With visible difficulty, he does as the metal door slides open to revealDelta’s ground floor. After weeks of relative quiet, the bass pumping from the speakers is deafening.
I navigate the room, people moving out of my way, some bowing their heads, others darting off.
A moment later, we’re in the VIP area on the balcony. Dante’s already there, sitting on one of two white leather half-moon couches facing each other. The area is separated from the rest of the club by a pane of bulletproof glass that muffles the loud music thumping throughout the building.
With a tumbler of whiskey in hand, Dante talks with Jackson, their girls notably missing, probably dancing downstairs, watched by two bodyguards.
“The prodigal son returns,” Nate, Dante’s—as I call him—left hand, cheers when I approach the table. “Good to see you, man.” He pats my back, question marks shining in his eyes.
There are men at the table who aren’t inner circle, so he checks his tongue, taking a seat while I shake hands with everyone. Before I’m done, a waitress comes over with a glass of bourbon for me and a Coke for my designated driver.
“Let my wife know I’ll be back in an hour,” Dante tells the guys not invited to the private meeting. A hint of a smile twists his features as he adds, “And tell her Carter’s back.”
“Sure thing, Boss. We’ll keep an eye on the girls.”
Dante nods, a silentyes, you willimplied. “Koby and Ryder?” he asks when I fall into step beside him.
“Broadway will fill them in. The V brothers arrived unannounced earlier, so they’re otherwise occupied.”
“My allies prefer your club?” Dante cocks an eyebrow, pushing the door to his office at the back wide open, amusement lacing his tone. “Must be the Red Room.”
Hardly.
If it’s business related, their visits are always planned weeks in advance, but sometimes they show up to unwind. Dante purposely omits the fact he made me Vince and Vaughn’s main point of contact three years ago, tired of the mayhem they cause whenever they roll into town.
I don’t mind. Their kind of crazy aligns well with Ryder, so the meetings are always a breeze and I log out once they start humping everything that moves.
Before I take my usual seat in the leather chair, Jackson slips his hand into my pocket, pulling my phone out, a finger pressed to his lips as he stares me down.
I frown, watching him stomp away and hook up my phone to his laptop. Everyone’s silent, expectant eyes on me but it takes me a while before I understand.
They think there’s a bug on my phone.
A cold sweat slithers down my back, my mind working overtime, running through all possibilities. Have I ever left my phone unattended? Who the fuck would bugme?
“We’re good,” Jackson says, staring at the screen. “It works on calls, texts, and emails. It doesn’t listen, so we’re fine.”
“You found a bug?” I snarl, moving to stand behind him. “How did it get on my phone? How did you know it’s there?”
“I heard cracks on the line yesterday,” Dante says. “I’ve been bugged enough times to distinguish a shitty connection from a poorly installed bug. We had no way of checking whether it was listening all the time, so I couldn’t get Andres to warn you. I needed you here.”
Fuck. That’s why he sounded so odd.
“Sit, Carter,” he adds.
I sink into the leather chair, downing half my whiskey. “How did it get on my phone?”
“I’m working on that,” Jackson mutters, tapping the keyboard. “I can tell you it was installed yesterday.” He frowns at the screen. “That’s... fuck. You opened a server, didn’t you?”
My eyebrows draw together, then shoot up when it clicks. “Rhett. He sent me a server link to those files about Vaughn.”
The fucking bastard.
“Yup,” he confirms, tapping away. “One of the files is infected. Looks like your old man doesn’t trust you.”
I run a heavy hand down my face. “He’s pissed off things aren’t happening faster. I bet he’s checking I’m not leading him by the nose.”
“We can’t remove it without him knowing,” Broadway states, crossing the room. He opens a filing cabinet, pulling out a metal box. “If it isn’t meant for Rhett’s ears, it goes through one of these.” He drops two burners in my lap.
