by Larissa Ladd
Kade
The Miles Brothers Series 2
Larissa Ladd
Copyright © 2018 by Larissa Ladd
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior written permission.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.
Contents
1. Kade
2. Skylar
3. Kade
4. Skylar
5. Kade
6. Skylar
7. Kade
8. Skylar
9. Kade
10. Skylar
11. Kade
12. Skylar
13. Kade
14. Skylar
15. Kade
16. Skylar
17. Kade
18. Skylar
19. Kade
Epilogue
Thanks for reading
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About the Author
Also by Larissa Ladd
1
Kade
"What in the world is going on?" I rose up in my seat to see why the hell there was a traffic jam. "Tuesday at two in the afternoon. Do you guys not have jobs?" A smirk lifted my lips as I uttered my dull curse.
I hadn't really had a job in a month thanks to waiting for my next adventure to start.
Ten years of hustling as a real estate agent in Florida and I thought I was living the high life.
One death changed everything.
A horn honked behind me, and a chorus of them started around me.
If the line of cars in front of me didn't get moving, I was going to be late for my final meeting with Mr. Collinger, my father's attorney. My wait was over, and the board of directors of the private jet company my father left me in his will was ready to meet.
My first day as a grown up. I chuckled, but the sound fell flat. Fucking traffic.
A guy got out of his car behind me and walked up to the side of my car, lifting his hand and shaking his fist. His fat face was blood red and looked like a beet that was about to pop. His voice was muffled, but I could still hear him through the glass.
"Move the fuck out of the way. This is a one-way road. Get some help, why don't ya? God!" He screamed a little more and walked back to his car like a small child storming away from being told no.
Get some help? What the hell was going on?
I got out of my car and rose up on my toes to see a vehicle with its hazard lights flashing about four cars ahead. There was no way that car was getting in the other lane. The oncoming traffic wouldn't allow for that. The line of cars along the road on our right didn't offer any reprieve either.
"Shit," I mumbled and got back into my car. I pressed the number for the lawyer's office and explained that I would be a few minutes late. Accident. They were pleasant enough.
The second I got a chance, I pulled over into a parking spot along the street and pulled my tie off. My father, though pretty fucking hands off with us boys when we were growing up taught us one thing — help when you're needed.
I jogged up the right side of the car and walked slowly in front of the stopped car. The elderly woman in the front seat had her face in her hands, and her narrow shoulders shook. She had to have been terrified.
Kneeling beside her driver's window, I tapped softly.
She jerked back and gave me a look that confirmed my suspicions. I lifted my hands and offered the nicest smile I could muster.
"I'm just here to help." I waited patiently while she dabbed her face with a Kleenex and rolled down the window.
Her voice was tight and almost a whisper. "The car won't move, and all of these people are honking at me. I don't know what to do. I'm lost."
"It's okay," I responded softly. "How about you put the car in neutral and steer for me. I'll push us to the next block, and you can pull over. We'll call a tow truck or your insurance maybe?"
"Really? I feel so horrible, but I have anxiety, and my husband," she paused and pressed the tissue to her eyes.
I touched her shoulder. "Hey, it's okay. Let's get you off the road and away from these asshats, okay?"
She sniffled but chuckled too. "Okay. Thank you, young man."
"No thanks needed. Turn when I say to, okay?" I pressed my shoulder against the door and waited for her to pop the big old Buick into neutral. Thirty minutes and four blocks later, she was on the side of a much less busy street, and I was covered in sweat, my right shoulder aching like a bitch.
"Let me give you something. Please." She got out of the car, her features more relaxed.
"No. Not a chance." I glanced down at my watch, not meaning to. Bad habit.
"You're late for something. Let me call your boss for you. What you did over there meant the world to me." Her eyes filled with tears again.
"No one to call." I smiled. "I already told them I'd be a little late. I'll wait here with you and —"
"You will not. Get to where you need to be, and thank you." She sniffled and pulled her shoulders back as if she were trying her damnedest to be brave. "My Henry died a few days ago, and I was just coming back from the funeral. I think when the car stopped, it all came crashing down, but you saved me. Thank you, son."
I nodded as my heart tightened. My father had passed a month before, and where it wasn't as soft of a story as the woman in front of me, it still brought back its fair share of pain.
"I'm glad I was here." I gave her a quick hug since she was going in for one anyway.
A slow jog back to my car, and I was headed to see my father's lawyer and back on track.
Life was beyond fucked up at times, but one thing I knew I would never have to face was the heartache on that woman's face. I wasn't falling in love. I'd seen it not work enough times to know better.
"Nope. Not me," I mumbled and pulled out into the line of cars steadily moving in the direction of my future.
* * *
"Mr. Collinger. Sorry I'm late." I shook his hand.
