“Sure.”
“The day that Maria died was the pinnacle of all my bad days. I’d been starting to regret what the club had become, but it was that day that I realized that it needed to end.”
“What happened to her?” I looked at him with worried eyes. I was scared that he was going to tell me something terrible.
“She shot herself in the head.” His eyes were wide with pain, and I took his hands into mine. “She called Brandon right before she did it. He walked into her room a few minutes after it happened.”
“Are you sure it was her?” I asked, unconvinced.
“Yes.” He nodded. “She left a note and the police verified that the gunshot was self-inflicted.”
“Oh my God.” My eyes widened. “Why did she kill herself?”
“She thought she was in love with Brandon. He rejected her. She got high on drugs, saw him with another girl, and I guess that was it.”
“That’s awful.” I stared up at him. “Absolutely awful.”
“I told Brandon not to mess with the girls, but he never knew how dangerous it could be. Neither of us really knew how damaged most of the girls who worked at the club were. We had a lot of drug addicts, former prostitutes, runaways, abused girls.”
“That’s horrible.”
“Yes.” He nodded sadly. “It broke us both when she killed herself. Brandon left the club right away. He blamed himself for what happened. He didn’t want anything to do with me or the club.”
“He couldn’t have known she would kill herself.” I sighed. “That’s horrible. Why did he tell Katie she was his college girlfriend though?” I frowned. “That doesn’t make sense.”
“You’d have to ask him.” He shrugged. “I don’t know much about his life after he left, aside from an incident he had with Denise and a couple other girls we fired a few years later.”
“Denise?” I looked at him blankly.
“She was a girl who worked at the club.” He sighed. “But it doesn’t matter. That’s not my story to tell.”
“So what happened after Maria killed herself?”
“I closed the club immediately. We refunded all the yearly dues, and I tried to think what I could do to make amends.”
“What happened to the girls?”
“They freaked out. They made good money at the club, even though they hated it. Brandon and I pooled together and gave each woman who went to rehab a million dollars upon successful completion.”
“Wow. That’s a lot of money.”
“We made a lot of money.” He shrugged. “Neither Brandon nor I have ever experienced a life without a lot of money.”
“That must be nice.”
“Not really. You don’t notice or appreciate it when you’re born with it.” His eyes looked away from me. “So do you hate me yet?”
“No.” I shook my head. “I don’t hate you.”
“I hated myself when I realized what the club stood for. The subjugation of women. It made me realize that I’d gotten it all wrong. Women weren’t in it to hurt us. At least most women weren’t. They wanted to uplift their men. Most women just wanted to love and be loved. But they had issues just like us. And many of their issues were caused by men. I realized that I needed to help to uplift women who had been damaged and were on the wrong path. The club attracted all the women who needed our help the most, but instead we just hurt them even more.”
“I guess with your childhood, you didn’t really—” I started but stopped as he put up his hand.
“That’s not an excuse.” He shook his head. “Do you know how many women I’ve met who have been on drugs since they were kids because they wanted to forget the pain they couldn’t get out of their heads? The pain of being abused by their fathers or their uncles. The hunger that they’d lived through for years that selling their body for $10 seemed like a good option. Women who had nothing and did anything and everything they could to get a meal or a warm bed for the night.”
“It’s not your fault that they grew up like that.”
“But I didn’t do anything to help. If anything, I further used them.” His voice broke. “My club was the epitome of everything wrong in our world.”
“So what did you do?”
“I decided to try and help these women.” He stared at me hard then, and I could hear the determination in his voice. “I knew that we got a lot of women applying to work at the club that had problems, so I decided to let that work for me. We continued advertising and hiring girls. Only this time, we weren’t hiring them to work at the club. We were hiring them to see how we could help them.”
“Help them?” I was confused.
“We send the girls to different rehab houses, Meg.” His voice was strong. “Alcohol, drugs, vocational school, new mother training. Anything we think can help improve their lives.”
“What?” I frowned.
“That’s why we do the tests. We’re not looking to see what skills you have for working in the club. We’re looking to see your weaknesses and proclivities. If you go for the co**ine or the heroin in the drug room, we know that we need to get you to a drug rehab right away.”
“I didn’t even see the heroin.”
“That’s because you’re not a drug addict.” He smiled at me and squeezed your hand.
“What about the spelling test? What rehab do you go to for that?”
“We send the girls to different schools with tutors. The spelling test and the math test is to see what level they fit in so we know better where to send them.”
“Oh.” My eyes widened. “So you’re not sending them to men.”
“To men?”
“Like as sex slaves?” I muttered quietly, feeling like a fool as I said it.
“No, of course not.” He frowned. “I would never do that, Meg. Never.”
“What about the babies?”
“Some girls come to us when they are pregnant. We have a nursery that we set up to help look after the babies while the women get clean.”
“Oh, that’s nice.”
“We don’t want there to be any excuse to stop them from getting clean.”
“I can’t believe you do all that.”
“I wish I could do more.” He sighed. “I wish I could help every woman who needs it.”
“It must cost you a lot of money.”
“Money doesn’t mean anything to me.”
