Bind (Manhattan Lux Book 1): Manhattan Lux (20 page)

“Is she still in touch with rope guy?” Wyatt asked.

“Yeah they email. But he’s married with two kids now, so don’t worry about that. Besides that was more therapy than a relationship.”

“Right.” Wyatt picked up his shot, studied the amber liquid quietly.

“So,” Aiko said. “Ever since then, we’ve been extra cautious. Even though her face isn’t in those videos, people will find out it’s her. And even though they shouldn’t, just because we’re twins, some people might get funny ideas. Decide it’s me they’re seeing naked.”

Wyatt slammed back his shot and shuddered.

“What?” Aiko asked.

“Kiddo,” he said. “I’m in love with your sister. To me, you two look nothing alike at all. I can’t even…I don’t even think of you that way….just…Ick. Sorry.”

“Aw Wyatt!” Aiko downed her shot then hopped over the bar, wrapping her arms around his neck and hugging him tightly. “You are the absolute sweetest.”

“I’m sweet for basically saying you repulse me?”

“Yes! Because you get it. You get that we are way more than a physical resemblance. We’re our own people.”

“That’s true. I love you like a sister, sweetheart, but my mind cannot….” he shuddered again, this time deliberately, exaggerating the movement just to tease her. “Ugh.” Wyatt slapped a hand over his mouth and pretended he was choking back puke.

“Ha ha. Very funny.” She released him, stepped back and put her hands on her hips. “Don’t worry. You haven’t seen me naked just because you’ve seen her. We look different these days.”

Wyatt raised an eyebrow.

“I’ve made a few mods to the Yoshida sisters standard model. A few, shall we say … intimate enhancements.”

“Ugh, ugh!’ Wyatt clapped his hands over his ears and squeezed his eyes shut tight. “I’m not listening to this.”

“Tattoos for instance. Nice big colorful back piece,” Aiko said, following him out of the lounge and down the hall. “Koi and dogwoods. It trails around to the front kind of tracing the curve of my tits. Couple of floaty petals up near the areole. Course there’s also the nipple rings, and the clit ring, and six in my labia.”

“Six?” Wyatt said, turning to her eyes wide. “Fucking six piercings in your hoo-ha?”

Aiko shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. Could be the truth…could be lying. You’ll never know.”

“Damn straight.”

“Cuz I physically repulse you.”

“Damn straight.”

Aiko sighed, reached up on tiptoes to ruffle his hair affectionately and kissed his cheek.

“You’re the best Wyatt.”

T
he air was heavy
. Lux’s front lounge was packed like a can of hot, moist, heavily perfumed, horny sardines. Probably all the hormones evaporating off people’s skin. Like jet fuel into the atmosphere. Yuck.

Wyatt coughed into his fist and then spoke quietly, just loud enough for the mic hidden on his shirt to pick up his voice.

“Can we kick the air up to eleven or something? It’s getting swampy up in here.”

“On it bud,” Aiko’s voice answered in his ear, and a second later cool air drafted down his back.

“God that is fucking heaven. Thanks.”

“No problem.” Aiko gasped. “
Oh. My. God.
”

“What?” Wyatt asked, scanning the crowd trying to spot whatever had caught Aiko’s attention.

She and Malcolm were back in the control room watching the monitors. Wyatt’s security team for Lux was stationed strategically around the club, keeping a close eye on both staff and patrons. But in the interest of discretion he hadn’t pulled them into helping with the Conroy investigation. He knew his guys could be counted on to alert him to anything he needed to know, but since Jack and Aaron still needed to keep everything hush hush, Wyatt was relying on Aiko and Malcolm to help him.

“Ten o’clock,” said Aiko. “Bad comb over, orange spray-on tan, trophy wife on his arm…is that?”

“Well shit. Mr. You’re Fired himself. I’ll be damned.”

Aiko was laughing in his ear. “I guess since he’s not running for office anymore, he doesn’t care if he’s seen at a sex club.”

“Guess not.” Wyatt scanned the room, squinting into the thick crowd of bodies, looking for Conroy. A scratchy, whiskey-and-cigarettes voice pitched above the cacophony and laughed, loud and long.

“What the fuck,” he mumbled into his mic.

“Holy shit! It’s the Countess!” Aiko yelled into his ear so loud it made his skin buzz.

“Countess?” said Wyatt. “I didn’t realize we gave out titles like that here in the good ole U. S. of A.”

“No she married it,” Aiko explained. “Then divorced it. Doesn’t matter. She’s a Real Housewife. You know, that reality show?”

“Nope.” Wyatt shook his head. “Don’t watch that stuff. Too much shrieking. Like constant eardrum-bursting, banshee-level screeching.”

“There is not—” Aiko began, but her voice was drowned out by sudden high pitched cackling followed by a very loud “Woo-hoo”!

“You were saying?,” Wyatt drawled while Aiko cursed. “Looks like the Countess brought some friends.”

“Yeah, they’re drunk already,” said Aiko. “Jinx, you want them out of there?”

