I stared at him for a second and then nodded. “Lead the way.”
He stood and I followed him back out into the living room. Sure enough, he had a box full of dated memory cards. He located the one from the night of the banquet and handed it to me.
“Some shots of rich asshole tech bros for a little blog that pays garbage, but otherwise it’s nothing.”
“Show me.”
He grunted and walked over to a desktop computer. He slipped the card into a slot and pulled up the folder. He slowly scrolled through the content.
“See?”
Sure enough, no pictures of the banquet. I pushed him aside and right-clicked on a photo, checking out its metadata. True to his word, according to the date in the file, it had been taken that night.
“Son of a bitch,” I mumbled.
“What sort of shit are you in, anyway?” he asked, his arms crossed. “Must be bad if you’re breaking into my apartment.”
I pulled the card from his computer. “I’ll be taking this.”
“Oh sure,” he said, rolling his eyes.
“Maybe you’re not lying. Maybe it isn’t you. But if you were smart, you’d forget I showed up here.”
“What about my door?”
I reached into my wallet and pulled out a hundred dollars in cash and tossed it to him. “For your trouble.”
“Asshole. This won’t cover it.”
“Don’t make me come back here, Sergey.”
“You don’t need to. I have nothing to do with this shit. If I were you, I’d be looking much closer to home.”
“What do you mean?”
He laughed. “You think you’re the first person to accuse me of this crap? Happens all the damn time, and almost every time it’s someone closer than you’d expect.”
I narrowed my eyes. “What are you saying?”
“Suspect everyone. Except me. Now get out of my apartment.”
“You hear anything, you call me.”
“Just get out!”
I grinned at him for a second, staring him down. He looked nervous, terrified actually, but I didn’t think he was lying.
Which was actually the worse case scenario. If Sergey wasn’t the blackmailer, then I had no clue who had sent the pictures.
I turned and left. Sergey’s door was nicely splintered, but it still managed to click shut behind me, so at least he wouldn’t be completely exposed overnight. He should feel thankful he had gotten off so easily.
I made my way down the stairs and back outside. As I climbed onto my bike and rode over to the motel, my mind was a mess of conflicting emotions.
I’d just broken into a man’s apartment and threatened him. True, he was a scumbag, but he still could make my life very difficult if he chose to. I didn’t think that was likely since he’d probably been paid off pretty well by my mother, but I wasn’t sure.
If he did decide to rear his ugly little head, then I’d have to pay him again. I had a little money from the fight, and I’d be getting some more soon. All in all, it was probably going to be fine.
I was more worried about the fact that Sergey was a dead end.
There had to have been other paparazzi at that event, but I hadn’t seen any. The pictures looked like they were taken up close, so someone had to have used an expensive camera lens to get that shot from far away. I hadn’t noticed anyone else on the roof. That was pro-grade stuff, or at least someone that liked pro-grade equipment.
Plus, Sergey’s last words kept ringing in my ears. Look closer to home? I had no clue what that really meant. Did he think Alexa was blackmailing herself or something equally insane?
Still, that was a lead worth following up. Maybe there were staff working the roof, or maybe they had a security detail up there. I’d have to ask around, try to find out if anyone saw or heard anything.
This damn fucking thing was going to be a much bigger pain in my ass than I had thought.
As I walked into my room, ignoring the junkies and the whores, I locked my door and got into bed. Alexa came back into my mind then, hazy and indistinct, and I knew that I was fucking up badly. I was beginning to see just how far I’d go for this girl, even if it were stupid.
I drifted off to sleep, remembering the feel of her body, her perfect fucking tits, her tasty little cunt, and her incredible moans of pleasure.
“Hello?”
“Alexa, it’s me.”
“Cole!”
I leaned up against the wall of the rest stop halfway back home. The sun was bright in the sky, and I was taking my sweet-ass time riding back. I was thinking, trying to work out who had sent those pictures and why, but there was nothing to go on.
“I met our friend.”
“Oh my god. Cole, that’s insane.”