San Francisco Page 9

  “Back atcha, brother.”

  Without a second glance, I’m out of the office and pulling out my phone.

  I hail a cab at the same time I press “Call” for Wendy on my phone.

  “Boss man.”

  “Lay it on me, Wendy.”

  7

  Jesus! Johan Karr is the biggest douchebag in the known universe. The more I read from the documents Wendy emailed over, the more disgusted and angry I get.

  “How has none of this come out in the press?” I glare down at Wendy on the phone. We’re FaceTiming one another while going over the documents on the computer.

  Her red hair is shiny and slicked back on the sides, leaving a large pouf at the front. She’s wearing bright-red lipstick, which makes her skin look pearlescent. Between the skin tone and the red hair and lips, her blue eyes pop wildly.

  “I don’t know, boss man. I’m pretty surprised some of this information hasn’t leaked to the press. Which, of course, I have zero problem making happen.” She grins wickedly.

  I shake my head and hold up a finger. “Not yet. We need to think about the best way to approach him. The goal is not to ruin him, although after his despicable history, I’d like nothing more than to string him up by his toes and let the paparazzi have a go at him, but the priority is Skyler.”

  Wendy nods and taps at her lips while I scour another document and read out loud.

  “Repeated DUIs, four stints in and out of juvie for thievery before the age of eighteen. As a kid, Johan was no better. Besides the two sexual assault charges his family settled out of court with his high school girlfriend and a woman his first year in college, did you find any others?”

  She shakes her head. “No, just those two. Family paid off both girls handsomely, and the reports were dropped with the police. I had to dig deep to even find anything on Johan from before he dropped out of college and started modeling his way through life. Lot of reports of him dating Sky, though.”

  I grind my teeth, wishing my girl had never gotten mixed up with this scum. “Yeah, don’t remind me.” I cringe.

  Wendy smiles. “Check out his finances. He’s in the hole big-time. Apparently invested most of his money in some company that folded and went bankrupt a couple of months ago. His bank accounts are not only dwindling, they are practically destitute. And with how he’s been partying, jetting all over Europe, snorting things up his nose, I’m getting reports of some shady dealings with loan sharks, who he owes a pretty penny. As in hundreds of thousands. Not to mention, he’s in the hole huge with his credit cards. All maxed out. He needs money and fast.”

  “And what about his parents? They bailed him out several times before. Had his juvie records sealed; otherwise, the press would have dredged up his past long ago.”

  “Yep, and there’s nothing on them having any type of relationship after that point. It seems he wore out his welcome with the Karr clan through those two settlements. I haven’t seen anything in the past five years to indicate they have any relationship. No phone calls listed from his phones. No social media posts of family gatherings of any kind. It’s as if they wrote him off after the last screwup in college.”

  I groan. “I don’t blame them. Mess up once, shame on you, mess up twice, shame on me. My mother would hold on until the bitter end, but my father would never let the two of them get taken over and over by me or my brother. With his history and record as a kid, my guess is they got to the point where they realized they were enabling his bad behavior by bailing him out all the time. When you don’t suffer the consequences of your actions, you tend to repeat them. Johan has been repeating his offenses in different, more despicable ways.”

  Wendy nods while scanning the computer and typing furiously.

  “Even with all of the strikes against him, do you think the two assault charges will be enough to get him to leave Skyler alone?”

  “You mean if we release the charges and the names of the women and what they endured at his hands . . .” Her voice cracks, disappointment and uncertainty slipping along her pixie-like features.

  “Hell no! I’d never do that to those women. They are survivors of whatever he did to them. We can’t dredge up their past in order to hurt Johan or save Skyler’s future. It wouldn’t be right.”

  Wendy beams, and her gaze says something she’s not. Pride, perhaps. Pride that I wouldn’t risk another to save my own woman’s ass.

  “No, it wouldn’t. However, there’s something beyond bad in the last document. I think that will be your ace in the hole. Definitely something so hideous it will get him off Sky’s case. If the information in that report gets out, he’ll be destroyed. His career. His name. Everything. No hope for curing his dire circumstances.”

