathly pale, before her jaw tensed, and that familiar snarl covered her face. She whirled, sliding down her top.

“Get out!” she yelled as she scrambled for her shirt.

I moved forward, hands at my sides. I was a good foot taller than her, and could scare the shit out of her, but it wasn’t like I could look any smaller than I was. I’d be damned if she didn’t tell me what the hell happened.

“I repeat. Who hurt you?”

She quickly buttoned up her blouse, her hands shaking.

“I’m fine,” she lied. Because it was a damn lie. “I went skiing and hurt myself. I was just checking the bruises.”

I leaned forward and reached out to grip her chin. My breath caught as the bruise on the side of her jaw had only just now revealed itself to me when she turned.

And she flinched. Fucking flinched.

I let my hand drop, and I told myself to breathe. “Don’t fucking lie to me.”

“And maybe you should just get over yourself. I don’t owe you any answers. Get out. You may own this place, but you don’t own me. Get out, get out, get out, get out.”

She repeated the words over and over again, before her knees went weak, and tears slid down her face.

I had never once seen Scarlett Blair crack. Not in all the times that we’d yelled at each other, fought, or poked at each other just because we knew we could handle it.

And that scared me more than anything.

I reached out and caught her before she hit the ground and held her to my chest.

Because I knew exactly who had done this.

And I tried not to let the memories slam into me. Because this was all too familiar, and I had failed the first time.

I would kill him. I didn’t tell her that, I just let her break down in my arms. I vowed to myself right then and there, I would kill him.

Just like before.