“Yes.” Jinx’s voice came on the line. “We need high profile guests, but they’re sloppy drunk already, so let’s get them out of the lounge. Have Kristie comp them a suite, send in some champagne, and set up a VR demonstration for them.”

“You got it sis,” Aiko said. “Sending Kristie.”

“Shit.” Wyatt spied the gray haired man walking through Lux’s main entrance and headed for him immediately, pushing his way through the crowd. The guy was in plainclothes, but still recognizable. Brooks Brothers couldn’t hide the bearing of a man on the job.

“Wyatt,” said Jinx. “What’s up?”

“Fire Marshall. Don’t worry. I’m on it.”

“Dammit. We’re over code by at least thirty people in the lounge alone.”

“Forty by my count.”

“Fuck,” Jinx responded. “Alright, cut off the door and have security escort the overage through the back hallway to Glow. We’ll open up the club, feed them free food and some drinks, send over a few performers and call it an exclusive waiting room or something.”

“Good plan, but he’s looking kind of grumpy. Which means he may still shut us down.”

“Wyatt, stand down,” Jack’s voice came on the line and Wyatt stopped in his tracks.

“Boss?”

“See to Jinx’s request please. I’ve got someone else to handle the Fire Marshall.”

Wyatt pressed a hand to his ear and turned, scanning the crowd for who Jack was referring to.

“Derrick?” A woman appeared at the Fire Marshall’s elbow. She placed one elegant hand on his shoulder, then trailed her fingers down his jacket sleeve to rest just at the cuff of his shirt. “My God it is you,” she cooed, her husky voice lilting with the barest hint of an accent. “How long has it been?”

Wyatt smiled. “Well shit, Boss, you sent in the Wolf? That’s all you had to say!”

“The Wolf?” Jinx asked.

“Get to a monitor,” Wyatt responded. “Leggy brunette in the lavender dress.”

“Sasha St. Cloud,” said Jinx. “Our silent partner.”

“Thank God for us that she agreed to be a
visible
partner tonight,” Jack chimed in. “Sasha either does business with, or has slept with, half the city.”

“And the other half wishes the same,” said Wyatt, watching as Sasha St. Cloud whisked Fire Marshall Derrick Cassano over to the bar. Poor bastard looked like he was trying to reject her offer of a drink.
Foolish mortal.
Sasha pressed the man onto a stool and draped herself over his thigh, laughing and flipping her hair over her shoulder. Two shots appeared in front of them on the bar and Wyatt could see the moment the Fire Marshall succumbed to the St. Cloud charm. She pressed her lips to his ear and whispered something. Cassano shivered, reached for the shot, and tossed it back.

“Alright, well, that’s clearly taken care of,” Wyatt said. He turned to another channel, spoke a few words to his security team then switched back. “My guys are on the overage Jinx,” he said, as he watched his team approach some of the patrons in the lounge and begin directing them towards Glow. “Headed to the club now.”

“Great, we can’t admit any more into the lounge right now, and the back rooms are filled to capacity as well.”

“Pretty spectacular for an opening night.”

“It is. I’m pleased, but don’t let anyone else in—”

“Uh, no can do sisarooni,” Aiko’s voice interjected. “You’re gonna have to let one more in. Well one more plus his three security goons.”

“Aiko we really can’t.” Jinx said.

“Yes we can.” Wyatt said when he saw the man. Red hair, expensive suit, fancy pocket square. “Conroy.” He spat out the name. “Fucker actually showed up.”

“That’s what I’ve been saying,” Aiko whined.

Wyatt stood his ground, jaw twitching, feet squared. He hardened his gaze, stared the man down, and flicked a glance to his goons that said
Go ahead, I dare ya.
The goons didn’t flinch, but then, neither did Wyatt. Bodies swirled around him, a turbulent sea of drunk people that sent wave after wave of tipsy patrons crashing into him, the single lighthouse of muscle and badassery in this…this…whatever. The metaphor ran away with itself but the
point
was, Conroy had an appointment to get fucked, and Wyatt intended to do the fucking…

Nope. That one’s no good either.

Fuck metaphors.

“Conroy,” Wyatt snarled. “Why don’t we have a chat?”

* * *

C
onroy crossed his legs
, picked a piece of lint from his trousers and smiled at them. Aiko, Malcolm, Jinx, Jack, Aaron, and Wyatt all crossed their arms and stared back.

Wyatt had ushered the man through the lounge and into Lux’s security room. He’d tried to keep the crowd to essential personnel only, but with this group, everyone considered themselves essential. Hell even Bryce had managed to sneak in. Wyatt hadn’t even known he was
here
tonight.

No one had spoken yet. Just a lot of staring going on. The door creaked, and Kristie peeked in.

“Just thought our guest might like some tea?” she said, holding up a steaming mug.

“Oh that would be lovely dear thank you,” Conroy said and beckoned her closer. He took the tea, sipped delicately, and uncrossed and recrossed his legs, holding the mug in both hands over his knees.

