Bind (Manhattan Lux Book 1): Manhattan Lux (16 page)

Wyatt caught Jack’s eye, throwing a silent “what the fuck?’ his way. Jack shrugged and tossed the same look to Jinx, who rubbed her hands over her face and sighed like she found her sister the most tiring person on the planet.

“What are you talking about?” asked Jack.

“You want to tell me about this secret project you’re working on, or not? You want to tell your number one, supremely loyal, and trustworthy freelance hacking assistant extraordinaire what the fuck you’ve got going on that might possibly have been handy information for me to know ahead of time when I was trying to help you out with all this….”—Aiko’s hands flailed wildly—“stupid security breach crapola?”

“Aiko,” Jack said patiently. “Please start making sense.”

“The SIM card, I hacked it. It gave all its secrets up to me, Jack, and that’s how I had to find out that you’re opening a
sex club
. Might’ve been good to know that—”

“You did.” Jack sat on the edge of Jinx’s desk, folded his arms over his chest and frowned at Aiko.

“What?” she said.

“You
DID
know that Aiko.” Jack fished his cell phone out of his pocket, tapped the surface, scrolled for a few seconds and then read from the screen. “Aiko, we’re opening another club in the empty space behind Glow. Private. Exclusive. Members only. A sex club. I’ll need you to do background checks on everyone that will be working there, and set up a protocol for checking up on members that will be thorough, but won’t feel too intrusive.”

“Oh.” Aiko’s arms hung limply at her sides. “When was that from?”

“About eighteen months ago,” said Jack.

“Oh wow. And what did I say in response?”

Jack glanced at his phone. “You said ‘Yeah. Yeah, I’ll get back to you later.’”

“I didn’t say that!” Aiko protested. ‘You’re making that up.”

Jack continued. “The full quote is ‘Yeah. Yeah, I’ll get back to you later, you perv, it’s the season premiere of The Walking Dead, and I’ve got a full bag of popcorn and fresh batteries in my vibrator. Rawr, love me some Daryl.’ End quote.”

Aiko nodded solemnly. “Yeah okay, that was me. I do love Daryl.”

“Jesus Christ,” Jinx mumbled under her breath. “I literally spent months designing and fussing over Lux, Aiko, it was my major obsession. How can you sit there and say you knew nothing about it? You live with me! I had stacks of interior design catalogs on the dining room table for weeks.”

Aiko shrugged, tugged a strand of hair and wound it around one finger. “I dunno. You’re always going on about Glow, and I tend to tune out. I guess it all just blurred together in my head.”

Jinx crossed her arms over her chest and glared at her sister.

“What? Okay so I forgot!” Said Aiko. “I’m a terrible, self-centered asshole. I’m sorry. But how come you never got back to me with a list of names?”

“Because,” Jack said. “Our opening was pushed back several times.”

“That’s my fault,” said Aaron. “I’m afraid my contribution to our joint venture wasn’t ready in time, and I didn’t want to rush things.”

Aiko turned her head towards Aaron, registering his presence for the first time since she’d walked into the room. Her mouth gaped.

“Your him,” she stuttered. Aaron strode toward her, hand outstretched.

“Aaron Eldridge,” he said, smiling.

“Yes you are. CEO and Founder of Eldridge Innovation,” said Aiko. “Hacker hero, multi-billionaire, and creator of HyperLyfe the Virtual Reality MMO which I play. Every. Single. Day. You’re like…like…”

“You and I have already met, actually.” Aaron held out his hand. “Albeit only via email.”

“What?” Aiko frowned and stared at his outstretched palm for a few seconds before looking up. “We have?”

“Yes, you keep trying to get me to admit I’m with the NSA.” Aaron grinned. “I’m not of course. Well not anymore. Well, not officially. They like to keep all that hush-hush.”

Aiko nodded dumbly and then stumbled backwards, one hand on her forehead.

“Somebody get me a cupcake. I feel faint.”

T
hree and a half
cupcakes later Aiko pointed a finger at Wyatt and glared.