  I frown and open the last document, scanning it.

  “What am I looking at?”

  “It’s a private accident report. One for which I had to use personal contacts and Michael had to promise favors to secure. This one is very serious, Parker.”

  “Wendy . . . I’m sorry. I wouldn’t have asked had I known you were going to include Michael in this.” My voice quavers, and tension builds at the base of my skull.

  Wendy waves a hand in front of the screen. “No problem. You care about Skyler. I care about my new bestie. I don’t want anyone hurting my new family. We have to stick together and do what it takes to protect one another, right?”

  I close my eyes and take a single calming breath. “Yeah, Wendy, we do. Thank you.”

  “No worries. Michael will enjoy every second of cashing in his rewards with me.” She winks. “And regardless of what you might think, he may be arrogant and growly around all of you, but he loves me to distraction. He wants me to have an extended family. Men and women I can count on. He knows all I’ve ever wanted in life is a family. Marrying him, working here, is giving me everything I ever dreamed of. I want to help, and he wants to help in order to make me happy.”

  Wendy’s words are a sledgehammer to my pride. This woman is honest, straightforward, with no bullshit. If my parents had ever given me a sister, Wendy would be perfect. Even so, she’s digging her way into my heart and the hearts of Bo and Royce as well.

  Before I can say anything, she starts talking, speaking low into the phone.

  “Apparently, Johan is a regular member of a sex club. A heavy-duty, underground, membership-required type of torture club.”

  The word torture rings like an alarm in my mind.

  “I would disgrace the practice and the lifestyle by implying it’s a BDSM club, because what they do there is not part of the lifestyle, nor is it always safe or possibly even consensual. This particular establishment caters to twisted, dark pleasures. Bloodletting, bestiality, burning, branding, whipping to scar, and so much more I can’t even stomach to tell you.”

  “Jesus, Wendy.” The sour taste hits my mouth again.

  Bestiality?

  Whipping to scar?

  What the fuck.

  “And Johan’s a member?” I ask, knowing the answer already.

  “Card carrying. Used to send a hundred thousand a month to an account I was able to track down through a bunch of shell companies and corporations.”

  I grind my teeth.

  “Apparently, one night six months ago, Johan and two women had a bad accident.”

  “Accident?” I’m almost afraid to ask.

  “One of the women ended up dead, the other so messed up in the head she still regularly sees a shrink.”

  “What happened?”

  Wendy’s jaw tightens, and her lips curl into a sneer.

  I watch as she gets ahold of whatever response is plaguing her and emotionally detaches herself from it. She takes a slow breath and swallows. “According to the police statements, Johan and two women got high on cocaine. So high, the women agreed to allow Johan to tie them back-to-back to a spinning Saint Andrew’s cross. The crosses are usually used so two Masters can access their subs at the same time or spin it around and trade, make the subs a lit
tle dizzy, off-kilter, that type of thing.”

  “Okay, I’m following . . .” The image of Skyler tied to one of those, blindfolded, forms in my mind’s eye, and a foreboding shiver races up my spine.

  “Well, Johan gagged one of them with his boxer briefs and blindfolded her. Usually the practice is when you gag a sub in any way, they have a signal, or something they hold that they can drop, a button they can push that makes noise. Basically, something to alert the Dom to the sub’s distress. While high, they didn’t put any of those safety precautions in place.” She takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. I can see by the lines around her mouth and the tired look in her eyes this story is hard to tell.

  “It’s okay, breathe through it and finish up when you’re ready.”

  She takes another calming breath and then rushes what she says next. “So, while he was having sex with one woman, the other had gotten nauseous from the spinning and drugs, and he didn’t realize she was vomiting behind her gag. She drowned in her own vomit. By the time he made his way to the other woman and pulled the gag out of her mouth, she was gone.”

  “Holy hell.” My gut clenches, and my palms become sweaty.

  “Yeah. It shouldn’t have happened.”

  “And how did he not go to jail for this?”

