Page 84 of Nails
Nails grinned.Out of the entire team, Bear was the most impatient.
Nails and Riley spent the rest of the ride going over the whole ordeal with them.
“Why would the guy think she was his for the night?”
Nails shrugged his shoulders.“That’s the million-dollar question.He said he paid two grand.”
Riley chimed in.“And that is the part that confuses me.Not that I would ever take money for something like that, but from what I was told, any transactions taking place for ‘private’ entertainment are solely done between the two parties.”
“So, hypothetically, you’re saying that if you and this guy had agreed to something, he should have paid you directly?”Jay Bird asked.
Riley nodded.“I believe so.”
Nails’ jaw flexed.“Which means someone in that club is using Riley to cash in.”
“Or it was done on purpose as a means to hurt me,” Riley added.
Duke grunted.“Sounds like Riley may have already made some enemies.”
Nails didn’t answer.His mind was already running the angles.Whoever set Riley up was going to regret it.
He looked down at her, and even though she had been through hell and back earlier, she had stayed upright through the whole thing.She hadn’t broken down and never crumbled.She was strong—stronger than many men he knew.
The second Bear put the SUV in park inside the gates.Nails was out of the vehicle, his arm still around Riley, as if she might collapse if he let go.
Once they got inside, the rest of the team was already gathering around.Joker was setting down his laptop, Snow was leaning against the wall with that watchful expression, and Playboy and Aussie were coming in from the kitchen.Every single one of them went still when they saw Riley’s face.
“Ah, hell,” Joker muttered, his eyes moving over the bruises and blood.
Duke looked at Riley and gestured toward the kitchen table.“Have a seat.Let’s see what we’re working with.”
Nails helped her out of her hoodie again, being careful around her shoulder.Blood had seeped down the back of her top, and little slivers of glass could be seen when the light caught them.
“You’re lucky none of these went deeper,” Duke said, his tone businesslike.“A couple of these are going to need butterflies.The rest we’ll clean and dress.”
Riley shrugged with her good shoulder.“Do what you need to do, doc.”
While Duke cleaned her up, Nails filled the team in.
“Before this went down, Riley and I got some intel.A VIP in the lounge asked Riley about Anna.Like, straight up asked where Anna was.Riley played it off as being new to the club and told him that she didn’t know of an Anna, but that she would ask around.”
Riley nodded, wincing as Duke dabbed antiseptic on her shoulder.“The last time he said he saw Anna was about two weeks ago, which is right around the time she went missing.But that also gave me an excuse to ask about her.So, I brought it up nonchalantly to Audrey, the bartender who’s worked at the club for a while.She didn’t offer much, but I did catch a slight hesitation.And Nails and I caught her shortly after that, talking to Erik in the hallway.I wasn’t near them, but Nails was.”
“Yeah, I did hear Audrey mention Anna’s name, and something about a deal gone bad,” Nails told them.“But I also found out that at the end of every week, all of the surveillance footage gets downloaded onto a USB drive and is stored in Adam’s office.”
“Which means,” Riley added, “if I can get in there, I don’t have to find a way to get into the surveillance room and search through everything.All I have to do is find the drive with the date that the CCTV caught Anna outside the club.”
Jay Bird whistled low.“Damn, you two had a pretty productive night.”
Joker cleared his throat.“Well, we were able to find out Adam’s last name and do some digging into his background.For the most part, he’s clean.We found a few connections to some not-so-good people, but nothing that stood out like trafficking.He has no social media presence, apparently doesn’t like to be photographed, but it appears he does have money.”
Riley looked up at the team.“Can you guys get your hands on a small hidden camera?”She looked down at her black name tag that was pinned to her top.“Maybe something small enough to blend in with my name tag?”
Nails was wondering where she was going with this when Aussie spoke up.“Yeah, I’m sure we could find something, or concoct something.Why?”
“Well, if we could get people’s faces on camera, why not run them through facial recognition.Maybe we could spot some suspects or people who have records, or connections to someone.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” Bear stated.
