Parker Security Complete Series

by Camilla Blake

  I yanked at my tie and pulled it over my head, flinging it to the ground as though it was personally responsible for everything that had transpired in the past sixteen hours. I peeled the suit off and got in the shower, turning the water on as hot as I could. I let it scald my skin as though it could wash the night away, and I hoped that when I got out and dried off, I’d see that my phone had missed a call from Drew, saying that Isa had turned up. There had just been some misunderstanding. She’d reschedule her performance for the following weekend, make it up to her fans. There would be some sort of reasonable explanation.

  But no such luck. I got dressed and tried to lie down on the couch, but there was no way in hell I was going to be able to sleep. I couldn’t even stand lying there. I jumped up and put a pair of sneakers on, grabbed my keys, and slid my phone into my back pocket. I kept seeing the look on Drew’s face before we’d parted ways, how it must have mirrored the look on my own.

  I couldn’t just sit around and wait for the police to come up with something, or for Isa to show up on her own. I needed to find her.

  I had to.

  Chapter 4

  Emmy

  I wasn’t psyched about going down to the club, but I figured that would be the place to start. I half-expected that Isa would be there, a barely-there smirk on her face at all the uproar she’d managed to cause in such a very short period of time.

  “Can you believe all this hoopla?” she’d ask. “People get so worked up about the silliest things.” And then she’d laugh like it was no big deal at all.

  It took me forever to find a parking spot, and then I had to walk several blocks. It was a nice day, though, no fog, the sky a deep, bright blue with a few fluffy clouds drifting by. Cars roared by on the one-way street; a line of cyclists pedaled haphazardly in the bike lane; one of the Muni buses screeched to a stop. I pulled my phone out of my purse and checked the address for the club again. I had missed it by one block. I backtracked and found it, then stood for a moment under the copper-hammered sign that read H E A T H E N S. The name was also spelled out in large copper letters on the side of the building. There were double doors made of heavy, dark wood, intricately engraved from top to bottom. I’d never been here before, and I felt as if I was entering some sort of secret enclave as I leaned my weight back to help pull the door open.

  It took a second for my eyes to adjust to the change in light, though it wasn’t dark in the club, just dim. There was a guy mopping the floor, and he stopped when he saw me. “Hey,” he said. “Do you need any help with something?”

  “The girl who was supposed to play here last night?” It came out sounding more like a question. “I was looking for her.”

  It was hard to read the expression that crossed the guy’s face, but it might have been one of confusion. “I’m her sister,” I added.

  “You’d be looking for Ian, then,” the guy said. “He’s the owner.” He nodded toward the back of the club. “He’s that guy down there.”

  In the daylight, the club seemed cavernous, abandoned. I looked toward the back and saw a wiry, auburn-haired guy sitting at the end of the bar, typing something on his phone. I walked over tentatively, stopping when I was a few feet away. He didn’t look up from his phone, but he must’ve been able to see me out of his peripheral vision. Another few seconds passed and he continued to ignore me, so I cleared my throat once and then said, “Excuse me?”

  He tapped at the screen a few more times before tossing me a cursory glance. “What’s up?” he asked. Then he did a double take. “Isa?” His eyes got huge. He tossed the phone down. “Damn, girl, where the hell did you go last night? What happened?” He paused. “And what’d you do to your hair? That a wig or something?”

  “I’m not Isa,” I said. “I’m her twin sister.”

  He gave me a skeptical look. “Isa has a twin sister?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Huh. She never mentioned that before.” He looked at me, his eyes traveling the length of my body, then back up again. “Let me guess,” he said. “You’re the nerdy one.”

  I looked down at what I was wearing—a pair of jeans, flip-flops, a gray T-shirt. My hair was down. I didn’t think I looked particularly nerdy, but he was sitting there, nodding, like he’d just made some great discovery.

  I coughed. “Um, anyway... I’m looking for my sister. I heard she was playing here last night.”

  Ian snorted. “Yeah, you and about half the world, it seems—who are pissed, by the way, that your sister never showed. Sweetheart, I’m looking for answers just like you are. I’ve got a lot of unhappy people. This club is renowned for a lot of things, but no-shows are not one of them.” He looked me up and down again. “You spin?”

  “I... what?” I asked.

  “Spin. Records. Like your sister?” He widened his eyes as he said this and spoke slowly, enunciating each word.

  “Oh,” I said. “No. I’m not very musical.”

  “That’s too bad. You could’ve filled in. Hell, you don’t even need to be musical these days to play out. Plenty of so-called DJs out there don’t have a clue.”

  “Oh,” I said again. “I didn’t realize that.”

  “You wouldn’t be the first. I’m about as clueless as you are in regard to where your sister is. In fact, if you find her, you better send her ass my way, ’cause she’s got some explaining to do.”

  “Okay,” I said. “Thanks.”

  I could feel his eyes on me as I walked away.

  The guy that I had first talked to when I came in came over to me as I was leaving. “You said she was your sister?” he said.

  I nodded.

