Chapter 31
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Fury
I’d never been fond of having people invade my space, despite being a social person in my day-to-day life. I’d always attributed it to the transition from having my own room and sharing a house with just my parents, one brother, and one sister, to suddenly living in a house with more than a dozen people. Sure, I had my own room there too, but I never truly felt like I had much in the way of alone time.
So when I finally secured my place in Palo Alto, I discovered I preferred spending time with others anywhere but my apartment.
Yet here I was, sitting in my home office, a smile creeping across my face because Sienna was sleeping down the hall, curled up in my bed as if she’d always belonged there. And this wasn’t just a one-night thing. After the whole mess with Ralf, I had convinced her to stay with me. Having two separate people threatening her safety had been enough to sway her. Well, that and my promise not to mention Ralf to Gavin unless the idiot showed up at Club Privé.
According to Sienna, she could handle only one overprotective man at a time, and since she loved me, she preferred it to be me rather than her boss.
That thought made me chuckle softly. She loved me. I loved her. It felt like some sort of dream. I hadn’t been searching for it, nor had I really wanted it, but I found I couldn’t stop it.
For the first time, I truly understood everything the paired-off members of my family had been raving about over the past couple of years, and I braced myself for the inevitable harassment when they found out. Technically, my family in New York already knew I was involved with Sienna, and I assumed that meant everyone else had at least heard of her. But once they learned that this was serious, I knew it would be a while before I heard the end of it.
While I was thrilled to have Sienna here with me, her safety weighed heavily on my mind. I couldn’t do anything about Ralf at the moment, but I convinced Sienna to accompany me to the police station to file a complaint against him, hoping it would reach the same people investigating Lulu’s assault. Assuming they were still looking into it, anyway. If nothing came of it, I might consult Drake to see whom he thought I should approach about it. After all, if the cops weren’t willing to take a known pimp off the streets just because they looked down on his victims, who the hell would they arrest?
I sighed and shook my head. I was doing it again. Even knowing she was perfectly safe and content, Sienna was a distraction—one I was more than happy to have, but I still needed to focus.
An alert flashed on my computer screen, yanking my attention back to my work.
Days had passed, and neither Gavin nor I had unearthed anything about Arthur Dalton that we could use to bring him down. Since neither of us liked the idea of Sienna reaching out to her connections, she hadn’t found anything either. He was the one problem I should tackle, and yet here I was, unable to do a damn thing.
That was why I was trying something different.
Yesterday, I had exhausted my legal resources. I’d called in favors, reached out to old classmates, and even had Cory asking around back in California, but I was coming up empty. So finally, I decided it was time to take a risk. Break the law a little.
I’d asked Jules if she knew anyone who could help us dig deeper into Arthur’s finances. As luck would have it, she’d gone to college with a computer wiz, Gianni, who was also freelancing as a competent hacker. After a brief conversation and a substantial payment, Gianni agreed to help us out, no questions asked.
The alert on my screen was from him. I opened the encrypted message, my heart racing as I read through the information he’d uncovered.
Considering all the shady dealings Arthur had been involved in for years, it was a little embarrassing how easily Gianni had accessed his accounts. Arthur had chosen one of the least secure banks in the city, an institution I’d barely heard of and didn’t think existed outside of New York State, but I supposed he assumed that a bigger bank would scrutinize his transactions too closely.
Like the two large electronic payments made the day before, and the day after, the club was vandalized. And he hadn’t done it with a check he could claim was stolen and forged; no, it was right there as an electronic transfer completed from an unsecure computer. Gianni had traced the IP back to an address that belonged to Arthur.
Idiot.
It didn’t take Gianni much longer to access the account that received those payments and confirm not only that the two large ones originated from Arthur but also that a series of smaller payments had as well. Once he did that, he searched for the account’s owner.
Dodd Espenson.
Finding that name explained a lot. Getting into my building wouldn’t have been easy, but all someone had needed to do was bribe a person who worked there. Club Privé was a different story. As I’d seen when employees showed up to help clean, Gavin’s people were fiercely loyal to him. At one point, I would have claimed they all were, but the name in front of me proved otherwise.
