Chapter 16

CHAPTER 16

C ady walked into a packed Blossom Café. Willa and Tilly were at a small table in the back with an extra chair for Cady pulled up and waiting for her. Instead of heading straight for them, Cady glanced across the room. All of Keeneston, minus the male Davies cousins, were here tonight. All their parents were here and so was Sophie with a large table of women. Apparently, the Davies women were having their own girl time while their husbands hung out. Then there was a table with some of the sheriff's department and one with a good number of firefighters mixed with Belles. Then, unfortunately, there was also a table of the bourbon bros. Jordan sat there with his buddies from other distilleries who were all under thirty-five. They were partying it up and some of the people around them were casting them some unfriendly looks. Poppy had kicked them out before and was clearly keeping an eye on them now.

Sophie caught Cady's eye and smiled before pointing to a table full of Rahmi soldiers. "That one," she mouthed as a very handsome man stood up from the table and smiled at Cady.

Cady's heart dropped. She knew what it felt like to be rejected and she didn't want to hurt this man's feelings.

"Cady?" he asked, his accent not as strong as Cady had thought it would be since he was new to Keeneston.

"You must be Kori. It's nice to meet you." Cady shook his hand and noticed the way he turned to block Sophie's view with his back.

"I've heard rumors about you and Colton possibly being together. I want to let you know I understand. While you are lovely and your bourbon is excellent, this was very much a pressured meeting."

Relief had Cady's shoulders dropping and a smile appearing on her face. "Thank you so much. Where did you hear I was seeing Colton?" After all, that's why she was meeting Colton because no one knew about them dating.

"I'm not supposed to say." Kori didn't answer her, but he looked over his shoulder and directly at a table across the room.

Cady frowned and then blushed. "Yeah, Cade ran into me leaving Colton's house the other morning. I guess he put two and two together. I'm just surprised he said anything to you."

"It wasn't just Cade. It was all of them. And I know the bald one was former CIA and was supposed to be super scary and the oldest one, what's his name?"

"Miles," Cady answered, totally engrossed in this conversation.

"I know those two are the badasses of their generation. But Cade, with his easy-going attitude, hides something super scary behind that smile. And he wants you with Colton. So, I'm conceding the field to him as graciously as possible. Honestly, I'm still getting established and do not have time to date anyway. It wouldn't be fair to you even if my balls hadn't been threatened with a nest full of angry copperhead snakes."

Cady looked back at the table. Cade got up and walked outside on the phone. No one else was looking at her and Kori besides Sophie and her table and Annie and her table. Cade and his brothers weren't interested. "I don't understand. I don't think they care who I date. Now, Sophie clearly wants me to date you. She's about to fall out of her chair trying to eavesdrop."

Kori laughed, but then his face turned serious. "Don't be obvious about it, but who is that guy at the table in front of me?"

Cady pretended to look back and wave at Willa and Tilly. "That's my former boyfriend, Jordan. He's here with a bunch of the bourbon bros. That's what I call them. They're young and power-hungry. Much like junior stockbrokers."

"He's been trash-talking you since they got here, and I don't like the way he looks at you," Kori said, his voice no longer friendly and light.

Cady looked at Kori and saw that he'd shifted his legs wider as if he were ready to take a punch. His arms, while relaxed, led to tense hands. His jaw was tight and his eyes took in everything. There was the soldier she knew he had to be.

"He thinks I'll go running back to him. He wants to marry me and give up my little hobby being a master distiller. Instead, I should turn it all over to him," Cady didn't hide what she thought about it from her voice and even threw in an eye roll for good measure. "Of course, I have to walk right by him to get to my table. So, I'm sure I'll hear all the things he's saying about me. What a way to woo a woman, huh? Just insult her repeatedly."

Kori placed his hand on the small of her back. It didn't elicit the sparks, the heat, or the rapid flutters that happened when Colton touched her. But it was clear it wasn't a romantic touch. It was a protective one. "I'll escort you to your table. They've been drinking heavily, and I don't trust them. Poppy looks ready to ask her husband to toss them out and that might anger them again."

Cady looked at Kori, really taking in his good looks. He was handsome, but what Cady was noticing, which was way hotter than his incredible body, was his personality. "You're a really good guy, Kori. I'm sorry there's nothing romantic between us, but I'd like to be your friend."

Kori winked at her and smiled. "I'd like that a lot, Cady."

Colton was almost to downtown Keeneston when his phone rang. He pressed the button on his steering wheel to answer the call.

"Hey, Dad. What's up?" Colton asked.

"I think you need to get to the café."

His father sounded very serious for once. Colton automatically straightened in his seat and pressed the gas down to hurry his arrival. "What happened?"

"Your sister set Cady up with a Rahmi soldier. Good looking young man. They're hitting it off. I came outside to call you. I know you think you're dating or whatever, but if you're serious about this, you need to come out and prove to this young man that Cady is taken."

"Dad, I trust Cady. It's fine."

Colton began to relax until he heard his father suck in a breath. "Well, maybe you trust Cady, but do you trust this soldier? He just put his hand on the small of her back."

Okay. Colton didn't like that, but that wasn't any indication of Cady leaving him for this guy. She'd told him about it. She'd told him that she'd told her best friends they were dating. That was not the move of a woman about to dump him.

"How far away are you?" his father asked, and Colton could tell he was on the move. It was as if he was jogging.

"Passing Aunt Paige's shop now. Why?"

