“You’re a rap star now?”
“I’m king of the world. We both are—or we could be. Once we start this club, we’ll be loved and worshipped. It’ll be the most exclusive club in the world.”
“You think so?”
“We’ll make it that.” I paused. “And no one but us will know exactly what’s going on.”
“How’s that possible?”
“We’ll think of a way.” I sat back down again and thought for a minute before looking at him seriously. “We can’t trust anyone, Brandon. This is between us.”
“I know.” He nodded back at me and smiled. “No matter what happens, it’s between us.”
“Hey, Greyson. Hey Brandon.” The two girls finally made their way over to us.
“Hey.” I nodded without smiling.
“What you guys up to tonight?”
“Fucking one of you?” I looked at them as they giggled and thought I was joking. “Or would you prefer it to be both of you?”
“You’re so funny, Greyson!” The blonde giggled again and pushed her chest out. Her blue eyes twinkled as she slowly licked her lips. She was letting me know that she wanted to be the one who got the prize.
“I’ve heard that before.” I nodded in agreement and grinned at Brandon, who was sitting there with big dopey eyes. I wanted to laugh out loud.
He was such a dope. He could talk the talk now, but he’d never really walked the walk, aside from a one-night stand he’d had the day his father had married yet another woman a few months ago.
“You guys can come over tonight if you want. We can have a study date.”
“I don’t study with girls.” I stared at the redhead. “I fuck.”
“We try to be accommodating.” She grinned at me eagerly and then looked at her friend. I could so fuck both of them. I knew it as surely as I knew that I could get the blonde to go into the men’s room and suck me off at that very moment.
“Brandon and I have laundry to do tonight.” I yawned and sat back. I could see the surprised look on his face as I blew the girls off.
“Maybe we can help.”
“Maybe not.” My voice was sharp with irritation. “I’m not interested.” I spelled it out to them clearly. Blondie’s face fell and the redhead had an evil glint in her eyes as they realized they’d been dismissed, but I didn’t care. “So, Brandon, wanna catch a movie later? I’ll pay.” I heard the girls’ sharp inhalations as they walked away and I grinned.
“You just told them you were going to do laundry tonight.” Brandon shook his head. “And then you slipped up and asked me to a movie. They most probably think you’re a jerk now.”
“That wasn’t a slip-up.” I gave him my ‘who do you think you’re with’ glance. “That was my don’t-swim-in-the-ocean-if-you-don’t-like-sharks lesson to them.”
“You didn’t have to be mean.”
“I wasn’t being mean. I was being real. They’re sluts.”
“Greyson!” Brandon hurriedly looked around the room to see if anyone was listening.
“Come on now. We could have had a foursome tonight and they don’t even really know us.”
“I’d rather a threesome and you stay in your room.” Brandon grinned and I laughed.
“You know it’s true.”
“Well, they were a bit obvious.”
“I don’t want those types of girls at the club. Women should know their place.”
“What do you mean?”
“All women do is bring men down. Men lose their shit over women. And for what? For some pussy? Gimme a break.”
“You’ve heard of the power of the pussy, bro.”
“Only because we give it to them. Everyone knows men run the world. But that’s strong men only—weak men crumble.” My mind fell to my brother. “Women try to make you love them and then they leave with either your money or your heart.”
“Not all women.”
“What women do you know who give a shit about you?”
“I dunno.” Brandon shrugged, and I slammed my hands on the table.
“Exactly. There’s no point trying to lie to ourselves or even go down that road. We can get what we want from women who know the deal.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, as long as we keep our hearts out of our pants, we’re cool.”
“So we’re going to have girls at the club then?” Brandon said after a few minutes. “What will the girls be doing?”
“Whatever we want them to do.” I raised an eyebrow. “There will be no request too big or small.”
“So it’ll be like a private, no-questions-asked strip club?”
“No.” I shook my head. “Strip clubs are sleazy.”
“Sex club?” Brandon’s eyes widened.
“There will be sex. And plenty of it. But no. It’s not just about being a sex club either. It’s not anything we have to define. It’s what we want it to be. It’s just the private club. No one will really know what goes on there. That will be part of the allure.”
“So we’re just going to call it the private club?”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “And only you and I will know what’s going on.”
“You’re fucked up, you know that, Greyson?” Brandon shook his head at me and grabbed his books as the professor came into the room.
“Every single day of my life,” I whispered as I pulled out my pen.
I saw the blond girl walk back into the room with a tissue in her hands. She was rubbing the corners of her eyes, and I could see she’d been crying. She avoided eye contact with me, and I stared at the front of the room, trying to ignore the guilt in my heart. I’m preparing her for the real wolves out there, I told myself. Better to learn the harsh realities about men now.
The professor started talking, but I couldn’t hear what he was saying above the throbbing in my ears. As averse as I was to love, I still didn’t want to hurt anyone. That wasn’t my goal.
I stared down at my desk and thought back to my life before my mom had died. I thought back to the joy and the laughter and I missed it. But then I remembered the man my father had become since her death and I knew that I couldn’t break my vow to myself. I was never going to allow a woman to break me down like my father had been broken.
