I slid my shoes on without glancing up. Her eyes watching my every move. The sheets rustled as she moved around, sitting up in bed. I stood, fastening my belt. I checked to make sure I had my wallet and hadn’t left anything behind and headed to the door.

“Killian,” she whined, grabbing onto my hand. It was Katherine or Karen. Something with a K or was it a C? Not like it mattered. She batted her big thick lashes at me. Her red mask, long since forgotten on the floor. “Don’t you want to stay a bit longer?” She let the sheet fall lower, exposing her pert tits. They looked good. I could appreciate them, but I’d already fucked her, hell, fucked them. I wasn’t interested in another round.

Frankie, the owner of the club and one of my best friends, hated it when I used the room like my own personal hotel room and not the sex play room she built this place to be, but sex was sex, right? The club had certain rules and I was bending them, but not enough for Frankie to ban me for more than a few weeks.

“I’ve got to go,” I said, pulling my hand from her grip. I fastened my cufflinks, pushing the cold metal through the tailored cuffs, and grabbed my coat off the hook by the door. “You can get dressed now.”

“That’s it?” she said, sounding pissed. “You don’t want to go back to your apartment?”

“That’s it,” I said, snapping the green band on my wrist. “Open for fucking doesn’t mean I want to be here all night. I have shit to do,” I looked her up and down, “and I’m done with you. So, you’re going to have to leave my room.” It was harsh. But it was better to get this shit over with. I didn’t want to leave her in my private room in the club. That was how I’d ended up repaying Frankie for damages a couple of years ago when a hookup lost it after I left her to get dressed.

Don’t draw it out, don’t lead them on. I always made sure I was upfront with whatever woman I was with. I didn’t need someone showing up with her head full of expectations and the club provided the perfect place for that. At least it did when you didn’t end up with someone who thought this was a matchmaking service. It wasn’t.

She hurriedly got dressed and flipped me the bird as she stormed out of my private room. This was why I never brought a woman back to my place. I didn’t need to deal with the hassle, or them knowing where I lived. I’d tried that initially. They thought that coming back to my place meant they were something other than a convenient fuck.

At least here, I could leave whenever I wanted. If I brought a woman to my place, she’d angle for ways to stay and then I’d have to kick her out. I really didn’t enjoy having my business spread out everywhere for everyone to see, so I preferred to be discreet. I closed the door behind me and felt the thud as something hit the solid wood behind me. Sounded like she was pissed. Too bad, I might have given her another go in a year or so.

The thumping of music from the main club area vibrated through me. I wouldn’t be able to go through there, since I had my clothes on. I’d slipped in the backdoor to skirt around that little rule, and catching Kristy or Karen or whoever she was on my way to the back office was a bonus I hadn’t counted on. She was a good lay, but nothing to write home about.

Fake tits, fake teeth, a regular appointment with a plastic surgeon that made her face the same one I’d seen hundreds of times before. This would make things awkward if she approached me later. I’d make a note for Frankie to make sure her name and club profile were sent to me, so I could avoid running into her again.

I rapped on the office door, my knuckles smarting from the metal spikes that covered it. It was one way to ensure you didn’t get many visitors. A blast of blaring trance music hit me as Frankie threw the door open and glared at me.

“What did I tell you about wearing clothes in my club, Killian?” she asked, sliding out of the way, so I could come inside.

“Pot, meet kettle,” I said. Frankie was decked out in sweats with a fresh face.

“What? I’m the boss, I can wear what I want. I’m not even supposed to be working tonight,” she said, glancing at the screens behind her, which she always shut off when I was inside to maintain her members’ privacy. A wall filled with almost every angle of the public areas of the club. I glanced down at her feet and quirked my eyebrow at her floppy bunny slippers.

“Have you ever walked around in six-inch platform heels? It’s a bitch on your feet. These are comfortable. It’s bad enough I have to wear all this shit.” She gestured to her work clothes, which consisted of leather and lace on the hook by the door. “At least my feet will be comfortable,” she said, sliding into her chair and swirling around to the massive wall of screens in front of her. Every inch of the club was completely covered in cameras. It meant everyone stayed safe and Frankie got her voyeur fix. Her security team had complete access to all these cameras as well, but she was a bit of a control freak. Ha. Even I could laugh at the irony there. Not like I wasn’t.

“Playing the peeping tom again?” I teased, sitting on the edge of her computer console.

“I really hate you sometimes,” she said, squeezing the bridge of her nose. “Why are you here?”

“I need your help with something,” I said, picking up her squishy pig-shaped stress ball and squeezing it until its eyes bugged out.

“What?” she said with a sigh, switching some of the screens, flipping through various rooms of the club. There was a woman up on a platform being spanked with a flogger, another screen showed two men fucking the same woman, and a host of other much more intense scenes being played out.

“I need you to get me some info on Rhys Thayer,” I said, putting the ball down. She whirled around in her seat, sizing me up.

“Why?” she asked, her eyes boring into me.

“Because I’m not going to let him get away with everything all over again.”

“What is it with you and him? Ever since high school, you’ve been so bent out of shape about him,” she said, her eyes going back to her screen like it didn’t matter. Like I was being unreasonable. I clenched my fists.

“Bent out of shape? You don’t think getting me kicked out of school and his parents destroying my father is something I have a right to be a little upset about?” I asked, feeling my jaw tightening with each word.

“You got yourself kicked out of school, Kill. You did that. No one else is to blame for the mistakes we make. And you’re carrying out a vendetta for your old man now? Wow, I’ve seen it all, now haven’t I?” she said, not taking her eyes from the screen.

“I knew I shouldn’t have come here for your help,” I said, pushing off the console.

“What information do you want?” she asked, still refusing to look at me.

“I need you to dig a little deeper into what happened to Beth. I was talking to someone and they said they don’t think it went down like he’s pretending it did.” Rhys Thayer was a son of a bitch. I’d been too caught up in playing his rich boy games back when we were in high school, but I was finally in a place where I had the power. The power to crush him, and I wasn’t going to let anyone stand in my way.

“And would this person be the junkie known as Allan? Don’t go digging and stirring things up just because you feel guilty, Killian,” she said, spinning her chair around. Frankie always thought she knew what was best for everyone. Ever the observer, never deigning to get involved with the little people. If she wasn’t such a good friend, I’d probably hate her. But hacking my grades to keep me from losing my scholarship back in high school left me forever in her debt, even if I did end up losing the scholarship anyway.

“Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do, Francesca,” I said, drawing her name out. She winced at her full name and glared at me. “I’m going to get the information one way or another. Are you going to help me or not?”

“Fine, but when this blows up in your face, don’t say I didn’t warn you. You need to stop letting things you can’t control drive your life, Kill.” She went back to her console, clacking away at her keyboard, and I strode out of her office. Once she got me what I needed there’d be nothing to stop me from finally bringing Thayer down.