Page 23 of Bringing Chelsea Home

But none of them were Chelsea. Elaine sneezed once, their pre-arranged signal if Chelsea weren’t in the photos.

“Only six?” Griff asked. “That’s a shame. I have seven friends coming. Perhaps another club could supply me-”

“Hold up,” Clark interrupted, taking a photo from the desk’s middle drawer and passing it over. “This dancer just joined theHoneysin St. Louis, which is why she isn’t in the group photo.”

The overlarge color photo showed a pouting woman dressed like a maid in a mask that covered the upper portion of her face, bent at the waist while clutching a feather duster in one hand and a very lethal looking whip in the other.

And like Elaine, in the left-hand corner of Chelsea’s mouth, was a tiny, old-fashioned beauty mark.Chelsea.We’ve found you.Elaine sneezed twice and rasped, “Sorry, but your office is cold.”

“Why the mask?” Griff asked and Elaine recognized the quiet anger in his voice. After only two days, she already knew how it sounded.

“Part of her act,” Clark explained. “Not much of a rack but look at that ass! Makes my hands itch just looking at her.”

The desk phone jangled, and he snatched it from the cradle. “I told you not to interrupt–” Then his face paled, and his Adam’s apple bounced again. “Of course,” he squeaked. “Right away.”

Griff’s phone trilled and after glancing at the screen, he stood. “Text me when the girls arrive,” he said coolly as Clark put the receiver back in place. “Nice doing business with you.”

He walked Elaine from the room far too fast for a woman wearing stilettos. “Trouble,” he murmured, pulling her aside as a red-faced Clark scurried past them.

“What?” she hissed. “What’s going on?”

“Big Daddy is in the building.”

They stepped back into the dining room and found the man who’d made Elaine’s life a living hell for the past five days. He was holding court at the room’s largest table, buying drinks for everyone and flirting with the servers. Outside, Patrick was waiting in the town car. As soon they were inside, he hit the gas, sending Elaine into Griff’s arms. She pulled herself away and met Patrick’s gaze in the mirror. “Ricky?” she asked.

“Childhood nickname,” he said. “Sounds friendly and I wanted to see what I could get Diedre to tell me.”

“Are we made?” Griff demanded as they turned onto the highway. “Is that why Big Daddy is here?”

“Don’t think so.” Patrick eased around a slow-moving truck. “Ms. Diedre said Big Daddy is one ofSapphire’snew owners.”

“Did she name any of the others?” Elaine eased off her shoes and rubbed her feet.

“No, but Diedre did say some of the new owners were investors who moved here from Chicago last spring and have just decided to do business with Big Daddy, hence them buyingSapphire’s.Or at least, according to Deidre, that’s what the strippers are saying.”

“Chicago? Holy crap.” Griff ripped off his fake moustache. “The Cadre.”

CHAPTER12

Later that afternoon.

“You must be crazy,”Grant Miller fumed from the TV screen in the safehouse living room. “Going toSapphire’sand telling them you were looking for strippers? What the hell were you three thinking? Were you at least armed?”

They had returned to the safehouse over an hour ago and reviewed the day’s events with Griff making careful notes. After adding them to the case file, they held a Zoom meeting with Hank Patterson just as he was about to meet with someone at the State Department-to bring him up to speed. He was encouraged by their progress, especially about learning Chelsea was with the incoming dancers, but sternly warned them about taking unnecessary risks without backup.

“I was,” Patrick said. “Had a small but very effective revolver inside my chauffeur’s jacket.”

“And we found Chelsea!” Elaine declared. “That’s the most important thing.” The thought of her cousin preforming in front of a group of leering men turned her stomach. “Maybe I’m wrong but to me it was worth the risk to learn that.”

Miller’s frown suggested Elaine’s rationale did not excuse them. “Next time you plan on doing something like that, call me, okay? Or am I no longer part of this team?”

“You are,” Griff assured from the depths of the sofa. “I take responsibility for not calling you, Miller. BP’s last mission here in Knoxville never would have worked without the help of you or your team. It won’t happen again. You have my word.”

“And now we’ve reason to believe The Cadre is involved in this case,” Elaine added. “How many groups of investors from Chicago are in Knoxville? That too is worth something, right?

“Not at the risk of your lives,” Miller said, but his grim expression relaxed. “You’re all too valuable to BP and this community for us to lose you. Now do me a favor and stay inside tonight. There’s a major drug bust going down later and I need to get to the command center. Text me if you need me.”

“We’re not planning on doing anything else tonight,” Griff looked at his companions and they nodded. “Anything we might learn can wait until tomorrow Just be safe.”

---