Pivot Line by Rebel Farris (8)

Now

Dex and I find ourselves arriving on the twenty-second floor at the entrance to the main club. It’s a long hallway lined with colored mood lighting and a waterfall that spans the wall opposite the windows that overlook the city below. The sun is still setting, so it isn’t quite as impressive as it is at night.

Just before the doors leading into the club, there’s a counter. Sitting behind it, Nikki—the hostess—is playing on her phone. My heels click loudly on the black marble floors as I approach, and she looks up. A smile breaks out on her beautiful face. Her dark skin is flawless, but her wild, natural curls with their honey-colored highlights make her seem more down-to-earth and approachable.

“I was wondering how long it would take you to get here,” Nikki says. “Cole texted and told me you were showing a guest around.” She grins, leaning her elbows on the counter and looking Dex over without a hint of shame. “Mmm mmm mmm, tasty. If he doesn’t work out with you, you could always send him our way.” She winks at Dex. “Come here, girl. It’s been too long.” She hugs me over the counter and cradles my face, giving me a quick kiss on the lips.

“Nikki, this is Dex. Dex, meet Nikki. She’s the club’s lead hostess, and Cole, the security guy you met upstairs, is her husband.”

Dex’s cheeks tint a pale pink. That’s the only hint that he caught what she was offering. His face otherwise remains impassive as his eyes dart to me. I smile at him, wondering how long it will take him to say something about this place or the people who frequent the club.

“Do you want to explain to him how this works, or should I?” I ask Nikki, changing the subject.

“It would be my pleasure,” she says with a smirk. She reaches under the counter and pulls out containers of paint, some paintbrushes, and a mask. “Come here, honey.” She waves Dex over to her.

He hesitates, and I give him a little nudge forward.

“Everyone who comes in here gets painted by me,” Nikki says, peeking up through her long lashes at Dex before taking his arm and running her long fingernail up to his shoulder. “Well, I’ve never gotten to paint your girl here, but I’m hoping your presence here’ll change that.”

Dex looks back at me, a small smile tipping up the corner of his mouth.

Nikki continues. “On your left arm, you get a white stripe if you’re open to participate or red if you’re part of a couple or group looking for others. If you’re just here to watch or be watched, we leave it bare. Your right gets one of these.” She gestures to the remaining paints and switches her hold to his right arm. “Pink means you’re open to women, blue for men, yellow for both, and green means you’re open to everything. And again, bare if you’re just here to watch or be watched.”

Dropping his arm, she picks up the mask. “Everyone who comes in here wears one of these. Most of the members have their own, but there are a few back here for guest use, like this one. Some people still like the anonymity of the mask, so it isn’t optional. But anything goes in here aside from that. You can take it downstairs to one of the private rooms or upstairs to an exhibition room.”

“The mask is required in all the members-only areas,” I add. “Even the private rooms, which are monitored. The only reason we aren’t wearing them now is that it’s not technically open.”

“Yeah, you guys still got about an hour.” Nikki holds out the mask to Dex. “Here, keep this one. I’m sure you’ll need it soon enough.”

“Thanks,” Dex says as he takes the mask.

“No problem,” she replies. “Hope to see you around.” She looks at me with a sly smile. “I gotta head to the back and restock the paints for tonight. You’re still on for tomorrow, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay,” Nikki says, replacing the paint under the counter. “Enjoy the rest of your tour, Dex. Later, Mads.” With a wave, she disappears through the door behind her, leaving Dex and me alone.

“Sooo—” I draw out the word. “You want to see the inside?” I nod in the direction of the curtained entrance to the club.

“I do,” Dex drawls as he loops his arms around me. “But I also really want to get you alone right now.”

He walks me backward until my shoulders press against the window. My heart skips a beat, and in that moment his lips are on mine. My breath, and any words I may have thought of, evaporates. The kiss goes on until I find my brain thoroughly scrambled. When he finally breaks away, we both struggle for breath. He presses his forehead against mine.

“You really have no clue,” he murmurs. “You’re like a nugget of gold trying to convince everyone else you’re just an ordinary rock.”

I shake my head. “You really should reserve that judgment until after you’ve seen it all.”

He raises his scarred eyebrow. “There’s more?”

“Yeah, there is.” I take a deep breath.

I get lost in his eyes as he studies me. My phone dings and I jolt. Dex steps back, and I dig the offending object out of my purse. A new text message from Nic is there.

I snort a laugh as I type. Dex looks at me with pinched brows and a small smile, before turning away and wandering into the club.

I glance at the time at the top of the screen and gasp.

I’m just about to stuff my phone back in my purse when it dings again. This time, it’s a four-word text from Dawn.