“Does Brandon know that you send the girls to rehab?”
“Yes.” He nodded. “He helps to pay the bills.”
“Oh?” I was shocked.
“Yeah. His company, Marathon Corporation, donates $100 million to the club every year.”
“Wow.”
“He’s a good guy.” He kissed my cheek. “He’s a really good guy. If it weren’t for me, he always would have been a good guy.”
“You didn’t make him do anything, Greyson.” I pulled his face down to mine and kissed him. It was then that I noticed that there were tears on his skin. “Oh, Greyson.” I reached up and wiped them off of his face. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” He kissed me back. “I just expected you to pull away from me and leave.”
“I didn’t know the truth.” I shook my head. “I thought you were really evil and I hated myself for still wanting to be with you. I didn’t know who you really were.”
“You do know who I am. I’m a dark bastard.” His fingers gripped my arms. “I don’t blame you if you hate me.”
“Oh, Greyson. I could never hate you. Please never think that. Greyson, look at me.” I pulled his face to look at me. “You are a wonderful human being.”
“I hurt women, Meg. I’m responsible for someone killing themselves.”
“No, no, you aren’t. Neither you nor Brandon is responsible for Maria’s death.” I kissed him again. “Please get that thought out of your mind. Greyson, this club was every man’s fantasy, and while I don’t like the sound of it, that isn’t what this club is now. You’re helping people. You are changing lives. Hundreds of lives. You’re a good man, Greyson. You went through the fire and you came out on the other side.”
“I never would have believed that if it weren’t for you.” He stroked my cheek. “You’ve made me believe that there could be salvation for me. You’ve made me believe that tomorrow could be a brand-new day, a brand-new me, in a brand-new life.”
“Greyson, I think that we were meant to meet.” I wrapped my arms around his waist. “I think we were destined to change each other’s lives.”
“Where do we go from here?” He cocked his head and looked at me.
“I don’t know.” I pressed my head against his chest and listened to his heartbeat. I wanted to tell him all of the things I held deep in my heart, but I knew it was too soon. We didn’t know each other that well, and both of us were still too fragile from everything we’d been through.
“We can figure it out.” He kissed the top of my head. “Would it sound crazy if I told you I loved you?” he whispered, and my heart started racing as I looked up at him.
“Yes, it would sound very crazy.” I shook my head and giggled. “You don’t know me well enough to know if you love me.”
“My heart knew I loved you as soon as I saw you.” He grinned down at me.
“Your heart is silly.” I couldn’t stop myself from grinning back at him.
“This wasn’t how I imagined this going.” He raised an eyebrow at me. “I’ve never told a woman I loved her before.”
“Do you really want to hear me tell you I love you?” I cocked my head. “Won’t that scare you away?”
“You could never scare me away.”
“Then yes, Greyson Twining. I love you. I love you from the tips of my toes to the hair on top of my head. And I think we’re both crazy.”
“That’s why we’re perfect for each other.” He held me tight to him.
“We have to take this one day at a time.” I stared up at him. “I’ve seen what happens when people rush things. I don’t want us to rush this. I want us to do this right.”
“I will do whatever you want me to, Meg. Whatever, whenever. I’ll even leave the club if you want me to.”
“No. I want to help you here.” I squeezed his hand. “What you’re doing is wonderful. And I don’t know why you’re so secretive about it.”
“I don’t want people praising me for doing good like I’m some sort of choirboy. I’m not that good. I’m just trying to seek forgiveness for all the bad I’ve done.”
“I understand, and that’s why I love you.” I kissed him again and he kissed me back passionately. “There’s just one last thing.”
“Yes, my dear?”
“Do you know what happened to Nancy?”
“No.” He shook his head. “I have no idea.”
“We need to find her, Greyson. I’m worried something happened to her.”
“We’ll find her, my love. I promise.”
I stood back and stared up at his handsome face, unable to believe that I had ever doubted him and who he was. I could see the love and slight insecurity in his eyes as he gazed back at me. I would never get tired of staring into his blue eyes. This was a man I felt I could spend the rest of my life with. This was a man who I knew would never knowingly hurt me.
We stood there just holding hands, and I smiled to myself at how lucky I was. I looked up and stared at the private club. I’d had no idea that this place would bring me such joy when I’d first arrived.
A small motion at one of the windows made me pause. I glanced up and saw David and Patsy standing at one of the windows, looking down at me and Greyson, and I froze. I gripped Greyson’s hand and turned away.
I was pretty sure that there was a lot more going on at the club than Greyson even knew about. And I was determined that I was going to get to the bottom of it all. But first I needed to find Nancy. I had a feeling that she knew a lot more than she had let on before she disappeared.
“What are you thinking about?” Greyson’s hands fell to my ass.
“I think the more important thing is what are you thinking about?”
“I think you know the answer to that.” He laughed and his mouth kissed my neck.
I closed my eyes and let myself enjoy the feel of him next to me and against me. I felt safe in Greyson’s arms. I knew he would protect me and love me, just as I would protect and love him.
An image of a little Greyson running around crossed my mind, but I kept my thoughts to myself as I giggled. One step at a time, Meg. One step at a time.