Honor

by Jay Crownover

  Key put a hand on my shoulder to stop me as she stood up on the tips of the glittery shoes she was wearing so she could whisper in my ear. “The good was disguised as the bad this entire time, but I can see it all so clearly now.”

  I put a hand on her waist and guided her into the room. Low enough so only she could hear, I told her truthfully, “The bad is only good for you, Key. You should remember that.” Just because I let her inside of me, inside of everything I did, didn’t mean I was going to be as transparent for anyone else as I was for her. In fact, now that she was inside, I was more apt to do whatever it took to keep her there no matter how ugly or extreme those actions might end up being. As always, the consequences be damned, just like I was.

  The big guy with all the ink who was behind my desk stood up and cracked his spine. He looked like he should be breaking necks in my fight ring not working at a keyboard, but there was a sharpness in his slate-colored gaze as he peered at me from behind his heavy black eyeglass frames that let me know he wasn’t the typical tech geek.

  “Stark.” I said his name in greeting and tilted my head in Key’s direction for an introduction. “This is Keelyn. She’s with me.” I didn’t know if I said this in order to stake my claim or in order to fend off any question as to why she was here. Either way she was with me from here on out.

  I grunted as she dug an elbow in my side and strode forward to shake the other man’s hand. “I bought into the business, so I’m just as anxious as Nassir is to see if you found anything that can help us put an end to all this nonsense. We can’t afford to be shut down any longer.”

  I glowered at the back of her head as Stark suppressed a chuckle and returned her handshake. “Chuck filled me in when I got here and started digging into the files.” He lifted his eyebrows at me and hooked a thumb over his shoulder at the monitors. “Plus, you’re on the video feeds . . . a lot.” He winked at me behind his glasses and Key shot me a horrified look over her shoulder.

  I just shrugged at her and walked to the red leather chaise that was pushed up against the windows that overlooked the floor of the club. “You didn’t ask if we were on camera before you shoved your hand down my pants and pulled my dick out; besides, I was the one with my junk on display. You were fully clothed.”

  She was a neon shade of pink and looked like she wanted to kill me. I thought it was kind of cute, so I just grinned at her. She narrowed her eyes at me and sank into one of the chairs on the opposite side of the desk.

  “I hate you so much sometimes.” Her growled words made both Chuck and Stark laugh.

  I just nodded even though she was purposely not looking at me. “I know you do. So what do you guys have for me?”

  I was changing the subject before she could really get worked up about the fact that both Stark and Chuck had probably gotten an eyeful. I wasn’t embarrassed by much and the fact that I had a beautiful woman in my lap jerking me off certainly wouldn’t ever make the list, but I doubted she felt the same way. I could tell she was furious by the stiff set of her shoulders and the way her sparkly shoe was tapping on the floor in front of her.

  Chuck cleared his throat to break through some of the tension and pointed at one of the video feeds that looked like it was showing the loading dock in the back alley behind the club.

  “Well, I think we figured out how the rats were brought into the club. This liquor delivery truck pulls up and unloads ten boxes on the back dock and then leaves without getting anything signed or without checking to see if anyone comes to bring the delivery inside. The truck stops, unloads, and then leaves. The boxes are fucking moving. I mean that shit is dancing like it’s alive. The driver is obviously male but he has on a hat and overalls, so it’s impossible to get a clear view of who he is. Stark has been working on it for over an hour.”

  A blurry image of what could be any young Caucasian male popped up in the center monitor. He was so nondescript it wasn’t funny. The guy could literally be anyone.

  “An hour later one of the barbacks goes outside to smoke, sees the boxes stacked up, and gets a dolly to haul them all inside the back door.”

  I swore and threw my head back against the back of the couch. “So he just brought in a bunch of wiggling boxes and didn’t think to question what in the hell was going on? Does that make any sense at all?”

  Chuck cleared his throat and rubbed his hands over his bald head. “It does when it’s the same barback whose fingers you broke for leaving product lying on the floor, boss. Look at the way he has his hand all wrapped up. He was probably shitting his pants that you would do something much worse if another order got left unattended.”

  I stared up at the ceiling and let Chuck’s gentle censure hit me.

  Key’s voice was confused when she asked, “So he brought the boxes full of rats inside, but did he let them all out? I mean if he opened the first box thinking it was alcohol and found a bunch of disgusting rodents inside, why wouldn’t he alert someone? Why would he open all the boxes and cause such a mess?”

  I sat up and narrowed my eyes at the monitor where the video of the kid pushing the stacks of moving boxes inside was rolling. “That’s a good fucking question.” Even if I had gone overboard in proving my point to the kid, something still wasn’t adding up. “Was he the one that let the rats loose in the club?”

  Chuck grunted. “He was. He brings all the boxes in and then opens them all. He even dumped them into the HVAC ducts. That’s how they got into the private rooms. So I scrolled through the tape on the nights of the rest of the incidents and found this.”

  The video brought up the kid standing outside the ladies’ room talking to one of the cocktail servers who was clearly on her way in to use the restroom. There were several minutes of flirting and then the girl nodded and took what looked like a bunch of wadded-up cotton from him before disappearing inside the restroom. Chuck fast-forwarded the tape to the bathroom on the second floor and the same thing happened with another one of the girls. The kid flashed a shit-eating grin at the camera and then disappeared back into the crowd of people in the club.

