She glared and then pointed at me. “Don’t try anything funny lady.”
I laughed and nodded for her to follow me to the executive elevator.
“I can barely tolerate talking to teenagers, Madison. I definitely have no interest in doing anything funny.”
She stepped onto the elevator behind me and snorted. “Funny is in the eyes of the beholder, or haven’t you heard?”
I nodded. “Believe it or not, Madison, your sister isn’t the only one who’s been through this shit.”
“You mean…you?”
“Not me, but some people very close to me.”
“So what do you plan to do then?” The teenager practically nipped at my heels as we exited the elevator and headed toward my office. “Damn, this is even nicer than those church people’s house.”
Inside my office, I closed the door and made my way to the desk while Madison bounced around every corner of my office, in awe of all the lavish furnishings. I sent a quick message to Oliver to come up to my office as soon as he could.
“I’m going to do some digging because I have a feeling we’re both looking for the same people.”
She was a kid so there was no way in hell I’d give her any real details, but Madison needed to know I was just as committed as she was to…whatever this was.
“Yeah, why?”
Luckily, a knock sounded on the door. My assistant announcing Oliver’s arrival.
“He’s setting up a new phone for some reason. I told him I could do it but he insisted.”
“All right. Thanks, Shelby.”
She nodded and left, closing the door quietly behind her. Madison snorted. “It’s good to be boss, huh?”
“Not this week. Too much shit to do, kid.”
“Sounds like a blow off to me,” she said and stood, making a beeline for the door, but Oliver’s arrival stopped her dead in her tracks.
“That’s the problem with teenagers, they think they know everything when the truth is you don’t even know your head from your ass.” She turned with an angry stare that I ignored. “This is Oliver, he is our family driver and he’s going to take you someplace safe.”
She shook her head, dirty blonde hair brushing her shoulders as she backed up to the floor-to-ceiling windows. Terrified once again. “Yeah, I don’t fuckin’ think so, rich girl.”
I held up a hand for Oliver to stay where he was. “For a tough girl you sure do scare easy. Oliver is just taking you to one of our other hotels, where you can sleep safely, get some food and most of all, so I’ll know where you are when I have any information for you on your sister. Got it?”
She nodded, but Madison’s mind wasn’t made up. Not yet. Her dark gaze darted between me and Oliver, trying to decide if we were taking her to a sex dungeon to share her sister’s fate or if we were for real. “You don’t have any female drivers?”
Oliver covered his laugh with a cough.
“You think men have the market cornered on being sickos and perverts?”
“No,” she sighed in defeat. “Fine. Whatever.”
“Oliver’s worked for the family for years. He’s a good guy. I swear.”
She didn’t look convinced and Oliver shrugged with a charming smile. “My husband thinks so, too.”
“Fine, I said! Whatever.”
Ten minutes later we were all on our way to a budget hotel where Madison wouldn’t stand out, and I couldn’t decide if I wanted to involve Calvin in my digging or not. At least not yet. Bonnie was still going through some shit and acting weird as hell so he had a lot on his plate at the moment.
Which meant, for the moment, I was on my own.
Chapter Six
Terry
“Thought you were having Kat deal with Rob.”
Secretly, I was glad Jasper had called and asked me to come with him to deal with the man everyone called Ravager, based on his incredible boxing skills. The dude was talented as fuck, equally as difficult, but he had a bad habit of looking at Kat like she was a juicy steak he couldn’t wait to devour. Not that I could talk, but I only thought about it.
Jasper laughed and looked up at the cement and glass structure that was House of Ashby. The best fight school and training center in the western hemisphere if you asked Jasper.
“Yeah, I was, but I dropped all the fight shit on her lap so that we could deal with The Crusaders. And Brendan fucking Rhymer.” Jasper sighed and his broad shoulders fell just a fraction. “She’s doing a damn good job,” he said, leaving the rest of his thought hanging in the air.
“And?” Jasper was my best friend, closer to me than my own blood brother, but he was shit at giving out compliments.
He smirked and shrugged. “And I didn’t want her to hurt him right before the right.”
We shared a laugh at that, knowing that Kat was twice as fierce as a woman in her position needed to be, a benefit of growing up with three bad ass brothers. And two equally rowdy honorary brothers. “She’s a killer, in the boardroom or in the streets and we need this fight to happen. Ready?”
“Yeah,” I sighed and nodded, knowing what needed to be done. It was my job to keep Emmett distracted while Jasper had a private chat with Rob. We couldn’t risk my brother walking in on that convo. I hated the deception, but in this case it was necessary. Emmett wouldn’t like it; he wouldn’t agree to it, and he didn’t have to. As long as Rob did.
“Got some shit to share with him anyway.”
Jasper paused and turned to me. “Wanna talk about it?”
“Not more than once,” I snorted and clapped him on the back. “But thanks, Dr. Phil.”
Jasper pulled the glass door open with one hand and flipped me off with the other. “Well you know…I’m here.”
“I know, man. Thanks.” I stepped inside as the cool air washed over me, followed immediately by the stench of sweat and nylon. “Let’s do this.”
Jasper gave a sharp
