Page 11 of Spies Like Us

“It’s alright, darling. None of us think any worse of you. In fact, it turns me the fuck on.” He winks, rubbing his erection against me before returning to serving as I hide a shudder of revulsion. I don’t know what it is about Keith, but he really creeps me out, and I’ve had to fuck some creeps before.

I serve a few customers while I wait for Sam and Meri to return. It’s easy and mind-numbing, and I smile and flirt, but there’s this edge of apathy. Despite the weed in my system, I feel kind of hollow. What is this feeling? I’m exhausted all of a sudden. Was Dad right? Am I ready to have a team to back me up and give me support? Am I ready to give up spreading my legs to get the job done? I feel like I need to scrub my body to remove Keith’s touch from me, and hell, that isn’t my usual MO. Normally, that would be par for the course, but now I just feel dirty.

What I really want to do is go home, have my mom wrap her arms around me, and give me a hug. I want my comfort pj’s and my mac and cheese, and I want to pretend I’m normal. Maybe I really do need a break. It’s time to reassess what I want from life. I just need to get through this case. Maybe it’s the actual case that’s fucking with my head. The trafficking of unwanted teenagers is making me sad. Why can’t everyone be lucky enough to have a family that loves them like mine does?

Chapter 5

Afistfight breaks out on the dance floor, knocking me out of my depressing thoughts. Anders and Keith both leave the bar to help the bouncers, leaving Carla and me to manage the bar. Most of the people waiting turn to watch the fight, so we get a moment of reprieve before people lose interest, and then we get slammed again. Sam and Meri return at the same time as Keith and Anders, and we finish off the night in our assigned positions. By the time the doors close at two, it takes a good half hour for us to push all the customers out. The girls help me gather the glasses and wipe down the booths.

“The cleaning crew will be in later in the morning to do the bathrooms and dance floor,” Keith explains as he pulls on a leather jacket. “Anders will give you the rundown on cleaning the bar and mopping the floor. He’ll also show you how to change the kegs if any are needed.” He turns to Anders. “Make sure the empty kegs are stacked in the alcove to be picked up by the distributor in the morning. We have that wine thing next week, and we got a hookup with a distributor, so they are sending us some cases of wine. They’ll drop them in the alcove, so make sure there’s space.”

“Sure thing,” Anders agrees, and Keith winks and looks between the two of us.

“Don’t have too much fun. Matthew said you have to run Mac home, otherwise Martha will get her panties in a twist. She has church in the morning.” Keith shakes his head and chuckles as he walks out, followed by the three other girls. Sam and Meri wave cheery goodbyes, but Carla keeps her head down and ignores both of us. It doesn’t take long for the rest of security to clear out either, leaving Anders and me all alone.

He tosses me a cloth. “Start wiping down all the bottles at Keith’s station,” he tells me as he pulls out his phone and sends a text. I’m assuming it’s to Lathan. Once he puts his phone back in his pocket, he walks over to me and bends over, looking like he’s showing me something. “We have half an hour to clean up, and then Lathan is going to fix the video feed to make it look like we left so we can poke around a little.”

“Sounds good,” I mutter, keeping my head down so my lips can’t be read. Anders and I work quickly and quietly. There really isn’t a lot to do, just the main bar area. We wipe down all three pouring stations and the bar and all the shiny metal surfaces. I pour some half bottles together and replace the empty ones with full bottles, then I gather up the two trash bags and run them out to the bins in the alleyway. When I return, Anders nods his head toward the cool room. “Come on, I’ll show you how to change a keg, and then we’ll roll the empties out to be picked up.”

He leads me past the staff area and through a door and down a hallway. We pass an ice maker and a dry stock storage room before we reach a large cold door.

“That leads out to the back of the club.” He points to a door off to the side. “The whole club takes up the block, so that’s the street that runs behind the club.”

He grabs the handle of the walk-in refrigerator and pulls down, dragging the large door backwards. A rush of cold air flows out, and I shiver. He snorts as I rub my arms and legs.

“Let’s make this quick, otherwise you’re going to turn into a Macsicle.” He leads the way in and shows me how to change a keg, just in case.

“So are there any random doors or possible places that could be hiding an entrance to a sex club?” I ask him as we roll the four empty ones out the back door.

“Nothing that sticks out. We need to check the coat room, and I’d like to look in dry storage with the racks of alcohol to see if they slide to the side. I haven’t been left alone to do that yet.” He rolls his two kegs against the wall, and I push mine next to it before looking around.

There’s quite a large alcove. Sure enough, there’s another door that I’m assuming is the door to the upper floor, but there is also a service elevator. I point to it.

“Does that only go up, or does it go down?” I ask him, and his eyes widen.

“It goes up to the other level, but it doesn’t really get used. That would require more security, so Matthew tends to only use the inside stairs. I think I remember Keith saying it went down to an old cellar, but I didn’t think anything of it at the time. Do you think people would use it to get into the club? Surely lots of people would be seen coming and going. Someone would have noticed something.” He sounds dubious, and I bite my lip while I’m thinking.

“We kind of need to see where it goes. I’m assuming it’s locked.” I point to a card reader off to the side of the elevator. “Do you think Lathan can hack it?”

“Probably, but not in time for us to check it out tonight. I’ll see if he can organize something for tomorrow after work. Miller starts tomorrow as well, so I don’t doubt that you two will be on cleanup duties together. I’ll probably have to drive him home too.”

“You know, I was thinking about those tunnels,” I say as we make our way back into the club. “They looked old. They have to be some old prohibition tunnels or part of the Underground Railroad. Maybe we should go to the local library and see if there is anything there about the town’s history. There might be a map that will give us more of an idea on where the entrance to the club could be.”

“We really need to go back and explore those tunnels. We were waiting for Bishop’s body to be moved, which I’m guessing will happen when Max reports him missing tomorrow after church, but that’s not a bad idea in the meantime. If you say you’re going to study for school or something, no one will be suspicious.” Anders leads the way back into the club.

“Martha would probably have an orgasm if I told her I was going to spend the afternoon at the library studying after church.” I chuckle as the two of us check out the shelves in the storage room. None of them are hiding an entrance or even move away from the wall. We head back into the walk-in refrigerator to do another check, but there are no secret passages in there either.

“How about the bathrooms? It wouldn’t be suspicious because people naturally go into one, and nobody is paying attention if they come back out until later,” I suggest.

“Let’s look,” he agrees, but it’s another dead end. We finally check the coat room, but there is nothing but some lost property.

“I’m going to go out on a limb and say the entrance to the sex club isn’t here,” I say to Anders as he growls in frustration. “The club may not even be under this one. The girls may have been confused. Their foster sister was terrified, so they may have gotten mixed up.”

“Damn it. Back to square one. I thought for sure it would be.” He turns all the lights off, plunging the main room of the club into darkness as we retreat to the staff area.

I grab my things from my locker as Anders grabs his phone and car keys from his.

“I have Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday off work. Maybe we can explore the tunnels on one of those nights.”

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