I could see the logic and was impressed
with the simplicity of the system.
“It’ll blow over though won’t it? Who pays any
attention to that crap these days? And what you did here is hardly
illegal. Scott says that there are several members who are
well-respected professionals—”
His eyes flew open and he stared at me with
such ferocity that I shrank back from him a little.
“
It would destroy my reputation and,
remember, Joel may already have the information on
some of my business deals that
would incriminate me. Not to mention the potential backlash if he
outs some of the members you refer to. It’s hardly going to help my
case if our local district attorney gets swept up in this. Or
either of the high-level politicians. Oh God, this really is a
nightmare. I bought this place with my heart, not my head. I
should’ve known better.”
“
But
. . . the photographs they have, they must be from before
you purchased the club . . . aren’t they?” I held my breath as I
awaited his reply.
He glared at me and I shrank back.
“Of course they are. I told
you. I haven’t set foot in here until the attack on my company’s
server. Those photographs are years old and I wasn’t aware that
they even existed. I certainly didn’t take any or give permission
for any to be taken.”
“
Oh. So perhaps it’s a bluff. Maybe they
don’t exist.”
He shook his head. “They exist alright.
I’ve received copies, sadly.”
I thought for a second. “But Joel had the
photograph of me and Scott faked, he must’ve done the same with you
and . . . whoever it is you were with.”
Lucas
’ hesitation in replying told me the answer before he even
spoke. When he did, he sounded very uncomfortable—apologetic even.
“I don’t think they were faked. It was from my time with Ava and,
as soon as I saw them, I remembered when we . . . well, let’s just
say I have good reason to believe they’re genuine. I can have
Carter check them out but I don’t think it’s worth it.”
I had to concentrate hard to hear his
words. I felt nauseous at the thought of the existence of
photographs of him and Ava engaged in kinky sex acts, never mind
the thought of them being published by some low life magazine or
newspaper. I wondered how there could even be such photographs. I
realized with a start that it must’ve been Ava taking them. “Lucas,
if you didn’t take photographs—and I assume there was nobody else
involved in your sexual activities—then it must be Ava who took
them.”
He shook his head dismissively. “No. Ava’s
not like that and I’d have seen her taking them. Besides, at the
risk of giving too much information, she couldn’t. She was totally
restrained and at my mercy. There’s no way she could’ve taken
them.”
I closed my eyes, trying in vain to stop
images forming of Lucas restraining and dominating Ava. It hurt and
I realized I’d never felt jealousy before and that it made no
sense—it was in the past, years ago. Then I thought of Ava’s
obvious longing for Lucas and I began to wonder whether that was
why it stung so badly. All of this relationship stuff was so new to
me.
“
Hey,” Lucas said, softly. “I know what
you
’re thinking. Stop
it. She means nothing to me now. I’m yours. Totally yours. And
you’re mine. You’re all I need. All I want. I just thought you
should be prepared, in case the photographs do end up in the public
domain. You don’t deserve that. In fact, you don’t deserve any of
the crap that Joel has caused. I’m so sorry, Issy. You must rue the
day you met me.”
My eyes flew open instantly and I launched
myself across the sofa at him.
He caught me in his arms and held me tightly. “Don’t say
that. Never say that. I’ll never regret meeting you. You’re my
world, Lucas Hunter, and we’ll get through this. Together. I’ll be
by your side whatever happens.”
He squeezed me tighter still so that I
could hardly breathe as he said, “Thank you, knowing you’ll be by
my side, as well as in my heart, might just be what gets me though
all this.”
His earlier revelation ran through my mind
and I wriggled in his arms to look at his face. “Lucas, you said
earlier that the blackmailer wanted everything—including me. What
did you mean?”
He sighed heavily. “As well as agreeing to
sell my business and all of my assets for a hundred dollars, I have
to agree to end
my
relationship with you. Forever. If I renege on that at any time,
even if I’ve sold the company, the photographs will go public—as
will information on my ownership of this place.”
I star
ed, open-mouthed, unable to comprehend why I’d be the pawn
in Joel’s cruel game. “But why?” I whispered.
He shrugged his shoulders. “Because Joel’s
a psycho? Who knows. I think he just wants to ruin my life
completely. Maybe he still wants me to suffer for taking our
parents away from him.”
“
But you didn’t,” I cried.
“Yeah well, try telling that to Joel,” he
said bitterly.
“
I would if I knew where he was.
Actually, where is
he?”
“
Don’t even think about it, Issy. Besides,
we don’t know where he’s holing up. Carter has drafted in extra
security staff to track him down but so far, no luck.”
Something niggled in the back of my mind and
then I remembered. “What about Scott? Are they still searching for
him too?”
“
As far as I know. Carter would’ve called
if there was any news.”
I thought about Scott’s alleged
involvement. I knew he didn’t like Lucas but I found it hard to
believe that he’d deliberately help incriminate Lucas. “So you
think Scott told Joel about your ownership of this
place?”
“
I
’m not so sure about that. Joel could potentially have
found that out when he hacked into my office network. He could’ve
approached him to get further information. He certainly wouldn’t
have found out about anything about my private life—my former
private life—from the information stored on the server. Nothing
about Ava and certainly not any photographs.”
“But how would Scott know any of that? Was he
a member back then too?”
“
Oh no. But there are some members here who
were. He might’ve heard from some of them. Joel might’ve asked him
to do some digging and I’m sure he’d be only too pleased to oblige.
He probably wanted to tell you anything he found out too but was
probably wise enough to know that he’d incriminate himself if he
did.”
I shook my head in disbelief. That didn’t
sound like Scott at all. But then he had been behaving oddly
recently and I hadn’t had a chance to put him straight about Lucas
after telling him about Joel’s revelations. Oh God, it was such a
mess. “But Scott couldn’t have known about the existence of those
photographs. How did Joel find out about those?”