I walk into the club, searching for Dex. The red walls are lined with alcoves filled with black booths and benches, framed with black curtains that can be drawn for privacy. Cages hang from the ceiling for dancers and adventurous patrons. Catwalks frame the room from above and lead to glass-floored rooms. It all seems fairly benign when empty like this.

I spot Dex chatting with a bartender, Seth. They laugh. Seth stocks the shelves with liquor, prepping for the night’s business. Dex’s back is to me as I approach, but Seth freezes when he sees me, and his eyebrows climb up.

“He’s with you?” Seth asks.

Dex turns around and his eyes light up for me.

“I really wish people would stop acting so surprised about that,” I say.

The corner of Dex’s mouth twitches. “I don’t know. I kind of like it.”

“Of course you would.” I laugh silently. “What’re you two up to?”

“Oh,” Seth says. “He was asking about what it costs to be a member here.”

I nod. I know the answer. There’s no set price. Membership is built on monthly donations based on what the member can afford to pay, and all donations are kept private. Nic didn’t want to create a world where only the rich elite were allowed to participate, so he relied on some rather extreme vetting with interviews and background checks. The whole process is rather invasive, but worth it if this kind of place can help the applicant. We have members that range from college students and schoolteachers to celebrities and politicians.

“I take it you filled him in?” I ask, and Seth nods. I turn to Dex. “Dawn’s ready for us. We should head upstairs.”

Dex pulls me to his side and kisses my forehead. “Thanks, man,” he says to Seth, reaching out and shaking his hand.

“No problem, bud. It was nice to meet you.”

“Same here,” Dex replies as he starts toward the door.

We retreat to the elevator. Since there are only a few floors between the offices and the club, it’s only a few minutes before we find ourselves standing in Dawn’s office again.

“You should sit,” she says.

I frown and sit in the chair across from her desk. Dex sits too.

“It’s not the same person,” Dawn says. “The video you gave me wasn’t encrypted very well. It took me less than a minute to break it. I was able to find the mobile IP address from its creation, but since they’re assigned randomly and change frequently, it doesn’t really help. It tells me that the person who made this is in Austin, but that’s obvious because they had to be near you to take the video. That’s not to say the person isn’t somewhat skilled. They did wipe any other identification from the video, but the fact that they missed this makes me think they’re not as thorough.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” I mutter.

“On the other hand, the hack into WitSec was done by someone with some impressive skills. Aside from the obvious, that they could get inside in the first place…” Dawn laughs. “I followed the digital trail, if you will, and it was forwarded through so many foreign servers that I thought I wasn’t going to find anything. But you have to look at this.” She waved us over to her computer.

Her screen is filled with zeroes and ones, which are moving in some sort of pattern. Dex is chewing on his lower lip with a furrowed brow, but I don’t see any signs that he understands what we’re looking for.

“You’re gonna have to help me out here,” I say. “What is this?”

“Unfocus your eyes,” Dawn instructs.

I cross my eyes and then try to stare through the computer. I start growing impatient. It’s like one of those annoying magic-eye pictures at the mall. I finally see it, and my stomach drops. My hand flies up to my mouth as I back away. Dex glances at me but turns back to the computer with a determined look.

“It’s him,” I say as I drop back into my seat. My head feels like I just did a stint on the Tilt-A-Whirl.

“It can’t be.” Dawn turns back to me. “People like me… we don’t dumb ourselves down. It’s an ego thing. The guy that made this bread crumb did not make that video. I can promise you that. But it’s not outside of the realm of possibility that your creeper hired someone to get that information.”

“But…” I dig my phone out of my purse. “Here. Look at this.”

I open the photo app to the picture of the scene from my dining room earlier today and hand it to her.

“Oh,” Dawn says and swallows heavily. She looks back at the hummingbird flapping its wings in binary code on her computer and then to me. “Well, it’s shaping up to be a signature. But what’s the deal with hummingbirds? I thought your guy’s thing was your favorite flower?”

“It is. It was. I mean—he changed the background screen on my laptop to a calla lily when he left that video, and that was just this morning.”

It was just this morning, but I already feel like I’d lived through months over the last few hours. I rub my forehead in frustration. I’m exhausted, too.

“I noticed,” Dawn mutters.

A frown mars her features as she studies the picture on my phone. Dex sits on the edge of her desk.

“The only thing left to figure out is, why are there seven birds?” Dex asks. “I think Dawn’s right.”

Dawn holds up her fist, and his shoulders jump in a silent laugh. He bumps her fist before he continues.

“I don’t think these are the same person. And maybe this”—he points to my phone—“was a message for Chloe, not you. But with her being in custody, whoever is after her thought you were the best conduit to get to her.”

