Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 102184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 511(@200wpm)___ 409(@250wpm)___ 341(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 511(@200wpm)___ 409(@250wpm)___ 341(@300wpm)
“Maybe we should,” Roman adds.
“Got his home address?” I ask Ledger, knowing very well he does.
Ledger nods and it takes us all of fifteen minutes to get out of the club and make it to Kurt’s front door.
We knock. We wait.
A few seconds before I’m ready to kick the door down, the man himself opens his front door.
“Mr. Huxley,” he says right away. “What are you doing here?”
“Can we come in?” I ask this in a way that leaves no choice but to let us in.
“Um, sure.” He steps aside so we can enter his home.
The place is typical for a man with no wife and kids. Not lived in. Spacious. Obviously put together by an interior designer.
He leads us into the living room, where Ledger and Roman both take a seat on the beige leather sectional underneath an immense painting of the ocean.
It’s a nice place.
But I’m not here to hand out compliments.
“I didn’t think Club Greed made house calls.” He doesn’t sit either, opting to shovel a hand through his red hair. “Listen, if this is about the other night. The fight. I’m sorry. I never—” His words cease when I lift a hand for him to stop talking.
“What was the fight about? Don’t give me this money-owed bullshit.”
Kurt slips his hands into the pockets of his khaki trousers. “Yes. I owed Derek some money.”
“Money for what?”
Kurt’s blue eyes bounce between us. “Well, for um…” I can tell he doesn’t want to answer my question by the red splotches on his neck. “Well, for the Greedy Girl hookers.”
I let the “hooker” part slide for now. “Club dues?” I ask, confused, my eyes meeting Roman’s, and then Ledger’s.
Kurt shifts his weight from leather loafer to leather loafer. “Fuck,” he lets out. “Mr. Huxley, I guess you’re not aware of a prostitution ring working out of your club, huh?”
“A what?” My heartbeat ratchets up as I listen to this man offer an explanation.
“A service where you can pay to sleep with the Greedy Girls.”
I’m so lost. “You can sleep with them at my club if they agree to it. What do you mean?”
Kurt keeps talking in riddles. “A member can, yes.”
“So, what are you saying?” Roman rises from the couch to step closer to Kurt.
Kurt must take this as a sign of aggression and backs away. “There’s a number you can call to have a Greedy Girl come to you.”
“Are you shitting me?” Ledger says, standing as well, looking baffled by the conversation.
I pace the room, running a hand down my beard. As soon as I can process what this guy is telling me, I spin around to face him. “Explain it to me, in detail. Leave nothing out.”
We all take a seat in the living room, and Kurt offers us a drink. Whiskey is exactly what I need right now.
After we’re all settled with our drinks, Kurt reaches into his wallet to hand me a black card with nothing on it except a phone number written in gold.
“That’s the number you can call,” he says.
I flip it to look at the back, but there’s nothing there. “What happens when you call the number?”
“A girl answers and gets your information, asks what Greedy Girl you want to play with.”
“All the Greedy Girls are in on this shit?” Roman asks before I can.
Kurt shakes his head. “Only a few. Like Panti and Kitty aren’t in on it.”
I feel like I don’t need to ask the obvious, but I do anyway. “Were the murdered girls in on it?”
Kurt nods.
“Even Luna?”
Kurt shrugs. “I never saw her.”
“Why were you paying for this if you were a member?” Ledger asks, reading my mind.
Kurt puts his wallet away and shifts in his chair. “It wasn’t for me.”
“For who then?” Roman asks.
However, I answer before Kurt can, already understanding. “For your father.”
Kurt gives me a wry twist of his lips. “Can’t have Senator Merrick on the member’s list of a sex club. Could you imagine if the press ever got wind that he visited your club?”
“Why did you owe Derek money?” I ask.
Ledger’s mouth pulls up into a smile. “Because the senator can’t very well pay for a Greedy Girl where it can be traced back, right?”
“So, you hired Derek to pay?” It’s all coming together. The senator filtered money through Derek so if the ring got busted, and the girls named names, he could deny involvement because there would be no payment trail of him anywhere. Clever.
Kurt nods. “Yes, but the night Ginger died my father was supposed to meet with her. Derek and I had a deal. He’d pick me up and we’d swing by to pick up Ginger from the club before dropping her off at my father’s hotel.”
“Why?”
“My father didn’t want any unfamiliar cars parked at his hotel where questions could arise.”
“Ok, makes sense. Then, what happened?”