by Lori Foster
She scrolled, but that was it. Nothing else. No other numbers in the phone, no other communication, at least none readily available. If she could dig around a little...
Glancing at Cade’s brother disabused her of that notion. The jerk was grinning again.
Giving up, she texted, Take the rig to her office, and she put in the address. But her curiosity didn’t wane, so she asked, “What is this exactly? Some supersecret cell phone communication?”
“Sure, let’s call it that. It makes us sound cool, right?”
His good humor wore on her—then the phone dinged and she looked down to see a reply from Cade. Is she behaving?
Of all the... Without alerting Cade’s brother, Sterling texted back, No. She kicked my ass n took over. Bitch is hard-core. Pretty sure she never needed our help.
To which Cade replied, Star? That you?
Damn it, her lips twitched. She curled a little more in her seat, the phone held close, and almost forgot about his insufferable brother humming beside her. Yeah, it’s me. How’d you know?
Brother would never call u a bitch.
So the goofball driving had some redeeming qualities? Good to know.
She tried to figure out what to say next.
Cade beat her to it. You okay?
She wasn’t but wouldn’t admit it to anyone but herself. Yup, NP. That is, no problems other than his brother, but she saw no reason to go into that. It’d only make her sound petty. My truck?
Getting it there now. Be safe tonight.
Did he have to treat her like a teenager? She knew how to take care of herself, and seriously, she would have been fine on her own.
Somehow.
Narrowing her eyes, Sterling texted, You 2. She waited, hoping that might offend him, but he didn’t reply back.
She refused to acknowledge the disappointment she felt. After a few more seconds, she handed the phone back to his brother. “Do you have a name?”
“Course I do. It’s on my birth certificate, all legal-like.”
Such a frustrating man! “Care to share it?”
“No can do. After tonight, I hope to never see you again. In fact, tonight shouldn’t have happened. Cade knows better.” His gaze slanted her way. “You sure you two aren’t boning?”
Good God, he was so ridiculous; it almost softened her mood. Instead of smiling, she dryly replied, “Pretty sure I would have noticed if we were.”
“Ha!” He had no problem grinning. “See, you’re getting the hang of it now.”
“Meaning?”
“All that turbulent animosity is a waste of good energy. You were over there crackling with hatred, on the edge of imploding, when snarky comebacks are easier, and more effective anyway.”
“Effective?” Getting used to him and his odd insults, Sterling let her spine relax against the seat back and stretched out her legs. “When you’re just laughing at me?”
“Not at you,” he denied. “Jesus. With you. Lighten up, already.”
“One thing—I wasn’t crackling with hatred.” What a stupid way to put it.
“Then what?”
“Confusion? You haven’t exactly been forthcoming, and I’m not sure what’s going on.”
“I’m rescuing you, that’s what—but only because Cade asked me to.”
“And I can’t know your name because it’s top secret?”
“Exactly. Consider me an enigma.” He bobbed his eyebrows. “You intrigue me, though, because Cade is a hard nut to crack.”
“So he wouldn’t normally have offered his help?” Did that mean he considered her special—or was she in more trouble than he could ignore? Not a good thought.
“He would have helped you without you ever knowing. That he made it personal is downright fascinating.”
Yeah, she had to admit, she found it rather fascinating, too. “Will my truck truly be there when I check in the morning?”
“Yup. It’ll probably be there in another twenty minutes, but I hope you’ll pack away some of that prickly pride and go inside for the night. Lock everything up nice and tight and don’t go anywhere alone for a while.”
She’d already planned to stay in for the night, but she wouldn’t share that with him. Enigmas didn’t deserve full disclosure.
“Ah, you’ve clammed up again? I get it. I wouldn’t like someone saving my ass, either.”
She rolled her eyes. “You haven’t saved my ass—”
“Beg to differ.”
“But with every word out of your mouth, my curiosity expands. So tell me, what makes you think I’ll still be in danger even after I’m home?”
“You kidding? For Cade to get involved, I’m sure it was life and death, right? Dude is usually so cool. And that means, despite my excellent driving, someone could figure out where you live.”
Her place was secure, so she wasn’t worried about that. “Cade is cool, but you’re not?”
“I’m learning.” He shrugged. “See, I used to be a hothead, but big brother has a way of tamping that shit down, ya know?”
He made it sound like he’d been a hothead in younger days, but then Cade showed up and gave him a guiding hand. Did that mean Cade hadn’t always been around?
“Now, don’t start speculating,” he warned. “My lips are sealed.”
“Is that a joke? Your lips haven’t stop flapping since I got in your truck.”
“Flapping? I have several lady friends who would object to that description. Flapping,” he repeated with a snort.
Extreme exasperation had her huffing. “Might be a good idea for you to work on that sarcasm next?”
“Was I sarcastic?” He was on the verge of laughing as he turned down her street. “Guess your chipper personality just brings it out of me.”
“You don’t have to sound so cheerful about it.”
He barely managed to bank his grin. “Look, my point is that anything you want to know about Cade you’ll have to get from him, not that he’ll tell you anything.”
