Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Nine
Kelley sat in his bedroom with the laptop open as he watched Milana on the screen. She was sitting on the bed with her phone in her hand. She kept looking at the screen and Kelley couldn’t bring himself to call her.
He wanted her to call him, to tell him she was either pregnant or not. If she wasn’t though, why would she be hesitating to call him? Why was she hesitating in the first place? A million thoughts ran through his mind as he stared at her.
She put her phone back in the drawer and Kelley sighed. Maybe she wasn’t pregnant and didn’t want to tell him that. What if she was and she didn’t want to tell him that either? She couldn’t still be that mad at him, could she?
Kelley lay back on the bed and watched her as she got into bed and switched off the lamp. He fell asleep watching her sleep and that helped a little. He missed her a lot but at least he could look at her. They needed to speed things along.
The next morning he walked into the basement where Kirk lay on the floor with real blood covering half of his face, his neck and chest. Bruises had been added and if Kelley didn’t know any better, he’d thought that Kirk was really dead.
He lay there with his eyes open as Connor took pictures and Kelley stared. He never thought he’d see this side of Connor and honestly, it was scary. Kelley didn’t scare easily but he knew that Connor had many hidden talents, including making you disappear forever.
“All done, Kirk, you can blink now.”
Kirk moved and sat up as the blood ran in rivulets down his naked chest. “I thought my eyes were going to dry out.”
“This is perfect. For a minute you really looked dead.”
Kirk smiled and Connor grinned. “You can thank me later, Knock Out Kelley.”
“Seriously?”
Connor laughed as Kirk stood up and rubbed a towel over his face. “Mason talks a lot.”
“He’s an asshole. Send that to Blaire so he can work his magic and send it to Marcus.” Kelley pressed his lips together. Something was bound to happen soon. “Also have him check cameras near the playhouses locations for Durandt’s sister.”
“Done and done.”
“I like the brotherhood you’ve created here, Kelley. I’m sorry I didn’t see it sooner.” Kirk’s voice was softer now as if emotion had taken over.
“See what?”
Kirk swallowed before looking at Kelley. “How evil they truly are.”
“Can I ask you something?”
Kirk lowered the towel he had raised to his neck. “Of course.”
“Why was Marley with Petey that night he drove into my car?”
“That’s a long story, Kelley. Can I shower and get a drink before I bare my soul?”
Kelley nodded his head and walked behind Kirk as they left the basement cells. He stopped in the kitchen as Kirk headed to the stairs and the guest bedroom to shower off the blood. He took a bottle of whiskey from a cupboard with two glasses and sat down at the kitchen island.
Twenty minutes later Kirk sat down across from him and filled his glass. He emptied it in one swallow and filled it again. Kelley watched him with trepidation, not sure if he wanted to hear what Kirk had to say.
“In The Club there’s an order with regards to marriage. The higher your rank in The Club, the more choice you have in who will be your wife. When it was clear that you’d never be initiated, Norah was promised to Hanson. Marley was promised to Petey and Marella to Lewis. Marcus had made it clear from the start that he wanted to initiate Andrea as his wife.”
“Promised? As in arranged marriage?”
Kirk nodded his head. “Something like that. They have this thing where they drug the girls, have them do something inappropriate on camera. They’d then be blackmailed into marriage and to keep them quiet about The Club.”
“So everyone just screws whoever they want?”
“Not the women they marry. Look, Kelley, some things go with their wives, BDSM, some light choking, whatever you’re into. The Club is where they really get their freak on with the girls there. Anything really goes there. Some girls make it out and some don’t. Some end up in ditches or are never found. I know Marcus has killed a few but with their wives … that’s like a front for your underground business. They appear family driven, a married man with a good wife, nice arm candy to take to the galas and nobody thinks any different.”
“What do they have on you?”
Kirk coughed then, the whiskey going the wrong way. “Me giving a blowjob to the mayor.”
“That’s worse for him than for you, Kirk.”
Kirk smiled sheepishly and Kelley knew that he didn’t have the full story. Not yet. “My parents aren’t involved with The Club, Kelley. They don’t know I’m gay. They play bridge with the pastor of our church and they’re very involved with all things church.”
“You being gay is not the worst thing that could happen to them.”
“I know that but it’ll break their hearts if they ever saw that video. So I kept quiet and the things they had me do wasn’t so bad in the beginning. The first girl was explained away as an accident but when the second girl died I started to realize that they weren’t people I wanted to be associated with. Then the thing with Andrea happened. I thought Marcus loved her, the way he talked about her. I realize now it was more an obsession than anything else. When I saw her that night after they’d all left, I couldn’t … I had to get her out of there, no matter what happened to me.”
Kelley looked pensive for a moment, lost in his own thoughts and Kirk sat quietly and watched him. After a few minutes of silence Kelley stood up from the counter. “Everything will be fine, Kirk. I’ve got you.”
