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The sun began spreading tendrils of orange light across the eastern sky as they glided down the river. The swamp was a terrifying force of nature, but it also had a stark beauty. Cypress trees rose like silhouettes in the painted sky that filtered dawn through the branches heavy with Spanish moss and rippled across the glassy water. A glance told him Madison was awed, too.
Silent minutes passed before Jack slowed, drifting to a stop beside a small blue cabin. Steps from the dock stood a screened-in porch. Matt couldn’t see much in the dark beyond.
Jack cut the engine, tied off the boat, then hopped onto the dock, holding the lamp again with one hand. The other he held out for Madison. “Come with me.”
If Matt had sensed a come-on or anything sexual in the way Oracle’s co-owner talked to Madison, he’d be flamingly pissed. But all he heard in the Cajun’s voice was gently implacable demand.
She obeyed, taking his hand and stepping onto the dock beside him.
He smiled her way. “That was brave. Thank you.”
The expression she sent him was almost shy. Not flirtatious, but deferential. What the hell?
The Edgington brothers were both Dominants. Was it possible their good buddy, Jack Cole, was, too? Matt didn’t know much about it. The lifestyle had always held a lurid fascination, so he’d avoided it. Now he wondered at Madison’s response.
Was she…submissive?
“Out.” Jack thumbed him off the boat.
Matt honestly didn’t know how to feel about that possibility as the Cajun juggled groceries and led them up the stairs. He unlocked the screen and ushered them onto the porch before opening the door.
If the outside had looked like a rundown fishing cabin built fifty years ago, the inside was completely different. The air was stuffy and heavy with stifling summer humidity, but as the fresh sunlight began seeping in, everything looked clean, homey, and full of lovingly chosen antiques.
“Here we are.” Jack shut the door behind them, then nodded toward the open space. “Living room and kitchen. Then down the hall”—he led them in that direction—“bedroom to the right. Bathroom on the left. The clawfoot tub works, Madison, if you’re like my wife, who loves her baths.”
“I do. Thank you…sir.”
Sir? Had that really come out of her mouth? And why did it bother him that she’d addressed another man that way?
Jack just smiled. “No problem. You two can set your bags in the bedroom.”
Matt dropped the duffel and watched Madison take in the mosquito-netted four-poster bed in gleaming cherrywood as she unloaded her backpack. Yeah, he hadn’t expected anything half so romantic, either. He also suspected this was the only bed in the joint. As far as he could see, that was the extent of the cabin, except for the closed door at the end of the hall.
Together, they meandered to the kitchen to find Jack putting away canned food and tucking things into the refrigerator. “Morgan didn’t know what you’d like, so she guessed.”
“We’ll be happy with anything. We just appreciate the place,” Matt assured.
Jack nodded. “Madison, go into the bedroom and shut the door. Take a few minutes to collect your thoughts and remember every detail about the night of Brent’s murder. Be thorough but concise. Capture everything you can think, especially anything you saw or heard that the video might not have captured, in case corroboration becomes necessary.” He reached into a drawer and plucked out a blank pad of paper and a pen. “You’re welcome to this. If you need any other help, let me know. When you’ve got your thoughts together, I’ll come record you. Understand?”
She nodded. “Yes, sir.”
His smile widened. “Off you go. I’m going to explain the security system, generator, and a few other things to Matt. Give us thirty minutes or so.”
“It might take me that long just to remember everything I need to say.”
“All right, but no more than that. I have to get back to allay any suspicion, in case we’re being watched.”
She nodded and disappeared, shutting the door with a quiet click.
Matt whirled on Jack. “What the—”
“Not here. Come with me.” Jack motioned him out a side door that led to a deck with spectacular views of the sun rising over the swamp, illuminating the bayou before the day’s heat baked everything in sight.
Matt followed, adjusting the brim of his hat against the rising sun and shutting the door behind them. “What the hell is going—”
“On? You’re failing Madison. She’s spiraling down, and she needs a safety net to catch her when she falls. Notice I didn’t say if.” The Cajun approached a locked wooden pen, inserted the key, then swung the door wide before lifting a huge metal lid. “Generator. It’s wired into the house and runs off propane tanks, which are permanently affixed out back.”
“I know how a generator works.”
