Chapter 8
Ash Riley
“Look at the house,” Nate sighed.
I glanced up from the screen. Yeah. The whole downstairs glowed in the dark with the prank.
Soon, soon, soon, soon, soon…
We’d see about that, bratty fucks.
“All right, status update from the family for today,” I said, returning to Juliana’s text on Nate’s phone.
“Hallie’s cramps are over, which we already knew, Lily doesn’t understand why she can’t pack Paws into one of the moving boxes, Mikey’s thrilled with his bike—they even washed it, he and Keith—the movie was all right, dinner was great, and now they’re changing into pajamas to watch more movies on the couch. ”
“I can actually picture Lily arguing that if we pack Paws into a moving box, we won’t accidentally leave him behind.”
I laughed. Yeah, I could see that too.
I turned the sound off on my phone and tucked it into my suit jacket. If there was an emergency at home, Juliana or Keith would call Nate’s phone, but I was expecting instructions from Reese.
“Let’s get this ball rollin’, baby.” I climbed out and snatched up my fancy Venetian mask from the dash.
I’d found mine for cheap. Black and gold with minimal bling. I’d even convinced Nathan that we were better off with our three-piece suits rather than actual tuxedos.
We were handsome as all fuck.
His mask was black and dark green, so he’d managed to match the green to his shirt. I definitely didn’t own a gold shirt, so I was making do with black and charcoal.
“Mask on, mask off…?”
He smirked and put his on. “Everyone else is wearing theirs.”
I glanced toward the members standing on the porch. All right, mask on.
The doors had opened about twenty minutes ago, so there should be a crowd inside. James’s truck was here.
A big sign hung off the porch, welcoming us to the sixth annual masquerade ball at Mclean.
“Did you hear about next month’s Game?” he asked, slipping his hand into mine.
I threaded our fingers together. “No…?”
“It’s not confirmed yet, but there’s a rumor that says it’s going to be a murder mystery event.”
Huh. That sounded kind of fun.
“You should join with Jordan,” he encouraged. “I could join with James.”
I side-eyed him. “You know James listens to a whole bunch of true crime podcasts, don’t you?”
That bastard. He was trying to hide his smugness.
“Jordan may have mentioned it,” he replied casually.
But I wasn’t buying it.
“You’re on, baby,” I huffed. “And lemme say this right now. Any time you and I compete against each other, there’s gonna be a bet.
For instance, if there’s a murder mystery theme and Jordan and I go up against you and James, you will rub my feet every night during our next road trip, and wake me up with a blow job when we’re at that luxury retreat. ”
“If we lose,” he stated.
“When you lose,” I corrected.
He rolled his eyes behind his fancy mask. “And if James and I win…”
“I’m probably dead. Miss me. Mourn me forever. Don’t you dare remarry.”
He let out a reluctant chuckle and smacked my chest. “Don’t even joke about it.” He paused. “If we win, you’ll let me tie you and Jordan up.”
I quirked a brow. “You can do that whenever.”
“Naked,” he went on. “Mid-fuck. When people are watching.”
Hoo boy.
The idea was hot enough for me to sign up right now, but I wasn’t new to bondage.
That was going to be one strenuous exercise, and I had to be hard enough to stay buried in Jordan’s ass?
Because if I went soft and accidentally pulled out, I wouldn’t be able to push in again if we were restrained in positions we couldn’t move out of.
Add people watching. And it could get fucking nippy in the dojo.
“You better win big,” I told him.
“That’s the goal.” He smirked and kissed my cheek.
Since we weren’t joining the Game, we could walk straight through and just enjoy ourselves.
The participants had to listen to a speech in the lobby, have their pictures taken, and complete a form.
Meanwhile, I threw a giant shrimp into my mouth and sipped some bubbly by the big snack buffet next to the entrance.
The masks didn’t conceal anybody’s identity if you knew them. But if you didn’t…? I didn’t know these members. Approximately fifty or so Mclean members were in the club area, and I couldn’t identify a single one. Wait. Maybe that was Jack and Franklin over by the bar. Maybe.
Where might one find James and Jordan?
Were they among the dozen or so who were dancing?
The music wasn’t as bad as I’d feared. It seemed to be a playlist packed with goth metal versions of classical pieces, and I could think of worse songs to listen to.
Still wasn’t dance music, though. I wasn’t bringing my man out on the dance floor to this. How did you move to goth metal? I loved hard rock and metal. But the times I’d gone to a show, you basically stood there and bobbed your head.
