Page 14 of Room Twenty-Three: Tangled & Teased

She’s my baby girl. I’ve never been a Daddy type, but I’ve never had a crush on someone like Erin, either. I like her shyness, but I hate that she’s lacking in confidence. I saw that in her when I bumped into her in London. But I know the feeling.

I think I’m good-looking, but I’m not the dark-haired, green-eyed handsomeness that is Beau or the suave, silver fox that is Jove. My hair is boring and brown, my body is more muscular but not as lean as my two buddies.

Erin squirms on the seat as she watches the shows of passion all around her. She turns and smiles at me. I beam back.

I knew the first day I saw her, and when I kissed her, I sealed it in my head that she’d be mine one day. Even if I had to deviate from my agreement with the men.

But can I now?

Being our client changes everything.

I raise my eyes to the ceiling. I need to stop looking at her, stop thinking about her.

We’re here in Club Sin, New Orleans because a beauty pageant winner has gone missing after attending the club, and I need to get my mind back on the job.

“Get ready, gentlemen...” the compere announces. My face looks up at the stage before I look around the room. The compere stops his gaze on a woman with a shoulder-length plum bob. She’s dressed in a black leather skirt, tight sparkly bustier and stilettos as high as her feet will allow. He smiles. “And lady.” There’s a moment between them. Finally, she gives him a gentle nod, and he continues. “The next girl on the stage is Bella. Bella is nineteen years old. She is studying to become a nurse, and tonight she is ready to sell her virginity to the highest bidder.”

Erin’s head shakes gently, and she slightly turns to her right, and I see her gasp.

“Ten thousand!” a man to the right of the room yells. Getting the bidding off early without the MC having to try.

The compere shakes his head. “I wouldn’t allow it. You can do better than that.”

“Twenty-five thousand!” another voice yells.

Erin’s hand raises, and I think she is about to bid, but luckily she rubs her palm over the back of her neck.

“Thirty thousand,” the woman in black says, her voice carried by the microphone as she leans into the table to her left.

The woman on the stage widens her eyes, and sucks back a breath.

Erin inspects the woman in black. I follow her gaze, my eyes landing on the tall, slim woman with perfectly straight hair. There’s a woman already next to her, a small blonde who is dancing to the jazz music that provides the backdrop to this club. Her eyes are closed, her mouth open as the woman in black fingers her pussy.

I turn back to Erin. Her mouth drops open as she watches the scene.

Another bid comes in from the far end of the room. I don’t turn to look at who it came from. Instead, I stare at the girl on the stage. She’s staring at the woman in black and her trembling sub, whose hands are flat on the table in front of her as the lady in black whispers in her ear, causing her to pant. I expect she’s just been told she can’t come yet.

“Are you listening?” Jove hisses in my ear. “We’re here to work.”

“Yeah.” I twist in my seat.

“We hope the girl is still alive,” the manager says. “We need to find her quickly. Once this news gets out, the authorities could shut us down.”

“What makes you think this is her last place to be seen?” Jove asks.

“She was in the shibari room and once the men unraveled her, they left her on the bed to come down from her high.”

“Nobody stayed with her?” Beau growled. “Tended her?”

“The security cameras recorded the two men leaving the room without her.”

“We need their names.”

“I have a folder with all the details, including every client in attendance that night.”

Beau nods. “We need to see the security footage which shows her arriving, when she took part in an auction, and the people who bid on her, and finally the room she used that night.”

Jove makes a note on his cell. “And all the exit points at the Club. Especially the one she left from.”

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