"The drunk ex-boyfriend just grabbed Cady. I gotta go."

Now that got Colton's heart pumping. He floored the gas pedal, speeding down Main Street.

Kori had put himself between Cady and the tableful of bourbon bros, but it hadn't worked. Cady thought she was safely past Jordan when his arm snaked out and grabbed her hand from behind. He had to reach around Kori to grab her, but he managed to do just that.

Then he yanked, sending Cady reeling backward. Kori caught her other hand and Cady had the sense of being a doll in the middle of tug-o-war.

"There's my little woman now. Come meet the guys, baby doll. I was just telling them how we're going to use your father's recipes to build my empire," Jordan slurred.

The guys at the table laughed. They stopped laughing when every chair scraped the floor as everyone in the café stood up.

"Let go of Cady," Kori said, his voice flat of emotion.

Suddenly, Cady felt a wall of bodies behind her.

"She's mine and I can do what I want with her," Jordan sneered.

"She's not yours. She's her own woman, and I strongly suggest you let her go." Conley's normally friendly country drawl was gone. His voice was hard and demanding.

"Or what?" Jordan challenged the wall of firefighters.

"Or this." Cady gasped as Colton stormed from behind his uncles, cut through the firefighters, grabbed Jordan by the throat and yanked him from his chair. "Let go of my girlfriend."

The bourbon bros looked as if they were going to move to defend Jordan, but a swat with a wooden spoon wielded by Miss Lily stopped them. Miss Lily and her sisters, Daisy and Violet, had started the café decades ago. Now a hundred years old, they didn't have the strength to take men down anymore but could still swat them with utensils. If the bros decided to push it, the wall of Davies brothers, their wives, the fire department, the Rahmi soldiers, and everyone else in the café would stop them.

Cady held her breath as Colton brought Jordan to his tiptoes. "I told you what would happen if you touched her again. Conley, bring me my ax." Colton's voice was level and calm, "Are you a righty or a lefty?"

It took a second, but Cady remembered the threat Colton had made before. That he'd cut Jordan's hand off for touching her. Jordan apparently remembered and dropped Cady's hand. Kori whisked her back and behind him before she could say anything.

"I have my butcher knife you could use," Zinnia called from the kitchen.

"It's not an ax, but it'll do," Kori said, holding out a tactical knife.

Ahmed whistled. "Is that an Ari B'Lilah?"

Kori nodded.

Cy moved and held out a knife. "I've always preferred the SOG SEAL Team Elite. Could really saw through this jackoff's bones."

Cady looked over Kori's shoulder and saw Jordan pale. He was stuttering, but everyone was ignoring him.

"I always liked this little guy. An Emerson Combat Karambit," Annie said, holding out the small curved raptor-like blade.

"Here's your ax, chief," Conley said, holding out the sharpest ax Cady had ever seen.

"You could cut his arm off with that and gut him with mine," Annie told her son encouragingly. "Any man who treats a woman like he treats Cady won't be missed. We can feed him to the pigs when we're done."

"Someone stop these crazy people! Arrest them. They can't do this to me!" Jordan yelled over to the table where the deputies had just finished their meal.

"Gosh, look at the time," Cody said to Luke. "We better get back to the station."

Cody and Luke simply stood up and left. The sound of the door closing echoed and Jordan began to shake with fear.

Annie held up the knife and cocked her head. "Or maybe just castrate him."

"Who is this crazy bitch?" Jordan screeched.

Everyone sucked in their breath and Colton shook Jordan like a ragdoll. "That's my mother, you asshole. In the span of a minute, you've physically assaulted my girlfriend and insulted my mother."

"Gentlemen," Cady said, stepping in before Colton actually hurt Jordan. "I believe the conference is over for you. If you cannot respect women, and clearly from the conversation I overheard, you cannot, that leads to you not being welcome here or at my conference. I will explain to your employers why you will not be admitted to the closing panels tomorrow. Now leave. While you still can."

"We women will make sure none of them bother you tomorrow," Bridget, Ahmed's wife, said with a smile that was not the least bit friendly.

One of the bros chuckled.

The Davies brothers took a giant step back. Bridget let out a piercing whistle. Somewhere in the direction of the parking lot a dog barked. Then suddenly paws slammed on the door of the café as a military-trained Malinois snarled.

The bro stopped chuckling and began to nod. "Ssssorry for any disrespect, Miss Woodson."

With a smile, Cade opened the door of the café. Bridget gave a sharp order in Dutch and the dog slid to a stop between Jordan and Colton. He pressed his nose to Jordan's balls and snarled.

Jordan pissed himself.

Colton smiled. Cady gasped. The bros quickly rose from their chairs.

"Never contact my girlfriend again. Do we understand each other?"

Jordon nodded. Colton shook him again. "Understood," Jordan quickly said.

Bridget called off her dog. Annie put away her knife. Colton set Jordan down. Cade opened the door again and the bourbon bros bolted.

"Well," Morgan, Miles's wife, said, pulling out her phone. "I guess your PR person needs to get to work tonight. Can you send me a list of all the men who were at that table and who they work for? I'll get a note out to their bosses ASAP and accidentally leak the note to the others before they have a chance to spread their version of the story."

"Thanks, Morgan." Morgan owned a PR company and handled the PR for the distillery. She was a genius and was never intimidated by a project.

"But first," Morgan said, pulling out her phone, "I got twenty on Colton and Cady being engaged by the end of the month."