“Maybe.”
“All right, then. I’ll stop getting my cock sucked by her.”
“It’s not like that.”
I snort. “Give me a fucking break. You had hearts in your eyes from the moment you saw her.”
“Fuck off.”
“Just callin’ it like I see it. Now, where is this person who was asking around?”
“It’s her sister…a real fancy bitch. Gave me her card, told me to call if I saw Maddy, only she calls her Madison.”
“Did you?”
“Fuck, no. If Maddy wanted to reach out, she would. Her relationship with her family is none of my business, nor do I want it to be.”
“Well, make it your business. We can’t have her fucking daddy showing up here next. A bullet in a senator will raise all types of flags, and I’m not trying to do any time without a good enough reason. You feel me?”
“Yeah, I get you. I’ll see what I can find out, but so far, she’s said next to nothin’ about her personal life.”
“You’re her personal life now. If she’s warming your bed, she’ll start opening up. Bitches always do. This one’ll be no different.”
“Consider it done.”
I nod. “And leave the card. I’ll see what Plague can find out once he’s slept off his latest tequila binge or whatever the hell he’s into.”
He tosses the small cardstock on my desk and, with a salute, makes his way out the club office. Powerhouse nods toward the door and follows Blow.
I jot down the name and digits before turning to a silent Whiskey. The fool didn’t say a word the entire time my VP was in here defending his new bed interest. “You catch all that?”
He rolls his eyes. “I may be older than you, but I’m not fucking deaf.”
With a chuckle, I hold the card to him. “Then give this to Plague and get what I need.”
He nods. “I’ll get back to you tomorrow on it.”
“Appreciate it,” I grumble and watch him pocket the card. He pecks at his phone, ordering us some lunch.
My gaze falls to the name I’d scribbled.
Alice Compton 287-747-8990 cell
Don’t think I’ve ever met an Alice before. Even her name sounds like she belongs to a fucking senator or on a magazine cover. We don’t need this shit, but my brother seems pretty fucking smitten with Maddy-the-stripper-slash-cock-sucking-wailer, and we take women seriously in our club. If he wants her, then none of us will stand in his way.
Not sure I can say the same for this Alice person. The last thing I want to do is bring her attention to us, but if I don’t, they could turn this into a missing person, and that’ll lead them to us regardless. Those bitchy dancers can’t be trusted, and they all know Maddy has sucked mine and my VP’s cocks while at the strip club. Hell, they’ve all given us a bit of lip service. It’ll put us at the top of her family and the authorities’ lists as suspects. It seems like some sort of shit is always coming at us, so I shouldn’t be surprised. I wonder if any of the dancers have fed Alice information already. I should send a brother there as well to do a little recon.
“Powerhouse!” I holler, and he ducks back into my office. The fucker is built like a goddamn brick house, hence his road name. The females at the club love his ass, so he’s the perfect person to go snooping around.
“Prez?”
“I need you to head over to BJ’s.”
“We need the VIP section? Gonna cut loose tonight?”
I shake my head. “Nah, this is just you, brother. You heard Blow talking about that nosey bitch asking around town about Maddy. I need you to find out if anyone else told her about Maddy coming to the club. Be my eyes and ears on this.” Those strippers gossip like their life depends on it, and if someone offers up a buck, they’ll spill whatever details they have. There’s no loyalty when their lives revolve around a quick payday.
He nods. “I can do that, Prez, no problem.”
“And be discreet. If they don’t know anything, I don’t want them to become curious as well. Don’t offer up knowledge for them to give, ya know what I mean?”
“Got it.” He nods again. “Anything else?”
I shake my head. “Appreciate it, man.” I should mention that he needs to pull his head out of his ass where the dancers are concerned, but I hold back. I’ll let him live in his fantasy world with them a bit longer, but if they cross us, it’ll come to an end.
“No problem. Give me a few hours.”
“Bet. Ride safe.”
He’s out the door before I can say another word. I steeple my hands, staring at the name Alice and wait…it’s all I can do, for now.
Chapter 4
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and
rightdoing there is a field.
I’ll meet you there.
- Rumi
“It’s been a week, and nothing so far. I’ve left my card with a few businesses, and the team has been checking bars and clubs in the evenings regularly. I don’t think this is the spot, Dad. What made you think of this city in the first place?”
“I didn’t say anything before. I didn’t want to get your hopes up in case it was nothing. Madison checked her voicemail. Jenkins gets a printout weekly of any numbers that connect to her voicemail, and the latest she used pinged on a cell tower in that city.”
“Wow, that’s huge! I had no idea she was checking her messages.”
“It’s what had me suggesting Nevada last time, but that lead was weeks old. There’s no telling how long she’s been gone from there. She could’ve checked her voicemail in Nevada as she was leaving—the same with this Texas city. We have no idea. You could be hopping from place to place chasing her, or else she could check it when she first gets to a city. We just don’t know her pattern, unfortunately.”
I sigh, staring up at the off-white ceiling. “I’m just happy to know she’s alive.” My voice cracks, emotion clouding me. “I was getting worried. She’s been gone longer than any time before. I don’t like this, Dad. I want to see her.”
“By four weeks,” my father replies, telling me what I already know, and I clench my eyes shut. She needs to come home. Madison can barely function living a privileged lifestyle, so why would I expect her to stay afloat and alive on the run?
I clear my throat, attempting to reason. “Can Jenkins get us the coordinates to the specific tower the call pinged on? At least we could try narrowing it down to a smaller area and search any convenience stores or mom and pop type places. Maybe she’s found a job at one of those shops that’ll pay her under the table. She has to be doing something; surely, she’d have blown through the few thousand she took when she initially left.”
“Already done, honey. That’s why Richardson has you checked into that specific hotel, and you’ve been searching around it. She was right by you and the team at some point. I have Jenkins monitoring her voicemail log daily this week. If she calls in, we’ll know, and Jenkins will notify Richardson immediately.”
“I’ve never brought it up, and I hate to now, but what if we don’t find her this time?”