Chapter 17 #4
Our entrance caught the others' attention, but servers ambled forward to guide us to a table and offer Lee a drink, all while carefully ignoring me. Lee sat in one of the richly upholstered chairs, crossing his ankle over a knee. I couldn’t help but admire him at this moment, wearing that grey suit, the red, blue, pink, and purple lighting of the room bouncing off his beautiful, flawless skin, illuminating it, while adding shadows beneath his sharp cheekbones… he was beautiful.
But the moment was shattered in seconds when he snapped his fingers to me, and pointed at the floor by his feet, his face cold and expressionless.
It’s an act. It’s an act, I told myself again and again as I sank to my knees at his side, hands resting on my thighs and head bowed.
Lee placed a large hand alongside my head and guided me in, so my cheek was pressed against his thigh.
I rested there, knowing that he was reassuring me we were safe despite this power move.
The dancers switched off, and five other girls were coming out from a black door near the back of the room, barely visible behind a set of what appeared to be like a barred cage.
Three of them were supported by a member of security, looking dazed and confused as they were escorted to one of the stages to dance.
Some of the businessmen gestured to one or two, and if the girls were one of the lucid ones, they sauntered over in their leather booty shorts, bra tops, and incredibly high hooker heels, and danced for them, some had gotten right in their laps to grind into their hard-ons.
The server came back to Lee, placing his drink on a shiny, black coaster, and winked at him, which instantly pissed me off.
Back off bitch, I thought when she leaned over, much more than necessary to show off her bulging cleavage to him.
Lee took the drink but turned away, watching one of the girls on the far stage, one that seemed like she was lost, with no idea where she was or what she should be doing.
Our server let us be, but as she passed a table of men in suits, I automatically reached out and clung to Lee’s leg.
“What is it?” he murmured, pretending to take a sip of the amber liquid in his crystal glass.
“Those guys are watching us… the table at our ten o’clock.” I stared back down to the floor as he scanned the place, holding himself with a regal sort of air that didn’t come off forced.
“One has called security over, and they’re looking our way. Most likely asking who I am. Just keep calm, baby. I got you.” He pretended to act interested in one of the better dancers, slowly swirling his drink in his hand.
“Did they ever talk to Vail when he and Meredith did this?” I asked, just loud enough so that he could hear me over the music.
“Only the first time, but they mostly just left him alone after. He’d pay for some dances, gambled a little on some of the machines in the next room. He would spend a couple hundred here on the nights he was scouting. He was a good client.”
I tried to quash my jealousy at the idea of Vail getting a lapdance from one of these girls. I had no reason to be. If we were right about all of this, then these girls were victims themselves.
“They’re coming over, Casey. Just keep your head down, alright?
” he said, his fingers stroking my hair.
To an outsider, it would seem like he was patting his dog, but I knew Lee, and I understood he was just trying to put me at ease.
But my heart was hammering against my chest, and my palms were clammy as hell. Who are these men?
“Did Vail ever find out who they were?” I whispered.
“Vail never met these ones. I don’t recognize them from the cam footage. The others were just rich businessmen looking for an exclusive night out.” Lee gave my head the tiniest little tap, alerting me to be quiet, and I quickly bowed my head.
“You’re Nathaniel Chopard,” I heard the smooth, sickenly silky voice of our new companion say from over my head, “Heir to your father’s Investment firm?”
Thank fuck that Shaw was great with computers. The alias they’d created for Lee seemed to have fooled them. I inhaled the tiniest sigh of relief.
“I am… and you are?” Lee didn’t move from his seat, his dark eyes moving up and down the man who had approached him.
“I’m the owner of this establishment,” the man said, and I felt my blood turn to ice. “Elias Cartier.” Lee shifted a little, I assumed to shake his hand, while I tried not to be sick. “I wanted to personally welcome you here and perhaps share a drink together?”
Though I could feel Lee’s leg tense a little beneath my cheek, he knew better than to refuse.
“By all means,” he said, gesturing to the empty seat, a chesterfield, on his other side, farthest from me.
I peeked up through my lashes as Elias Cartier walked around the table and sat, angling himself to face Lee, and I finally could put a face to the monster of Ashland.
