Star, or as everyone else called her, Sterling, was Cade’s wife and a legit force in her own right. Madison understood why her brother had stuck close. If Sterling had noticed anyone in immediate need, she would have razed the place without a second thought.
“Did she notice anything?” Madison asked. They’d all had their suspicions about the salon for a month now. Unfortunately, it was such a hole-in-the-wall there was almost nothing in the way of security. Not a camera in sight. And the one computer at the shop had only business records on it.
“Yeah, she did. A back door opened and she saw two girls sleeping on the floor with only a blanket. Another woman raised hell and closed it again.”
Madison’s heart twisted.
“Maybe it’s only forced labor,” Reyes growled, but to each of them, there was no only to it. Yes, being forced to work tirelessly without pay under grueling conditions was pure hell, especially with no end in sight. But being sold for sex would be undeniably worse.
Both Cade’s and Reyes’s wives knew the bitter horror of that firsthand. Sterling had joined their enterprise to free victims and dole out retribution, but Kennedy, Reyes’s wife, took a different road. She gave informational talks to high schools and colleges, and she had a bestselling book on her experiences that detailed what to look out for and how to hopefully escape—or at least survive.
The pall that had fallen over the room finally infiltrated Madison’s inner musings. Forcing a complacent smile, she said, “I’ll see you all for dinner.” Her small house was on the same property with her father’s, farther down the slope of the mountain, toward the entrance. Literally, her home could fit in her father’s kitchen, but she liked the compact coziness.
And the privacy.
As she turned to go, Reyes made a clucking sound.
Her back stiffened. Was he calling her a chicken?
Molars locking together, she turned to fry him and was met with his enormous grin.
“Do it again,” she taunted in a whisper. “I dare you.”
“Ah, no. I don’t think so. I’d rather you partner with me for some sparring since Cade gets most of his workouts with Sterling now.”
Cade and Sterling were still in the honeymoon stage of marital bliss. They used every excuse they could find to spend more time together, including sparring. She had no doubt Cade would return to his regular workouts with Reyes soon.
Cade narrowed his eyes. “Anytime, brother.”
“Now?”
Without missing a beat, Cade clarified, “Anytime but now.”
Turning back to her, Reyes held out his hands. “That leaves you. C’mon, Madison. Whatever work you have to do can wait a few hours.”
Parrish concentrated on his coffee. Bernard began to whistle while loading dishes into the dishwasher. Blast. She didn’t want to be here when Crosby showed up.
Not because she was chicken, but because... Well, she just didn’t want to.
“It’s a big house,” Reyes reminded her. “Sterling claims it’s a lodge. Kennedy swears we could fit all of Ridge Trail in here. Surely you can bear being in the same—”
She took an aggressive step forward, and her father interceded yet again.
“Take it downstairs, both of you.” To Madison, he added, “Use your frustration, but don’t let it control you.”
“I know, I know.” A cool head was needed at all times. “I don’t know why I bother though because Cade and Reyes both hold back on me.”
“Not this time,” Parrish decreed, earning a frown from Cade, Reyes and Bernard, all three. “Don’t maim her, but she needs to be challenged in order to keep improving.”
Now Reyes looked uncomfortable. “I’ve got a hundred pounds on her.”
True enough. She was only four inches shy of her brother’s nearly six and a half feet of height, but where he was solid muscle, she was slim. Toned, yes, but she lacked the bulky strength that her siblings had.
“One day, she may run into trouble with a man your size. She needs to know how to handle herself.”
Forgetting Crosby for the moment, she grinned at Reyes. “Oh, this is going to be fun.”
Grumbling, he headed to the stairs that led to the lower-level gym, among other things.
“Now I wish I had time to stay and watch,” Cade said, coming up to press a kiss to her forehead in an uncharacteristic show of affection. “Go easy on him.”
She laughed. “Pretty sure you don’t have to worry about that.”
“I do, because I know bruising you will hurt him a hell of a lot more than it hurts you.”
Likely true.
She walked Cade to the front door, then headed downstairs. All three of them had their own suite of rooms on the lower level, though they were usually only used in emergencies. Parrish liked to cover every contingency, and on the off chance they needed a safe place to defend against an attack, the family home on the mountain was a veritable fortress with not only top-of-the-line security, private satellite connection and phone lines, but an armory of weapons and enough ammo to last for months.
They could literally withstand a siege, not that they expected ever to face such a thing.
With half her brain anxious to spar and the other half daydreaming over Crosby, she entered her suite in a rush. She darted into the bedroom and quickly located formfitting shorts and a snug tank top. In the bathroom, she flipped her head forward, gathered her hair in a ponytail and secured it with a band.
Sitting on the end of the bed, she pulled on lightweight, flexible shoes. Snatching up her laptop again, because it was rarely out of her sight, she went to the gym and found her frustrated brother stripped down to shorts, pacing along the mats. He’d already donned protective gear and had the same set out for her.
She couldn’t wait to begin.
* * *
CROSBY HAD BEEN impressed with Reyes’s log cabin at the base of a mountain that he’d seen once, but this? Holy shit.
At first, he wasn’t sure if he’d followed the directions correctly. Surely the massive stone-and-brick structure sprawling against the mountainside couldn’t be a single home. And yet, he knew Parrish McKenzie was loaded. His research on the family, though not quite on a par with Madison’s ability, had shown numerous linked businesses, incredible wealth and a lot of philanthropic work.
He’d still wanted to dislike them all because, as a cop, he’d known that they had no problem crossing the line. Even more disturbing was that they seemed to do so with impunity.
Parrish was connected—in business, politics and in local law. Apparently, if you did enough favors for the right people, you got massive benefits in return.