As luck would have it, I’m not due back at Aces until Friday. This is Tuesday, a night that the club is normally closed, but Rouge opened it specially for St. Patrick’s Day. I have the next few days off, and hopefully that will be long enough for Harrison and me to pinpoint our next maneuver.
Just in case Rouge visits the Caterpillar earlier than we anticipate, though, it’s best that I lie low. I don’t think returning to my apartment is a good idea, which is why I’m on my way to Harrison’s now. Rouge has no way of connecting this to him, so he’ll have to let me hunker down with him for a few days.
I have a feeling he will. He’s as big a fan of sleeping with me as I am with him.
Of course, it might be safer if we figure out some third location to stay together. Book a hotel under an assumed name or something.
We’ll figure it out.
I pull into Harrison’s driveway, park my car, and get out. I trudge up to his front door and knock.
He opens it almost immediately—it’s like he was standing right there—and throws his arms around me. “Thank God you’re okay,” he breathes.
I squeeze him. “Same for you. I was so worried after… After…”
The words catch in my throat.
I haven’t told him yet.
All I want to do right now is crush my lips to his, tangle our bodies together, and let his thick cock pound me into oblivion, take me to a place where my sister can never touch us.
But it’s not the time.
He breaks the embrace. “So what the hell did you find in there?”
I swallow. “You’ll want to sit down for this.”
He frowns. “Will I want a drink?”
I exhale sharply. “Possibly. But you might want your wits about you, too.”
He leads me to his couch.
I close my eyes, take a slow breath in. “When I went into the crawlspace… I found a small cooler under a folding table.”
He nods slowly. “Uh-huh.”
“Inside the cooler…were three human hearts.”
He drops his jaw. “What?”
“Hearts. As in the organ. I think Rouge is killing her waitstaff at the end of their five-year terms and then selling their organs on the black market, primarily to her older patrons.”
Harrison blinks for several seconds and then rubs at his forehead, his eyes squeezed shut. “Fuck.”
“You’re probably rethinking that drink right about now.”
“No fucking kidding.” He stands, paces the living room. “It does all connect to the disappearances. But what about the red diamonds Alissa and Maddox found in Rouge’s office?”
“I think they’re payment. A lot more discreet than cash.”
“Diamonds are hardly discreet.”
“But they’re not trackable. You don’t have to launder them like you’d have to with money.”
He swallows. “But your sister is covered in head to toe in those damned diamonds. To have that many, she’d have to have sold…”
“Hundreds of organs, yes. Possibly even thousands.”
