“You going to bail on IG?” The mere suggestion sends a lightning bolt through my mind. Fear. Anxiety. Grief. All batter at my fight-or-flight instinct, making me want to grab Royce and blow this Popsicle stand. Get the hell out of Dodge and leave Rochelle and all her drama behind.
Royce rises up to his full imposing height of six feet four. “I could run a West Coast office, if I so desired. Wouldn’t be a bad idea . . .” His nostrils flare as the magnitude of what he’s suggesting has me reeling.
An invisible claw wraps around my neck. The concept of not having Roy in my life every day is far too much to swallow. “You’re willing to leave us? Your brothers, when shit just got good?” I gasp, shocked nearly stupid at what I’m hearing.
He closes his eyes and backs up a step before rubbing his bald head with both hands.
“No. I’m not. None of those things are going to happen. I couldn’t leave my mother and sisters. I’d never leave what we built for a woman I just met, unless it was dead serious. Marriage, kids, all of that. And I sure as shee-it wouldn’t leave my brothers from another mother!”
“Thank Christ. Then why the hell are we fighting?” I let my shoulders fall and put my hands in my pockets, tipping my face down to make sure my shoes are still on my feet for how heavy my head feels.
“It ain’t about that. It’s about it being my choice. Park, you’re gettin’ in my way. You’ve made demands you never should have.”
“Because I can see the writing on the wall . . .” I raise my hand and point to the side of the conference room in the direction of Rochelle’s office. “She is not going to settle down, go to family dinners with her man and his mother and sisters. She may be beautiful, intelligent, and all kinds of hot in the sack, but she is not for you, brother.” I rub at the back of my neck and lift my head to lock my gaze with his. “You deserve it all.” The words leave soft and sincere from my suddenly dry lips. “A woman who will worship the ground you walk on right alongside the foundation you’re laying for your future with her.”
“Park . . .” Roy’s voice is thick, but I don’t let him get a word in edgewise. Not yet. Not until he understands.
“Rochelle is great; she’s amazing, but she’s not made for you. She’s made for a man like Keehan. A man who already worships her. She needs to see what’s on offer right in front of her face. It’s everything she needs and wants. She consumes him. Now it’s my job, our job, to make them see that. You are getting in the way with your big dark-chocolate awesomesauce. The right woman will present herself, and the day she does, I’ll be her biggest fan. Today is not that day. Maybe not tomorrow either, but soon. Mark my words. You are not meant to be alone, but you are not meant to be with her either.”
I stop my rant and take a few moments to breathe, feeling like I just ran a fuckin’ marathon.
“Brother, you called me dark-chocolate awesomesauce.”
I cringe and run my hand down my face. “Yeah. Sky’s lingo is rubbing off on me.”
Royce smiles wide and claps me on the back, pulling me into a hard hug. “Love you, man. Love that you want to watch out for me. Love that you care. Do not love you telling me what to do.” I can hear the slightest quaver in his voice, but he’s staying strong, just the way I’d expect him to.
I hit him a couple of times on the back. “Couldn’t stand by and let my brother wade too far into a bad deal. I’d have done the same for Bo, or my brother Paul. Blood or not, doesn’t make a difference. I don’t have it in me to sit and watch you fall when I can do something to help.”
Royce backs up, rests both hands on my shoulders, and leans down so we’re eye to eye. “I get you, but you need to get me. When I want your opinion, when I need your opinion—and there will come a time when I’m ready to have it—I’ll ask for it. You may be right on this one, but it does not change one fucking thing.”
I nod, letting his words soak in. I got lucky on this one, but for the foreseeable future, I’m going to have to watch how I wade into Royce’s dealings with women. He’s testy about it, and part of me wonders if it’s because I’ve found Skyler and he wants to find his own forever. Be that as it may, I need to respect his wishes and stay the fuck out of it.
