“You think we’re being targeted?” Jamie asked.
“All I know is right now, the cops are looking at us a little suspiciously. These women, they’re innocents, and they’re being killed because of what we do.” Lewis stared at the board. “Our lives within the club are no longer secret.”
“What do we need to do?” Richard asked. “I’m not going to sit back while a bunch of innocents are being targeted because of us.”
“I’ve got to use all the data I have, but I need access codes into your security. All of your security codes.”
“Wait? Why?” Jamie asked, standing up. “Do you think one of us is the snitch?”
“Not at all.”
Richard watched as the men started to glare at each other, ready to fight.
This was not part of the club, and Richard was pissed off. “Enough!” He yelled the word, so everyone paused, turning toward him. “Do you see what is happening? We’re having doubts about each other, and it was us who went looking for them.” He looked at each of his nine club brothers. “We’ve got each other, and right now, innocent people are dying. If you’ve got a problem with Lewis having our access codes to help find these fuckers, then I say I’d vote you out of the club.” Grabbing some paper, Richard wrote down the access code. “That’s all you need to know.”
“This is our company.”
“We came together for trust. We each have access here, and a woman was killed because she cleaned for us.” Richard shook his head. “I’m not taking any fucking chances.”
One by one, the men wrote down their access codes. It was a single code known only by them, which allowed for security around the building to be checked. Lewis didn’t need to entire codes. Even Richard didn’t have every single code to each building, or the access point for staff files.
Lewis took a seat at the computer desk. He looked over the codes, and then set fire to the piece of paper. Richard didn’t question him as he got to work.
“What do you have to do?” Richard asked, taking a seat.
“First, I access the victims’ files, and then I cross reference them to the nights they were killed, and I can use some software that I created that allows me to extract anomalies based on these facts. It’s the quickest route to finding out what went wrong.”
“You do that.”
Richard rubbed at his temples. This was getting too damn confusing, and he didn’t want anyone to get hurt.
The men sat down around the table.
“You’ve put three guards on Jay and Temperance,” Blake said.
“Temperance is my woman. I’m sharing her with Jay. You got a problem with that, we can step outside and solve that problem.”
Blake held his hand up. “A ménage relationship isn’t going to go down well in the market.”
“Do I look like a give a fuck? The press can say I’m fucking Jay for all I care.” He’d never been one to lose sleep over the speculations of other people. Growing up in foster care, Richard had learned not to take anything to heart. There were cruel people in the world, and there were nice people. Most of the time, he encountered the pieces of shit that didn’t deserve to walk on this earth.
“Wow, is it serious?” Jamie asked.
“Yes, it’s serious,” Richard said. “I love her.”
“Wow, the beast has fallen in love.” This came from Sean.
“I’m not the beast. You know that. I know that.”
“Actually, you kind of are. You’re not exactly known for your lovely manner,” Jackson said.
“Whatever. I’m not here to babysit what people think.” He leaned back into his chair. “God, I need a break.”
It had been a long time since he took a vacation, and he was starting to need one a lot sooner than he anticipated. He rarely ever vacationed.
The very thought of a nice beach, the ocean, privacy with Temperance and Jay, was exactly what he needed.
“How’s Mandy?” he asked.
“She’s fine. She’s going to more therapy, and trying to access her memories. I’ve stopped trying to pressure her.”
“None of us want to pressure her. She’s been through so much already. I bet none of us can really imagine what she’s gone through,” Russ said.
“Let her have this time when she doesn’t need to remember, and give her the peace she actually needs.”
“That’s what I’m doing,” Lewis said. “I hope I can find out who these monsters are before another girl goes missing.”
This time, the missing girls were on their hands as they were people that were close to them. Whoever the bastards were, they had made it personal.