Blood & Lace

by Trinity Scott

  “Spill in me, Gage. I want to feel it. I want to feel all of you.”

  Her words sent him over the edge and he emptied every ounce of cum into her, jerking hard with each new burst of pleasure. She came along with him, convulsing against him and making a gratifying mewling sound that made him proud of himself.

  Hoping he wasn’t crushing her under his weight, he collapsed on top of her. Their chests pressed together and their breathing seemed to fall into sync.

  Once he regained his strength, Gage rolled onto his back and worked on pulling his shit together.

  Chloe stared at the ceiling. She was quiet. Too quiet.

  Gage closed his eyes. “You okay?”

  “Mmhm.”

  Shit.

  “Chloe,” he began, but she had already stood up and was making her way toward the closet. “I’m good. Just ready to get out of these clothes.”

  With that, she shut the closet door, leaving him bereft on the other side of it.

  Gage open-palm smacked the floor, then let his head rest in his stinging hands.

  He should’ve been stronger. Should’ve realized how confusing and complicated this situation would be for her instead of taking her like a selfish lunatic.

  He should’ve walked out of the room when it got to be too much for him.

  But walking away from Chloe Sterling was apparently outside of his realm of capability.

  21

  Thankfully, Aly still hadn’t returned when Chloe emerged from the bedroom in jeans and a plain white T-shirt. She made some tea and decompressed while Gage sat leaning forward on the edge of his chair, reading his computer screen intently. His rigid posture told her all she needed to know. She’d been a cold fish after a very hot encounter, and he was over her bullshit.

  A long, silent half hour later, Alyson returned with her laptop. If she suspected what had happened, she showed no signs of it. Just sat cross-legged on the floor engrossed by the screen as she occasionally read out loud the comments being made on the faked live feed.

  At one point, they’d looked up to listen to Aly, and Gage’s gaze lifted to hers. For a moment, it seemed like there was a lot he wanted to say. But then he pulled his emotionless FBI expression mask back onto his face before she could blink.

  She wanted to say something, to explain how guilty she felt for experiencing even the smallest ounce of pleasure, much less an overwhelming abundance of it while her sister was still missing. But now was clearly not the time.

  So she stepped into the kitchen to make coffee. When she was finished, she returned to the living room and lowered herself onto the couch.

  “Anything interesting yet?”

  Aly shrugged. “Lots of weirdos and a few decent folks genuinely into the BDSM lifestyle. You want to read them?”

  Chloe shook her head. It was bad enough playing the part the first time around—she couldn’t imagine watching the playback.

  Gage’s jaw clenched and flexed.

  He was chiseled, every inch of him, like a statue. And now he truly did seem to be made of stone.

  Smooth, Chloe. Fuck him blind then blow him off. That’ll keep him coming back for more, genius.

  Actually, according to her friends that actually had dating lives, that was generally how it worked. But Chloe didn’t want to play games with Gage. She cared about him. A lot. And she was grateful to him for everything he’d done to help find Eden.

  “Got one,” Aly called out. “Gage, check out Anonymous Guardian Three-One-Three.”

  Chloe felt out of the loop without a computer. “What’s Three-One-Three? An area code here?”

  “No,” they both responded without looking at her.

  “Could be his birthday,” Aly replied. “Or address. Hang on, look right here.”

  She joined Chloe on the couch so she could see what he’d commented. “Look, see that?” She pointed at the comment box on the screen. “Three minutes into the video he says ‘imposter.’ Less than a minute later he says ‘Not the real Cossette, but a very good imitation. Kudos, Alex.’ ”

  “Which begs the question, how does he know?” Gage clicked the keys at lightning-fast speed. “And how does he know it would be Alexander Ulrich replacing Cossette?”

  “Hurry,” Aly prompted. “He’s still on but we have less than a minute of video left.”

  “Trying,” Gage mumbled.

  This aspect of the investigation was out of Chloe’s wheelhouse, so she sat quietly and sipped her coffee, even though it seemed as if something very important was happening.

  “Got you,” Gage announced just as the video ended.

  “Who is he?” she and Aly both asked in near unison.

