The Dom Identity (Masters & Mercenaries Reloaded 2)

“I thought you said no one knew you were there.”

“They knew someone was there, but they couldn’t have traced it back to me.” Ruby shrugged the concern off with the arrogance of youth. “But I didn’t get far enough to get names beyond an employee schedule. Do you know a dude named Kyle Hawthorne?”

Vanessa had to catch her breath and focus. If there was damage, it had already been done. “I know a David Hawthorne. He’s Chloe Lodge-Taylor’s tutor.”

“He and someone named Kyle are on the schedule for what I figured out was the dungeon work list. And chill, because I didn’t have to get deep to get it. It was on a low-level employee’s calendar that’s shared through the system.” Ruby sat back down. “From what I can tell, he’s only been around for six months, so he should go on our list. They probably both should.”

Their list. There weren’t many names on the list right now. That was precisely why she was going to The Club. “All right. You can look into him. But only on the surface. You can check his social media.”

“Will do,” Ruby replied. “And I’ll do the same for anyone you want me to. I can find out if any of the new guys had connections to Nicki. I wish she’d put a damn name in her diary.”

Vanessa slumped back down to her seat. Nicki hadn’t left much to work with. Just initials, and she wasn’t sure they corresponded to actual names. “Me, too. I hate to think about how scared she was those last few days.”

“She was off the last six months.” Ruby shut the laptop screen. “I thought maybe she was doing drugs or something, but it was fear.”

“Off, how?” They hadn’t talked a lot about Nicki’s last months.

Ruby shrugged. “She was paranoid and worried all the time. She thought someone was following her. I knew there was a club involved, but I didn’t know what kind. I thought it had to do with her job until I found her diary.”

Ruby had been the one to pull the turquoise notebook out of its hiding place. Nicki had given Ruby a key to the house for when she needed to decompress. Her sister had learned that Ruby regularly got kicked out of her house when her mother was drunk and angry, and she’d taken to spending time in the park across the street. At night. Alone.

So Nicki had offered her a place to stay even when she wasn’t there. Ruby had been thirteen at the time, and they’d formed a close friendship. Likely because Nicki knew what it was like to be at odds with her mother. Ruby’s situation was different, but the result was the same. The teen needed a friend. She also would one day probably need a lawyer because she was good at finding things she shouldn’t. Things behind locked doors and secure information.

But she wasn’t doing drugs, and she wasn’t out in the city vulnerable and alone. She was smart, and she had plans for college, plans Vanessa would make sure happened one way or another.

“I bet that shocked you.” Vanessa wasn’t sure Nicki had meant for anyone to ever read that diary, but the truth had been spelled out. Someone had stalked her sister.

Someone from The Club had killed her.

“Not really. I mean everyone’s got something they’re into, right?” Ruby shrugged it off. “The important thing is she knew someone was watching her. I wish she’d left us some names to work with. She did mention an MK, though.”

“Yeah. I remember.” Her sister’s diary had been filled with shorthand. Sometimes she would write out whole names, but mostly it was single letters like D for Dani or MJ for Master Julian, as she consistently called Julian. “We need to figure out if this Kyle person is a top. Is he working on Friday?”

Ruby reached into her jacket pocket. “I printed it off for you. He’s working Friday for the whole night. I can’t tell who does what, though. He could be bartending, for all I know. The other Hawthorne guy is working Saturday. Do you think they’re related?”

“I think we should find out.” She certainly hadn’t considered the mild-mannered tutor would be a member of The Club. There was nothing about the history professor that told her he was some kind of kinky guy. Then again, she hadn’t known about her sister, either.

“I can do that. Once you have any kind of a name to go with MM and E, I’ll be all over them. She was having trouble with E, and she turned down someone she referred to as MM,” Ruby said. “We all know that guys you turn down can get nasty.”

“Yes.” She knew that better than almost anyone.

I want a taste of what my father had. Give it to me and maybe I’ll let you have a couple million.