by Luna, David
He breathed a sigh of relief and knocked on the now closed office door. Maya called out that he could come in and when he did, she held up a finger for him to wait, the phone sandwiched between her shoulder and ear. She started writing something down on an order form. “OK, Mrs. Newton, I’ll give your order to Braden, and he’ll be in touch soon about pickup or delivery. If he hasn’t seen you in a while, I’m sure he’d love to stop by and bring your order with him. He could even bring his handsome new boyfriend.”
Cade raised his eyebrow at that and wondered what Braden meant when he thought she seemed upset. She seemed fine.
“Nope, sorry, Mrs. Newton, that’s all the info I can share at the moment, I have to get back up to the front! Talk to you soon!”
Maya hung up the office phone and grinned up at Cade. “Hi! Now you’ll get to meet one of Braden’s little old ladies in the neighborhood when you help him deliver an order for her little tea party.”
“Sounds fun. Listen, Braden said he thought you looked really upset earlier, so he sent me in here to check on you, said he’d be back here in a couple minutes. Everything OK?”
Puzzled, Maya’s brows rose. “That’s weird. Yeah, I’m perfectly fine. Let’s go see what he was talking about.”
She picked up her phone from the desk, and Cade was just about to open the door for her when she sucked in a breath. “No, no, Braden.”
Turning around to face her, he saw she was looking at a text on her phone. He grabbed it and read it, then cussed, wrenching the door open, his heart seizing and his stomach twisting in knots. He ran out to the kitchen, but knew he’d be too late.
He grabbed the back of his head with his hands, bent at the waist and roared. “FUCK! God damned mother fucker has Braden!”
Just then, Cooper ran in the back door and yelled, “I saw him get in the fucking car! I couldn’t shoot, too many fucking bystanders. I ran to our SUV and his, to follow him, and both had slashed tires. What the fuck happened?”
Maya walked over to Cooper and showed him the text from Braden, and it was then that she noticed Braden’s cell on the counter. While Cooper read the text and cussed another blue streak, Maya’s hands shook as she handed the phone over to Cade. “He must have heard from Eric. His code is 9951.” She took a deep shaky breath and went up front to close the café, herd any customers out and send the girls home.
Cade grabbed his phone and thumbed through the texts, seeing the conversation immediately. He set Braden’s phone down before he threw the thing and broke it into a million pieces. God, he should have had this conversation with Braden, warned him that Eric might try this, and promise Braden that they could protect Maya and Nana. He’d fucked everything up, he’d become too complacent, too wrapped up in their new relationship to pay attention. If Braden got hurt, or worse, it was on him.
Cade wanted to throw something, hit something, hurt someone, but he knew if he was going to get Braden back, he needed to get his fucking act together and start thinking. Sinking down into a crouch, looking at the floor between his knees, he placed his folded hands behind his head and took deep breaths to calm his heart rate. That’s where he was when Jackson and Sawyer came in the back and as soon as they saw their boss doing his best to pull himself together, they knew Braden was gone.
They both turned to Cooper with questions in their eyes, and Cooper showed them both Maya’s phone and Braden’s phone as well, so that everyone was up to speed. Maya came back from the front, looking dazed and wiping several tears away. He opened his arms, and she ran into them. He murmured to her as he rocked her back and forth, “We’re gonna get him back.” And louder, “You hear me, McCade? We’re gonna get your boy back, so take a minute to get yourself under control and then get your game face on. We need our leader right now.”
When Cade stood up, the men were all looking at their CO, all traces of their friend gone. All three of them stood taller, more rigid, and all three of them gave fleeting thoughts of saluting him. None of them did, but Cade saw the change in his men and was grateful.
Maya moved to Braden’s workstation to clear the countertops of anything Braden had been working on. She needed to keep busy and figured this was the place that was going to become their home base, more than likely, so she needed to get it cleaned up. Taking all of the bowls and utensils to the sink, she began to wipe everything down when she noticed several things on the countertop and picked them up. She whispered, “Cade, why….”
