Page 83 of Bling

He tucked his phone into his pocket and offered her his hand. “I missed you,” he said as he opened the passenger door with his free hand.

She giggled and looked at her phone. “I barely left an hour ago.”

His phone rang before he could respond, and he leaned away from her to dig it out of his pocket. “I just picked her up. I’ll be online shortly. How many did you manage to contact?”

There was a pause as he listened to whoever was on the other line. “Great. Samuel is working out of the country again, so he’ll be hard to reach. Lance, Russell, and Austin are the ones I really want to talk to most anyway. Jax has some information for us as well.”

He ended the call and draped an arm around Isabelle’s shoulders. “This meeting might get a little intense but none of us are angry at you, OK?”

She nodded. “I understand. You all have large… personalities. I’m sure they clash from time to time.”

He chuckled at her observation and dropped a kiss on the top of her head as they rode to the Glenview together.

Inside, Garrett logged in to the video conferencing software the board used and pulled two dining table chairs close together. They waited as others logged on. Eli’s face popped on screen first and she gave him a wave.

“Afternoon…” she hesitated, unsure of what to call him.

He laughed. “Elijah is fine, Isabelle. It’s after ten here in London so I’m almost ready for bed.”

She giggled. “OK then. Sorry I’m keeping you up late, Elijah.”

Under the table, Garrett laid a hand on her thigh and gave her a gentle squeeze.

Hunter, Jax, and Lance all popped up on the screen next, but Lance was on the phone and had his audio muted.

Hunter and Jax began childishly attempting to make him laugh by making faces. Lance flipped them the bird and turned his back to the camera.

By the time everyone had logged in, Lance was off the phone and ready to begin.

“I’ll be back in a few minutes,” Jax said before they got started. His face vanished from the screen.

Garrett sent them the link Isabelle’s niece had given her and Isabelle watched as Lance turned his attention offscreen and began typing.

“How do we want to address this?” Eli asked. “It’s the second time one of our members has been outed in the media and we need to put a stop to it, or members won’t be able to trust us with their personal information.”

Hunter leaned closer to his camera. “When Austin was outed, I thought the press was speculating because of her association with me and Patrick. Lance never found evidence of hacking. Isabelle, I have to ask, how much do you talk about Solitaire with friends?”

She shook her head. “None at all. I go to work, I go home, I go to Solitaire on the weekends. I have no one to talk about it with and even if I did, I wouldn’t. Not unless I knew they were in the lifestyle and thinking of becoming a member. I’ve lost touch with most of my local lifestyle friends, though.”

He nodded. “I wasn’t accusing you, little one. Just trying to get all the facts.”

Russell spoke next. “Garrett, is it possible this is a smear job to get you ousted from the president’s economic advisory panel? I know you’ve ruffled feathers in Washington in the past.”

Garrett shrugged. “It’s possible. I’m waiting on Jax to get back to me on a slightly more personal connection though. I’m perplexed by how someone would have found out I’m part of Solitaire. I’m incredibly careful not to discuss my connection. Aside from Isabelle these past few weeks, I don’t socialize with submissives outside the club and I only talk business with a few of you on a regular basis and I know all of you are discreet.”

“So, what’s this more personal lead you’re running down?” Austin asked.

“Let’s wait for Jax to sign back on,” Garrett said.

Eli scrubbed a hand over his eyes. “Lance, I need to ask you to put your objective hat on for a minute. Is it possible you’re too close to your system? You built Solitaire’s security yourself. How would you feel about bringing in an outside cyber security expert to audit the system?”

Lance scowled. “Sure, if you’re fine settling for the second best. I can handle this, Eli.”

Russell coughed. “I think now is probably not the time to fight over this. We need to give assurances to Isabelle and all our other members that we’re working on this. I’m willing to offer physical security details to anyone outed, not just Isabelle if it’s needed.”

She smiled at him. His kind demeanor belied the fact that he was an intense sadist inside the walls of Solitaire.

“I’m pretty sure Garrett has my security taken care of, but I appreciate it.”

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