by Cadence Vonn
Veronica locked the door and scurried to the bathroom. Three used condoms were in a plastic bag in the trashcan. She tied it tight and stuffed it in her purse before she dressed. She pulled her hair back up into a twist and adjusted her dress, smoothing out the wrinkles from being on the floor. She strutted out through the crowd of men, avoiding eye contact with any of them, but wished she could scan their faces to see if she could figure out the one named Jake. Friday, she’d make sure she got a good look at his whole body.
She walked down the granite steps of the club, the cool night air clearing her head. The police undercover van sat across the street. Snake probably joined the crew inside and monitored all the people entering and leaving the place. Right now, she’d like to slap the smirk that would be plastered across his face. Maybe they even had a bet going on how late she’d be in the place. She glanced at her watch. Three hours. She wouldn’t hear the end of the teasing tomorrow.
She crawled into the fake cab and gave the undercover officer her brother’s address instead of her own. Always one to be cautious, she often stayed at his place so no one knew her real address. Her brother had a secure building, and she unlocked the main door with her key before she used the elevator. Being extra careful tonight, she rode to the sixth floor then trotted down the stairs to the fourth floor and entered her brother’s apartment. Thank goodness Harrison wasn’t home. Being a light sleeper, he’d give her the third degree before he let her sleep, and right now, all she wanted to do was flop into bed.
Chapter Three
Dead to the world all night, she woke up the next morning and stretched, amazed her body hummed with a new energy. It’d been way too long since her last sexual encounter. Last night certainly made up for the dry spell. She bounced out of bed, showered, and dressed in clothes she left in the guest closet.
Not bothering to make coffee, she jogged down the stairs to the parking garage under the building. Her vehicle was parked in her brother’s guest space, and the beep of the cute little car as she engaged the unlock button made her smile. Harrison tormented her when she called her Z8 cute. A college graduation present from her parents, she enjoyed its speed and agility in traffic. The dark tinted windows hid her from prying eyes as she pulled out of the garage and barreled down the street toward work.
Sure no one followed her, she screeched into the parking garage next to the station and strode through the maze of cars to the old brick building. She made her way down to the lab in the basement. Her friend and confidant, Dr. Sara Goodman, grinned ear to ear when she entered.
“Rumor has it you played a believable hooker last night,” Sara teased.
“It’s all rumor. I need a favor.” Veronica pulled out the plastic bag from her purse. “There are three used condoms in here. Two are from the same guy. I want you to run a DNA test on them and find out anything you can about the men.”
“Two guys. Oh, no way are you getting out of telling me all the juicy details.”
“Over a glass of wine. Right now, I want to keep this between you and me.”
“You’re not going to tell Snake.”
“Hell, no. What happened at The Wharf Club doesn’t leave these lips.”
“Except to tell me.” Sara tapped her toe, the samples dangling over the trash at her feet. “One favor deserves another. I haven’t dated in three months. Give me something to fantasize about.”
“Some night over wine, and only if you promise never to tell a soul.”
Sara crossed her heart.
Veronica made her way to the break room to grab a cup of coffee before Snake and the captain cornered her in an office.
“How was your evening?” Snake asked as he followed her into the captain’s cluttered space.
“I learned Tyler was supposed to meet with Madame Lana last night. Seems they had regular dalliances at the club.”
The captain scribbled notes on a ratty tablet instead of the new computer that sat unused on his desk. “Did he seem mad she wasn’t there? Or more like he knew she wouldn’t be there?”
“Mad.” She tilted her head from side to side. “Possibly.”
“What more can you tell us about this man?” Snake asked.
Veronica knew he wanted to ask if she had sex with the guy, but an unspoken code didn’t allow him to question her if she was undercover. They all did what they did to gain information. “He had money to burn and keeps everything close to the vest. I didn’t even get a last name from him.” She hoped Sara would solve that piece of the puzzle before Friday.
“You’re going back Friday. Do you want to meet Lewis at the bar?” the captain asked.