Cade turned to see her holding up Braden’s watch and his ring and any control he thought he had vanished when he saw his only chance of finding Braden slip away. He leaned over and gripped the edge of the countertop and yelled at the top of his lungs until he had no breath. Cooper gave the signal to the other men to stand down and assist. Knowing the other two wouldn’t interfere no matter what happened, but that they’d keep an eye on Maya should she try to help, he approached Cade. This wasn’t going to be pretty, but he was the only one, at this point, that could break through to Cade, so he stepped in. He gripped Cade hard on the back of his neck, and exerted enough pressure there that he couldn’t be ignored, he heard Cade growl. “Get the fuck off me, Cooper.”
Cade brought his left elbow up and easily got himself out of Cooper’s hold. He stood up, breathing heavily, glaring at his friend and narrowed his eyes when Cooper telegraphed his intentions a split second before he let loose with a very serious right hook. Cade ducked and came back with left hook that he pulled, not wanting to do any serious harm. Cooper, looking pissed that he’d pulled his punch, continued his assault, and Cade parried Cooper’s blows, getting angrier and angrier with his friend and moving them both towards the wall beside the break room. He caught Cooper with an uppercut and then pinned him to the wall with his forearm against his throat, pressing hard enough for a warning but not hard enough to cut off air. Both men breathed heavily and glared at each other. Cade was just about to ask him what the fuck he thought he was doing when Cooper very quietly grated out in Dari, “Are you with me?”
Cade let out a whoosh of breath, incredulous. He pressed harder against Cooper’s windpipe and responded, just as quietly, in the same language. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
Cooper took his one free hand and thumped his palm against the side of Cade’s head a couple times, getting a warning glare, which he ignored, and continued softly in the Persian dialect they’d learned while serving overseas, keeping their conversation private. “You were up in your head. I need you present, cap. Braden needs you present.”
Taking several deep breaths, he loosened his hold on Cooper’s throat, stepped back several paces and stood tall, hands on hips. He surveyed the kitchen, saw that Jackson had hold of Maya, who was crying and watching them, and Sawyer was standing between the other ladies who must have come from the front, after closing up. Both of them looked shocked and upset. Shit, just…. Shit. He had been in his own head. He turned back to Cooper, nodded his thanks, and continued in English, “Where’s his phone?”
His men all approached him, ready to get to work. Jackson handed over Braden’s phone and Cade spoke quietly to his men, giving instructions. They each were about to head off in different directions to follow orders, but everyone turned towards Maya when she screamed, “What the fucking fuck was that?”
Stunned, everyone stared at her. As she railed on, she threw her hands in the air in disgust. “You’re looking at me like I’m crazy? What the hell just happened here? Cade yells his ass off, then Coop and Cade proceed to kick each other’s asses, he gets Coop in some kind of voodoo chokehold and you all whisper sweet nothings to each other, in another language, I might add, and now everything’s OK? Everything is not fucking OK! Braden is gone! Braden is fucking gone!”
At that point the ladies approached Maya and hugged her close. Cade looked at the guys and signaled them to get to work, letting them know he’d handle the situation. Maya was sobbing and Cade had to make it right. Instead of dealing with the situation as he should have, he lost h
is shit and someone had to try to beat his head in before he would step up. That was unacceptable.
In control now, and ready to admit he’d fucked up, he approached Maya who looked up at him, more pissed off than he’d ever seen her. The other ladies moved aside, whispered that they’d wait in the break room, and he stood in front of her and apologized. She threw her arms up, pounded ineffectually on his chest and screamed, “He’ll hurt him, Cade! He can’t go through that again!”
She looked up at him with tears streaming down her face and he apologized again. “I’m so sorry, Maya. I failed him. I take full responsibility. I saw the watch, his ring, and the phone, realized all the tracers I’d put on him were sitting here, in the fucking kitchen, instead of on him so I could find him, and I lost my shit. There’s no excuse. None. All I can say is that I’ll find him. I’ll find him, Maya. You have my word that I won’t rest until I do. He’s my life! He’s my whole fucking world, Maya.”
Crying harder, she hugged him, and he rocked her. After several minutes, she got herself under control and began to pull away. He reached down, put his hands around her waist and picked her up, sitting her on the countertop. He bent down and looked into her eyes. She wiped her eyes and whispered, “You didn’t fail him. He decided to leave so that we weren’t in danger. You aren’t to blame for that.”