  “I was really looking forward to her set. I hope that everything turns out okay and this was just some big misunderstanding. But...” He glanced toward the back of the club. I followed his gaze. Ian had gone back to tapping on his phone. “You might want to talk to Scout.”

  “Scout?”

  “He’s a club promoter.”

  “He knew Isa?”

  “Yeah. They were pretty close. Although...” He paused. “I did see them talking last night and...”

  “And what?” I pressed.

  “And... I wasn’t close enough to hear what they were saying, but it looked like it might’ve been an argument.” The guy raised his eyebrows. “I’m not suggesting Scout had anything to do with it,” he said quickly. “It’s not like that at all. But... if you’re looking for information, he might be a good place to start.”

  “Great—thanks,” I said. “Can you tell me how to get in touch with him?”

  The guy glanced back toward Ian again. “I’m just a lowly janitor,” he said. “I can’t be giving out people’s contact info like that. I’m really sorry. But his name’s Scout Derringer. That’s obviously not his real last name, but that’s what he goes by and you can easily find him on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat.” The guy waved me off. “He’s definitely got an online presence. He’ll be easy to find.”

  “Well... thanks,” I said. “I appreciate it.”

  “Sure thing,” the guy said. “Good luck.” He went back to mopping the floor.

  I left the club, and then stood there outside, watching the cars as they sped by. A taxi blasted its horn and someone yelled an obscenity out the open window. Two people walked past, arguing. From a few blocks away came the blare of a police siren, and as I looked across the street I saw a grungy-looking kid with a pit bull on a chain. The dog was defecating right there in the middle of the sidewalk. I closed my eyes. It was so incredibly foolish of me to think that I could come down here and make any difference at all.

  Chapter 5

  Jason

  I decided I’d go back to Heathens, even though I wasn’t sure if anyone would be there this time of day. What was I expecting to find there? I wasn’t sure, but I would at least feel like I was doing something. Even though today was technically a day off and I hadn’t slept all night, there was no way in hell I was going to be able to focus on anything e
lse.

  I walked without really thinking, though as I got closer to Heathens, I tried to consider what I was going to say—assuming that anyone was even there. Ian probably would be; he rarely ever left the place. I was hoping he’d tell me that Isa had shown up and they’d rescheduled her for another weekend.

  And then I saw her.

  I blinked, and then squinted, certain that my vision must be playing some sort of trick on me, but no, it was her. Her hair was different—it was long, light brown—but it was definitely her. I hurried across the street.

  “Hey!” I said. She stopped abruptly and I almost collided into her. Her eyes were wide and a scared expression crossed her face. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to scare you like that. But... it’s you, right? Isa? Where have you been? You kind of freaked everyone out.”

  Surely there was some sort of reasonable explanation for all of this. Like, she was wearing a wig and had traded the tight clothes for a more modest pair of jeans and a gray T-shirt. But it was definitely the same person. Those same eyes. Those same lips.

  Those lips pulled back at the corners a little, forming something that seemed more like a grimace than a smile.

  “No,” she said. “I’m not Isa. I’m her twin sister. I came down here because I told my mother I’d try to find her.”

  “Oh.” I opened my mouth to say something else, but no words came out. There was a second of awkward silence, followed by another, then another, each moment getting progressively more awkward. We were both waiting for the other to say something. “Has she ever done something like this before?” I asked finally. “I’m Jason, by the way.” I held out my hand. “I work with Parker Security. We were responsible for the security last night, so, obviously... obviously I’m feeling personally responsible for this whole thing. I’m sorry.”

  She took my hand and squeezed it gently. Her own hand was warm and dry, her fingers slender, tapered. She wasn’t wearing any rings. “I’m Emmy,” she said. She met my gaze for the briefest of moments but then looked down as she let go of my hand. “I... my mother wanted me to come down here and see if I could find her. I’m not having much luck,” she said to the ground. “I kind of thought if I showed up, she’d just be here and tell us it was all a big misunderstanding. Which I realize sounds pretty stupid.” She kicked at the ground with her foot; she was wearing flip-flops and I was overcome with the urge to tell her to be careful she didn’t stub her toe.

  “If anyone should feel stupid, it’s me,” I said. “I ran into her when she was leaving the VIP room, right before she was about to go on, and I should have gone with her, or at least followed her. We were the ones responsible for the security. I don’t know what happened, but whatever did happen shouldn’t have. It was our job to make sure that everyone stayed safe, and we didn’t do that.” I shook my head. “I don’t know your sister, but I want to find her probably as much as you do.”

  “It’s nice to hear that,” she said. “I drove down here without really thinking about what my next step was, and to be honest, I was feeling a little unsure of what to do next.” She gave me a small smile and I tried not to think about how cute she was. What the hell was wrong with me?

  “Do you want to go grab a coffee?” I asked. Where the hell had that come from? I certainly hadn’t been planning to say it, but it was too late to take it back.

  A surprised look crossed her face. “Oh,” she said. “A coffee?”

  “Yeah.” I realized that it might have sounded like I was asking her on a date, which I certainly wasn’t. But if I was going to get any leads on this situation, it would be helpful to talk to anyone close to Isa. “I don’t know if there’s maybe something you can remember about your sister? That might help us figure out where she is?”