Chapter 3
Meg
Present Day
“Brandon is not to blame for anything.” Greyson’s voice was firm. “I was the one who is responsible for what happened and what continues to happen. Ultimately, I make all of the decisions at the club.”
“So you’re saying that all the shit that goes on here is you?” Katie’s face was void of emotion, but I could tell she was hopeful.
“Everything that’s gone on here is all me. Brandon didn’t even know about it until it was too late.”
“Greyson,” Brandon spoke, and Greyson shook his head.
“You’re right, Brandon. You have a new life now. Leave.”
“Let’s go, Meg.” Katie looked at me. “Let’s just go.”
“I don’t know.” I hesitated. “I don’t think I should go.”
“You don’t need this job. Brandon got you fired.” She glared at him. “And he’ll help you get your job back.”
“I don’t want my job back.”
“Then he’ll help you get a job at a new firm.”
“I don’t want that.” I looked at the confusion in her eyes. “I need to see this through.”
“See what through?” She sounded mad. “Please, just leave with me.”
I shook my head. “I can’t do that.”
“You should go, Meg.” Greyson joined the discussion, and I looked at him with hurt eyes.
“I’m not going anywhere until I find out what happened to Nancy and exactly what’s going on here.”
“You think you’re going to save all these girls?” Greyson’s tone sent a chill down my spine. “You think you can—”
“Just tell her, Greyson,” Brandon pleaded. “Please, let’s just get it out in
the open.”
“I don’t think so.” Greyson sat back down. “I want you to leave now.”
“You think that I’m just going to leave and—”
“Brandon.” Greyson’s voice was cold. “This isn’t your problem. You and Katie need to leave.”
I stood there as a warm feeling spread through me. He hadn’t asked for me to leave this time.
“I’m not going without Meg.” Katie stood her ground. “There’s no way I’m leaving her with this maniac in this place.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“I wouldn’t count on that, Meg.” It was Greyson’s turn to speak up. “I’ve told you before that I’m no angel.”
“I haven’t been burned yet.”
“You haven’t been close enough to the flame.”
“I’ll take my chances.”
“Meg!” Katie chided me. “I get it. He’s cute. But please… He is not worth it. I can tell from one glance that he’s not a good guy. Please, Meg. Let’s go.”
“Listen to your friend, little Meggie,” Greyson laughed. “She knows what she’s talking about.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” She glared at him.
“I’m just saying that you should know what it’s like to date a dirty dog.” He smiled at her sweetly. “Now leave.”
“Brandon.” Katie frowned. “I want to go now.”
“Katie, I’m sorry,” Brandon sighed.
“We’re not going to talk about this here.” Katie gave me one last glance. “Is there anything I can do to convince you to leave?”
I shook my head wordlessly.
“Please don’t let sex make you think he likes you, Meg. Sex is nothing for men like him.”
I stared at her and felt tears pricking my eyes as she spoke. I knew she was right, of course. But that didn’t stop me from hoping that something else would happen.
I stood there wondering why I didn’t run out as fast as I could. And then it struck me. I couldn’t. My body wouldn’t let me leave. A part of me started to understand why women stayed with men they knew were inherently bad. When you were bitten by the love bug, it was hard to do anything but hope and pray that somehow it could work out.
There was silence in the room as we all stood there. Finally, Katie shook her head and walked through the door, Brandon following behind her. He stopped at the door and turned back to face us before looking at Greyson one last time.
“It doesn’t have to be this way, Greyson. You don’t have to be this way.”
“It always had to be this way.” Greyson’s voice was bleak.
“This isn’t over, Greyson. We’re not in college any more.”
“Just leave, Brandon. Go explain to your woman why you’re not the spawn of the devil before it’s too late.”
“Call us, Meg. If anything happens, call us.” Brandon glanced at me and left the room.
I stood there staring at the ground, feeling confused and worried.
Greyson finally spoke up. “I don’t know why you didn’t leave with your friends.”
“I want to know what happened to Nancy.”
“I don’t know what happened.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“I don’t care what you believe, Meg. You should have listened to your friend. What we had was about nothing more than sex.”
“I don’t care.” I bit my lip as I lied. His words had cut me to the core. I’d really thought we were beyond that stage.
“If you’re staying, you better get back outside. The tests will be starting soon.”
“Okay.” I nodded and glanced at him. He was surveying me with an odd light in his eyes.
He sighed. “You shouldn’t have stayed, Meg.”
“I couldn’t leave,” I whispered, and he nodded back at me.
“That’s what I was afraid of.”
***
I didn’t go back outside right away. I couldn’t face the others and the questions in their eyes. I needed to compose myself, and I wanted to check to see if Nancy was back in the room. Part of me knew that she wouldn’t be there, but I was hoping beyond hope that she would have shown back up.