Cade refused solace and shook his head. “I am. He didn’t trust me to take care of him and to ensure your safety and his grandmother’s safety. I should have had the conversation with him, explained that Eric might try this tactic, explained that we could handle it if he did. Instead I got complacent and just let Braden get taken.”
Maya shoved feebly at his chest. “You stop that bullshit, right now! Maybe, I’m to blame, because Eric threatened me. Or, maybe it’s Nana. Yes, that’s it, let’s blame Nana, Cade! How about it? Makes just as much sense as you blaming yourself. No one is to blame, except fucking Eric! Got it?”
Cade looked at her, so fierce and loyal. He loved her for how much she loved Braden. He nodded his head. “Yes, ma’am.”
“That’s better. OK, so, you gave instructions to the guys, you give instructions to me. What do I need to do?”
Now that Maya’s tears had passed, Cade took a deep breath, “Call Nana. She’ll be pissed if we don’t tell her what happened, immediately. From what I know about her, she’ll want to be involved in some way. In order to keep her occupied and to help you out, I think it’s best to keep the café open, after today, I mean.”
Maya looked at him, incredulous. “What? No, we can’t, without Braden. The café doesn’t matter right now.”
Cade clasped her face in his hands. “Maya, think for a minute. It’s what Braden would want, and I have a feeling it’s what Nana will want. He told me once that he learned everything he knows from her. She’ll want to be here anyway; this way she has something to do. She can take over Braden’s duties. She can stay at Braden’s place tonight. I won’t be there until he’s back with me anyway, but if I need a catnap later, I can do it in Braden’s bed. I moved my stuff in there.”
Maya’s breath hitched when she sighed. “OK, I’ll call her right now. I’ll ask the girls to help me get his place ready for her, so you don’t have to worry about that. We’ll help her settle in, and if she doesn’t want to take her usual car service, I can go pick her up.”
“If it comes to that, I might send one of the guys with you both, as a precaution, so please keep me informed as to what is going on. I’ll be working out of the office here, or the kitchen, if I need more space.”
Maya went to the bathroom to wash up before she called Nana. It felt good to have something to do, so she wasn’t sitting around waiting. She was already feeling much more in control, but as soon as she stepped into the bathroom, all of that calm left her and her heart was in her throat, once again. She yelled for Cade.
When he came around the corner at a run, she handed him what she’d found, and he was dealt another blow that he didn’t know how to come back from. He gripped Braden’s testing kit in his hands and stared at it. He looked up, saw the tears returning to Maya’s eyes. She was about to speak, but he shook his head. He took several deep breaths and kept control of himself by the skin of his teeth. He looked at her and made sure she saw confidence in his eyes before he spoke. “I’m going to find him, and he’s going to be OK.”
His body was a solid mass of tension and his hands shook, his anger palpable. Taking the kit with him, as a reminder that he’d keep in sight until he had Braden back with him, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and called his younger brother Finn, who answered on the second ring, “Zavier?”
“Yes.”
A beat of silence. “What’s happened?”
Cade clenched his teeth. “I need your help.”
“You have it; tell me.”
Keeping his voice calm and even was impossible. “I need to know what happens to a type 1 diabetic when he doesn’t get his insulin.”
“How many doses has he missed?”
Cade rubbed his palm back and forth over his head in frustration. “Let’s say he had a dose this morning at 5:30 a.m., ate a healthy breakfast, and ran four miles, but hasn’t had another one and might not get another one.”
“Ever?” Finn waited a few seconds, probably hoping that wasn’t what he meant. “Diabetic coma, brain damage and then death.”
Cade squeezed his eyes shut against the truth. “Timeline?”
Finn’s voice was strained. “What the hell is going on, Zavier?”
Cade’s voice wobbled when he repeated more firmly, “Timeline, Finnegan?”
“I would have to check to be sure, and I will do so and get back to you with an answer as soon as I can get it, but my best guess is less than 48 hours. Zavier, do you need us?”
Knowing that by “us”, his brother meant the whole family, he responded, “Possibly.”
“Where are you?”
Cade winced. “San Francisco.”