  Wendy shrugs. “The woman signed her life away in explicit consent forms. Also, you could see from the videotapes he didn’t intend to hurt her. The club paid off the family, and used its ties to the judges they had in their pockets and kicked Johan to the curb. It was all swept under the rug as if nothing happened. I will say, if this gets out to the press . . . I may have to go into the witness protection program. The people who run the club are notoriously bad guys, and Michael and I want nothing to do with them.”

  “Christ! This is insanity. This man is disgusting, and he’s got his clutches on Sky.” I slam my fist down on the desk and push my hand through my hair so hard, the curls on top get tangled in my fingers, sending bouts of pain sliding along the surface of my scalp.

  “Well, I’m pretty sure if you threaten him with this information, he’ll back off instantly. He used up all his ‘get out of jail free’ cards on this one, which is probably why he’s doing this to Skyler. He needs the money . . . now. Loan sharks are after him. He’s got a drug addiction, and there’s little interest from the industry for him to model now that his body is looking haggard.”

  This definitely explains why he’s coming after Skyler. He’s a man with nothing to lose, which puts Skyler in a very dangerous predicament. Johan is unstable. Thank God she’s working and not scheduled to meet him and his lawyer for another few days.

  “Thank you, Wendy. I need to try to call Sky again. Please, give my appreciation to Michael and let him know I owe him one. Same goes for you.”

  Her face lights up, and the earlier distress flickers out of sight. “Oh, I know you do. And I’ve already chosen what I want.”

  I furrow my brow and focus on my coy assistant.

  “Which would be?” I tap my fingers against the wood surface of the desk in my suite.

  She grins wide. “Three things, actually.”

  “Three?” I chuckle, enjoying her happiness, the darkness leaving her eyes. I decide to play along, needing to let go of the garbage we’ve uncovered. And I do owe her huge for this info. I don’t know what she and Michael had to do to secure it, and frankly, I don’t want to know. It would likely piss me off and make me want to tie her to her office chair, where we could keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn’t get herself into any trouble.

  “Number one . . .” She holds up her index finger. “Two weeks’ paid vacation at the end of the year so Michael can whisk me away on our honeymoon.”

  “Done.” That was painless.

  She claps her hands with unhindered glee. My goodness, this woman is easy to please.

  “Next?” I encourage her to continue.

  “Double date with you and Sky, when she’s in town, and me and Michael. I kinda sorta already bought four tickets to the Red Sox game next month so we could all go together.”

  I shake my head and laugh out loud. “Meaning you already planned to trample my baseball date with Sky.”

  She pouts. “Michael loves baseball as much as you do, and I want you two to be friends. Plus, I want to get to know Sky better.”

  I think about Michael and his cold, stoic nature. How he secured a fireball like Wendy is beyond me, but there’s nothing wrong with the guy. Seems nice enough based on the one time we all met up at Lucky’s. I actually know very little about him and am intrigued by their relationship and lifestyle choices. A double date isn’t a bad idea. And Sky would love that it’s a very normal, couple-like thing to do. My girl is always looking for ways to live outside of the limelight. Still, it’s not likely she wouldn’t garner any attention.

  I focus my gaze on Wendy. “You know what going out on a date with Skyler could mean, Wendy? The paparazzi are relentless.”

  She shrugs. “Believe me when I say there’s nothing to find on me except my picture on the IG website and only professional stuff to find about my man. I’ve made sure that’s the only info anyone would find, even good hackers. Besides, I already told Michael, and he was ecstatic,” she says with a flourish.

  I snort, thinking of the extremely self-possessed man. “I highly doubt that.”

  “He was!” She pouts.

  I narrow my gaze.

  “Okay, maybe ecstatic is the wrong word to use, but he definitely didn’t hate the idea, and I was able to use your contacts to score us seats behind the dugout. Which means we won’t be bothered by other fans. It’s where all the celebrities sit. Cost you a mint, by the way. I’m figuring out a way to make it ‘entertaining staff and a client,’ so we can write it off on IG’s business expenses.”