  Gage turned his computer screen to face them. “I don’t know, but he’s online at a café downtown. I’m going to send Elaina and Holt there now.”

  He stood to make the call, and Chloe tucked her legs to let him go by. Seemed like he was careful not to touch her.

  Once he was gone, Aly gave her a sympathetic smile.

  “So you two have some complicated shit going on, huh?”

  Chloe nodded while swirling her coffee mindlessly. “It would seem so, yes.”

  After several long moments of silence, Aly glanced at the door Gage had just exited through.

  “That is why I don’t do relationships. Life is complicated enough.” She nudged Chloe’s shoulder. “But for what it’s worth, I think he cares a lot about you.”

  Did he? Chloe wasn’t sure how much of it was real and how much of it was circumstantial.

  “Thanks. Truth be told, I care a lot about him too. And I can’t begin to describe how grateful I am for his help finding my sister.”

  Aly snorted. “Yeah, I can tell by the tension in the room. Lots of ‘gratitude’ between the two of you.”

  Chloe ducked her head. “Sorry.”

  Aly scoffed at her. “For what? I saw the way he looked at you in that outfit. You were done for either way. Both of you. The circumstances are intense enough as it is, but the chemistry between the two of you is undeniable.”

  Before Chloe had time to contemplate Aly’s observations any further, the door opened and Gage entered, looking pleased.

  “Looks like Mr. Anonymous isn’t going to be so anonymous anymore.”

  Aly perked up beside her. “They got him?”

  Gage nodded. “Holt pretended to be a tourist and asked him for directions while Elaina stole his wallet, then pretended she found it in the café. She looked him up and called his cell. He’s coming here to get it now.”

  “Wow. That was fast. Those two make quite a team,” Aly noted. Chloe was following a similar line of thinking.

  “I agree.” Gage turned to her. “I think, at first, we should question him without you, Chloe. Then when he’s denied his ass off until he’s blue in the face, I’ll bring you out and we’ll know he’s full of it. Is that okay by you?”

  Chloe nodded, hating how formal things were between them now. All of those barriers had been down just minutes ago. But they were steel reinforced and rigged with explosives now.

  “Whatever you think is best,” she conceded.

  “Perfect. Elaina and Holt are barely going to beat him here.” Gage glanced around. “Chloe, take all the pictures of Eden into the bedroom with you.” He turned to Aly. “Grab the computers and case files and shove them into a cabinet.”

  “Feels like cleaning my room as a teenager,” Aly joked while doing as she was told.

  By the time they’d finished hiding any evidence that this was Eden’s home and the headquarters for their investigation, Elaina and Holt had returned.

  Holt joined Gage in the kitchen, and Elaina called them all into the living room.

  “I have a suggestion,” she said, looking pointedly at Gage for permission to share.

  He nodded and she continued.

  “If we gang up on this Anonymous Guardian, or Brian Wells, as his photo ID says, we run the risk of showing him all our cards. I think it’s best if
just myself, Gage, and Chloe stay.”

  “Now wait just a damn minute,” Holt cut in, but Elaina put her hand up to silence him.

  “If we need to do surveillance on him later, Aly might be helpful. And if he sees you, the ‘lost tourist’ from earlier, he’s going to know this was a setup right off the bat and we might get less information from him.”

  “Come on, Holt,” Aly said, gesturing for him to follow her outside. “I know a great coffee shop not far from here.”

  Holt cast them all a disgusted look. Chloe felt bad watching him leave, but she had a feeling Holt’s brand of interrogation might be different from what Gage had in mind for Brian Wells.

  Aly and Holt had barely pulled away when a white Prius pulled up.

  “Showtime,” Gage said, nodding to Elaina. “Just hang back in the kitchen, Chloe. I’ll call for you in just a minute.” He said it without looking at her, and as excited as Chloe was to find out what Brian Wells knew about Eden, it still stung.

  Elaina tucked a strand of her crimson locks behind her ear and headed toward the door.

  Chloe listened from around the corner in the kitchen but couldn’t see anything.