“
That’s the billion-dollar question, Issy,”
he said, wryly.
“
I’m struggling to see how photographs
could’ve been taken. Unless . . . was the door open? I noticed that
some couples, or groups, like to leave their doors open for
passers-by to see what’s going on.”
“
No way!” he said, vehemently shaking his
head. “Come on, Issy. You know me better than that. I’m too private
a person for that.”
“Oh. Yes, of course. But could another member
have opened the door and sneaked some photos of you?”
“
No,” he said firmly. “I always locked the
door. And for another thing, the angle they were taken from was too
high—” He broke off, abruptly, his eyes suddenly alert and I knew
something had occurred to him.
“
I
’ll be back in a second,” he said, as he slid me off his
lap.
“
Where are you going?” I asked, not wanting
to be left alone in the club by myself, especially since
I
’d be totally
alone.
“
I’m going to check something in the room I
used to use,” he said as he stood.
I jumped to my feet. “I’m coming with
you,” I said firmly. He looked like he was going to overrule me but
then reconsidered and took my hand.
We walked, well I half ran to keep up with
his stride, to the rooms that Scott had shown me. Lucas led me to a
room in the far corner, entered and stood in the center, looking
around. There was a wooden framed bed in the middle, covered in a
black satin sheet. Wooden cupboards and drawers lined one wall and
there was a large wooden cross bolted to the floor in front of
another wall. The sight of it brought back such exciting, delicious
memories and I found myself longing to be in the playroom with
Lucas. I looked over at him as he wandered around, his head turning
to and fro. He froze suddenly before whipping out his cell and
initiating a call. He barked instructions about wanting the tech
team here straight away and Carter too. I was left wondering what
the hell was going on.
Before I could ask him, he grasped my hand
and half pulled me out of the room.
He led me back to the inner reception lobby and
into a room I realized immediately was some sort of security
control room. It was deserted but there were banks of CCTV screens.
Lucas began to switch the live streams from each of the cameras,
throwing his hand through his hair every so often in a gesture born
of agitation. I stood back, deciding that he clearly had something
on his mind and it was best that I let him get on with
it.
A low growl left his throat before he took
out his cell and dialed a number.
The recipient picked up almost instantly. A terse
conversation followed but I couldn’t keep up. Whoever it was, and I
assumed from what Lucas said that it was a member of security staff
who worked there, they were given no alternative but to get their
ass back into the building immediately. He hung up abruptly and
stormed out of the room, back into the main room. I followed
hastily, just managing to catch the door so I wasn’t locked
out.
I caught up with him at the bar where he
was pouring himself another Scotch.
He tossed back half of it and then seemed so
caught up in his thoughts that I don’t even think he knew I was
there. He looked angry, so angry that he seemed to be fighting to
keep it in check. I was too wary to put my arms around him as I
longed to do, so I stood feeling increasingly uncomfortable and
contemplated asking him to call me a cab to take me home. There was
nothing I could do and I didn’t appreciate being left to just hang
around, not knowing what was going on—as usual. But I’d promised
Lucas that I’d be by his side until we’d gotten through this. I
knew he was used to being alone and dealing with things by
himself—he was a control freak after all—and I told myself he
wasn’t deliberately keeping me out of the loop. I just wished there
was something I could do to help.
The next hour passed in such a blur.
Carter and a group of men—the tech team, I assumed—arrived. Lucas
took Carter to one side and conversed with him privately for a few
minutes. Then Carter led the men out of the room. He didn’t even
acknowledge my presence. Almost immediately, another man arrived
and, as soon as Lucas saw him, he hurried over to meet him. I
followed quickly and again managed to slip through the security
door before it closed. I lurked in the doorway to the room of
security monitors and soon gathered that Lucas believed that there
was—or had been—a CCTV camera in one, possibly all, of the private
rooms. I figured that’s where Carter and his crew had
gone.
Lucas questioned the guy, who denied all
knowledge of the existence of any such cameras. He was then set the
task of going through a cabinet of old tapes to find footage of any
of the rooms or any footage that was date marked within a certain
timescale. I guessed the timescale matched the time that Lucas had
been active at the club. It didn’t take a genius to work out why.
Lucas obviously believed that the photographs being used to
blackmail him originated from recordings taken from a CCTV camera
inside the room.
I then understand his barely controlled
anger.
Not only was it a
gross invasion of privacy, and probably illegal which was bad
enough, but it was being used to cheat him out of his company, his
hard earned assets . . .
and me
,
I realized with a shudder. I knew that it meant the photos were
genuine, beyond any doubt. I also knew that it meant there was no
way out of the blackmail attempt. Lucas could either do the best he
could in terms of damage limitation to protect himself and the
other high-profile members, refuse to give in to the blackmail
attempt, and ride the resulting storm, or he’d have to roll over
and give up everything he’d worked so hard for.
Just then Carter burst through the door
looking even grimmer than Lucas.
“We’ve found old wiring behind the plaster,” he
said. “Looks like you may be correct in your
assumption.”
Without acknowledging him or me, Lucas
strode off, Carter following on his heels, and me following on
Carter’s. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I re-entered the room
that Lucas and I had been in a short time before. Holes had been
knocked into the far wall, revealing the electrical circuits. The
men who’d arrived with Carter were covered in plaster dust and were
now packing away their equipment. Carter pointed out a cable that
terminated in the wall, not connected to anything. He said it was
the correct type of cable for a CCTV system and that it was still
live but that the ends of the wires had been made safe. I looked
more closely and saw a block of plastic on the end. Carter also
said that it had been plastered over the top and then decorated so
it was hidden completely.