“Brother, I’m sorry I pushed so hard regarding Rochelle—”
Royce cuts in. “No. You were right . . . about this one. She has little feeling about our connection other than the physical. And possibly it’s because she’s gone for Keehan. That remains to be seen. You were wrong to push so hard, especially in light of your own past with clients, but . . .” He sighs and shakes his head. “I’m not used to having my decisions questioned, especially by you. We support one another. It’s who we are and the brotherhood we’ve created between the three of us. However, there’s a line . . . You crossed it. Big-time.”
I close my eyes, concerned this is going to be a huge thing between us. Right now, with the worry over Skyler, it seems as though everything is falling apart one brick at a time.
Until Roy brings me peace with his next comment.
“Park, I accept your apology. We move on from here, more knowledgeable about where we stand with one another, and wait for the other brother to give the go-ahead to wade in. Truce?” He lifts his fist.
“Truce.” I knock his fist with my own. A wave of relief fills the room, acting as a balm on my fraying nerves. “Now are you going to help me hook Rochelle up with Keehan?”
He purses his lips and sighs. “Jeez-us, Park. I just barely decide I’m pulling my hat out of the ring, and you want me to hook her up with the geek?”
I grin. “Hell yeah, I do. I’ll get you up to date on the plan I’ve made while you’ve been pining away despite my advice.”
“Watch it.” Royce inhales sharply but doesn’t deny it. He wouldn’t have a leg to stand on if he did.
I spend the next ten minutes giving him the plan while he listens intently, nodding and smiling.
“I like it. Sneaky,” he admits.
“You cool to handle the next phase while I head to the hotel and review the information Wendy sent over regarding Johan?”
“You can count on me.”
I grin wide. “I know.”
Royce lifts his hand in a fist, and I bump it with my own again. He nods. “Get out of here. Go find out how you’re going to kick the fool in his family jewels without having to do it in person and have charges pressed against you. Then again, if he’s ever in Boston in a dark alley . . .”
I chuckle. “Uh-huh. Don’t be planning evil ways to get back at my woman’s ex without me. I want in on all the action.”
He grins. “We’ll see. Go review the information and hit your girl up. See how we can best destroy this chump without her having to pay a dime of her hard-earned cash.”
I wave over my head. “Will do.” I stop at the door and turn to my friend. “Royce?”
“Yeah?” He straightens his tie and presses it down flat against the wall of muscle he’s hiding under it.
“Thanks, man.” All of the frustration, hurt, and anxiety start to seep out of my body one breath at a time. At least for now, Royce and I are back on the same page.
“Back atcha, brother.”
Without a second glance, I’m out of the office and pulling out my phone.
I hail a cab at the same time I press “Call” for Wendy on my phone.
“Boss man.”
“Lay it on me, Wendy.”
7
Jesus! Johan Karr is the biggest douchebag in the known universe. The more I read from the documents Wendy emailed over, the more disgusted and angry I get.
“How has none of this come out in the press?” I glare down at Wendy on the phone. We’re FaceTiming one another while going over the documents on the computer.
Her red hair is shiny and slicked back on the sides, leaving a large pouf at the front. She’s wearing bright-red lipstick, which makes her skin look pearlescent. Between the skin tone and the red hair and lips, her blue eyes pop wildly.
�
�I don’t know, boss man. I’m pretty surprised some of this information hasn’t leaked to the press. Which, of course, I have zero problem making happen.” She grins wickedly.
I shake my head and hold up a finger. “Not yet. We need to think about the best way to approach him. The goal is not to ruin him, although after his despicable history, I’d like nothing more than to string him up by his toes and let the paparazzi have a go at him, but the priority is Skyler.”
Wendy nods and taps at her lips while I scour another document and read out loud.
“Repeated DUIs, four stints in and out of juvie for thievery before the age of eighteen. As a kid, Johan was no better. Besides the two sexual assault charges his family settled out of court with his high school girlfriend and a woman his first year in college, did you find any others?”
She shakes her head. “No, just those two. Family paid off both girls handsomely, and the reports were dropped with the police. I had to dig deep to even find anything on Johan from before he dropped out of college and started modeling his way through life. Lot of reports of him dating Sky, though.”