  “Son of a bitch.” I shoved my hands through my hair and started pacing back and forth. “He’s messing with my business because I jacked his hand up?”

  Chuck and Stark exchanged a look. It was Stark who spoke up. “I think it’s more than that.” He motioned to his bank of computers. “You hired a Tyler Finch and that’s what his info says on his W-2 and driver’s license, but the only Tyler Finch I can pull up with the same Social Security number is a middle-aged doctor in Akron, Ohio. He definitely isn’t some kid from the Point.”

  “What are you trying to tell me? I have an impostor on the inside of my operation?”

  “That’s exactly what he’s telling you, boss. We’ve been digging through everyone and everything we could find, and so far the kid is the only one that doesn’t seem to check out, and he was the one in the cooler before those shelves fell. I think he took the job here just to get in on the inside and mess with the business.”

  “Why?” Key asked the question that was on the tip of my tongue. “What did you do to him?” She looked at me over her shoulder with her eyes narrowed.

  I shrugged. “Nothing that I know of or can recall off the top of my head, but that doesn’t mean anything. His dad could owe me and Race money, his mom could be one of the girls turning tricks on my watch, and I could’ve slept with his girlfriend or put her on the pole. Hell, maybe I just cut him off in traffic. The reasons for someone to have it in for me are endless and we won’t know until we have a chat with him.” I didn’t even want to voice all the reasons why someone I knew before I found my way to the Point would want to tear my world apart from the inside out, but I could see the knowledge in both Chuck and Key’s eyes as they watched me.

  “He’s good at being someone else. I’ve been trying to pull up anything on who he might really be but I can’t find anything. He’s a ghost.”

  I grunted. “All the stuff he did to the club was really j
uvenile, really immature. He didn’t even avoid the cameras. He doesn’t seem like any kind of criminal genius.”

  “Maybe he has someone helping him.” Key’s softly spoken words made sense. I figured it was the only way he could’ve obtained a fake ID and how he was able to digitally disappear.

  Stark shrugged his massive shoulders, making the ink visible on his neck move. “Probably. I know a few underground tech kids that would be able to throw together this kind of smoke screen for the right price. They usually make money by getting the Hill kids fake IDs to sneak into your clubs, but a few of them could pull this off. I’ll poke around.”

  I lifted my eyebrows. “I can do my own poking if you give me the names.”

  Key rolled her eyes. “You’re scary to regular people, Gates. There’s no way a bunch of awkward computer geeks are going to open up to you.”

  Stark crossed his arms over his chest and lowered his eyebrows over his dark gray eyes. “Not all computer guys are socially inept. Just like not all strippers are easy.”

  Key grinned at him and I saw him gulp a little bit. That smile of hers could really be the downfall of a man. It made you want to give her anything and everything you had.

  “True, though I have been that far more often than I care to admit. So what do we do now?”

  “You don’t do anything. We find him and I’ll handle it from there.” I made sure there was no room for argument in my tone but that didn’t stop her from sputtering at me.

  “This is my business too, Nassir. I need to be included in the things that affect it.” Her tone told me I wasn’t going to ever get away with simply telling her that I would take care of anything.

  Chuck looked back and forth between us as I walked over behind her chair and bent to kiss her on the top of her head.

  “This isn’t about control or keeping you out of the club business, Key. This is about me handling what needs to be handled and you keeping your hands clean. I’ll protect what’s mine. I always have.”

  She tilted her head back so she could glare up at me. “So will I.”

  I adored her fierceness, but it was something that could get her into trouble. “This part of the business is on me. If things go south and someone ends up dead or behind bars, it will not be you—ever. I won’t negotiate that with you.” I inclined my head in Stark’s direction. “Let me know as soon as you find anything. I don’t care how much the information costs.”

  He gave me a lopsided grin. “That’s a dangerous thing for a man with deep pockets to say.”

  I just grunted at him in response. “I have an errand to run. I’ll be back before we open up for business tonight.”

  Chuck eyed me curiously as I asked to borrow the keys to his SUV. I needed to move getting a new car up on my priority list. “You need me?” He was a smart guy; he would know my request had to do with the address I’d asked him to pull up for me before Key and I got to the club.

  “No. I just have a little something I need to take care of.” I kissed Key on the top of the head again, but she surprised me by getting to her feet and walking toward the elevator with me. She practically dragged me into the little box with her once the doors swished open, and I was surprised how much force she had behind her shove when she forced me against the back wall and caged my head in between her hands as she loomed in front of me, striking and furious in equal measure.

  “I can’t believe you didn’t stop me from pulling your cock out in front of a bunch of surveillance cameras. You’re such an asshole. That’s a total violation of privacy and consent, Nassir. No one gets to be a part of my sex life if they’re going to play those kinds of games with me.”

  I put my hands on her hips and pulled her close so that our pelvises were lined up. I was hard. She was soft and quivering with rage. If I didn’t have shit to do, I would be hiking up her short skirt and giving more cameras an even more graphic show, and I told her as much.

