by Jayne Blue
Craddock could not process it, did not want to, there had to be something. She was always so strong. Dylan walked in. Shit, what about Dylan? How was he going to handle this?
“Craddock, we need to let her go. Come on. Hold her one hand, I’ll hold the other.” Dylan took charge. Craddock was speechless. No. No. NO!
“No, Dyl, no.”
“Yes baby brother. We gotta be strong for mom and help her over.”
“I can’t.”
“Here,” Dylan put one of his mom’s little hands inside Craddock’s. Dylan positioned himself on the other side.
“Okay doctor.” Craddock watched as the doctor turned things off. The unnatural air sound in the room ended and all they heard was a beeping. Their mother’s heart.
Dylan laid his head next to the bed. Craddock did the same. It had always been the three of them, holding on, against the world, as it was now.
The beeping slowed.
“Don’t take any shit mom, you know from saints and stuff. Go on now, no need to hold on anymore. Craddock is here.” Dylan said, a riff on the goodbye he had shared with Craddock.
“I love you mom.” Craddock said, then he followed his big brother’s lead on how to gracefully say goodbye to the most important person in their lives.
Craddock cried into his mom’s shoulder, she was gone. Dylan came over and ruffled his hair.
Two million dollars meant nothing, zero, it was hollow. Their mom was gone.
Chapter Fifteen
Cassidy
Cassidy stayed on the periphery of the sad few days that followed. She wanted to go help with Dylan, comfort Craddock, but Bess cautioned her.
“You aren’t his wife or his girlfriend. If you want to get over him you can’t be falling in to bed because of his grief.”
“You’re right.”
“Do you remember how you felt when that episode aired?’ Bess reminded her.
“Yes.”
“So stay in control okay?” Bess was clearly incredibly worried. Emotions were raw around the GWG and Bess could see it was taking a toll on Cassidy. Everyone, outside of Zeke, who had been AWOL, loved Dylan and respected Craddock. It was sad to see them hurting.
The funeral was small but beautiful and seeing a bunch of burly fighters carry the casket of Kathleen Murphy Flynn was beautiful. Since then Craddock had also been AWOL at the GWG.
The re-appearance of G-Man who had decided to make GWG his home training facility added some excitement but everyone was wondering when and if Craddock would return and if he too would make GWG his home gym.
Great Wolves corporate had decided to relocate Sawyer to Grand City for a time.
“They’ve got a lot of big names in this place. They want me to keep managing.”
“Where does that leave me? Do you still need me to do the phones and the other stuff?”
“I’m not doing ‘em and neither is Whitey. But I do have an offer for you.”
“Oh yeah.”
“Corporate loves you. They want you to help set up a new gym in Cincy.”
“Cincinnati?”
“The very same.”
“That’s like eight hours away.”
“You’d have to relocate, and probably switch career paths, do some management and accounting classes but they’d pay great. Think about it.”
“But I can still do this job right? I don’t have to go to Cincy?”
“Of course, I just didn’t want to hold you back. They asked who the best person for the job would be to help set up a GWG, and it’s you. No one better at getting a place running in ship shape.”
“Thanks Sawyer. I will think about it.”
She was mulling over the offer, wondering if she should switch paths, try for businesses, manage GWG, who knows, actually make more money when a blast from the past called.
“Hey Cassidy, it’s Paul Showers.”
“How are you?”
“About as happy as I can possibly be.”
“That’s good then.”
“Yes, we got funding!”
“What?”
“Our bachelor’s of social work program got funding. There’s money to do my research and hire a real assistant, no offense.”
“None taken, I’m so happy for you.”
“Well this affects you too.”
“How so?”
“You’ve been selected as the grant recipient again so you’ll have tuition paid again.”
“I feel feint. Really? I’ve been so worried, considered leaving the program to go into accounting or something.”
“God no, ugh.” She laughed at his disgust.
“So I’ll be showing up to report to be your assistant's assistant? When do I start?”
“That’s the catch. For your role, the grant stipulated that in exchange for tuition the recipient will do extensive field work.”
“Oh my gosh, that’s...that’s my dream come true.”
“Good, I’m glad.”
“So the details?”
“How about come to my office tomorrow and I’ll lay it all out for you.”
“Perfect can’t wait.”
Cassidy was excited. She would get to do field work. She would have her grant. She would not have to move to Cincy and become a CPA for a motorcycle club. Though that thought made her giggle. It was the first giggle she had had since Dylan called. Things were looking up.
Craddock
“So the tour is in place?” Meyer Thompson’s people had set up a tour, fights, and extensive appearances. They were building his brand and he was all for it because he had a plan. His mom would not want him to turn down good money and stand around crying. He was his mother’s son.
