Temperance stayed leaning against Jay as Richard came in with a map.
“Here are all of our businesses,” Richard said, pointing at the map. “To give you an idea, this is where all the bodies have been found.”
She watched him draw a circle.
“It could be a coincidence, but we don’t believe in that shit. We believe in cold hard facts.”
“Someone could be coming after you?”
“Exactly, and I don’t want to take any chances. I’ve only just found you. I’m not going to lose you now.”
Before she could say anything, his cell phone rang, and Richard had to leave to go and get it.
Lifting up the map, she showed Jay exactly where Richard’s building was.
****
“It’s not just a coincidence, is it?” Jay asked.
Temperance shook her head.
Wrapping his arms around her, he held her close, inhaling her sweet scent. Tonight had been a dream come true to him, and with this threat, he was scared. He had been waiting for Temperance for so long, the very thought of losing her was just too hard to grasp. There was no way he was going to let anything happen to her.
Richard walked back in the room.
“What is it?” Temperance asked.
“They have found another body.”
“Do you need to leave?”
“No, not tonight. The main investigation is taking place first.”
Temperance moved up, snuggling so that her ass was against his dick. “Jay and I will do what we can to help.”
“Yeah, we will. We’ve got your back, man.”
“All I want is for both of you to be careful. Don’t linger too long in empty streets. Don’t go to places to eat you’ve never been before. I’m going to assign a guard, but you’re not going to know where he is.”
“I’m a guy. I don’t need a guard,” Jay said, trying to lighten the mood.
“You’re an accountant,” Richard said.
“So, we can be badass.”
“You scream at spiders,” Temperance said.
“You’re not helping my case here, baby.”
“Just take the guard, Jay. I know you’ve got a big dick, so you don’t have to act the man. Be the bigger man now, and see that this is upsetting to Richard.”
Looking at the man he was starting to see as a friend, Jay saw the fear Richard was trying to hide. It was serious shit.
“Do I get to pledge to be a member?” Jay asked.
“We’re not some frat house.”
“Technically, you are.”
Temperance laughed. “He’s trying to tease you. Smile, Richard, and move on, otherwise he’ll start calling the club many other names.”
Chapter Nine
They were all gathered in church at the clubhouse the following Sunday. Temperance and Jay were outside in the main bar while Richard finished off this latest club meeting. During the past week, he’d gotten a guard for each of them. One for Jay, two for Temperance, all three men had been employed to keep a careful distance from their respective charges. He didn’t want to hear both of them complaining. They had both moved in with him, and he’d helped to bring their stuff to his place. He liked having both of them around. At first he had thought Jay would be a problem, but now, he was his best friend outside of the club. It was fun to finally have a friend to watch football with, have a beer, and of course, share a woman.
Mirrors had already been put in place in the fourth bedroom, and every single night that was where all three of them slept. He loved having Temperance between them. Some mornings he woke up to her lying across his body. Other mornings, he woke to her ass against his dick, and she was snuggled up against Jay.
No jealousy struck up. She belonged to the both of them, and he liked it that way. During the day, Temperance was the official PA, apart from lunchtimes. Those he had her spread across his desk so that he could lick her pussy out.
He also loved her sucking his dick. Sometimes, Jay would join them for lunch, and it was hard not to turn it into a fuck-fest. Both of them had been taking turns to possess her mouth, her pussy, or her ass. Richard loved her. He truly did, and there was no doubt, this was his future with both of them.
Lewis circled the new link of the dead girls.
“Do we recognize any of them?” Jackson asked.
“Their names have all turned up in the missing person’s database,” Lewis said. “What I’m not liking is each girl is part of different order lists. The order forms where men or women order the kind of girl they want. You know, blonde, brunette, fat, thin, stuff like that. Each of these girls matches a description from different lists.”
Lewis went back to his keyboard, typing something. On the large projector, Richard saw the different order forms, and then there were the three faces of the dead girls. “Here, blonde, roughly five foot, with no blemishes, chunky. This matches Darlene. She was reported missing by her family a week ago. Slim, brunette, no ink, this matches this woman here.”
“What does this mean?” Blake asked.
“One of these women was last seen in one of your nightclubs,” Lewis said.
“What?”
“Darlene was spotted on footage coming out of your nightclub. She never made it home. It gets worse. Tania, she’s the brunette with no ink, was employed by you, Russ.”
“What?” Russ asked.
“And this woman.” Lewis pointed at the redhead. “She was the cleaner for this club. Sarah, that was her name.”
“You think we’re being targeted?” Jamie asked.
“All I know is right now, the cops are looking at us a little suspiciously. These women, they’re innocents, and they’re being killed because of what we do.” Lewis stared at the board. “Our lives within the club are no longer secret.”
“What do we need to do?” Richard asked. “I’m not going to sit back while a bunch of innocents are being targeted because of us.”
“I’ve got to use all the data I have, but I need access codes into your security. All of your security codes.”
“Wait? Why?” Jamie asked, standing up. “Do you think one of us is the snitch?”
“Not at all.”
Richard watched as the men started to glare at each other, ready to fight.
This was not part of the club, and Richard was pissed off. “Enough!” He yelled the word, so everyone paused, turning toward him. “Do you see what is happening? We’re having doubts about each other, and it was us who went looking for them.” He looked at each of his nine club brothers. “We’ve got each other, and right now, innocent people are dying. If you’ve got a problem with Lewis having our access codes to help find these fuckers, then I say I’d vote you out of the club.” Grabbing some paper, Richard wrote down the access code. “That’s all you need to know.”
“This is our company.”
“We came together for trust. We each have access here, and a woman was killed because she cleaned for us.” Richard shook his head. “I’m not taking any fucking chances.”
One by one, the men wrote down their access codes. It was a single code known only by them, which allowed for security around the building to be checked. Lewis didn’t need to entire codes. Even Richard didn’t have every single code to each building, or the access point for staff files.
Lewis took a seat at the computer desk. He looked over the codes, and then set fire to the piece of paper. Richard didn’t question him as he got to work.
“What do you have to do?” Richard asked, taking a seat.
“First, I access the victims’ files, and then I cross reference them to the nights they were killed, and I can use some software that I created that allows me to extract anomalies based on these facts. It’s the quickest route to finding out what went wrong.”
“You do that.”
Richard rubbed at his temples. This was getting too damn confusing, and he didn’t want anyone to get hurt.
The men sat down around the table.
“You’ve put three guards on Jay and Temperance,” Blake said.
“Temperance is my woman. I’m sharing her with Jay. You got a problem with that, we can step outside and solve that problem.”
Blake held his hand up. “A ménage relationship isn’t going to go down well in the market.”
“Do I look like a give a fuck? The press can say I’m fucking Jay for all I care.” He’d never been one to lose sleep over the speculations of other people. Growing up in foster care, Richard had learned not to take anything to heart. There were cruel people in the world, and there were nice people. Most of the time, he encountered the pieces of shit that didn’t deserve to walk on this earth.
“Wow, is it serious?” Jamie asked.
“Yes, it’s serious,” Richard said. “I love her.”
“Wow, the beast has fallen in love.” This came from Sean.
“I’m not the beast. You know that. I know that.”
“Actually, you kind of are. You’re not exactly known for your lovely manner,” Jackson said.
“Whatever. I’m not here to babysit what people think.” He leaned back into his chair. “God, I need a break.”
It had been a long time since he took a vacation, and he was starting to need one a lot sooner than he anticipated. He rarely ever vacationed.