“You said he was a Navy SEAL!” She stabbed her finger at him accusingly.

Wyatt shook his head. “Nope. I never did. You assumed that, and I didn’t contradict you.”

Aiko stuffed the remaining half cupcake in her mouth, spied her sister sipping from a bottle of water and snatched it, draining half the contents in one swig.

“Brat,” Jinx said casually.

“That’s me.” Aiko tightened the cap on the water bottle, tossed it back to Jinx and directed her attention to Wyatt and Jack. “So he’s not a SEAL, he’s Aaron Eldridge. And for some reason he’s investing in this sex club.”

“I’m one of the investors in Lux, yes,” said Aaron.

“Lux?” Aiko raised an eyebrow.

“It’s Latin for light,” said Jinx. “So that’s a nice complement to Glow.”

“And its reminiscent of the word luxe,” said Jack. “Which implies luxury and decadence.”

“And it has an X in it,” said Aaron. “Which makes people think of sex.”

“Hey yeah,” said Aiko. “You should spell it with three x’s.”

Jinx shook her head. “No, three X’s is seedy. We’re creating something refined. Classy. Lux is all about the fantasy, the experience. We don’t want our customers worrying they’ll get an STD.”

Aiko raised an eyebrow. “Pretty sure that’s gonna be a risk for anyone that regularly goes to sex clubs.”

“Not ours,” said Jack. “That’s why we’ll be membership based. Naturally we’ll have an entry level for the curious, and those that want to see what they’re getting into before they commit. But full members will be expected to play by the club rules, and each tier of membership has its own set. At the highest level, where the experience is most rewarding, is also where the most risk lies. Those members will have to submit to regular screenings for both STDs and drugs.”

“What if they don’t want to do that?” asked Aiko.

“That’s where my company comes in,” said Aaron. “EI will be in charge of Lux’s sex simulations. Virtual reality sex. Be anyone, do anything, risk free. It’s a highly realistic, specialized experience, not yet offered by any other club in the world. Sex themed or otherwise.”

“We’ll be the first,” said Jinx with a smile.

Aiko looked around the room eyeing each of them solemnly. “Then you’ve got a very big problem my friends,” she said. “Because according to what I found on the SIM card from Daisy’s phone, she’s working with Harvey Conroy.”

“Fuck.” Jack swore. Wyatt could tell from the way Jack stiffened and rubbed his jaw that he knew exactly who Conroy was, and it wasn’t good.

“Who’s that?” asked Wyatt. Reaching into his pocket he fished out his own mobile phone and did a quick search on Harvey Conroy. The photos that popped up showed a red-haired man with a penchant for expensive suits and colorful pocket squares. “We’ve seen this guy!” Wyatt glanced at Aiko and she nodded.

“Yep,” she said. “We tracked him at Glow. But honestly, we were so focused on Daisy we kind of dropped the ball on that. Or rather I did. Which sucks, because he might be able to lead us to her.”

“Jack, who is this guy?”

“He’s an erotic event promoter and owner of several successful sex clubs on the West Coast,” Jack answered darkly.

“Any idea why’d he be interested in Glow?” Wyatt asked.

“There’ve been rumors that he wants to expand his business to our coast. I didn’t think anything of it, because they were just rumors. Nothing concrete.”

“It’s fucking concrete now,” said Aiko, tossing a phone at Jack. “Check that shit out. According to his texts to Daisy, he’s opening in three weeks, and he’s got some company called Torrid Technologies sponsoring his own little VR sex romp at his club. You’ve been scooped.”

“Goddammit.” Jack scrolled through the phone and then handed it to Aaron, who began examining the device with interest, seemingly unconcerned by the news that his worldwide VR exclusive was about to tank.

“Conductive ink?” he said, glancing at Aiko.

Aiko nodded and smiled. “We had Daisy’s fingerprints on file from when she worked here, so I rigged one of our printers with the ink and printed out her fingerprints. Then I just popped her SIM card into a spare phone from my stash, and used her fingerprint to bypass the password screen. Totally worked.”