  “Hey,” Elaina greeted him breezily. “Come on in. Your wallet is—”

  “Why are you in Eden Sterling’s house?” The man’s voice was unfamiliar. “Did she rent it out on Airbnb or something?”

  Elaina’s voice lost its lightness from before. “You should come on in, Brian. We have a lot to discuss.”

  “Who the hell are you?”

  Panic, Chloe thought to herself, he’s panicking.

  It was Gage who answered. “We’ll explain who we are in just a moment. We have a few questions for you.”

  “Am I under arrest? Is this what I think it is? I knew it.” Brian sounded like he was going to cry. “They always blame the boyfriend. I didn’t do anything to her. I’ve been trying to find her, same as you guys.”

  “You’re not under arrest,” Elaina said evenly. “We’re with the FBI and we have some questions. That’s all. Relax. Come sit.”

  “No.” Brian’s voice sounded farther away. “This is some unorthodox shit. If you want to question me, you can do it with my lawyer present in an office somewhere.”

  Chloe decided not to wait for Gage’s cue. “Wait, please. Don’t leave,” she pleaded with the stranger. This was the closest they’d been to answers. She couldn’t let him slip away so easily.

  She stepped out from the kitchen. Gage stood blocking the front door and Elaina stood on the other side of a blond man who looked like Ryan Phillippe in a sweater vest and glasses. He was attractive. The glasses were trendy and the blue sweater vest brought out the blue in his eyes, but he’d said boyfriend.

  He was a far cry from Eden’s type.

  He flinched visibly when he saw Chloe. She stepped closer.

  “Hi.” She extended her hand. “I’m Chloe. Eden’s twin sister. I was the one in the video.”

  Brian shook her hand while eyeing her apprehensively. “She said she had a sister. She never said you were identical twins.”

  She nodded. “We didn’t go around announcing it. When we lived in the same state we never needed to.” Gesturing to each of them, she introduced him to Special Agent Pierce and Dr. Keats. “They’re trying to help me find my sister. I’m hoping you can help too.”

  Brian followed her toward the couch and sat in one of the chairs beside it. “I am happy to help. Just not a big fan of law enforcement at the moment. I tried talking to the police when she first went missing. They basically told me she’d probably dumped my ass and run off with some dude, so I should get over it and move on.”

  Chloe made a disconcerted sound in her throat. “Yeah, I got the same response.”

  Gage lowered himself into an adjacent chair. “In light of new evidence, there is now an official ongoing investigation.”

  “Thank God,” Brian said. “I tried to tell them. She was happy. Loved her job. Loved this house. And I like to think she loved me. There was no reason for her to take off.”

  “You’re using past tense,” Elaina pointed out. “When was the last time you saw Eden?” She stood beside Gage’s chair.

  Chloe offered her a seat, but she declined.

  “A little over two weeks ago,” Brian informed them. “She’d had a shoot for Provocative downtown and we grabbed dinner afterward. We came back here, discussed an episode of her webcast she was having some issues with, then she fell asleep. She was exhausted.” His eyes took on a wistful gaze. “She looked so peaceful sleeping, I didn’t want to wake her. I had some videos to edit and some film to cut, so I headed out.” Brian inhaled deeply. “I called the next morning to see if she wanted to grab brunch, but she didn’t answer. I kept calling throughout the day to check in. She didn’t have any plans that I knew of.”

  “When did you go to the police?” Gage inquired.

  “Two days later,” Brian promptly supplied. “They said she had to be missing for forty-eight hours before she was considered a missing person.”

  Elaina nodded. “So you filed a report?”

  Brian frowned. “I wanted to. I told them everything I just told you. They said she’d probably taken the easy way out ending things with me.” He scoffed. “They basically laughed me off and said when I had actual evidence that she was missing and didn’t just ghost me, I could come back. I went back a week later to tell them she hadn’t shown up for work and they started asking all kinds of questions, telling me not to leave town. A Detective Callahan said he was already on top of the investigation. He seemed determined to pin her disappearance on me. So I hired an attorney and a private investigator and we’ve been conducting our own investigation.”

  “And what has your PI come up with?” Elaina asked.