It wasn’t a surprise once I thought about it.
Gavin had demoted Dodd Espenson from head of security to bouncer, and Arthur’s payments had started the day after. Now I just needed Sienna to confirm that Dodd still could have gained access to the club after hours.
I hated waking her up, but this was something she needed to know, and we required that confirmation as soon as possible.
After brewing a pot of coffee, I made my way back to my bedroom and crouched beside the bed. Seeing her lying on her stomach, the blanket barely covering the swell of her ass, the bare skin of her back practically begging to be kissed, I was tempted to crawl in beside her and wake her in the most torturous way. But I knew her well enough to realize she’d be furious if she found out I’d lingered.
Reminding myself that we had plenty of time for such indulgences, I brushed some hair from her face and lightly touched her cheek.
“Sienna, time to wake up.” She stirred but didn’t wake, so I tried again. “Sienna, sweetheart, you need to wake up. I have something important to tell you.”
Her breathing changed, and even with her eyes still closed, her expression shifted. I waited until her eyes fluttered open.
“Get dressed and meet me in the living room. I’ll have coffee ready for you.” I leaned forward and kissed her forehead before heading back out to the kitchen.
By the time she stumbled into the living room, still looking half-asleep, I had a cup waiting. She smiled gratefully at me and took the drink, sipping it as she settled on the couch, tucking her feet under her in a casual gesture that made my heart swell.
It might have been too soon, but I loved seeing her feel at home here.
But I couldn’t dwell on that. We had work to do.
“I found something,” I said.
Her eyebrows shot up. “Don’t keep me guessing.”
“First, a question just to be sure,” I said. “Would Dodd Espenson be able to get into the club on his own?”
I watched realization dawn on Sienna’s face with every word I spoke after his name. I didn’t even need her to respond to know I was right.
“What did you find on Dodd?” she asked.
“So that’s a yes?”
She nodded, setting down her coffee, her expression serious. “Why were you looking into him?”
“I wasn’t,” I said with a sigh as I sat down beside her. “I was investigating Arthur Dalton and with the help of Jules and her hacker friend, Gianni, we discovered two large transfers he made around the time the club was vandalized. Gianni traced those to an account that also had regular deposits from Arthur’s account. It belonged to Dodd, and those deposits began the day after he was demoted.”
She closed her eyes, rubbing her forehead. “Shit.”
“Yeah.” I allowed her some time to process.
After a minute, she looked up, resolve etched on her face. “He’s the weak link.”
“What?”
“Dodd,” she clarified. “The guy likes to talk big, but he’s all about himself. If he thinks he’s in trouble, he’ll sell out Dalton.”
I rubbed the back of my neck. “Well, the thing is, what we did to find that information wasn’t exactly legal. We can’t go to the cops with it.”
She grinned at me, as if my admission only made her like me more. “Dodd’s not the brightest bulb in the box. We can make him believe it.”
“Okay.” I nodded. “Now we just need to find him.”
Her smile widened. “I can help with that. I have his employee file on my computer. It’ll list his address.”
“All right then,” I said. “Let’s grab some breakfast, then we’ll head over to Dodd’s place and see if we can get him to spill on Arthur.”
She stood up. “How about we grab something on the way? Traffic’s going to be a nightmare, so we might as well eat while we wait.”
I agreed, and she went to change clothes. Thirty minutes later, we left my car in a public parking garage and walked a block to the building Dodd lived in.
Neither of us spoke as we ascended two flights of stairs and made our way halfway down the hall to apartment 2C. Since Dodd had flirted enough with Sienna for us to figure out she’d be our best way in, she knocked on the door while I hung back.
“It’s unlocked,” Dodd called from inside. “Bring the food in and leave it on the counter.”
Sienna and I exchanged glances, and I recalled her earlier words about him not being the sharpest tool in the shed. Anyone who’d leave their apartment unlocked in New York City was asking for trouble.
Then she opened the door, and we stepped inside, realizing he was even dumber than we’d anticipated.
And we’d definitely missed something.
Because Dodd was sitting at a small table a few feet away … and next to him was Ralf Crosse.