  “Cameras aren’t going to stop me from having you, Key. Neither is an audience.” I decided not to mention that Chuck had seen her naked most of her adult life while she was onstage at the old Spanky’s.

  She huffed out a heated breath and leaned forward so that our noses were almost touching. I could see not only anger but disappointment and embarrassment in her cloud-colored eyes.

  “No, Nassir. You don’t get to have your way and damn the consequences with me. You owe me an apology and you better make me believe that you will never violate me or my trust like that again or that video is the last memory you will have of me being anywhere near your dick. I’m mad at you because I’m mad at you. I know you’re going off to do something that you might not make it back from and I don’t want the last thing I feel toward you to be anger.”

  The doors opened and she followed me out into the hallway. I caught her wrist and pulled her to me so that I could give her a proper kiss. I nipped at her mouth and stroked her tongue with my own. I drew her in and teased her until she softened and wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me back. I felt her soft little sigh all the way down into the deepest, darkest parts of me that had never seen the light of day.

  I never apologized. Not for any of the things I had ever done, because to me an apology was as effective as slapping a Band-Aid on a bullet wound.

  I rubbed my lips against hers and whispered, “I’m sorry.” The words felt foreign and heavy on my tongue and I was shocked that I meant them. “I didn’t stop to think that something like that would make you feel exposed and embarrassed. To be fair, I wasn’t thinking about much beyond your hand on my cock.”

  She huffed out an annoyed sound and crossed her arms over her chest. Her gray eyes turned from fog to a full-on storm.

  “It’s not about being exposed exactly. It’s about us being together and having that mean something special. I’ve been naked in front of more pairs of eyes than any one person can count. When I get naked with you or for you, I want it to mean more than that.”

  I swore. When she stopped fighting with me and showed me her soft underbelly, it made me see how really and truly awful I could be even with someone I so desperately wanted to be better for. I reached out and moved the hair that covered half of her face out of the way so that we were staring at each other.

  “It means everything.” I assumed she knew that.

  She laughed a little and kissed me on the side of the neck, which made me shiver. “Then take better care of it. Be careful, okay? I’m just getting used to you being mine and I barely agreed to let myself be yours.”

  Those were her parting words as she walked away from me, and I headed out into the parking lot so I could go take care of one of the seemingly endless number of people that wanted to throw a wrench into my day-to-day operations.

  I found the town-house complex where the woman that had run me off the road lived and found the specific unit number in the info Chuck had sent over to me. I sent him another message that I needed him to have Stark do a little creative banking for me before he went on his way. I also sent a text to the estranged husband letting him know I wanted him to meet me at her house and waited for a few minutes for him to show up. When a battered, old Jeep Cherokee parked in front of me, I got out of Chuck’s SUV and waited for the man to make his way over to me.

  He looked nervous but surprisingly better than the night I had had him in my dungeon at the club. Maybe being allowed to be who he really was had finally given him some peace.

  “You aren’t going to hurt her, are you?” He gulped as I told him I wanted him to get me into the woman’s home.

  “Do you care if I do?” I kept my voice even and took the key that he wrestled off his key ring and held out to me.

  “Well, she’s a royal bitch, but we were married for a long time. I mean, I don’t want her dead or anything.”

  I just lifted my eyebrows at him, which made him gulp. “I guess the two of you should’ve thought about all of that before you decided to show up and force me into the middle of your marital troubles.”


  He held up his hands and backed away from me. “I don’t want you in the middle of anything. Whatever business you have with my soon-to-be ex-wife is between the two of you. In fact, I was never even here.”

  He got in his car and roared away without looking back at me, so I crossed the street and made my way up to the front door. I put the key in the lock and pushed it open slowly so that if she was home I wouldn’t alert her to my none-too-subtle home invasion. Once I had the door all the way open, I stepped into the house and listened for any sign of life. All the lights were out and I couldn’t hear a TV or anything else that would indicate anyone was home, but I slipped through the rest of the two-bedroom layout just to make sure I was in fact alone. When my search for the homeowner came up empty, I returned to the living room and settled in to wait for my prey.

  I sat on the couch, propped my Alden boots up on the coffee table, and took in the bric-a-brac that dotted the walls and shelves. It was a typical middle-income home. Comfortable with nice furnishings, but there wasn’t a single family photo or picture of the once happy couple anywhere to be seen. Granted, maybe she had taken them down after her man left her and told her he preferred men, but still everything seemed cold and sterile.

  I wondered if that was how my home felt to Key. I didn’t have any kind of memories or things that I held on to. The place had been professionally decorated when I bought it and I never changed it much. It had no heart to speak of; at least it hadn’t until she asked to stay there. Now I felt her in every wall, every piece of tile, and I saw her reflected back at me in every pane of glass. It had been a pretty shell before she showed up to fill it full with life. I don’t think anyone would argue that she had filled me full with life too.

  I don’t know how long I sat there contemplating my life and the changes one fiery former stripper had brought into it when I suddenly heard the snick of a key in a lock. I didn’t move but I did stretch my arms along the back of the couch and turn my face to the door so that she couldn’t mistake who was waiting for her once she entered.