  She gave me a hesitant look. I pulled my wallet out of my back pocket and extracted my guard card, which I held out to her.

  She blushed. “I wasn’t doubting who you were or anything,” she said. “Yeah, we could go get a coffee.”

  There was a cafe right around the block, so we walked over there and sat at a corner table with our drinks. Neither of us said anything for a moment, but it didn’t feel awkward; really, this felt like something that we’d done before, like she was someone I’d known for a long time, not just the past half an hour.

  Emmy took a sip of her drink and set the cup down. “I keep thinking that I’m going to look at my phone and see that she’s called or texted back. But she hasn’t yet, and I know for a fact she would have responded to the last message I sent her, if everything was okay.”

  “I was kind of hoping the same thing,” I said. “But that doesn’t seem like it’s going to be the case.”

  “This conversation might not yield what you were hoping for,” she said. She bit her lip and looked down at her hands, and I was overcome with the feeling that I was making her incredibly uncomfortable. Had she recognized me? Did my name sound familiar to her after she’d seen it on my guard card? If that was the case, though, she probably wouldn’t have agreed to go with me in the first place, would she? Stop it, I chastised myself. You’re being paranoid. I thought I had put all that behind me, had moved on, but clearly not.

  She looked up and met my gaze briefly. “Isa and I weren’t very close. I mean, at one point we were, when we were little, but around middle school we started to go our separate ways. We were just... interested in different things.” She said this last part as if she were apologizing for something.

  “Just because you’re twins doesn’t mean you’re the same people,” I said. “I don’t want you to think that I think that.”

  “You wouldn’t be the first. But, yeah. We aren’t super close, and I guess that’s kind of always bothered me, but I think it’s because everyone just assumes, if you have a twin, that you’re going to be close no matter what, even if you have different interests.” She fiddled with the edge of the lid on her coffee cup. “Do you have any siblings?”

  “Yeah,” I said, though I chose not to elaborate any further.

  “Brother?”

  I nodded.

  “So you probably know what I’m talking about, a little anyway.”

  “A little bit.”

  “The last conversation that Isa and I had was kind of an argument. No, it was an argument. You don’t ever think that the last time you talk with someone is going to be just that. Because obviously you wouldn’t hang up on them, or be thinking go to hell as they’re talking with you.” She leaned forward, her elbow propped on the table, and she rested her forehead in the palm of her hand. “There’s a part of me that is absolutely certain nothing is wrong and that she’ll turn up and there’ll be some sort of reasonable explanation for all of this. I mean, I haven’t even talked with our dad about it, because he’s just convinced that everything is fine. But then there’s another part of me that just has a really bad feeling about it all. People go missing, and sometimes they turn up, but sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they end up dead or in really bad situations, and I just have this feeling that’s what’s happened with Isa.”

  “You’ve got to try to stay positive,” I said. Easier said than done, I knew. That’s what people had said to me when I was going through all that crap a few years ago—that I had to stay positive; had to believe that things would work out okay, even if it seemed at the time that there was no way that would ever happen. “I’m not saying you need to be delusional about things, but you should try not to let your mind go to those really dark places. I know how easy that can be.”

  “She’s not the sort of person who would go with someone she didn’t want to,” Emmy said. “Not without putting up one hell of a fight, that’s for sure.”

  I nodded and tried not to look as grim as I felt. The thought of someone perhaps having been able to abduct Isa while we were the ones on security detail made my stomach roil.

  “One of her good friends is this guy named Les. We went to high school together. He was probably there last night. He’s this tall, blo
nd, gay guy?” She looked at me expectantly, as though I’d remember him.

  “Er... I might’ve seen him. There were a lot of tall, blond, gay guys there last night.”

  “He’s traveled with Isa before, when she’s gone to Paris and Ibiza, and once to London, I think. I should talk to him. Maybe Isa told him something last night. And he’d probably have a better idea about her social life than I would.” She rubbed her eyes. “I really don’t know what I’m doing down here. It’s not like I was just going to drive down here and find her.” She reached for her purse. “I should probably get going. I’ve already taken up way too much of your time.”

  “I don’t mind,” I said. “Not in the least. Honestly, I feel like this is something that I should be doing, all things considered.”

  “It’s not your fault, though,” she said. “You know that—right?”

  She blinked, her eyes full of concern, which I found both touching and a little uncomfortable. She wasn’t supposed to be concerned about how I felt. How I felt didn’t matter in this whatsoever. “Well,” I said. “We were the ones working security at the club. So, yeah, I do feel at fault.”

  “Please don’t.”

  “Let me at least give you my number,” I said. She pulled her phone out of her purse and slid it over to me. I typed in my phone number. “If you hear anything, you can call or text. Anything at all.”

  “Okay. Thanks.” She paused. “You know, I’m glad I ran into you.” She gave me a smile and a little wave. “Hopefully I’ll see you around.”

  I watched her go. Part of me thought that I should offer to walk her to her car, but would that make it seem more like a date? Which obviously it wasn’t. I shook my head, trying to clear it.