I quickly walked into our room and looked around. I stopped as I looked at my bed and the messy sheets. I was pretty confident that I had made my bed in the morning, like I always did. My breathing slowed as I looked around the room again to see if anything else looked askew. Nothing else seemed off, so I walked over to the bed and pulled off the duvet and the sheets to see if someone had left a note for me, but there was nothing there.
I threw the bedding back onto the bed and was about to walk back out of the room when I saw something shiny glittering underneath Nancy’s bed. I ran back and quickly pulled it out, and I was surprised to see a diary. I opened it slowly, feeling bad for invading Nancy’s privacy, but I needed to see what she had written in case there were any clues inside.
The diary appeared to have been started a long time ago, as the first entries were about some guy named Hunter who she appeared to have been in love with while in school. There was a lot of angst and emotion, and it seemed like Nancy had really had the bug for him. I flicked through the pages quickly, not wanting to read about her obviously unrequited and painful school crush. I flipped back a few pages, when I realized that my eyes had flickered over an entry about Maria.
“Maria is bringing her new boyfriend home this weekend. Mom and Dad are excited that she’s coming home, but that’s because they don’t know the truth. I can’t believe that Maria is stripping now. I hope Ryan doesn’t find out she’s coming home. He’s going to flip a switch. It’s so unfair that Maria has two guys and I have none. I wish that Hunter would notice me...”
I stopped reading then, as it seemed that the writing had changed pretty quickly back to her crush on Hunter. I sat on her bed and thought for a moment about what I had just read. I assumed that Maria’s boyfriend was Brandon. But what did she mean about the stripping? Had Maria been a stripper? And if so, did that mean that the club really was a strip joint? But who was Ryan? And why had Nancy been worried that he would find out about her new boyfriend? I flipped through again, more carefully this time, to see what else I could find. I paused on the next page as I saw another entry.
“Maria’s boyfriend Brandon is gorgeous. One of the most gorgeous men I’ve ever seen. He makes Hunter look like a little boy. Maria told me that he’s the best sex she’s ever had. I tried not to show her how uneasy she made me feel as she went into detail. I don’t think she knows I’m still a virgin. I don’t...”
I sat up straight as something hit me. Nancy was eighteen. And supposedly, Maria had dated Brandon ten years ago, Nancy would have been eight when all of this had gone down. Why would she have been writing about a boy she had a crush on at eight? And the sex thing? It didn’t make sense. There was no way that an eight-year-old had written this diary.
So that meant one of two things: this was someone else’s diary or this was written at a later date. Either way, this diary had been left here for a purpose. This wasn’t a case of Nancy accidentally leaving her diary in the room. Whoever had left the diary in the room wanted me to see it.
I wanted to feel like Nancy had left this for me to see, but I didn’t understand why she would have written so much about her high school crush Hunter if she’d wanted to give me clues about Maria. Who cared how she’f felt about Hunter? That wasn’t going to help me now. I closed my eyes and tried to think carefully. Maybe there were clues in what she had written about Hunter? Maybe the whole diary was a clue.
My eyes popped open as I heard a noise outside the door. I stood up slowly and walked to the spot behind the door. I held my breath as the door slowly opened with me behind it. I clutched the diary to me in fear. Who was about to walk through the door?
I felt and heard two footsteps, but whoever was there didn’t bother coming all the way into the room and the door closed again within seconds. I stayed where I was for about another minute, trying to control my b
reathing.
I looked at the time and realized that I needed to get back outside if I wanted to continue on at the club. Part of me didn’t really understand why Greyson was letting me stay. He had to know that I was going to continue to investigate while I was here. His secret was nearly out. He had to know that I would expose his sex trafficking to the world.
I didn’t understand why he hadn’t made me leave with Brandon and Katie. He probably wanted a few more nights with me before he got rid of me. I was angry at myself for how excited I felt about spending more nights with Greyson. It wasn’t even about the sex, though that was mind-numbingly brilliant. It was about just being with him and getting to know him, snippet by snippet.
I walked out of the room and to the bathroom quickly. As I entered, I grabbed a plastic bag I saw on the ground and walked into one of the restrooms. I placed the diary into the plastic bag and tied it carefully and tightly, making sure that there were no small holes at the top of the bag. I opened the top of the toilet and peered inside; the water made me pause, but I knew there was nowhere else I could hide the diary. I dropped it in and moved the top back in place before slowly opening the door and walking out of the bathroom again.
“There you are, Meg.” Patsy nodded at me as I walked back into the courtyard. “Decided to rejoin us?”
“Sorry, I, uh, wanted to check on Nancy.”
“She’s gone.” Her eyes expressed concern as she spoke.
“I guess so.”
“Is everyone ready for their tests today?” she continued, and I stood to the side.
I could see both David and Elizabeth trying to make eye contact with me. I looked around the group of girls and I realized that at least five of the girls were gone.
“Yes, Meg?” Patsy looked at me.
“Did some of the girls drop out? I see some are missing.”
“No, they’ve been moved.” Her eyes flashed at me.
“Can I ask where they’ve been moved to?”
“No.” Her voice was harsh. “I wouldn’t push it if I were you, Meg.”
The Private Club 3 Page 2