“And what about today? You hear from him?” Darren stood with his arms crossed over his chest, his brows furrowed as he listened intently to the bartender’s response.
“Hasn’t shown up and hasn’t called,” the man shook his head.
“Okay. Thanks. If you or anyone sees or hears from him, let me or one of the brothers know.”
“You got it.” The bartender exited the room, presumably going back to work.
Darren grinned at her. “What was that all about?” He waved his hand indicating her work area and the Clorox wipes sitting on the desk.
“Trust me. It’s a very real possibility I could catch an STD from anything that man has touched. He’s creepy. And gross.”
“Gross?”
“Yes. There’s something about him that makes me feel uncomfortable around him,” she answered but didn’t look up, focused on what she was doing.
“You should always listen to your gut.” Darren told her, then wandered over to the bank of screens on the wall, appearing to be fascinated by watching the goings on within the club. “What’s this one for?” He pointed to a monitor that was shut off. “Is it broken?”
“Not sure.” She left the security program run and went over to see if she could figure out why it wasn’t working. She pulled one of the rolling chairs in front of the keyboard and started playing around with it. She familiarized herself with the basic set up then started working her magic. She found a hidden program that Chet apparently didn’t want anyone finding. “This camera isn’t connected to the rest of the system. It seems to be independent from the rest.”
“Why would Chet do that?” Darren asked.
“Not sure. Hang on and I’ll see what I can do with it.” She was quiet for a moment as she worked, then, “Got it! I’m in.”
What she saw come up on her screen was a list of video files listed by date. She clicked on the most recent one and thought her eyes were going to bug out of her head when she saw what was playing. Chet was having sex with a blonde woman on the couch in this office. Kylie couldn’t help but notice the woman with the strawberry blonde hair looked an awful lot like her. Just the thought of what that might imply made her stomach roll. It wasn’t until he told the woman to shut up and called her Kylie that she lost the battle and lunged for the trashcan next to the desk. She threw up what little she’d eaten today and felt a little shaky afterward.
“Let me help you up, Kylie.” Darren reached down and helped her to her feet. Once she was seated in the chair in front of the security camera feeds again, he handed her a bottle of water from the mini fridge in the corner. She swish and spit in the trashcan.
“You okay?” Darren offered her a mint and dropped to his haunches in front of her.
“Thank you.” She unwrapped the candy and popped it in her mouth. “Yeah. I’m good.” She shook her head and laughed. “Sorry about that. Something like that doesn’t usually bother me, but my stomach has been acting up and I think I’ve got a bug.”
Darren’s head tipped to the side as he smiled. “Does that mean you’ve watched a lot of porn?” he teased.
“What?” Then she thought back over what she’d said. “No. I do not watch a lot of porn. I watch a normal amount of porn,” she teased back.
Unfortunately, Tuck picked that time to come through the door. “What’s this about you watching porn?” He glanced between her and Darren. “Are you watching porn with Kylie Jo?” She could have sworn she heard a little growl in the question.
“No.” Darren waved at the monitor in front of her. “She found a sex video Chet made with a woman that looks a lot like Kylie and it made her throw up. The fucker even called out her name when he was coming.”
“The fuck?” Tuck moved closer to see what they were talking about. “Play it again.”
Kylie groaned, but did as he asked.
“That motherfucker is dead.” Tuck’s whole body tensed. “If he thinks he’s going to get anywhere near you, he’s got another thing coming.”
“Wait! Can you back up and zoom in on his back?” Darren asked. He leaned in, one hand on the console, the other on the back of Kylie’s chair. “You have got to be shitting me.”
The way the camera was set up, they could see Chet had a tattoo on his back, but from the distance they couldn’t make it out. She zoomed in, apparently confirming what Darren had already figured out.
“Phantom Fury colors,” Tuck snarled. The muscles in his forearms flexed as he clenched and unclenched his hands. Kylie figured he was imagining his hands wrapped around Chet’s neck.
“That confirms what we’ve already suspected,” Darren said.
“Wait a minute.” She stopped the video and scrolled through the list of videos made as an idea hit her. She searched for the date she’d been here before when she’d discovered Chet’s second set of books. She clicked on it and fast forwarded until she could clearly see that Chet had known all along what she’d found. “He had a camera behind his desk. That’s how he knew what I discovered and how he was able to video his sexual encounters with the women stupid enough to join him in here.”
Darren stepped behind the desk and searched through the shelves, looking for a camera. “Found it.” He pulled it from the shelf and brought it over to show her and Tuck. “We need to call Race.”
“Yeah.”