  “Of course you are. What’s the third?” I offer a crooked smile and wait for her to lay it on me. The next thing could be as crazy as a pajama party at the IG offices for all I know. With Wendy, anything is possible.

  She frowns. “Third?”

  “Minxy, you wanted three things from me for your sleuthing services.” I cock an eyebrow and lean back in my chair to hear what crazy thing she’s come up with.

  “Oh yeah.” Her eyes widen, and she twists her lips into an expression that leads me to believe she’s uncomfortable . . . no, nervous.

  “Wendy . . . you can ask me anything.” I dip my voice to a tone that’s calm and hopefully kind, especially in light of the harsh information we’ve burned through about Johan.

  She licks her lips, a bit of anxiety set in her body language. “I was hoping, um, thinking maybe you could, you know . . .” Her head tips from side to side. “I mean, if it wouldn’t be too much trouble, and you wanted to . . .” She twists her fingers in front of her.

  “Spit it out . . . ,” I laugh, trying to relieve some of the tension that seems to be rattling my usually unflappable assistant. The only other time I saw her uncomfortable or anything but in control was when the confidential pictures of Sky and me got out to the press. Other than that, she’s solid as a rock and can be as hard if she wants to be.

  “You see, I don’t have anyone to, you know . . . um, at the wedding . . .”

  “Wendy.” I voice the single word as a command to get this show on the road already. She’s beat around the bush long enough.

  She lets out a fast breath. “Would you walk me down the aisle?” She lets out the request as if it was painful for her to say and she had to get it out as fast as possible.

  I frown. “You want me to walk you down the aisle at your wedding? You mean . . . as in giving away the bride?”

  She locks her fingers together and nods.

  “Why?” My surprise is obvious.

  “There’s no one else. I don’t have a father or brother to do the job, and I know you’re technically my boss, but I look up to you, and respect you so much, and . . .” Her face crumbles for a brief moment. “Oh, forget it. Never mind.”
She shakes her head, and I can see her shutting down.

  “Wendy, look at me.”

  She doesn’t and looks everywhere but at me. “It’s okay, it was stupid, and I . . . uh, I’m sorry I asked. It’s too soon. You haven’t known me that long, and—”

  “And . . . shut the hell up and let me speak, woman!” I fire off hotly.

  Her head lifts, and her eyes darken.

  “Jeez, woman, you’d tire a priest in the confessional! Let me speak.” I lighten my tone but still put enough force into my demand for her to truly listen.

  Wendy bites her bottom lip and nods.

  “First and foremost, I’m honored you’d think of me. Second, it doesn’t matter how long you’ve known someone. When they are a part of your life, it’s not up to anyone but each individual to decide the value a person has in their lives. I hold you in the highest regard, Wendy. I’d be very pleased to walk you down the aisle, if you wish.”

  She grins huge. “I wish. I mean, it would be awesome.” The last word is said with a note of awe and excitement.

  “Then I believe we are even.” I smirk so she knows nothing she’s requested is out of left field.

  “Even Stephen, boss man!” She salutes me in a ridiculous imitation of a soldier signing off. “Let me know if there’s anything else you need. I’m going to get back to checking out the staff at Renner Financial Services. What are you looking for in their financials anyway?”

  “A thief,” I state flatly.

  She grimaces. “Bummer. Righto! Back to it.” Wendy finishes and hits the button, and my iPhone reverts to the home screen.

  I scan through the documents she sent once more. Johan Karr is a disgusting individual with some pretty twisted tastes. It looks like his family may have disowned him. His career is going downhill, and he’s a druggie with very little to lose. My blood boils inside my veins.

  How can this disgusting piece of shit have held the beauty that is Skyler in his hands?

  Swallowing down the urge to break every last one of Johan’s fingers, I count my lucky stars that I have Skyler now. I’m in her corner. Me and my team will do anything and everything to get her out of this mess he’s created. I need to move carefully, plan out how I’m going to hit him with this information, so he’ll back off Sky for good.