Finn sucked in a breath. “You’re in town? Where?”
Cade ended the call after he told his brother where he was. He knew he’d essentially just called in the cavalry. His family would be arriving very soon and he knew, at that point, he’d welcome just about any help he could get. He stepped into the kitchen to find Detective Miller there with Cooper. He let Cooper handle it and walked back to the office. He was just about to put a call through to Brody to get an update on what his team had been working on so far when Finn called back.
Cade skipped the hello’s. “What did you find?”
Finn cleared his throat, obviously not happy with the answer he had to give. “You’re looking at around 36 hours, give or take a few, depending on extenuating circumstances.”
Fucking hell, Braden couldn’t catch a break. “What types of circumstances?”
“Has he had any recent surgery, illness or trauma?”
Cade pinched the bridge of his nose. “What type of trauma?”
Finn sighed. “Extremely high levels of stress or any acute injuries?”
Cade gripped the desk, knuckles white. “Both are possible, at this point. Stress for sure, possible injuries. If so, what does that mean for the timeline?”
Silence. Cade growled.
“It means that it could shorten that timeline, but there’s no telling by how much. It’s different for everyone. Zavier, what’s going on?”
Cade’s voice was guttural when he was finally able to answer. “I think it’s best if I tell the story only once, when everyone else is here. Did you send out the SOS or do I need to?”
“I will, it sounds like you have enough on your plate. Now you won’t have to do it alone. Everyone that is in town will be there within the hour.”
“Thanks, Finn. I need to get going.”
He put in a call to Brody.
“What information do you have for me, Brody?”
Cade could hear computer keys clicking in the background. “Nothing yet. I’ve got copies of the camera feeds
from the camera on the café and the one on their house from Jackson. He got into a dark blue Honda Civic. I’m still working on getting the picture clear enough to see if I can get a license plate. I’ve got Braden’s phone number, and I’m having Sawyer hook it up to his laptop to see if I can clone it and back-trace the unknown caller.”
“We’ve got a countdown hanging over our heads, Brody. I don’t care what it takes, how many people you have to pay, call in favors, or bribe in order to help you get done what you need to get done, but in less than 36 hours, and I can’t even tell you how many hours less, Braden will lapse into a diabetic coma. We just found his insulin here. If he is subjected to undue stress and any injuries, which is precisely the situation he’s in right now, his body will shorten that countdown, and we’ll be looking at less than 36 hours.”
“Fuck, Cade. OK, then let me get the hell off the phone and start working with Landon and anyone else we can get on it, so we can track him down. You don’t have to explain what he means to you Cade, it’s understood, and you’ll be getting the best work out of me that I have to give.”
He hung up, not feeling much better, but knowing that Brody was doing everything he could do at this point. He felt like his hands were tied. He knew that his best bet was Brody. His hacking and computer skills would, hopefully, be what found Braden in the end, because he’d left all tracers behind. He headed into the kitchen to see if there were any further status updates. He found his men, along with Detective Miller, discussing the situation. He tossed Braden’s testing kit on the countertop in front of them and the men all looked at it and then looked up.
“That, gentlemen, is a ticking time bomb. Braden didn’t take his diabetic testing kit and insulin with him. According to my brother, a doctor, if circumstances are perfect, Braden has 36 hours until he lapses into a diabetic coma. If circumstances aren’t perfect; if say, Braden is under an excessive amount of stress, or perhaps, finds himself injured in any way, that timeline lessens, but we aren’t sure exactly how much time we have. His first, and possibly only, dose today was at 5:30 a.m. He had a healthy breakfast and ran four miles, which are both things that could impact this timeline. He might have dosed himself again after his run, but I did not see him do so. At this point we need to operate under the assumption that he dosed himself at 5:30 a.m. and hasn’t had any insulin since. That means, under the most ideal circumstances, we’d need to find Braden before 5:30 p.m., tomorrow evening. Keep in mind, nothing about this fucked up situation is ideal, so the reality is, that we need to find him before 11:30 a.m. tomorrow morning to avoid him slipping into that coma, and that might not even be early enough, but with the information I have, that’s what we’ll be using as our goal. Set your Bellators.”
