Next to Kyler, Miles leaned back in his chair and blew on his coffee. “Which is?”
“If the tabloid is pissed enough about the lawsuit, they could take it to social media.” Aidan gave the rest of them a level look. “Which in turn will only give the photos and Club Sin more exposure than we want. It would be viral, everywhere.”
Dmitri agreed with a nod. “Not a chance we can take, then.”
“I don’t believe so.” Aidan’s lips pressed into a straight line as he tapped his fingers against the table. “I fear that it would only make the photos more visible, since the lawsuit would not only be part of the public record but possibly written up by TMZ or some rag, too.”
Dmitri sighed. “All right. Ideas?”
Kyler added another lump of sugar to his coffee before he began stirring. “Perhaps this idiot was stupid enough not to be careful and their fingerprints are on the pictures.” He raised his mug to his lips. “If any prints are found, I can run them through IAFIS and see if I get a hit.”
“That would be a good place to start,” Dmitri agreed.
Porter sipped his coffee and then added, “Once we identify who is behind this, I can start digging on my end.” As one of the best private investigators in Vegas, Dmitri figured Porter could get dirt, and a lot of it, on the culprit. “But without knowing who is behind it, there isn’t much I can do.”
That escalated Dmitri’s frustration. This was his club. His responsibility. His family. Yet he was helpless to resolve the debacle. He reached for his coffee and sipped, trying to fend off the icy feeling the conversation was inducing. “When will you have the fingerprints back?” he asked Kyler.
“By tomorrow, for sure,” Kyler replied, “I’ll put a rush on it.”
Aidan’s brow arched in obvious skepticism. “Not that I don’t think this is in our best interests, but how will you be able to bring the pictures into the police lab to lift fingerprints without outing those shown in the photos?”
Kyler’s inclined his head toward Miles. “I thought I would take Miles up on his offer. Since he isn’t concerned about being exposed, I’ll use his picture. Hopefully there will be prints on that one alone.” He added with a half shrug, “If not, I’ll have to use someone else’s.”
“Use mine, if you must,” Dmitri interjected without hesitation.
The Masters all looked at him as Dmitri added, “At this point this is all we have to go on. I will deal with the repercussions if it gets leaked.”
Kyler regarded Dmitri a moment before shaking his head. “I doubt that will happen. I have a good friend in CSI who will do this as a favor to me. He’s trustworthy. I’m confident he’ll keep this quiet.”
Miles lowered his mug to the table with a bang. “Like I said last night, stick to mine if you can. I have nothing to lose.”
Regarding Miles over the rim of his mug, Kyler said, “We’ll start with Miles and hope that’s all we’ll need.”
“Good.” Dmitri finished the last of his coffee, then rose, pressing his hands against the table. “Before you go, tell me, how are your submissives doing?”
Kyler’s cheeks flushed deep red with anger as he leaned back in his chair. “Ella is concerned, of course, but she’s trusting that we’ll get this handled.”
Dmitri looked at Aidan, who replied, “Cora is terrified. If this got out, it would likely cost us both our jobs.”
Dmitri nodded in understanding, feeling torn with guilt. It was his responsibility to ensure that none of his members felt like this. His jaw clenched with rage. “And Kenzie?” he asked Porter.
“She’s pissed.” Porter hesitated, then sighed. “She’s in the same position as Miles, and doesn’t feel that it would affect her much if it got out. Plus Kenzie is quick with words—I don’t doubt that she’d find some way to talk her way out of any situation.”
That didn’t lessen the rock in Dmitri’s stomach. No one should have to talk his or her way out of anything. Yet they lived in a vanilla world, where some wouldn’t understand the choices they made. And Dmitri wouldn’t pretend otherwise.
“How about Presley?” Miles asked, a frown marring his face. “Is she holding up well?”
“I’m not sure how she’s holding up.” Dmitri let that admission sink in before he added, “I haven’t had the chance to talk with her. Last night was consumed with phone calls from the members. I left her the moment we arrived in the suite and she was asleep by the time I went to bed. But I imagine she’ll be concerned for all involved.” Culpability stormed him for not seeing to her comfort and concerns. But before they talked he wanted to have a plan in place. He did not want to have a conversation about this if he couldn’t alleviate her worries. He needed to make this better for her, and for everyone in Club Sin.
Renewed in his resolve to forge ahead, he asked, “Will you encourage your submissives to visit Presley? I need to get my head into this and see what I can find out myself.” First he needed to think of anything else they might be missing and start going through lists of everyone he knew to figure out who might be a suspect. For some reason this felt personal, though he didn’t want to share that with the group just yet. “I want to make sure she’s not alone today.”
Once he received nods from the Masters, he said, “Thank you.”
“All right.” Aidan rose, glancing to Kyler. “You’ll call once you hear something?”
“I will.” Kyler said with a nod. Then his gaze went to Dmitri. “What will you do once we find out who is behind the photos?”
Dmitri smiled, knowing that the tenseness of his expression reflected all of his anger, tension, and hatred for whoever was behind this. Nothing could undo the fact that someone planned to destroy what he had built in honor of the man Dmitri owed everything to—Charles, who had mentored Dmitri in his early days in the BDSM lifestyle. The man whom Dmitri worked under when he was first hired at Aces. Club Sin was built on Charles’s memory; the thought of that being tarnished was something Dmitri could not accept. “I plan to show them just how bad an idea this was.”