Elias was stocky, but probably only around six feet.
The suit he was wearing screamed of money, with a silk tie and pocket square, beautiful stitchwork, and a pair of shiny, black shoes to match.
His hair was honey brown, short on the sides while longer on top, and combed back off his face.
In this lighting, I think his eyes were a mossy green, but it was hard to tell.
Clean-shaven, richly dressed, he looked like just another rich asshole.
But, there was something about him that made me want to run away.
Elias’s smile was fake. It was forced upon his lips like it had been carved out of stone, and the way his eyes scanned over Lee, taking in everything about him like he was sizing him up rather than sitting here to welcome him, sent alarm bells off in my head. There was zero warmth there.
The music changed to something slower, with a jazzy sort of feel, and despite how beautiful it was, given our predicament, it only seemed to heighten the severity of the situation. Lord Huron’s haunting words singing, When the Night is Over, only made me wish we were anywhere but here.
“How did you hear about my club?” Elias asked him as a girl hurried over, drink ready and in hand, to give to him. He took it, his eyes never leaving Lee for a second.
“Through friends of my father’s. It’s been a dull day, following him around meeting to meeting, with stiff old men, ready to drop dead any second…
” Lee brought his glass to his lips, the sound of the ice cubes clinking together.
“I was more interested in other ventures. Luckily, one of the sons was a regular here and told me about it.”
“And who would that be?” Elias asked. As innocent as those words were, I knew better. He was testing us. Feeling us out.
“Cash Wittaker,” Lee was poised, not hesitating in anything he said. I wanted to applaud him for holding it together.
“Ah yes, Cash…” Elias chuckled a little.
“He does enjoy what we have to offer here,” He gazed over at one of the girls dancing, one of the ones who appeared inebriated, and nodded his head to her.
She clambered down from the stage, and a member of security escorted her over. “Heather is one of Cash’s favourites.”
Heather… Heather! She was one of the girls who went missing the week before I’d arrived here!
I’d heard her name whispered here and there in the halls.
Involuntarily, I looked up to see the young teenage girl walking like a zombie.
Her eyes shown to be almost dead in this light, her face bland and heavily made up with layer upon layer of makeup.
She’d been forced into a skimpy outfit of pink silk, her hair curled and pulled back into a ponytail.
Her eyes moved to me, but it was like there was no one home in her head.
She was just… going through the motions.
“Heather, why don’t you give Nathaniel here a lapdance?” Elias said, gesturing to Lee, and we both tensed.
Oh shit… oh shit, no! Would she recognize him?
“I’m good for now,” Lee said, turning his face away, looking disinterested, but I knew he was trying to hide himself from Heather. If she recognized him from school… would she blow our cover?
“Nonsense. She was a dancer before she came to my employ. She has a wild wiggle, don’t you, sweetheart? So please, it’s on me. Enjoy yourself.” Elias gave her ass a sharp slap, and I saw how she flinched, recoiling from his touch.
“I have my own girl-”
“Bruce,” Elias snapped, and immediately, a pair of hands reached beneath my upper arms and hauled me to my feet.
“Wait just a minute-” Lee started to stand, but Heather was forced down onto his lap, where she began to grind against him.
“I said, enjoy her.” Elias’s voice dropped dangerously, and I heard the threat behind his words.
He wasn’t fooled. He wasn’t buying us. Fuck!
Fuck, Lee, send a code a RED, 911, something!
But as I was dragged away from him, Heather’s thighs clamped together over his, preventing him from reaching his phone.
It’s okay, they have the camera… the camera on his pin! They’ll see…
I was so busy watching Lee, trying to figure out how to get him out of this, that I didn’t even see where they were taking me until I found myself propped before Elias, standing there like a deer in headlights.
“Come, girl. Have a seat while your master enjoys something new.” He reached out, grasping my hips, and pulled me in, forcing me to straddle his lap so that my face was inches from his.
I couldn’t stop myself from shaking when I found myself face to face with Elias, the man I’d heard countless horror stories about, the real-life boogeyman.
“You’re trembling like a leaf… calm yourself, girl,” he said before grasping my chin. “I just want to look at you.”