More silence. Wyatt surveyed the room from the corners of his vision. Did Jack want to go first, or was he waiting for Wyatt…or what?

Conroy cleared his throat. “I’m not the villain, you know,” he said. “A pervert yes, but not the villain in this story.”

“What are you talking about?” Bryce ground out the words. “You got my sister involved with all this. I want to know where she is.”

Conroy raised a hand. “I do know of your
step
-sister Mr. Harrington,” he said. “I was working with her yes, though indirectly. But I was not the one who got her involved in as you say,” he waved a hand, “all this. No, that was someone else entirely. Someone I was working with.”

“And are you still working with that person?” asked Jack.

Conroy took another sip of tea. “I am not.”

Wyatt scoffed. “And why’s that?”

“Because our interests are no longer the same,” said Conroy. “And his methods do not align with my morality.”

“Your morality?” Bryce said, his tone dripping with malice.

“There is little of it, I admit. But, as I said, I’m a pervert, not a villain.”

“Where. Is. My. Sister.” Bryce looked like he was about to snap.

Conroy sighed and his shoulders slumped suddenly, as if he were very tired. “I have no idea,” he said. “I honestly don’t. Torrid Technologies approached me some time ago about creating a VR experience in one of my clubs. Their condition was that the club be opened here in New York.” Conroy turned to Jack. “Which, as you know, is not my usual stomping ground.”

Jack nodded and motioned for Conroy to continue.

“I had only a few contacts at Torrid. Daisy was one of them. We communicated via email and text. I did not know her well. And I don’t know where she is now.”

“Then give us the names and information for your other contacts at the company,” said Wyatt.

“I’d be happy to,” Conroy said, and one of the goons stepped forward to hand Jack a thumb drive. “I’m afraid that information won’t be much help to you though. The moment news hit the press of Lux’s imminent opening, all those contacts went dead. I’ve tried to reach out, but there’s nothing. They’re ghosts.”

“Just like Daisy,” Bryce said, and Wyatt squeezed his shoulder.

“Obviously Daisy is of paramount importance to us,” said Wyatt. “We found the apartment she’d been staying at. We also found blood there.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” said Conroy. “But I really know nothing. In fact I didn’t even know she was working at Glow until very recently.”

“Yes you did,” said Aiko. “We saw you there.”

“You saw me there after I found out about Daisy’s association with Glow.”

“And how did you find that out?” asked Jack.

“I grew uneasy with my relationship with Torrid,” said Conroy. “So I had some of my people do a little investigating.”

“You investigated
after
you went into business with them?” said Wyatt. “Isn’t that a little backwards?”

“It is.” Conroy nodded. “And stupid. Turns out my fears were justified. I let greed override my better judgement. Money is a powerful tool. Torrid has a lot of it, and they invested that money with me.”

“Okay so we’ve established you’re a pervert, and you’re stupid,” said Wyatt. “Why exactly should we believe you’re not also a villain?”

“Because I’m here now,” said Conroy. “I didn’t need to come.”

Wyatt narrowed his eyes. “Then why did you?”

Conroy directed his gaze to Jack again. “To tell you that you win, Mr. Calvert. I will not be opening my club here in the city after all.”

“Don’t pull out on my account.” Jack shrugged, arched one arrogant brow. “I don’t mind a little healthy competition.”

“Yes,” said Conroy. “Well, as it turns out Torrid’s investment in our joint venture was smoke and mirrors. When they disappeared, so did all the capital, including my contribution.”

“Whoa.” Aiko’s eyes popped wide. “That sucks.”

“Thank you, young lady, it does suck.” Conroy sighed and took a sip of tea. “In addition to that loss, there have been others. Somehow Torrid managed to access my private accounts.”

“Everything?” asked Jack.

“Everything.” Conroy nodded. “All that I have here and offshore. As a man of wealth, I’m sure you know that
everything
can encompass quite a lot.”

“Yes.” Jack’s brow furrowed with concern. “So…”

“Oh yes,” said Conroy. “I’m ruined.”

“You still have the income from your clubs,” said Aiko.

“A shadow of my former wealth.”

“Have you called the FBI?” asked Aaron.

“No, that’s not an option,” said Conroy. “I’ve too many business dealings I wouldn’t want to come to the government’s attention. Torrid knew that. They chose their victim well.”

“Jack,” said Aaron, running a hand through his hair. “Could you take on Mr. Conroy as a client? See if you can help him recover his money? I’d be willing to lend EI’s assistance.”

“You’d be willing to help me?” asked Conroy.

Jack scrubbed a hand over the back of his neck, his gaze shifting over his friends. “Bryce?” he said.

“If it means we might find Daisy, then I’m for it.” Bryce shoved his hands in his pockets, and leveled a hard gaze on Conroy.

“I promise you,” said Conroy. “If there is anything I can do to assist with the safe recovery of your sister, I will.”

One by one they all agreed, but still Jack hesitated.