“The card is just a tool to get you in. As if you were wearing a wristband to show you’re over twenty-one at a fair. It doesn’t have my name on it anywhere. She could take it.” He points at Jasmine. “And use it for entry and they wouldn’t question her. I would have been out fifty grand and that’s that. It doesn’t actually keep track of their members.”
“But they would be allowing her to enter without an NDA. So, there’s a flaw,” I observe.
“Essentially. But you have to be invited. Now, they don’t scan the cards to make sure that you are, in fact, the cardholder. You find a member card, and you’re in. But not many know about the bottom floor of Kink. The top floor of the club has a different name. So the odds of a stranger picking one up on the streets and knowing its significance is unlikely.” Tristan takes a drink.
“Let me see your card.” Jasmine holds her hand out to Avery.
He shakes his head. “I’m no longer a member. I prefer not to parade my sexual desires around in front of others.”
“In front of others,” Haven repeats. “Like they watch each other down there?” Her amber eyes are wide.
My eyes go to Emilee, and she blushes. My dirty girl would like that.
“Yes. As I said, all the rooms are glass. You can watch all of it. Or you can choose the one room they offer for privates. They accommodate all tastes,” Tristan adds.
“And what are your tastes?” Jasmine asks him with a raised brow.
“We’re getting off track,” Luca says, running a hand down his face before Tristan can answer her. “But you can confirm he’s been there?”
Tristan goes to speak, but Emilee interrupts him. “This is George we’re talking about. How in the hell did he find fifty thousand dollars to join a sex club?” she asks skeptically. “And how does that work anyway?” She looks back and forth between Avery and Tristan. “This is September. The year is almost over.”
We’re assuming our contact is George. When we looked up the number, it was not available. So, it has to be a burner phone of some sort. But he is the only guy we can think of who would send someone to the York’s house who would know about a safe in the office. No one else makes sense. But she has a point. Where would George find that kind of money for a sex club? But I’m also not an idiot. He’s had money this entire time. He refused to pay us because he didn’t want to. Not because his funds were unavailable.
“Doesn’t matter.” Tristan shakes his head once at her question. “You pay full price no matter when you want to join. So, say you just have to join in December. Come January, you’re paying again.”
“Seriously, this is my dream job.” Jasmine nods to herself. “Sex. Money. Exclusive clubs.”
“Here, I have a picture for you.” Tristan reaches into his pocket and removes his cell. He scrolls through it for a few seconds and then hands it to me.
I stare down at it. My blood running cold.
“Titan?” Bones calls out.
I blink, bringing the picture closer to my face. “Uh …” I clear my throat. “When was this taken?”
“Two nights ago.”
I start shaking my head. “That’s impossible.”
“I was there. I took it,” Tristan announces. “You gave us the number. As you said, it was not in any database. But we were able to ping it to Kink. Then we had a woman reach out to that number. She made contact, and I took the picture. That’s what took us so long. He wasn’t responding at first. It took him a couple of days to take the bait.”
Fuck!I hand him back the phone. Standing, I start to head to the door of our suite. “Bones!” I snap before walking out.
“What the hell is going on?” he demands, entering the hallway and shutting the door behind him.
I begin to pace.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“We were wrong,” I say.
“About?”
“We thought this was George. It had to have been George who sent the guy to collect the money from the York’s residence.”
“Yeah. So why do you seem so confused now?”
“He was the only plausible answer,” I ramble.