He pursed his lips and nodded before responding. "I am too. This is going to have to be quick. You know, your father had many faults as all great men in power do, but he was never disrespectful of someone else's time. Might be something to think about."
I bit my tongue. I'd have helped the elderly woman ten times over whether it meant being late or losing a bank full of money. This asshole lawyer didn't have a clue what he was talking about, but then again, most people didn't.
"I'll chew on that." I sat down at a long conference room table, the same one my three brothers and I had sat at not a month earlier to hear the reading of the will. Hawke got the art gallery which was fitting. He was a street spray painting artist himself. He was the only one of the group that had started running his inherited business. My oldest brother, Zak got the construction company and the wildest, Lars got a high-end body shop for luxury vehicles. Zak was all about it, but Lars was still fighting having to move from sunny California to rainy Seattle.
"Good. Now, have you heard from your fourth brother? Jagger? We still haven't been in contact with him." The guy lifted an eyebrow and stared me down like I'd fucked his daughter on their living room floor the night before.
I held back a chuckle. "No. He's off the grid like we mentioned before. He's probably not going to take his inheritance. He's a mountain man of sorts." The chuckle escaped.
Henry ran his eyes over me and tilted his head to the side. "You look like you ran a few miles in your suit. Something happen this morning?"
"Just help
ed someone out of a bad situation. Let's get to this so I don't waste any more of your time today, Mr. Collinger."
He cleared his throat and glanced down at the folder in front of him. "Yes. Of course. The board of directors will be ready for you next Monday to come and introduce yourself. The top floor of the Williams building has been cleared for your office. Feel free to do what you like to make yourself at home. This was one of the few businesses where your father was quite hands on. He loved this company." He glanced up and gave me an odd look. "You must have been his favorite?"
I chuckled. "I tell my brothers that, so yeah, maybe."
"Good enough." He worked through the various details and numbers that he felt I might need, as well as a short list of people working in executive management for the company.
My mind wandered as he droned on. My little brother, Hawke had set up the art gallery and done amazing things over the last month, including falling in love with the beautiful girl who ran the place before he got there.
What would this crazy ass adventure hold for me?
Wealth? Peace? Contentment? Long nights and a dull social life? Sex and wild parties? It could go either way, left or right or up or down.
"You still with me?" Henry slid a thick stack of papers my way.
"Yes, Sir. Sign on the dotted line?" I took his pen and got after signing my life away. I might have been adopted by Geoffrey and Linda Miles, but I trusted them both to keep my best interests first. They loved me with a passion, and even after death took them from us, they were still setting up my future.
No need to question or fight it. I wanted this company and the opportunity to keep my father's name alive and well.
2
Skylar
"You know I hate the mall." I glanced over at my best friend Krissy and gave her a look. "Especially on the weekend. Too many people."
"Ignore the people. Pretend it's just you and me." She wrapped her arm around my shoulders as we walked down the center of the mall. A million people moved around us. "Talk to me about this new guy starting with the firm on Monday."
"He's not a new guy. He's the new CEO." I let out a soft huff. "I hate working with new people."
"You better snap out of this bitchy mood, or I'm going to get on an intercom and tell everyone here that the world-famous Skylar Hayes is in the building today." She pressed her head against mine, and we almost tripped over each other's legs.
"You wouldn't." I laughed and pushed her off of me. "Give me some space."
"I totally would." She pointed to a popular teen store and laughed. "There you are. I mean, there you were."
"I was twenty-two. It was like a lifetime ago." I turned away from the image of me modeling a winter wardrobe. "Why don't they get someone else? It was five years ago for shit's sake."
"True, but don't you still make some money off all of that modeling stuff?" Her blue eyes lit up. "I want to be a model. I hate that you left it."
"You hate it because we don't get invited to parties anymore." I slipped my hands into my jacket pockets. It was freezing outside, and inside wasn't much better.
"You still get invited to a few events because of your big PR job at Miles." She gave me a knowing look. "But, I'm not sure if we got invited to something from the dentist's office I work at that we'd want to go. Those guys are a little nerdy."
"More like weird." I shivered, hating my dentist. His beady eyes and thick fingers haunted my dreams as a kid. "Moving away from dental talk. I swear you bring it up to mess with me."
"Me? Never." She gave me a sweet smile and pushed her long blond hair over her shoulder. "So tell me what you know about this new CEO guy."
"I've read up on him seeing that he's most likely going to be my project." I pointed to a pretzel shop. "Let's grab something."
"You're buying. You make more money." Krissy moved up to the counter and ordered for us.
I pulled out my phone and typed Kade's name into my search bar. I'd been looking at pictures of him as part of my job research, but it was more than that. He was beyond good looking, and there was something behind his eyes that I wanted to know about.