“Dylan, what are the ten most favorite things you’re going to pack?” He had decided Dylan would be traveling with him. Despite Dylan’s inspiring maturity during his mother’s death and funeral, it was the day-to- day that had him out of control. He missed mom, they both did, but Dylan needed to have a connection to her, to family, and if Craddock went on the road they could be weeks apart.
So, Craddock came up with his plan. The extra cash was always going in this direction but he had devised an extra wrinkle. His self-satisfied feeling returned the minute he put it in place.
He drove to the offices and knocked on the door. He had never met the principal recipients of his investments and actually Meyer Thompson’s connections in Grand City through his brother proved to be very useful. Wes, the brother, knew everyone in town, and he felt honored to help.
“This is an amazing way to start your career,” Wes Thompson had said. Meyer was a little more ruthless than his brother and merely liked good pr that being generous provided.
Craddock knocked on the small office door. A wiry man with curly hair opened it and led him into the cramped office. The two men shook hands.
“Nice to meet you Craddock, I’m Dr. Paul Showers, honored and just so grateful you’re funding our program. Have a seat. This is Cassidy Parker. She’s our grant recipient and will be doing the field work.”
“We’ve met I think. Good to see you Cassidy. My brother will be so happy.”
“So Cassidy,” Showers took over, “Mr. Flynn is funding our program for the next year, including the grant we awarded you, my research, and as I said a research assistant. This year you’ll be doing field work with Mr. Flynn.”
“Caring for my brother and his special needs.” Craddock chimed in.
“That’s the field work? You’re brother?”
“Oh yes, he’s in need of a facilitator as his main caregiver died and Mr. Flynn will be traveling with him but working.”
“My brother needs help managing the transition, learning life skills.” All true.
“I, what? I’m not trained for that? I’m going to work with foster kids?”
“This will be a part of your clinical and lab requirement. You will be all set after this! As you know, casework comes in many forms. This one might be the most interesting as you’ll get to tr
avel.” Showers innocently explained.
“What if I can’t? Travel that is?”
“Well the grant and funding is very specific.” Showers added, and he was starting to look worried at Cassidy’s clear discomfort.
“If you don’t provide support for Dylan than I don’t fund the entire program.”
“What?”
“Yes and Mr. Flynn has committed to funding next year too, but with a different client in need. He’s generously offered his situation as our pilot so to speak.”
“Generously offered.” Cassidy replied.
“Yep,” Craddock added.
“I guess I have no choice. I mean I am honored. Thank you, Dr Showers, for selecting me again this year.” Cassidy had plastered a fake smile on her face and Craddock had noticed all the color had left it.
“Thank Mr. Flynn!” Showers had no clue what was going on, it was almost cruel. Craddock brushed it aside.
“Well, if that’s all I guess I report to...?”
“Me twice a month to counsel on your program and studies. You’ll arrange travel with Mr. Flynn right away!” Showers clapped his hands.
“We’re all set here then?” Cassidy clearly wanted out of that room. Craddock could not blame her. It was tiny.
“Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Flynn.” Showers called after as Cassidy huffed out of the room and Craddock followed. He had to pick up the pace to catch up.
He finally did in the stairwell. He half wished he hadn’t.
When she saw she couldn’t outrun him, she turned and fought.
“What the fucking hell are you playing at here Flynn?”
“Not a game at all.”
“This is my school, my grant, my professor and you can’t come in here and take control of...”
“Already did. Did you want me to defund his research? What was it again? Foster kid support in school?”
“I hate you.”
“You’ll get over it. We are going to be spending a lot of time together. In tight spaces just like this.”
Cassidy’s head looked like it might pop off. Her eyes were wild. Oh, she was as turned on as he was. He knew it and she knew it.
“I will do this job so he can have the funding, hell so Dylan can have some stability, but so help me if you think you and I are going to be in tight space you can kiss my ass!”
“With pleasure. Can I bite it too I recall that you liked that.” She turned on her heel and ran again. Craddock didn’t chase her.
He had figured out the perfect way to hold on to her. He knew it was only a matter of time before she was holding him right back.
“See you Monday!”
“Shut up Flynn!” She yelled back as the door to the outside slammed.
This, he decided, was going to be fun.
Will Craddock finally win Cassidy?
Click here for Hold 3 – The Conclusion of the Hold Trilogy
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Series by Jayne Blue
Visit http://jayneblue.com for the most up to date book list and buy links!
Hold Trilogy - Meet the sexy alpha MMA fighters of the Great Wolves Gym. More adventures coming soon in the same world as the Hold Trilogy!
The Marilyn Job – Lincoln McCall is assigned to protect the most gorgeous call girl on the planet. The trouble starts when he falls in love. Check out The Marilyn Job when you’re in the mood for a possessive alpha male and action adventure.
Call Girl, Inc. – Take a sexy and very sassy adventure with Nina Sharpe. This is one smart, sexy, and very in control lady of the evening. Call Girl Inc. turns the business of love upside down.