I grind my teeth, wishing my girl had never gotten mixed up with this scum. “Yeah, don’t remind me.” I cringe.
Wendy smiles. “Check out his finances. He’s in the hole big-time. Apparently invested most of his money in some company that folded and went bankrupt a couple of months ago. His bank accounts are not only dwindling, they are practically destitute. And with how he’s been partying, jetting all over Europe, snorting things up his nose, I’m getting reports of some shady dealings with loan sharks, who he owes a pretty penny. As in hundreds of thousands. Not to mention, he’s in the hole huge with his credit cards. All maxed out. He needs money and fast.”
“And what about his parents? They bailed him out several times before. Had his juvie records sealed; otherwise, the press would have dredged up his past long ago.”
“Yep, and there’s nothing on them having any type of relationship after that point. It seems he wore out his welcome with the Karr clan through those two settlements. I haven’t seen anything in the past five years to indicate they have any relationship. No phone calls listed from his phones. No social media posts of family gatherings of any kind. It’s as if they wrote him off after the last screwup in college.”
I groan. “I don’t blame them. Mess up once, shame on you, mess up twice, shame on me. My mother would hold on until the bitter end, but my father would never let the two of them get taken over and over by me or my brother. With his history and record as a kid, my guess is they got to the point where they realized they were enabling his bad behavior by bailing him out all the time. When you don’t suffer the consequences of your actions, you tend to repeat them. Johan has been repeating his offenses in different, more despicable ways.”
Wendy nods while scanning the computer and typing furiously.
“Even with all of the strikes against him, do you think the two assault charges will be enough to get him to leave Skyler alone?”
“You mean if we release the charges and the names of the women and what they endured at his hands . . .” Her voice cracks, disappointment and uncertainty slipping along her pixie-like features.
“Hell no! I’d never do that to those women. They are survivors of whatever he did to them. We can’t dredge up their past in order to hurt Johan or save Skyler’s future. It wouldn’t be right.”
Wendy beams, and her gaze says something she’s not. Pride, perhaps. Pride that I wouldn’t risk another to save my own woman’s ass.
“No, it wouldn’t. However, there’s something beyond bad in the last document. I think that will be your ace in the hole. Definitely something so hideous it will get him off Sky’s case. If the information in that report gets out, he’ll be destroyed. His career. His name. Everything. No hope for curing his dire circumstances.”
I frown and open the last document, scanning it.
“What am I looking at?”
“It’s a private accident report. One for which I had to use personal contacts and Michael had to promise favors to secure. This one is very serious, Parker.”
“Wendy . . . I’m sorry. I wouldn’t have asked had I known you were going to include Michael in this.” My voice quavers, and tension builds at the base of my skull.
Wendy waves a hand in front of the screen. “No problem. You care about Skyler. I care about my new bestie. I don’t want anyone hurting my new family. We have to stick together and do what it takes to protect one another, right?”
I close my eyes and take a single calming breath. “Yeah, Wendy, we do. Thank you.”
“No worries. Michael will enjoy every second of cashing in his rewards with me.” She winks. “And regardless of what you might think, he may be arrogant and growly around all of you, but he loves me to distraction. He wants me to have an extended family. Men and women I can count on. He knows all I’ve ever wanted in life is a family. Marrying him, working here, is giving me everything I ever dreamed of. I want to help, and he wants to help in order to make me happy.”
Wendy’s words are a sledgehammer to my pride. This woman is honest, straightforward, with no bullshit. If my parents had ever given me a sister, Wendy would be perfect. Even so, she’s digging her way into my heart and the hearts of Bo and Royce as well.
Before I can say anything, she starts talking, speaking low into the phone.
“Apparently, Johan is a regular member of a sex club. A heavy-duty, underground, membership-required type of torture club.”
The word torture rings like an alarm in my mind.