“I’d prefer to work alone. Tyler pegged Snake as a possible cop because of his rented tux. If I mingle among the men, I might get a better lead. Lewis can wait in the van. Keep an eye out for anyone trying to enter the building through other means besides the front door. Otherwise, our killer is probably one of the patrons. Have they found any evidence on Madame Lana that leads you to believe she was at the club the night she was killed?”
“Nothing. Since she was sexually active, there wasn’t any evidence of rape. The water in the bay washed off anything that might have been on her body or under her nails. Autopsy will send a complete report as soon as they discover the cause of death.”
The captain’s phone rang. “Yes,” he bellowed. His mouth formed a straight line, and he finished the conversation. “We’ll be right down.”
“Another female body was dragged from the Charles this morning. Let’s go down and take a look.”
Snake let her go first, following the captain down the stairs to the morgue. A young woman, dressed in a bedraggled black dress, lay lifeless on the metal table. Her auburn hair matched Veronica’s and Madame Lana’s, a disturbing fact Veronica hadn’t put together until this moment.
“Do you think she’s a hooker?” she asked Sara.
“Possibly.”
Snake added, “We haven’t had any reports on missing women in the past twenty-four hours. The way she’s dressed indicates she’s not your run-of-the-mill corner hooker. Maybe someone who worked for Madame Lana.”
“See how the detectives are doing with any information they found in Lana’s house. Maybe they’ve already pieced together some of her employees,” the captain suggested.
“I doubt they found much. Someone beat us to her place. Empty file drawers and wall safe means someone doesn’t want us to delve too deep,” Snake finished.
“Now her.” Veronica turned her back on the body, and a niggle of fear climbed her spine and settled at the base of her skull. It could have been her on the table. No one would report her missing either. Her parents were touring China at the moment, and her brother was in South America.
“Hey, no worries. We have your back.” Snake bumped her shoulder with his. “Let’s go up to the computers and see if we can find any info on your lover.” He teased her until she huffed and stomped out of the cold room.
“Do you really think his name is Tyler?” she asked as he typed the word into the system to see what hits he got.
“I also have a picture of him I took when he seduced you in the hall.” He waved his phone at her before he downloaded the pictures to the system. After scanning his face, he hit a few buttons, relaxed back in his chair, and let the program do the work.
“Do you realize we wouldn’t be working double time to solve this murder if Lana hadn’t been connected to The Wharf Club? Money talks, and someone wants to make sure no fingers are pointed at any of the privileged patrons.” Snake didn’t care much for the one percent billionaires who frequented the club. He’d made that clear with the way he teased her about her pedigree.
The system binged, and he let out a low whistle. “Yeah, money definitely talks. Your lover is Christopher Tyler Monroe, the son of one of the wealthiest men in the country. How much did you make last night?” he joked.
She punched him in the arm and ignored the question. “What does he do for a living?”
&
nbsp; “Hell if I can tell. He went to Princeton, but after that, everything is fuzzy, like someone erased a piece of his life. Maybe Daddy didn’t approve of his job choice and expunged all record of it. You’ll have to discover what he does on your own.” He turned in his chair and faced her. “Be careful. If you feel threatened at any point when you encounter the man, leave. The death of a hooker is not worth losing you.”
“Thanks, Phillip. I doubt Tyler is the killer. But I’ll be careful.”
She’d put in for vacation for the next three days, so she left the city and headed out to her cottage by the ocean. It sat on a bluff along the rocky coast of Maine, a gift from her grandmother when she turned twenty-one. The memories of the woman, who died on this day a year ago, filled the space. Her grandmother had been her rock, the only person she could pour out her heart to and know she wouldn’t be mocked or chastised.
“So, Gran, what would you tell me to do if you were here?” she asked the sweet woman in the picture she held. “You lived life with gusto. You rebelled against anyone who tried to order you around. Am I in over my head, or should I enjoy the ride? Because, damn, it’s quite a ride.” She giggled at the memory of her night with the two men. For now, she’d stay the course.