Torrid Trilogy - Sex, murder, politics, and a love that can’t be denied. Lose yourself in the Torrid Trilogy.
The Great Wolves Motorcycle Club - This MC romance series features hot bikers and the women they love but can’t quite tame.
WLUV - Billionaire Romance with a newsy twist! WLUV follows three women of news as they fall in crazy, head-over-spiked-heels love.
Bonus Excerpt from WLUV Book One – The Consultant
(Featuring Hold’s Meyer Thompson’s Billionaire Brother)
There it was on the front page of the USA Today Lifestyle section, the headline more tabloid than news: “Sports Anchor Phil Strong Marries America’s Sweetheart, Kirstie Pippin!” A picture of the lovely couple splashed across the paper and included an inset shot of their infant daughter in a stroller festooned with flowers. With this all over the papers today, Macy was glad to be in the air traveling instead of in a hotel hate-reading all of it. And she wasn’t sure if she should be relieved or enraged that she didn’t even rate a footnote in the coverage.
Thanks to the network’s efficient corporate damage control, Macy had been out of the way of the happy couple’s fairy tale for months now. They had obliterated her career as the network’s lead investigative journalist to make way for the better storyline and bigger stars.
For the most part, her broken heart had mended and then set like a bone; it was tougher and knit together. She liked it that way. Her heart matched her head and her head matched her new career path.
Macy checked the directions on her phone. WLUV was a third-place television news station. The new owner and GM wanted some changes, and so he hired an outside firm to come in and fix the place. There were only a few big news consulting firms in the country, and after being bounced hard out of her network reporting career, Macy needed a job. Luckily she had some friends at the firm and that’s how her second, decidedly less glamorous career was born.
It was now her job to read the research on a floundering station, offer her advice, and implement plans for fixing things. She traveled the country nurturing progress at her roster of stations. She used to travel the country chasing the big stories...but that was before the “Phil Situation.”
She’d been doing so well, not letting it get to her. But the wedding was this weekend and so she was mentally picking at the scab that had formed over her old life. Macy struggled to put it out of her mind and concentrate on her assignment.
WLUV, her newest client, was a mess.
She’d perused their website on the flight from New York. It was an old station, expanded from radio, like most of the country’s first local television stations. Based in Grand City, it served the upper portion of Western Michigan. Television markets were ranked in terms of size; the number one market in the country was New York, of course. Out of 210 television markets, total, WLUV ranked 117th. In other words, it was small.
And it was a cash-hemorrhaging joke. Its deep pocketed owner, Rush Thompson, kept it afloat likely out of nostalgia—or more likely a tax write-off. His focus was on the growth of the Thompson-Hardaway portfolio, and so the station managers at WLUV did the bare minimum to keep its network affiliation and FCC license. It was the first business he’d owned and he couldn’t bear to just put it out its misery. Instead, he placed his son Wes in charge to see what could be done with it. After decades of neglect, Wes Thompson was at least maki
ng an attempt to fix things at the station.
Still, Macy suspected it was a case of a silver spoon type of guy playing with one of his toys. She’d never met him, but she figured that Wes Thompson was bringing her in so he could flip the station as if it were a dilapidated house. He’d slap on a new coat of paint, mow the yard, and then try to convince someone to buy it. Turn a little profit and get out. She didn’t have a lot of hope that this was a place for real news or talent development.
Her bosses at American News Consulting and Research gave her a secondary mission with the stations she consulted: she was to scout out good talent. ANCR could then place the talent with jobs at the other stations in its client list. That’s actually how the consulting firm had found her, fifteen years ago, doing local news in a little town just like Grand City.
She’d loved her days as a television news reporter, ferretting out a story, meeting deadlines, and going live to share it with the viewers. Maybe one or two of the faces she saw on the station website biography page had that same passion.
If WLUV was too far gone she’d salvage the situation and find a few of the meat puppets – lovely name for on-air talent – to pillage. But before that happened she was committed to doing her best. Though she was no longer a hard-driving network reporter, she’d found surprising satisfaction in her ability to mentor journalists and add zip to a station. She was going to try like hell at WLUV just as she did at her other stations, and it was going to be a challenge—her biggest yet as a consultant.
Macy had low expectations when she pulled into the station’s parking lot just outside of downtown Grand City, Michigan on that January day. She was a perfectionist though, and fixing newsrooms was what she did best these days. She certainly wouldn’t make any friends at WLUV, but maybe she could make a dent in their ratings.
***
Three months earlier ...
“You’re sending me where?” Wes’s father, Rush Thompson, was a self-made billionaire, and at 80 years old he was sharp as ever. But this suggestion, order, assignment, banishment – whatever it was – proved the old man was losing it, Wes thought; dementia had set in overnight.