  “Nothing much,” Brian told her with a shrug. “An employee at Red Light reported seeing her at the Vault after my first visit to the station. Which is why they think I got dumped and needed to chill.”

  “That was me. In her dress. Looking for answers.” Chloe sighed. Brian didn’t know anything more than they did. And she hated to admit it, but Gage had been right. Her little mission to the Vault had been detrimental to Eden’s case in more ways than one.

  Gage wasn’t done though. “What exactly was she having difficulty with—you said you discussed it that night.”

  Brian nodded. “Yeah. The video we’d edited that night on submission was fine, but she said she didn’t like it. She was going to redo it before posting.”

  Gage pulled his phone out of his pocket and pulled up the video of Eden’s last webcast. He handed it to Brian.

  Chloe watched the emotions playing across the man’s face. Surprise. Confusion. Pain. Fear.

  “She knew whoever it was,” he mumbled as he returned the phone.

  “Pardon?” Gage pocketed his phone.

  “She said, ‘What are you doing here?’ ” Brian pointed out. “So whoever it was, she knew them, but she wasn’t expecting him.”

  Chloe remembered Aly drawing a similar conclusion.

  “Did Alexander Ulrich ever visit Eden here?” Elaina asked Brian.

  He pulled a repulsed face. “I doubt it. Eden wasn’t a fan of Alex. She made that clear several times.”

  “And yet she still had a job?”

  Brian nodded. “Uh, yeah. She had a huge following. And tons of guys were requesting her for Alex’s other enterprise.”

  Gage side-eyed Chloe. “Other enterprise?”

  Brian’s eyes widened. “Girls go to the highest bidder. I figured you knew.”

  Chloe nearly leaped off the couch. “What do you mean, they ‘go’ to the highest bidder? He sells them?”

  “More like rents them out,” Brian clarified. “Some of them, the ones who were willing and desperate for cash. Mostly the ones on drugs and owing money to dealers. But Eden was never one of those, and she never would’ve been. No matter how hard Alex tried to convince her. And he tried. He’d been offered a lot of m
oney for her. Many times.”

  “Oh my God.” Chloe felt like she might be sick. “Do you think . . .” She glanced helplessly at Gage.

  “She always turned him down,” Brian added. “No matter what he offered. She wasn’t like the other girls. I could tell that from day one. So could Alex.”

  “He didn’t strike me as the type who’s very good at taking no for an answer,” Gage commented.

  Brian nodded. “He’s not. He wouldn’t give it up. That’s why she quit. We both did.”

  “Then why was she still recording webcasts?” Elaina asked, voicing Chloe’s thoughts.

  Brian didn’t miss a beat. “She was taking over the show on her own. She was going to sue Alex for the rights, since Cossette was her character that she’d invented and she no longer needed the Red Light platform. She had her own audience and me to help with the technical stuff.”

  Chloe turned to him. “I’ve been trying to figure out something the entire time. I’m hoping you can help me.”

  Brian smiled warmly at her. “I can try.”

  Chloe returned the smile. “Why was my sister working with a place like Red Light to begin with? No offense, but she had plenty of money to cover her expenses. She’s been with Provocative for years and seemed very happy with her work.”

  Brian sighed. “I’m guessing you and her hadn’t been in touch recently?”

  Chloe winced. “Not as much as we would’ve liked. We were both busy. We should’ve made time though.”

  Brian reached out and placed a hand on hers. She could feel Gage’s intense glare. So he cared, then. Kind of felt good after he’d brushed her off before. Not that she didn’t deserve it.

  “She loves you. She knew you loved her.” He retrieved his hand as if he too could feel Gage’s disapproval. “She was getting older—twenty-seven is up there in the modeling industry. She was getting less features, less-appealing positioning in promo material. She had this friend Caroline.”

  Gage broke in. “We know. Caroline was a Provocative Inc. model who helped her get on with Red Light.”

  “She told her she could make some extra money and build her own platform where no one else decided how much screen time she got. Eden was nervous as first, but then she started to enjoy it. She knew her webcasts mattered to people.”