Maybe Colt and I could grab some whips and chains and threaten anyone who came near the laptop. I knew it was behind the bar. We could change it to country rock or some goodies from the ’70s and ’80s.
I turned back to the snacks instead.
They’d gone all out. Shrimp, roast beef, cheese, spicy sausage, smoked salmon, vegetables, crackers, fruits, olives, all kinds of marinated stuff, more cheese, the crunchy breadsticks—everything laid out real nice too, under glass lids and whatnot.
I took myself one of those long toothpicks and stabbed an artichoke and a slice of chorizo.
“We just ate, sweetheart,” Nate chuckled.
“But it’s food.”
He stiffened. “I think I just heard Jordan. Let’s move into the shadows.”
I nodded, emptied my bubbly, and followed him toward the back of the room.
Maybe they’d checked things out upstairs.
Perfect time for the lights to go down. Except for the chandelier and the tiny spotlights that cast the whole club in a dark red glow.
More and more people poured into the club, making it easy to disappear in the crowd. Those taking part in the Game had evidently been released into the wild, because I spotted Greer, Sloan, Colt, River or Reese, Macklin, Walker… Many of them.
I ushered Nate over to the bar instead, and we stayed behind it. While he ordered us water, I finally received a message from Reese.
You and KC can find Shay in interrogation room 3 at nine PM. Nora will be there half an hour later. They have been notified. As for one of our own possibly turning on us? I’m not ready to accept that yet, so we’ll focus on finding the subs. Stand by for details.
I typed my response.
9PM, got it. Standing by. Remember to have fun, Tenley.
He replied a beat later.
You should know me better, Riley.
I let out a laugh. He had a point. He was having fun. Solving a mystery was his crack.
Touché.
Nate nudged me and nodded toward the dance crowd. Or the edges of it, where I spotted James and Jordan wearing matching masks. Goddamn, they were handsome too. All suited up in black. All black.
It was easy to see that they were looking for someone. Or two someones.
I leaned closer to Nate as the music got louder.
“We have roughly an hour until I gotta be upstairs with KC.”
He nodded once. “We should get the last of the talk about limits out of the way.”
Good call. We had a few more question marks before we were ready to move forward.
“Excuse me!”
Nora.
She showed up next to me with her hands on her hips and her chin jutted in defiance. Her mask was much more elaborate than mine, with dark purple feathers and pearls glued on it. The mask matched her dress. Or the corset part of her dress.
I smiled lazily.
“Why are you going to interrogate me?” she demanded.
I shrugged and twisted the cap off my water. “To see if you’ve been up to no good, obviously.”
“I haven’t!”
“We’ll see.” I took a swig of my water. “Where’s your Mistress?”
“Touching up her makeup. Why? Do you want to interrogate her too?”
Well, actually…
But no. Not yet anyway.
“I’ll see you upstairs later, sweet cheeks,” I said.
She scowled at me before she stormed off.
I grinned. This was gonna be fun.
The longer Nate and I watched James and Jordan, the headier the atmosphere became.
I felt a charge in the air that filled my lungs and turned me into a Predator.
They were standing in the same spot, looking around.
Jordan greeted fellow brat buddies with beaming smiles and hugs, but when they moved on, he stayed put.
James had almost spotted us a couple times, but Nate and I were quick to turn around or hide behind people.
Jordan, bless him, couldn’t see much at all. He was too short.
Once we’d made it across the club, closer to where they were waiting for us, Reese texted again. So Nate and I took shelter with Walker, Ty, Lane, and Macklin.
“Fancy seein’ y’all here, my friends,” Walker said in his Tennessee drawl. His mask was similar to mine, black and gold, but his had broken pieces of mirror glass or plexi on it, matching Macklin’s mask.
We shook hands and spent a minute catching up, but I took the opportunity to read the message as soon as the attention shifted to Nate’s recent rope session.
Make that several messages instead.
Here’s what we know so far. Shay hasn’t been in contact with anyone in the community since yesterday. No texting, no DMing, no phone calls. We checked. He knows he’s a suspect. He wasn’t surprised when I told him a couple hours ago that he’d be interrogated.
Furthermore, we’ve had people at the house since seven in the morning yesterday.
Before then, last members left at around two AM.
That gives the graffiti stars five hours to spray down the house and throw away the evidence.
The security cameras at the carport don’t show any vehicles during that time, so whoever came here did so on foot. Unless they just never left.
As for Shay, he went to bed with us a little past midnight, and he was in bed when River got up to go to the bathroom around six AM.