“Totally did.” Aaron nodded appreciatively. “Brilliant. I’m glad we’ll be working together.”

“Uh…come again?”

“Calvert Consulting will be helping EI to design a beta program for testing the next incarnation of HyperLyfe.”

Aiko gaped. “You’re kidding. I’ll get to play HyperLyfe as my
job
?”

Aaron smiled. “Absolutely. I’m counting on your expertise and insight to help us work out all the bugs, and take the technology to the next level.”

“You’ll need a lot of data,” Aiko said, her brow knitting as she thought. “A shit ton. Bio levels, skin response, heart rates—Oh…!” she trailed off and smiled. “That’s why you invested in Jack’s club.”

Aaron handed the phone back to her and folded his arms across his chest.

“Exactly right.” he said, “There are two things, two areas of the human experience in which new technologies develop rapidly once introduced. I’m betting you know what those are.”

“Sure,” said Aiko, shrugging. “Military and sex. War and fucking. Everybody wants the latest and greatest way to kill something or get their rocks off.”

Aaron laughed. “Right again. Nothing will help us develop these technologies faster than investing in the sex industries.”

“Well, you could’ve gone military.”

“Could have,” said Aaron. “Who says I’m not?”

Aiko grinned. “Lux is definitely a great idea. You’ll get a ton of data for research from all those horny bastards eager to fuck sexy cartoons.”

“Not if Conroy scoops us,” said Jinx, turning to Jack. “We need to be first. It doesn’t matter if we’re better, if our members are hotter, our drinks more generous, our food more delicious, and our fancy VR fucking more realistic and exciting. The biggest advantage in an endeavor like this is being
first
. If we open
after
Conroy,
we’re
the cheap knock off. We have to beat him Jack. Or not do it at all.”

Jack straightened, a muscle tensing in his jaw. He nodded once and turned to the door, gesturing brusquely over his shoulder as he went. “Right. Everyone follow me.”

* * *

T
hey followed
Jack down the back hallways of Glow’s administrative offices, made a few turns, paused for him to unlock a pair of grey metal doors, and walked into the cold dark interior of Lux. Jack spoke a few quiet words to Malcolm, who disappeared. Moments later, lights snapped on full blast, and dimmed, warming to a seductive amber and red haze that illuminated a fully finished interior. Rich. Luscious. Complete.

“You’re all ready to go?” Aiko asked, wonder in her tone. “We can do this. We can open right away?”

“We’ve been ready,” Jinx confirmed. “Just waiting on Aaron.”

“Ouch.” Aaron grimaced and ran a hand through his hair. “Sucks to be the guy that’s fucking everything up.”

“Then quit fucking it up,” Jack said with a grin. “Seriously, is there any way to make this happen and still have Eldridge Innovations be a part of it?”

“We need the VR,” Jinx said, moving to stand beside Jack. “We’re good. We’ve got great plans and God knows I run a tight club, but we need the VR. That’s our hook, our edge to get them in the door and to put this place on the map. We do this right, and we’ll have people coming from all over the world to be a member.”

“Then I don’t have a choice,” said Aaron. “We have to be ready now. Here’s the thing, what I had planned, what I hoped to contribute; we hit some snags, and at this point I’m looking at twelve to eighteen months before it’s ready. That’s assuming we don’t hit any more snags.”

“Fuck.” Aiko whistled under her breath. “That’s forever.”

“Wait.” Aaron raised his hands. “That stuff—that’s the full, epic, mega mind-blowing package. And nobody knows what we’ve been developing. So—”

Jinx smiled. “So you can still create a VR experience for Lux, just not exactly what you had planned.”

“Right.” Aaron nodded. “I admit, I’m a perfectionist, so revealing just a bit of what we can do when I know we’ve got so much more up our sleeve, that does grate me a little.”

“But it’s our only option at this point,” said Jack.