“Except that he’s a bartender?”
“See, you’ve got it.” He pulled in to her apartment complex. “Is this place protected?”
“It’s safe enough.” Two could play the closemouthed game. “Don’t worry your pretty head about it.”
Showing no reaction to the insult, he said, “Wasn’t planning to.” He forestalled her getting out of the truck by adding, “Here. Cade said to give you this.” Opening the glove box, he pulled out a cell phone.
She didn’t take it. “Have one, but thanks anyway.”
“Yeah, sure, I figured that. But this one has his number already programmed in.”
It could also have a tracker or something on it. She forced a snarky smile. “If I took that, I’d just ditch it.”
Nonplussed, he stared at her, followed by a laugh. “You’re something else—let’s not speculate on what. Okay then, how about this.” Pulling a small notepad and pen from the center console, he jotted down a number. “Now you have it, but it’s just paper, right?” He held it up, flipping it back and forth. “Not a threat. Does that work?”
“Why not?” Quickly pocketing it, she slid out of the car. “Thanks for the ride.”
“You sure you don’t want me to walk you up?”
“Positive.”
“Suit yourself, but I’m waiting right here until I see your kitchen light come on.”
Sterling spun around to frown at him. How did he know the kitchen window was the only one facing this lot?
Still being a goof, he wiggled his fingers in the air and said, “Woo-ooo, we enigmas are so mysterious.”
And damn it, there was no way she could hold in her chuckle.
Course, the humor ended the minute she entered the apartment building. She liked the place because it was spacious and open, without a lot of nook
s or corners for anyone to lurk. Still, it was a nice feeling to know Cade’s brother was there, waiting to ensure no one bothered her.
Keys already in her hand, she went up the carpeted stairs to the second floor and unlocked her door. Soon as she stepped inside, she pulled the knife from her boot and locked up again, not just the doorknob lock but also the dead bolt she’d installed. Crossing the living room, she checked inside the closet, then strode through the kitchen and dining area to the bathroom, where she peeked inside, even glancing into the bathroom cabinet and the glass-enclosed shower, then into the bedroom. This was the only room where someone could adequately hide, so she looked first under the bed—easy enough because she didn’t use a bed skirt. The closet here was bigger with more clothes, so she took a few seconds to move them around before heading back to the dining room to check the patio door, which was thankfully still locked, the additional bar in place.
Stepping into the kitchen, she couldn’t resist peering out the window to where she saw Cade’s brother leaning against the front fender of his truck, arms folded, staring up at her window.
Damn it, she smiled...and stepped back to flip on the light. Seconds later he drove away.
Huh. Actual, bona fide protection courtesy of Cade and his crazy-ass brother. She couldn’t trust it—no really, she couldn’t.
Enigma? He had that right. There was far too much she didn’t know about Cade, and that made his concern suspect.
But...it didn’t feel suspect. It felt genuine.
Blast it all, it felt good.
* * *
CADE WAITED AS long as he could, then called his brother. Soon as Reyes answered, he asked, “She’s settled?”
“Far as I can tell,” Reyes said, and then, “What the hell have you gotten yourself into?”
“It’s complicated.”
“If you mean the lady, no, she’s not. In fact, I thought she was pretty clear. She means to demolish someone and doesn’t want our help.”
True enough—with one problem. “She zeroed in on Thacker, who told her his name was Smith.”
A long pause preceded Reyes’s explosive “No fucking way.”
“’Fraid so.” It enraged Cade. “From what I could pick up, she’s meeting him tomorrow.”
“She’s to be the entertainment?”
Base entertainment was the only use Thacker and his ilk had for women. “That’s what it sounded like.”
“You realize your girlfriend is going to fuck up a month’s worth of work.”
“Not my girlfriend,” Cade corrected. “But yeah. Somehow we need to escalate things.”
“Dad is going to blow a gasket.”
“I’m aware.” Cade resented that his father still tried to pull all the strings, as if they were mere puppets. “He’ll get over it.”
Laughing, Reyes accused, “You’re not going to tell him, are you?”
“I’ll tell him—a few hours before it all goes down.”
With a low whistle, Reyes let him know what he thought of that plan. “And Madison? You plan to clue her in?”
Their sister, the home base of their surveillance, was absolutely necessary. “Yeah, I’ll talk to her in the morning. Go get some rest. Tomorrow is going to be—”
“An unadulterated clusterfuck.”
“You don’t have to sound so cheerful about it.”
Reyes laughed. “Funny—your girlfriend told me the same thing. Later, bro.”
Girlfriend, Cade thought with a shake of his head. As if he had room in his life for anything that frivolous.
CHAPTER THREE
HELL OF A position to be in, on the outside looking in, but Cade knew he had no one but himself to blame. As predicted, his father went quietly ballistic, but there was nothing new in that, at least whenever he dealt with Cade.
Reyes, of course, treated the whole thing like a lark. And his no-nonsense sister was as pragmatic as ever. For her, this was business as usual.