And yet, the skeptical part of me that figured I was in for a nightmare of a time with trying to keep a younger version of Geo in check ruled my thoughts.
"Whoa. Is that him?" Krissy snatched my phone and flipped through the images.
I moved in beside her, wanting to see him again. "Yeah."
Light brown hair and blue eyes that looked like the water in the tropics. His smile was cocky and confident. Tanned smooth skin, high cheekbones, kissable lips and tattoos on his forearms and maybe his chest. I couldn't tell exactly. A scar ran through his left eyebrow and just below his mouth, but they weren't nasty or grizzly.
"Holy shit." Krissy breathed out and handed me the phone. Her cheeks were pink, and she had sweat on her upper lip.
I laughed loudly. "You're turned on by him."
"You're not?" Her tone was less than friendly. Luckily they called our number, and she turned to get our snack.
Kade Miles was everything I wanted in my bed or pressed against me on a dance floor, but I was apprehensive about him taking over Geo's vision for the firm. The spoiled ass hadn't even worked in the company. If anyone deserved to be promoted to CEO, it was Ron Dean, Geo's right-hand man. Not some sexy child playing business with his father's legacy.
"Why is there a scowl on your face?" She handed me a drink and gave me an inquisitive look. "He's fucking beautiful. Don't scowl at my man."
I snorted. "Your man? Well, you can have him. I'm sure he's just a pretty face."
Her smile grew. "Yeah, your pretty face to manage. Oh man, I bet he's a playboy and doesn't give a shit about what anyone thinks about him in public. You're going to have your hands so full it's not going to be funny."
My hormones purred at the thought of having my hands full of a good-looking man like Kade Miles, but the reminder that working with him was going to be a pain in my ass sent ice water spilling over the heatwave racing through me.
This wasn't about looks. It was about my paycheck.
"So what's his story?" Krissy followed me to a small table. "Like why did his dad give him the company?"
"You know Mister Miles passed away, right?" I sat down and reached for a piece of our pretzel.
"No. I didn't realize that. Is he the guy that owned half of Seattle?"
I nodded. "That's him. He left several of his companies to his sons, but from what I understand, they're all adopted."
"Oh, my God. That is so damn sweet." She smiled and let out a dreamy sigh. "A rags to riches story."
"Doubtful," I barked. "I'm sure he's always been rich thanks to Geo. I would think he's going to come in and be a total asshole, but I could be wrong."
"You have to give him a chance. If his father thought to leave him the firm, then —"
"He had to leave it to someone, Krissy."
"Right, but this guy had tons of businesses."
"Yeah. What's your point?" I turned at the whisper of my name. A group of young girls stood in the mall behind us, pointing at me with excitement on their faces.
"My point is that Geoffrey Miles could have been spending his time at any business in town that he owned, but you said he was with you guys all the time. He must have loved the private jet company most." She glanced around me. "Incoming."
"Ugh." I sucked in a breath and forced myself to smile as the girls walked up.
"Oh, my God!" One of them exclaimed. "Are you Skylar Hayes?"
Krissy cleared her throat and got to the answer before me. "She sure is. You want her to sign something for you?"
"Can I have a picture?" Another girl yelled.
Nervousness rolled over me. I was done modeling and hadn’t been in front of the camera for almost five years, and yet I still ran into people all the time.
"Sure." I stood and smiled for some pictures, signed a few things and finally dropped down worn out a few minutes later.
"I'm
not so sure I'd want all of that attention." Krissy leaned forward and offered me a kind smile. "But you do it well. Means a lot to those kids."
"Thanks. Maybe I should contact my agent and tell him to pull my pictures from the past. It's not like modeling is my future. This PR job is what I want to build the rest of my career on. I'm doing a shitty job of that if my picture ends up in the paper or all over social media every time I go out for something to eat."
She shrugged. "I don't know. I think it keeps you relevant. Back then when people saw you, they thought designer clothes. Now they probably think airplanes."
"Private jets, but thanks. I think." I chuckled. "I'm not sure what to think about this Kade guy, but it is what it is."
"That's the spirit." She stood and reached for our drink. "Did you talk to Ron about it? The guy you think should get the big job instead?"
I huffed, remembering the conversation all too well. "Yes, and Ron told me to keep an open mind about Kade. He said that no matter what happens, we're there to support Geo's vision and that includes bringing in his son to take the reins."
"Great advice. I like this guy already." She pulled her phone close to her face and looked at Kade's picture. "But if we're being real honest, I like this guy's face more."
I chuckled. "He's probably just a pretty face."
"People say that about you too, but they're wrong." She winked and walked down the mall, expecting me to follow her.
Fuck. She was right, but I couldn't shake the apprehension that whatever tomorrow brought, good or bad, we were still worse off without Geo.
No one could fill his shoes, least of all, his playboy son.
