Page 11 of A Merry Invitation
He'd just stepped out of the bathroom and was on his way to his desk when there was a brisk knock on his door.
“Come in,” he yelled and continued walking toward the desk.
“Hey, Boss,” Jus said when he came through the door. “There’s something out here you gotta see.”
CHAPTER7
What. The. Fuck?
Jus’s tone had been of the “no-questions asked” timbre, so Slay hadn’t bothered. Instead, he’d followed the man who was just a couple inches shorter than him but surpassed Slay in weight by at least thirty pounds of pure muscle. Dressed in a black suit, shoes and button-up, Jus gave the impression he was either heading to a funeral or about to cause one.
But Slay wasn’t looking at Jus’s outfit now. Not once they’d walked down the hallway where Slay’s office and the only conference room on the premises was housed. They’d turned to the left, instead of going to the right which would take them to the reception area where Hara, one of their hostesses was seated. Down this hallway on this level of the building were rooms that could be reserved by members and at the far end of the hall was the security room.
Jus used the newly installed biometric scanner on the panel beside the door to gain entry into the space and Slay had followed behind him. Inside the dimly lit space there were three dozen monitors on one wall, a row of desks and chairs with analysts sitting at each one watching the screens diligently. No, they weren’t spying on the members or their staff during the private sessions, but there were cameras in the doorway of each room, a way for them to safely monitor who was in what space at any given time. All the hallways and common areas like the pool, the outside deck, yard and the small ballroom space that was allocated for special events that Verity organized with the staff and any additional performers she hired, had cameras as well as each of the doors and stairways.
“I was just coming back up after walking Que and Mr. Donovan out when I saw her being escorted into one of the rooms,” Jus said and then he tapped the analyst sitting in front of him on the shoulder. “Play that one back fifteen minutes.” He motioned toward a specific monitor.
And with his eyes glued to the screen, three words had bounced through Slay’s mind and then tumbled from his mouth. “What. The. Fuck?”
“Speed up to now,” Jus directed the analyst.
Nothing. An empty doorway, a shadow of golden light which was probably from a lamp lit somewhere in the room.
“Who else is in there besides the two of them?” Slay asked, his voice surprisingly steady considering his stomach had done a complete somersault and he was dangerously close to punching a fist through the wall. It was an intense emotion, probably way overboard considering the circumstances, but he needed to know who the hell this man was who’d taken Willow into one of those reserved rooms with him. And he damn sure needed to know if there was anyone else—meaning any staff members, men or women—in the room with them. For the sake of everyone in this building, there’d better not be anyone else in there.
“Keva, Flex and Mariah,” Jus stated after grabbing the log off the analyst’s desk.
Entry and exit times, along with staff and member names were entered into the log for instances just like this one.
“Shit!” Slay turned away from the desk and headed for the door. Jus was right behind him.
His chest was tight as he took long quick strides down the hallway toward room 3East. “Who reserved the room?” he asked knowing that Jus had that information.
“Titus Tremaine. He’s a Beverly Hills member. Verity approved his visitor pass two nights ago when he came in with another woman.”
“Same room?”
“Yeah,” Jus replied. “Same group of staff too.”
Slay was at the door by then, banging his fist on it like he was the police and was two seconds away from performing a raid. Well, he was sort of. Willow was in there and he was getting her out. Then, he’d deal with Titus Tremaine.
A few seconds passed but they felt like hours so Slay glanced over his shoulder at Jus who nodded in response and said, “I got it.”
Jus reached into his pocket and pulled out his skeleton key card. Slay had one as well, but he’d left it on his desk because he rarely ever had to enter a reserved room. He was also rarely ever faced with a woman he’d been sleeping with popping up as a guest of one of his members.
A fuckin’ guest! At The Corporation. Meaning she was likely having sex with someone else.
His fists clenched at his sides just as the locks disengaged and Jus led them into the room. The sitting area was empty but the door to the smaller privacy room was partially open. Slay pushed it all the way aside and entered the room to see Willow sitting with one leg crossed over the other in an armchair.
“Slay?”
“Let’s go,” he said, moving forward to grab her hand and pull her up.
“What? Wait,” she protested and attempted to pull out of his grasp.
“Find him,” Slay said to Jus, ignoring whatever else Willow was saying. She could cuss him out later, once they got back to his office. But right now, he needed her out of here.
“Slay, what the hell are you doing here?” she asked and then gave a hard yank to free herself from his grasp. “What the hell is going on?”