None of that made it easier for him to accept that Star mingled with human traffickers while he waited in the most disreputable of their vehicles, an aging, rusted white van with darkly tinted windows.
He’d parked across the street from the property in a run-down business district. Part bar, part hookup, a 100-percent members-only establishment, Misfits was, as they’d learned through meticulous research, a place for acquiring women and girls—against their will.
If Cade had his way, he’d go in, rip apart every bastard involved, then demolish the building so nothing was left but the blood of the abusers...and maybe a little dust. Unfortunately, he’d gotten voted down on that solution. He understood why, but that didn’t make it any easier to bear.
Using binoculars, he watched through the front window of the squat brick building as Star was shown in. Currently the atmosphere inside the bar was all about music and dancing, but two burly guards stood just outside the door.
Not to keep people from entering, but to ensure no one left without permission.
The original plan had been to keep tabs until they could nail the one in charge, but Star’s involvement changed that.
For as long as he lived, Cade would remember the horror on the faces of the five women they’d already rescued from Misfits. Kept in the back of an airless truck, ages varying from seventeen to thirty-three, they’d been to hell and back before his sister had ferreted out the transfer and they’d arranged to intercept en route.
Because they worked with anonymity, he and Reyes had merely pulverized the drivers—instead of killing them—and then left them for local authorities to pick up after a hot tip.
They’d ensured the freedom of the traumatized women. His sister had followed updates about them and knew three of them had returned to family, one moved far away and another was in the women’s shelter his father funded.
He had to believe they’d recover, but still they visited him in his nightmares.
If only he could find a way to shut down these fucking enterprises before they abused anyone. His father, who ran the operation, had no qualms about them using deadly force when absolutely necessary. Anyone who thought to enslave another deserved nothing less than death.
Cade believed that clear down to his soul. When he killed the heartless pricks, he did the world a favor.
Just then, he spotted Star dancing in the middle of several guys. Damn, the lady had nice moves.
Had Star noticed Reyes sitting at a booth? Not much got past her, but Reyes had subterfuge down to a fine art. Without Cade’s military training, Reyes could fit in with the coarsest street toughs.
His brother was there as fast backup if it became necessary. With any luck, though, this was a trial of sorts, where they only wanted to see how far they could push Star, instead of imprisoning her tonight.
For once, Cade was glad he’d joined his father’s family-based enterprise, though their reasons were different. Cade had resisted as long as he could, to the point that he’d enlisted with the army at eighteen in an effort to put distance between him and his only parent.
Unlike some of the new recruits, he’d taken to basic training, liking the structure enough that he went on to airborne school, and RIP—the Ranger Indoctrination Program—and finally, he’d served with the Seventy-Fifth Ranger Regiment. Military life suited him, and he would have made it his career, but after a lot of deployments carrying heavy weight, along with hard landings from jumping out of planes, his multiple leg issues had forced him into a medical discharge.
That didn’t mean his no-fail mentality had changed, or that he didn’t stay in top-notch shape. In a pinch, he could even sky jump from another plane.
He just couldn’t do it on a regular basis.
Teaming up with the family in their effort to combat human trafficking was the only means he had to continue using his skill set.
Star danced past the front
window again. She smiled, but he could already tell she was nervous. Dressed in a black breast-hugging T-shirt with an open gray button-up shirt over that, and skinny jeans that outlined her ass and legs, she looked like a wet dream—at a time when Cade wished she was a little less noticeable. His keen interest moved down her body from her sparkling eyes to her feet—and he grinned when he saw that she wore her shit-kicker boots. He’d bet those clunky things had steel toes, perfect for causing damage.
Sterling Parson had her own unique style, and he liked it. A lot. He liked her attitude. Her perseverance. Her bravery.
All good qualities, but did she also have what it took to weather the upcoming interview?
While he watched, she danced past a booth, stumbled and practically landed in Reyes’s lap.
His brother looked surprised, but Star did not. She laughingly said something to him, patted his cheek a little harder than necessary, then danced away with a different guy.
Shit.
Seconds later his phone dinged with a text message. He hated to take his gaze off her, but he already knew it would be from Reyes.
Sure enough, the message read: She said to back off.
Like hell he would. Cade returned: Stay put.
Through the binoculars, he saw Reyes laugh and stow his phone again.
For another hour, things seemed to go okay. She was handed one drink after another, though he couldn’t tell whether or not she actually drank any of them. She dodged grabby hands while keeping her grin in place.
When a guard led her off down a hallway, Cade tensed.
Showtime.
They knew the layout of the building, and Cade easily guessed that they were moving her to the back room, where they could privately intimidate her.
Reyes staggered like a drunk, following after them, but he’d be forced to veer off into the john. Closer, but not close enough to shield her.
It took a precious three minutes for Cade to drive around the back, staying far enough away to remain inconspicuous. Another goon guarded the back door, but luckily side-by-side windows gave him an adequate view inside of the room.
Two women were there with her now, one laughing uncontrollably while the other, with a few bruises, looked very shell-shocked. There were also three men: the two guys she’d met at his bar and another hulk of a guy who’d just walked in.
