Page 55 of Ruin Me, Daddy

“Yes, that thing. Thanks,” she added when Ice pressed the corkscrew and two glasses into her hands.

“I’ll send Frankie out with some more glasses when she gets here.”

A sharp smack to her ass sent her scurrying toward the back door, but not before she shot him a glare over her shoulder. Ice just lifted his glass of whiskey and laughed when she stuck her tongue out at him.

Lottie was where Silver had left her, leaning on the railing and watching the waves, a serene expression on her face.

“Got the corkscrew. And the glasses.”

“Perfect.” Turning away from the ocean, Lottie held her hand out for the corkscrew and made quick work of opening the wine.

“Okay, so,” Lottie said as she poured two generous glasses of the ruby-colored liquid. “What do you know about getting rid of crazy?”

“Ah… I’m going to need a bit more to work with than that, honey.”

Glass in hand, Lottie paced back and forth in front of the chair Silver claimed for herself. “There’s this group. They’ve been writing to Braden for months, telling him the club should be shut down because it—hang on.” Pausing her pacing, she closed her eyes. “It promotes sexual depravity and unholiness. That was one of the phrases.”

“Well, yeah, isn’t that kind of the point?” Silver asked with a laugh.

“That’s what Braden said, too. But it just doesn’t feel right.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, for starters, how do they even know about the club? Braden’s so careful about who’s even allowed to apply, and you know how thorough the background check is. So how do they know? Did someone tell them? Do we have a spy at the club?”

“I do know how thorough the background check is, which is why I’m pretty confident there’s no mole inside Club BDE.”

“Then how do they know what goes on inside the club?”

“I don’t know that they do,” Silver replied with a shrug. “As far as the average person knows, it’s just a very exclusive nightclub, right? People like that, they see anything that isn’t literally ‘church’ as depraved and sinful. Have they actually said anything in their emails about it being a kink club?”

“Well… no. Just that stuff about promoting sexual depravity.”

“That could literally be something as innocent as people of the opposite sex dancing together, babe. It doesn’t mean they actually know anything incriminating.”

“I know. It just feels—I don’t know how to explain it.” Clearly frustrated, Lottie glared down at her wine. “Foreboding, I guess. We stopped by the club on our way over here so Braden could check on some things and I saw someone.”

That sense of foreboding Lottie had talked about crept up Silver’s spine. “Who?”

“I don’t know. A woman. She was standing across the street from the club.”

“Okay, well, the club is on a relatively busy street. There’s lots of people there all the time.”

“Dressed in beige, long-sleeved dresses in the middle of September? In South Carolina?”

Okay, Silver had to admit that did sound unusual. “Well… no, probably not. Did she say anything to you?”

“No. She was just standing there, watching us. Braden said he didn’t see her.”

“Okay.” Weird, but still not alarming. But it was clear Lottie was worried, and if Silver could do something to alleviate that worry, she was happy to do so. “What do you need from me?”

Lottie blinked rapidly, and Silver realized with horror she was holding back tears. “See? That’s why I knew I could talk to you. I knew you’d want to help and you wouldn’t just think I was imagining things.”

“Did Braden tell you that?” If he had, Silver had some choice words for the owner of Club BDE. Words that would probably end with her getting her ass busted in front of everyone, but that was a chance she was willing to take if he’d been that dismissive of his babygirl’s concerns.

“No.” Lottie shook her head, then dragged in a deep breath. “No. He believed me, and he said he’d talk to Holden about adding some extra security for a little while.”

Whew. Crisis averted. “Sounds like he’s taking it seriously, then. That’s good.”

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