“I would disgrace the practice and the lifestyle by implying it’s a BDSM club, because what they do there is not part of the lifestyle, nor is it always safe or possibly even consensual. This particular establishment caters to twisted, dark pleasures. Bloodletting, bestiality, burning, branding, whipping to scar, and so much more I can’t even stomach to tell you.”
“Jesus, Wendy.” The sour taste hits my mouth again.
Bestiality?
Whipping to scar?
What the fuck.
“And Johan’s a member?” I ask, knowing the answer already.
“Card carrying. Used to send a hundred thousand a month to an account I was able to track down through a bunch of shell companies and corporations.”
I grind my teeth.
“Apparently, one night six months ago, Johan and two women had a bad accident.”
“Accident?” I’m almost afraid to ask.
“One of the women ended up dead, the other so messed up in the head she still regularly sees a shrink.”
“What happened?”
Wendy’s jaw tightens, and her lips curl into a sneer.
I watch as she gets ahold of whatever response is plaguing her and emotionally detaches herself from it. She takes a slow breath and swallows. “According to the police statements, Johan and two women got high on cocaine. So high, the women agreed to allow Johan to tie them back-to-back to a spinning Saint Andrew’s cross. The crosses are usually used so two Masters can access their subs at the same time or spin it around and trade, make the subs a little dizzy, off-kilter, that type of thing.”
“Okay, I’m following . . .” The image of Skyler tied to one of those, blindfolded, forms in my mind’s eye, and a foreboding shiver races up my spine.
“Well, Johan gagged one of them with his boxer briefs and blindfolded her. Usually the practice is when you gag a sub in any way, they have a signal, or something they hold that they can drop, a button they can push that makes noise. Basically, something to alert the Dom to the sub’s distress. While high, they didn’t put any of those safety precautions in place.” She takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. I can see by the lines around her mouth and the tired look in her eyes this story is hard to tell.
“It’s okay, breathe through it and finish up when you’re ready.”
She takes another calming breath and then rushes what she says next. “So, while he was having sex
with one woman, the other had gotten nauseous from the spinning and drugs, and he didn’t realize she was vomiting behind her gag. She drowned in her own vomit. By the time he made his way to the other woman and pulled the gag out of her mouth, she was gone.”
“Holy hell.” My gut clenches, and my palms become sweaty.
“Yeah. It shouldn’t have happened.”
“And how did he not go to jail for this?”
Wendy shrugs. “The woman signed her life away in explicit consent forms. Also, you could see from the videotapes he didn’t intend to hurt her. The club paid off the family, and used its ties to the judges they had in their pockets and kicked Johan to the curb. It was all swept under the rug as if nothing happened. I will say, if this gets out to the press . . . I may have to go into the witness protection program. The people who run the club are notoriously bad guys, and Michael and I want nothing to do with them.”
“Christ! This is insanity. This man is disgusting, and he’s got his clutches on Sky.” I slam my fist down on the desk and push my hand through my hair so hard, the curls on top get tangled in my fingers, sending bouts of pain sliding along the surface of my scalp.
“Well, I’m pretty sure if you threaten him with this information, he’ll back off instantly. He used up all his ‘get out of jail free’ cards on this one, which is probably why he’s doing this to Skyler. He needs the money . . . now. Loan sharks are after him. He’s got a drug addiction, and there’s little interest from the industry for him to model now that his body is looking haggard.”
This definitely explains why he’s coming after Skyler. He’s a man with nothing to lose, which puts Skyler in a very dangerous predicament. Johan is unstable. Thank God she’s working and not scheduled to meet him and his lawyer for another few days.
“Thank you, Wendy. I need to try to call Sky again. Please, give my appreciation to Michael and let him know I owe him one. Same goes for you.”
Her face lights up, and the earlier distress flickers out of sight. “Oh, I know you do. And I’ve already chosen what I want.”
I furrow my brow and focus on my coy assistant.
International Guy: Milan, San Francisco, Montreal (International Guy Volumes Book 2) Page 21