He stares at me, contemplating his next move. “Fine. A quick walk around some of the rooms here.” He takes me by the hand, and it makes my skin crawl, but I let him lead me from the lounge.
Cree
I let Michelle get the bill. It goes against everything in me, but fuck it, she brought me here under false pretences. She’s spent the entire meal talking about me and her. I can’t make it any clearer—there is no us. As we leave, she hooks her arm in mine and I lead her to the waiting car. “Back to my place?” she suggests.
“I have somewhere to be,” I mutter.
We get into the car and her cell buzzes. She reads the text and then laughs. “Who would have thought it, that little bitch has turned up at the club.” I look at her and wait for her to explain. “My personal assistant,” she scoffs. “She’s gone to Callum’s club.”
My blood runs cold. “Why?” I ask, trying hard to contain my anger.
“For sex, I should imagine. I told you she fancied my husband, right? And of course, he would fancy her—he likes a submissive little whore in his bed.” She stuffs her cell back into her bag. “Thank god I have spies everywhere. I need to fire her.”
I don’t speak for the rest of the journey. I’m so angry, I don’t trust myself. I get Michelle home safely and then head to Eva’s. She’s still not home when I arrive and so I send her a text asking where she is. If she doesn’t reply, I’m gonna tear that house apart until I find her. I put the call in to my inside guy. “I need everything you have now. I’m outta time.”
“Okay, man. Let me step out and I’ll tell you what I got.”
I feel sick to my stomach. My hands shake and I feel suffocated. What the fuck was Eva thinking? Her text comes through the second I disconnect my call.
Eva: I’m on my way home, just been to see an old college friend.
The fact she’s lying to me does nothing to calm me down.
Almost half an hour later, she comes in. She’s shocked to see me sitting on her couch, tapping my fingers impatiently on my knee. “I didn’t expect you here tonight. If you’d said you were waiting here for me, I would have rushed back,” she says, smiling at me awkwardly. “How was dinner?”
“What friend?” I ask tightly and she eyes me cautiously.
“You’re not one of those guys who doesn’t like me to see friends, are you?” she asks, adding a nervous laugh. “Because that’s a deal breaker for me.” I continue to stare at her, a pleading look in my eyes, I just need her to be honest. “She was at college with me. I don’t see her often, so I wouldn’t have talked about her to you,” she continues.
“Right,” I mutter. I stand and pull on my jacket. “I can forgive a lot of shit, Eva, but not fuckin’ lies.”
“What’s going on?” she asks, confusion on her face. “What did I do?”
I rub my thumb over her cheek. The thought of never seeing her beautiful face again breaks me. I smile at her sadly and place a gentle kiss on her forehead. “A woman who can look me in the eye like that and lie isn’t the kind of woman I want in my life.” I head for the door.
“What the hell are you talking about?” she yells. “You’re breaking up with me?”
“You’re lying to me, Eva. I told you not to get fuckin’ involved. I told you to let me deal with Callum, but you can’t listen to simple damn instructions, and then you go to his sex club,” I yell back. “His fuckin’ sex club, Eva! And I ask you and you have the balls to lie to me like that.”
She chews on her lip and I see her trying to think up ways to get outta this. “I wanted to help.”
“I told you to stay out of it!” I shout and she flinches. “This is club business. You think he’s gonna leave you alone now? Fuck!” I yell, rubbing my face in frustration. “I’m so mad right now, I can’t even look at you. I gotta get outta here.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispers. “Please, let’s talk. Don’t leave like this.”
I shake my head and pull the door open. “Don’t call me, I’ll call you, and all that bollocks,” I mutter, throwing a line she once used on me back at her. I slam the door closed and force myself to walk away.
I bang on Riggs’ bedroom door and wait for a response. He’ll likely kick my ass for interrupting the good time he’s giving Anna, but this is urgent. “Fuck off,” he yells.
“It’s urgent. About Callum.”
There’s some whispering on the other side of the door, and a minute later, Riggs pulls the door open, looking dishevelled and fastening his belt. “This better be fucking good, VP.”
We go to his office and he pours us each a drink. I shake my head because I need to keep clear. “I got a call. Some intel on Callum and his little house of horrors.”
“Go on,” he pushes.
“It caters to men who have a certain taste.” Riggs glares at me impatiently. “Let me finish.” I sigh. “All the members are men. No married couples or kinky couples looking for fun. Men are invited and they pay a yearly subscription. We’re talking hundreds of thousands, sometimes more if they require dark shit.”
“Like kids?” asks Riggs.
I shake my head. “No. No one under the legal age of consent,” I explain.
“Right, well, that’s what we were worried about. I’ll call the mayor and confirm it’s not that sort of shit,” he says, standing.
I put my hand up to halt him. “But the women there aren’t willing. They don’t sign up willingly.”
“That’s fucked up, Cree, but