“I agree.” Aaron strode into the club. Hands in his pockets, head cocked thoughtfully, his gaze roamed over the richly upholstered furniture. Overstuffed sofas and chairs, designed for comfort, for intimacy. “This place is amazing,” he continued. “You’ve done a stellar job. I’ll get my team in here, and we’ll set up some rigs. It’s sparkling wine, not the champagne I wanted to deliver, but—”

“It’ll still get ‘em drunk,” said Aiko. “They won’t know it’s not champagne. Bubbles are bubbles.”

Heads swiveled. Everyone stared at her.

“What?” Aiko asked, shrugging. “I was sticking with the metaphor. Jeez.”

“She’s right,” Wyatt said, coming up behind Aiko and draping an arm over her shoulders. “You lot are all a bunch of overachievers. You know what your best looks like, so you think everyone else can tell. But what you don’t realize is your shit job is everyone else’s best.”

Jinx cocked an eyebrow at him and crossed her arms. Wyatt held up a hand, staving off the storm before it got started. “I’m not saying you’re going to do a shit job,” he said. “I’m saying your gonna have to settle for knocking this one out of the park is all. I know you were aiming for the galaxy, but we don’t have time for that.”

“No.” Jack said, joining Aaron as he paced the perimeter of the club’s main floor. “We have a less than a week. Jinx how do we do this?”

“You’re not gonna like it.” Jinx warned.

“Tell me.”

She crossed to him, her hands on hips, hair streaming out behind her like a super hero on a mission. “We close Glow,” she said. “All week. All Glow staff is transferred to Lux effective immediately. We work, round the clock, until it’s done. Wyatt gets security in place, and prepped.” She turned to Wyatt. “I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that the security issues of a sex club are not exactly the same as those for Glow.”

Wyatt nodded, and Jinx turned to Aaron.

“I have no idea what you do, so just do it. And let us know whatever you need, the minute you need it.”

Aaron smiled and Jinx turned back to Jack.

“Food. We have no time for that. Get one of your fancy five star chef friends to cater until we can set up our own kitchen staff. Glow’s kitchen staff can help them. Pay everyone whatever they want.” Jack opened his mouth to protest and Jinx held up a finger. “I mean it. Pay them. Miracles are better accomplished with cash.”

Jack bobbed his head solemnly and looked like he was doing calculations in his head, calculations with solutions that had too many zeros.

Aiko stepped forward, cutting off her sister before she could reach Wyatt. “I know you probably think there’s nothing I can do in this situation but there is. I can create buzz—online rumors and viral marketing that will have all the tabloids and blogs talking about this place by tomorrow morning. I’ll have them lined up around the block, sis. Promise.”

Jinx eyed her thoughtfully, her lips curving into a reluctant smile. “Alright,” she said. “Do it. The more buzz the better. And Aiko, keep it mysterious. We want to bring in the bodies, but we don’t want to give Conroy any more of an advantage than he already has.”

“Which reminds me,” said Aaron. “Torrid Technologies. I’ve never heard of them, and if they’re in my field, I should’ve. So that means they’re a shell. The name is just a front for someone I’m already competing against. I might have a few ideas who.”

“We’ll help you look into it,” said Jack. “If this company was using us to get to you, well, I’m not exactly happy about that.”

“Later!” Jinx snapped. “Right now, Lux is the priority. If we’re gonna do this I need everyone focused. No distractions. That means you two don’t get to go fishing till we know Lux is ready.”

“I’ve got you covered there,” Wyatt said, looking at Aaron. “I’ll get with your guys. We’ll keep an eye out, do what investigating we can right now.”

Jinx pointed a finger at Wyatt. “Don’t let it interfere with your work here.”

Wyatt shook his head. “Honestly, the biggest leads will come after we open. That’s what’ll send Conroy and his cronies over the edge. That’s when they’ll fuck up and we’ll get our chance to nail ‘em.”

Aaron nodded. “True.”

“Then we have a plan.” Jack turned to Aaron and offered his hand. “Deal?”

“Let’s do it.” Aaron clapped his hand over Jack’s with enthusiasm.

“Alright!” Aiko pumped the air with her fist and made bull horns with her fingers. “Whoo hoo, let’s go get some losers laid!”