Page 11 of Master Vidar & Vali

I watched Dottie as she hustled around the bar and poured me a premium scotch. I hoped she wouldn’t get into trouble for giving Lagavulin. She placed it down in front of me. “Here you go, sweet thing, now tell Dottie all your troubles.”

I took a gulp from the deep tulip glass, appreciating the warm burn down my throat. “Actually, I’m very confused right now. Why does Colin have a club name and how is he associated with this place?”

Dottie’s expression turned to one of sympathy. “Colin is part owner of this club and two others as well.”

“Oh. I thought he was a security guy. I met him in Albania when he came to check into our local security servers.”

“That is his day job and he owns G&H along with two other owners of the clubs, his partner in crime is one of them, Lincoln, you may have met him as well.”

“Partner in crime?” Now I was really confused.

“Mmm girl, Colin is part of a package, if you know what I’m saying. He and Master Váli are a tag team, and what a team, when they’re here playing, all the women drool.”

“Aren’t you with that guy?” I nodded to the back trying to ignore the unreasonable jealousy swirling in my stomach.

“Rafe?” Her laugh echoed in the empty space. “No. We’ve played a few times but are better as friends. I’m too much for him.”

I choked on my sip of scotch. “Played? Are we talking about public sex or something else. Is that what Colin and his friend do here? Have public sex with women?” I tried not to sound judgmental but had to admit I didn’t like the idea of Colin being with so many women.

“Woman, not women and it’s not sex per se; well, they don’t usually orgasm publicly, but the play leading up to it is usually very much public. Those two can bring a woman to the edge and toss her into sexual bliss like no other. Believe me, I’ve thought about signing up to be their plus one, but I don’t want to turn into a whiny bitch when they turn me down a second time and they do.”

“I’m sorry, they do what?”

“They only play once with a woman, so it would only be once for me, and I’m so damn insatiable I just know I’d be crawling around on my hands and knees begging for more.”

I nodded my head not knowing what to say to that.

Dottie eyed me with a knowing smile. “I’m sure you’ll find out just how good they are soon enough.”

I chugged down the last of the scotch. Images of being tied down and taken by two men danced on the edges of my imagination. Was this other man as handsome as Colin?

It wasn’t the time to be fantasizing though this place did inspire dirty thoughts. I was tired and on the run. Unfortunately, my exhausted brain didn’t care about my situation as it reminded me of all the times in the last week that I’d woken up from wet dreams heavily involving Mr. Colin Kinnaird and how much better they would have been with another dark mysterious man in the mix.

Chapter Five

Lincoln

Zara’s ingenuity was impressive. For a woman on the run, she’d done a good job of covering her tracks without doing anything illegal. I’d spent the day hacking more systems than I could count and finally came to the conclusion that it was really her using her passport.

I’d gotten a brief glimpse of her in a security video getting off the flight from Albania to Greece before running to board another flight to Italy. She took a train to France and a ferry to England where she finally caught a flight to New York. I’d managed to get into the video feeds at JFK, but from what I could tell, she got in line for customs and never came out.

That was where I lost her. So, all I knew was she made it into the U.S. early this morning, and there was no way to tell where she went from there. The idea of letting Colin know that if we’d started looking even a day earlier we might have caught her at the airport was daunting. I’d known the man long enough to say he wouldn’t take it well.

He’d beat himself up and become even more obsessed with finding her. I’d already had to send him away once because his constant questions and pacing slowed me down. Putting off the conversation wouldn’t make it easier, so I went looking. He was probably in the gym taking out his frustration on a punching bag.

My own obsession with this woman was growing by the minute. I needed to keep a clear head, but each new glance I got of her, was making it harder to stay detached. Her fear as she moved around wasn’t faked. I’d spent way too long watching her sleep on the video from the train. I still didn’t know if she’d purposely worked with the Albanian mob but I was sure she was running from them.

Growing up in the world she’d been born into couldn’t have been easy. I wanted to believe that, much like me, she’d succeeded despite her adversity. Our obstacles had been different. Her struggles had been financial, whereas, I had escaped the cold, calculating world of my adoptive parents and the golden spoon they’d often tried to entrap me with.

We’d both carved our own lives out by choosing to walk the difficult road rather than the one the world had laid out for us. The more important difference in our stories was instead of finding friends and a family in college, like I had, she’d been alone.

Mind you, I hadn't been able to escape the mandatory social events my parents made me attend to show off how benevolent they were for adopting me. But with Colin and Declan’s support I hadn’t wavered from my chosen path. Without that I might not have had the strength to pave my own way. How much harder had it been for her to stay on course?

Her social media was sparse at best and didn’t contain any information that would have indicated she had a close friend or relationship. She followed a few famous people, mostly chef’s,and I wondered if she was an amateur cook. She had only one follower, and it was someone from the staffing company she’d worked for right out of college.

Like Colin, I didn’t like the idea of her being alone, and on the run. In a way, it was damn good she had her skill set from her younger years as I doubt she’d have been able to run at all otherwise. Assuming that this was all legit and she was truly in trouble and not in cahoots with the Albanian mob.

Telling Colin what I’d found in thirty minutes wouldn’t make it any easier than telling him now. Problem was I didn’t know where to look for her next. I’d put alerts on her credit cards, bank accounts, and email but somehow I doubted someone with her history and so obviously on the run would be that dumb.

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