Sara joined her the next evening. “I’ve brought the wine. Now, spill.”
“First, did you find out anything from the DNA test?”
“I did, but your story first. I’m sure once I tell you my information, you’ll go off on a tangent and not be able to focus on the other night.”
“Fine. I had sex with two men. Are you satisfied?” She took a gulp of her wine.
“Hell, no!” Sara curled up on the couch and faced her friend on the other end. Details, baby. Details.”
Veronica took another big gulp then refilled their glasses. “It’s right out of a porn movie,” she started.
By the time she finished, Sara squirmed at the other end of the couch. “Fuck, I need a vibrator.” She finished off her wine and trotted out to the kitchen to put her glass in the sink.
“Upstairs in the guest room where I normally sleep, there’s one in the nightstand.” She shrugged when her friend gave her a shocked look. “I haven’t dated lately, either.
Sara headed for the stairs.
“I’ll give you five minutes. I want to know what you found out,” Veronica yelled from the base of the steps.
She had a pot of coffee made and two pieces of cheesecake set out on the table by the time Sara entered the kitchen. “Better?”
“Yep. All set for another week of TV watching with my cat.”
Veronica motioned for her friend to sit and filled two mugs with the steaming dark liquid. “I’ve been patient.”
“So you have. I don’t have names because they weren’t in the DNA database, so I have nothing linking them to Madam Lana. However, the samples matched traces of semen inside the clothes of the young woman they brought in yesterday.”
“Shit.” Veronica stood and paced. “Snake and I gathered information on Tyler, whose two used condoms were in the trash. There isn’t much on him in the database. It’s as if he’s hiding his life since he graduated from college. But he’s from a wealthy family, so he could be a member of the club where the men probably had sex with the young woman.” She rested her head back, closed her eyes, and released a deflating sigh. “Ah, hell. I’ll need to tell Snake and the captain how you obtained the evidence.”
“I locked my report in my desk until tomorrow. But I can’t hold up evidence after tonight.”
“I know. I’ll return to the city early. Tomorrow morning first thing, I’ll fill in the blanks of my report.”
“You did what you had to do to get evidence.”
“Fuck, I know. The problem is I enjoyed it.” She plopped down on the chair next to Sara. “I’m meeting them on Friday night. Everyone on the stakeout will know what’s going down in that locked room.”
“Let someone else go.”
Veronica knew that was an option. One she didn’t want to use. She already decided she craved replaying the scene. The vision of her sandwiched between the two men tied her lower abdomen in knots, wishing for release. “No, I can handle the teasing. Although Phillip will be the worst.”
“Yeah, you know how he got his nickname?”
Veronica groaned. “Anatomical proportions. Don’t you think the size is exaggerated?”
Sara’s neck turned crimson.
“Oh, dear God, you didn’t sleep with Snake?”
“It was before you joined the force. We dated for a month, but he found it awkward that we worked together and I was a doctor.”
“Why haven’t you told me this before?” Veronica slammed her hands on her hips.
“I didn’t see a point. You made it very clear you’d never date a fellow officer, so there was no need to warn you about him.”
“Warn me?”
“He’s a ladies’ man. Loves to strut his stuff. Naked.” They both burst out laughing.
“I doubt he could out-size Jake.” Veronica giggled louder. “Tyler wasn’t bad either.”
“Oh, honey. I wish I was in your shoes Friday.” They clinked their coffee cups in a fit of laughter.
Friday night, Veronica scoffed as she waited on the steps of The Wharf Club for the door to open. After a rather vocal argument with Snake and the captain, she finally convinced them it was all part of the job. She hadn’t gone into details, just that she’d had sex with the two men. She also turned over the fourteen thousand dollars she collected as payment for said sex.
