A Million Guilty Pleasures (Million Dollar Duet 2)

As much as she was trying to be a real trouper, acting like what had happened with that assfucker hadn’t affected her, I knew that wasn’t the truth. But I wasn’t going to press her on the subject. She would talk about it if she wanted, and I would listen and offer as much support as I could. Until then, any contact we had of the sexual nature would be by her initiation alone.

“So he said he had access to the contract?” I asked. We were still trying to figure out what the fuck to do about the situation Stone had created for us.

“Yeah, but I don’t get that,” she said, lost in thought. “You ripped up your copy of the contract, and my copy is still in with my things. So where did he get it? Do you think he could’ve broken in here and made a copy or something?”

“Not likely,” I answered, my fingers casually rubbing circles on her bare thigh.

The telephone rang beside us, interrupting our little brain-storming session, and I answered it. Dez was on the other end of the line, and she asked me to put her on speakerphone so she could talk to both me and Lanie at the same time. It was odd, but nothing seemed normal in our world anymore.

“You’re on. What’s up?”

“Hey, Lanes,” she said in greeting to Lanie. The dull thump of bass music was in the background. She must have been at work. “So I finally figured out where I’ve seen that piece of man meat that was in your office today.”

“Wait a minute, what?” I asked, confused.

“David,” Lanie answered for her. “She saw David in your office earlier and thought she recognized him.”

Well, wasn’t that just an interesting tidbit of information?

“Where do you know him from?” Lanie asked.

“Right here at the club,” Dez answered. “Every now and then he comes in after hours. I’ve seen him when I’ve stayed late to clean up or, um, meet that night’s Mr. Perfect. But never mind that. Your boy sneaks right in the back entrance and disappears into Scott’s office downstairs. It’s usually a while before he leaves, but he’s always toting a little white dust with him when he does.”

“White dust, as in cocaine? Stone’s snorting?” I shouldn’t have been surprised. He’d always played around with recreational drugs when we were younger. I’d assumed that was all it ever had been.

Dez snorted. “That dude’s so thick into it, a big, fluffy cloud probably pops out of his ass every time he farts.”

Lanie rolled her eyes even though Dez couldn’t see her. “Dez, I don’t think it quite works that way.”

“Whatever. I’m just saying. And I know you just rolled your eyes, bitch.”

Lanie giggled, the sound like music to my ears.

And then it hit me like a fucking lightning bolt. “Scott.”

“What?” Lanie asked, confused.

“Scott would have a copy of the contract as well. After all, he was the broker in the deal. Shit!” I pulled at my hair and let my head fall back with a frustrated growl. “I should’ve known that rat bastard would pull something like this. It’s all about the bottom line for him. I’m sure that if David waved enough cash in front of his face, he’d turn over his copy of the contract in a heartbeat. I didn’t have the slightest inkling they even knew of each other.”

“I really hate him!” The words burst out of Lanie’s mouth.

“Um, hello?” Dez said, reminding us she was still on the line. “What the hell are you two going on about?”

I looked at Lanie, searching her face to see if she wanted me to make something up. It hadn’t dawned on me that she and I were still the only ones who knew about what had transpired earlier that day.

Without taking her eyes from mine, Lanie set her chin in quiet determination and spoke. “David Stone knows about the contract between Noah and me. He made that fact quite clear when he showed up here today and tried to get me to ride off into the sunset with him after helping him take Noah for everything he has.”

Dez gasped on the other end of the line.

“Oh, it gets worse. When I turned down his advances and kneed him in the balls for calling me a whore, he decided getting heavy-handed with me would be a good idea.”

“He did what?” Dez’s voice was shrill with shock. “That son of a goat-cock-sucking whore! I swear to God, I’m going to rip his nuts off with my bare hands and shove them down his throat. And then I’m going to introduce him to my friend Chavez, a big, burly-ass Mexican who’s done hard time at Oswald State, aka Oz, and has no qualms whatsoever about ass-raping another dude just for the fun of it. I hear Chavez has eaten so many Naga Viper peppers that his semen is literally liquid acid. He just might be the reincarnation of Beelzebub, but he’s always been good to me, and I’m pretty sure I can get him to do me a favor. Of course that means I’ll owe him one, but for you—”

“Dez, stop,” Lanie said. I personally thought Dez was on to something and wanted her to set the wheels in motion, but Lanie apparently disagreed. “First of all, Oz isn’t a real place. It was a television series. Second of all, we’re not going to stoop to his level. We need to figure out what to do, so I need you to get serious and focus.”

“You thought I was joking?” Dez asked, but Lanie ignored her.

“Wait a minute,” I said, putting the facts together. “Stone said he had access to the contract, right? Not that he actually had it?”

“Right, and …?”

The answer was simple enough. Money talked. “I’ll pay Scott a visit and offer him more money than David was willing to pay for it. Then he wouldn’t have any proof. We can sweep his legs out from under him.”

“Hate to burst your bubble, but that’s not going to work,” Dez interjected.

“Why not?” I was a bit peeved at the halt order.

“Think what you want of Scott, but he’s a shrewd businessman. You had him pegged when you said it’s all about the bottom line for him, but think about it. Selling that contract to you doesn’t make good business sense. He’d be getting rid of the only leverage he has to make sure you don’t run off at the mouth about a business that thrives only because the discretion is so thick. There’s no way he’s going to hand that contract over to you. However, my gut tells me he won’t hand it over to David, either.”

“No offense, but I’m not sure I want to let the future of Scarlet Lotus be determined by a gut feeling,” I told her.