“Fucking great,” I sighed. “I can’t deal with this. Like I needed another person breaking into my house.”

Then

It had been a long day at the studio, then roller derby practice. We had put the final cuts for the music on our album after weeks of adjustments. The process was way more complicated than I thought it was going to be, but I was thrilled to have gone through the experience. Nate had assigned me to work with him on our new clients, instead of just coffee and filing, and that was thrilling, too.

Officer Martinez said they hadn’t been able to lift any fingerprints from the evidence he picked up, but the good news was with that added to my case file, they were more likely to begin an investigation. I hadn’t heard anything back, though, and that was troubling. I was choosing to push it to the back of my mind because everything else was moving in the right direction.

The house was dark when I walked in. “Hello?” I called, my voice almost echoing in the empty dark space.

The hair on my arms stood on end. Where are Jared and the girls? I walked back to the kitchen to set my purse on the counter and grab a Coke. Jared was sitting at the dining room table in the dark, motionless. I frowned.

“What’re you doing? Where are the girls?” My voice seemed hollow in the stillness surrounding us.

“I took off from work early today, drove the girls out to my parents’ place,” Jared replied. “We need some alone time.”

“Can’t argue with that,” I said, sitting in the chair next to him, trying to shake off the uneasy feeling I had. “That doesn’t explain why you’re sitting here in the dark.”

“We need to talk,” he sighed, scrubbing his hands over his face and leaning his elbows on the table. My whole body went on high alert. “I got called today. My unit’s being deployed to Afghanistan.”

“What?” I jumped from my chair, the urge to pace taking over my body. “How is that possible? You’re out of the Army.”

“I’m not out of the Army.” He grasped my arm, halting my movement. “My contract was for six years’ active duty and two years of reserves. I still have nine months of reserve duty. It’s why I report to Camp Mabry once a month.”

“I thought that was some veterans’ thing.” I rubbed my forehead with my free hand. “How long?”

“Nine months.” His voice was void of emotion, and no further explanation came.

My mind was overwhelmed with thoughts, but I chose to focus on the least painful thing to quell my panic.

“This is horrible timing. We’re done with the edits. The album releases next Tuesday. Not that I expect any sales. We haven’t played any gigs. I was hoping to talk to you about setting up a show. Ruby wants us to play our first gig at her bar.”

“I know,” he said solemnly, looking out the window. “I’m not worried about that. I’m worried about you. You have a stalker, Maddie. This means I’m leaving you and the girls here alone.”

That was the last thing I wanted to think about at that moment.

“I know,” I echoed, crawling into his lap. “I’m trying not to think about that because it honestly doesn’t do any good. We can’t live our lives in fear of this creep.”

He kissed my forehead and hugged me closer. “I don’t like it.”

“We don’t have a choice. Do we?” My voice sounded timid and small. I hated the weakness it exposed.

He huffed out a breath, pushing my hair away from my face. “You could go stay with my parents?” His thumb brushed over my cheek.

“No. I can’t,” I argued, shaking my head. His hand fell away. “I’ve my job, the derby, the girls have school. We can’t just up and leave everything behind.”

“I had to try.” He gave me a sad smile. “I talked to Nic about moving in. He agreed. He can stay in my old room upstairs, or out in the guest house. Your choice. You okay with that?”

“Yeah, that sounds great, actually.” I picked imaginary lint from his shirt. “I don’t want to be here alone.”

“Good,” he sighed, hugging me tighter.

“He can choose where he wants to stay,” I muttered, snuggling closer. “I don’t care either way.”

“I’ll let him know.” Some of the tension left his body. “He’ll be here on Sunday.”

“So soon?” I asked. “When are you leaving?”

“I have to report to Camp Mabry on Monday.”

“Oh,” I replied for lack of anything better to say.

A tear tracked down my cheek, and he brushed it away.

“Don’t cry. I can’t handle it right now. Just try to look at it this way: it means we have two whole days to ourselves before I leave.” He shifted me, so I was straddling his lap. “I spent the whole day with the girls. My parents are driving them back on Sunday evening. Forty-eight hours of me and you.”

He kissed my collarbone and trailed kisses out to my shoulder, tugging my shirt aside.

“Whatever will we do with all that time,” I said on a sigh, trying to let go of my worry and fear.

“I’ve got some ideas.” His voice dropped low, making my belly clench.

I smirked. “Oh, really?”

“Yeah, I’m about to get creative.” He waggled his eyebrows, a grin tugging one side of his full lips upward.

“Are you?” I laughed, then froze when his eyes pinned me in place with a heated look. “I love you,” I whispered.

“I’m about to show you how much I love you right now,” he said, pulling my shirt over my head.