They’d both eyed her, doubt written in their expressions, but the discussion went no farther. The background check for Tyler came back clean, but they couldn’t run a report on Jake without a picture or a last name. Maybe tonight she could figure out who the hell these men were and what they really did for a living.
When she arrived at the club, the same stoic man answered the door. This time he acknowledged her with a nod and said, “Mr. Hall is at the bar. Mr. Monroe has not yet arrived.”
She schooled her face to look puzzled. “I don’t know a Mr. Hall or a Mr. Monroe.”
The man’s eyebrow arched. It was obvious he enjoyed this game. “Pardon me, miss.” He edged the word miss with a note of disdain. “Jake is here. Tyler is not.”
“Ah. Jake Hall and Tyler Monroe. Thank you for that information.” She didn’t need to straighten her shoulders; her bandage dress did that for her. She winked at the butler, letting him know he slipped up and she’d won this round, before she strutted into the large room adjacent to the foyer.
She took her time moving toward the bar. Four men sat with their backs to her. How would she know which one was Jake? She walked to the far end and sat, giving them all a view up her thighs. “Evening.”
Two older men saluted her with their drinks but didn’t make another move. Probably men here to make deals, not have sex.
One of the other two men got up and sauntered over to her. Immediately, she knew he was too short, and when he opened his mouth to ask her to dance, his voice squeaked in a much higher octave than Jake’s.
“Sorry, I’m already taken for the evening.”
She turned, ignored his frown, and judged the last man. Definitely broad enough shoulders to be Jake. He reminded her of a panther eyeing his prey. His hooded gaze sized her up as she licked her lips and gave him a seductive smile. Remembering she was portraying a hooker, she took her glass of champagne and boldly sashayed up to the empty stool next to him. His dark hair waved back over his ears, and the subtle stubble on his square jaw accentuated his bad-boy look.
“Are you waiting for someone?” She set her drink on the bar and slipped onto the stool. Her black dress rode up her thighs, barely covering her panties as she crossed her legs and tapped her toe against his shin.
“You, Beautiful.”
She gave him her megawatt smile at the reference. “Now that I’m here, what do you plan to do with me?” His heated gaze melted her insides and ma
de her squeeze her legs together to thwart the feeling. He pressed his strong fingers against her thigh and flexed. She didn’t want a mask tonight. His feral look spoke of ravaging and intense orgasms, and she wanted to see it all.
“Tyler will be late. But I can show you around, maybe let you decide on the playroom for the evening.”
“Lead the way. Tyler will have to catch up.” He helped her off the stool and purposely bumped her hip with his hidden erection.
“Don’t look so surprised,” he said near her ear. “I haven’t had the desire for anyone but you. It’s been four very long days and nights.”
“Well, then, we shouldn’t keep little Jake waiting.” She giggled at her own joke. What the hell was wrong with her? Somewhere between walking into this place and having Jake touch her, she turned into a silly chit. Ask questions, she chided herself.
“So, Jake Hall.” She acknowledged his surprise with a coquettish eyebrow wiggle. “The butler told me your last name.” She gave him a sexy shrug. “What does a beast of a man like you do for a living?” She clung to his strong bicep as he led them into the elevator.
“I’m independently wealthy. I don’t need to work.”
“Everyone needs to do something or they turn into a bore, and I’ll guess you’re not a bore, especially with women. How do you spend your time?”
“I enjoy dabbling in the stock market. I’ve taken cooking lessons to impress women.” He waited for her to acknowledge that comment with a nod. “Sometimes I enjoy seeing how fast I can make it to Provincetown.”
“Ooo, so you own a boat?” That was a lucky piece of information.
“Yep. She’s docked in the harbor. Do you enjoy boating?”
“Not really. Sex and throwing up don’t go together.” She sent him an air kiss with a sexy pucker.
“Oh, baby. I’ve dreamt of those lips.” He leaned down and teased them with his tongue. The elevator stopped on the third floor, and he steered her to the end of the hall. “Besides the room on the first floor, this one is my favorite.”