Page 61 of Long Hard Road
“Your tires have been slashed.” I caught her arm before she could move. “We don’t want to disturb the scene. There are fresh footprints that Ellison needs to see. It might help us track down the asshole who did this.”
“Eli is going to drag me out of Crestwood,” she muttered while scrolling her phone to find his contact information. “He’ll make me go back to LA because that is my most secure home. Or maybe he’ll take me to some undisclosed location.”
“You’re spiraling, Madison. I’m sure he’s not going to overreact.” Actually, he was definitely going to overreact, but I wasn’t going to let him take Madison away unless she wanted to go.
She held out her phone. “You talk to him.”
“Chickenshit.” I took the phone and hit the green call button. Ellison answered after the second ring. “You need to get to the cabin. Someone slashed Madison’s tires and your guys are nowhere to be found.”
“What the fuck? Where is Gino? And Jason?”
“Jason decided not to stick around when he found out Madison was going to be with me at the ranch this morning. I don’t know what happened to Gino. He was here when we left and gone when we got back.”
“I’ll be there in ten.” Ellison was proving himself to be a man of few words.
“Your security team kind of sucks,” I told Madison as I handed the phone to her.
She was still staring at her car. “How am I going to fix this?”
“I’ll take care of it. I know a guy who can tow it to the tire shop. We’ll get you some new tires and it will be good as new.” I touched the tip of her nose. “It’s too cold to be outside while we wait for Ellison. Why don’t you go inside and check on Meadow?”
“If it’s too cold for me to be out here, it’s too cold for you.” The stubborn lift of her chin was adorable.
“I work outside in weather like this, angel. I’ll be fine.” I could see a tremble in her jaw and knew she wasn’t going to keep protesting. “I’ll join you after I talk to Eli.”
“Okay,” she relented quietly. “You don’t think they tried to get into the cabin, do you?”
Shit. I hadn’t even gotten that far in my worrying. It was certainly possible. But all the access points had alarms and if someone had triggered them, Ellison would’ve received an alert and we would be hearing those alarms.
“I doubt it. I think they were just sending a message with your tires.” I thought quickly. “I’ll turn the truck on and crank the heat. You can wait in there until Eli checks out the cabin and makes sure it’s safe.”
“Thank you.” She was bouncing on her toes now.
I hurried to get the truck running and then opened her door. “Into the carriage, princess.”
“You could wait in here with me,” she suggested as she climbed inside. I couldn’t stop myself from squeezing her perfect ass.
“I’m going to take a walk around the cabin. I’ll be right back.”
I circled the cabin from a distance to get a better visual on the area around it. It seemed most likely that the person had come up the same path as us since their tracks would’ve blended in with the ones we had created. With my truck and the bodyguards’ vehicles coming and going, there were plenty of tire tracks to camouflage any nefarious activity.
I didn’t notice any disturbance in the snow near the cabin. By the time I had completed my lap, Ellison was parking next to my truck. Madison rolled down her window rather than get out of my truck. She must’ve been even colder than she’d let on.
“Hey,” I said, leaning against the door above Madison’s window. “All four tires are shredded. The rest of the car looked fine, but we maintained our distance. I did a wide lap of the cabin and didn’t see anything that looked off.”
“Got it.” Ellison was scanning the front of the cabin. “None of the alarms triggered, but I’ll do an in-depth check anyway. I aimed the cameras toward the door, but I think it could’ve picked up activity near her car. I’m going to check the footage.”
“Where are Gino and Jason?” Madison sounded worried.
“Those fucking idiots. Gino left before Stevens could get here for the shift change. Don’t worry. He’s fired now. And I know you told Jason he didn’t need to follow you to the ranch, but those were not my orders. He never should’ve agreed to let you leave without security tailing you.” Ellison’s jaw was tight. “Stevens will be here in ten to watch the cabin and I’ve got Monroe coming to be your bodyguard for the rest of the day.”
“Don’t fire Jason,” Madison said. “He might not have followed your orders, but he followed mine. I told him not to follow us.”
Ellison only looked angrier. “Madi, these men are not here to do what you want. They are here to keep you safe. If they fuck that up, I have to discipline them.”
“But Jason’s wife is pregnant with twins. He needs this job, Eli.” She looked like she was about to cry.
“I’m not going to fire him, but I am going to send him home. He’s not useful to me here if he can’t be trusted to follow orders.” He gave Madison a reassuring smile. “Jason will be alright. It’s not your job to worry about him.”