TEASE ( A Stepbrother Romance ) By Caitlin Daire

25

Chapter Twenty-Five

Charlotte

It was almost go time.

Nicki and I were up in my room, making sure the last-minute details of our plan were ironed out while Cade distracted Keith down in the basement. We'd figured it would take about forty-five minutes for them to be done, so Nicki and I had hurriedly placed the small webcam she'd bought for us in Keith's study while they were busy-one which was small and innocuous enough to not be noticed for quite some time-and now Nicki was sitting on my bed with my laptop, frowning as she hurriedly typed away on the keyboard.

"Everything okay?" I asked, trying to keep the anxiety out of my voice. I was a wreck, but I couldn't let her see that. She didn't know the real reason we were doing this; didn't know what Keith had done, and now wasn't the right time to tell her all about it.

Now was simply the time for action.

Nicki looked up at me. "Yep, it's all good. The camera feed is all hooked up via the Wi-Fi," she said. "Sorry, I just have my 'concentration' face on. I always look mad when I'm focusing on something."

I breathed a quiet sigh of relief. "Okay, cool. So it's all..." I waved my hand towards the website she had up on the screen, and she nodded, knowing exactly what I meant.

"It should work perfectly. But..." She chewed on her lip before continuing. "You guys made it sound like Keith is having an affair or something, and you just want video evidence to show your Mom. But the way you've asked me to set this up, in this exact way....it's not an affair, is it? It's something else."

Nicki wasn't stupid, and considering everything we'd asked her to do with my laptop, it was obvious that there was a deeper issue here, rather than us simply trying to catch Keith lying about a mistress or something similar.

"He's done something bad. Really bad," I said.

Nicki nodded. "I figured. But don't worry, I've got your back. I won't say a thing to anyone till it's over."

I smiled at her. "Thanks."

I knew now that I'd definitely made the right choice in forgiving Nicki and moving on from our past issues. She was doing her best to make things right and earn back my trust, and that was a big step. She couldn't change the past, and neither could I, but we could control our future.

"I think I hear them moving around downstairs," she said, sitting up straighter. "You go deal with it, and I'll keep things running smoothly in here."

"Okay. Thanks again."

I dashed downstairs and met up with Cade and Keith in the living area, where they were chatting about Keith's friend Bob and dusting themselves off after being in the basement. I knew how hard it was for Cade to act normally around his father right now, and I gave him a tight smile and a nod, which I knew he'd correctly interpret to mean 'you're doing great, keep going'.

"Hey," I said as I stepped towards them. "All done?"

"Yep, Bob will be here soon to pick up his new collection," Keith said, patting Cade on the back. Cade visibly flinched.

"I was wondering if we could talk privately in your study for a moment, Keith," I said, keeping my tone and expression congenial.

"Of course. Cade, can you go outside and make sure the-"

"He's part of this," I said. "It's about all the media stuff around your campaign."

Keith nodded slowly. "I see."

We wordlessly trudged towards the study, and when we arrived in it, I made sure to stand in a position that ensured Keith would have to be visible to the camera when he faced me.