Jaded (13 page)

“If she isn’t, she’s pimping those girls.” Jase cringed inwardly. The connotations of that statement bugged him deeply.

“I’ve worked this town for a lot of years, only done the UC thing for a few years, and we’ve never had a problem, not even a whisper of impropriety from Callahan’s. Hell, the chief stops by once in a while,” Ricco said.

“I heard that. But the new owner is strapped for cash. Maybe he’s pressuring the girls. Maybe he’s making promises to the members and when a guy has a hard-on for a woman and he’s told to go home with blue balls, shit happens.”

“I’ve been by Morton’s house twice. No luck.”

“Jade told me he was out of the country. I don’t buy it. I’m going to swing by there right now. Did you get any other addresses on him?” Jase asked.

“Two: one in Woodside and one at the Harbor Marina in San Francisco, where he’s got a yacht. I’ll hit each one of the addresses. Plus, I have a lead on the Genevieve girl. I don’t mind the legwork. You keep close to the crack, man.”

Jase smiled. “I appreciate that, man. Also, Jade left Genevieve a message yesterday to give her her correct home address, I’ll see if she has it and call you back.”

Jase felt his mood lighten at the prospect of talking to Jade. She answered on the third ring. “Hello.” His blood warmed the instant that honeyed voice of hers answered.

“Good afternoon.”

“Hi, thanks for the coffee.”

“Any time. Did your girl Genevieve leave her address?”

“No, and she didn’t come in last night, either.”

“Is that unusual?”

“Genny is flaky, but while she has only been here for a couple of months, she hasn’t
not
shown. No phone call, either.”

“Is there anyone who has been to her house who could give us a lead on where to find her?”

“No.”

Gauging her tone, Jase had no reason not to believe her.

“I have two references here on her resume.”

“Give them to me, and I’ll have Dispatch do a reverse.”

Jade gave him the numbers and said, “I’m worried about her. I’m calling them now.”

“Get back to me ASAP.”

“I will.”

Two minutes later, Jase’s cell phone rang again. “I left messages at both numbers.”

“How thoroughly did you check her out when you hired her?”

“Very thoroughly. Down to a physical.”

“Do you have the girls screened for STDs?”

With no hesitation, Jade answered, “Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because, Detective, I am not so naïve as to believe that there wouldn’t be occasions when the girls hit it off with a member and things lead away from the club.”

“But isn’t it a conflict of interest for a member and employee to hook up?” he pushed.

“We as a business cannot deem who our employees can and cannot socialize with. We can between fellow employees, but not members of society at large.”

“Is that why you shot Mac down?” Jase clenched his jaw.

“What?”

“Mac, because it was against company policy?”

Her voice turned frosty. “I’m entrusted with maintaining and upholding company policy. Mac knew better than to proposition me, so of course I turned him down.”

Jase scowled. So, Mac
did
have the hots for Jade. She’d shot him down. The guy went up a few rungs on the suspect ladder. For his own personal knowledge, Jase asked, “Would you have said yes if it weren’t against policy?”

“That is none of your business.”

Well, there he had it. Another dead-end conversation about men with the ever-elusive Jade Devereaux.

Jade hung up the phone, her frustration over Jase’s belief she was a prostitute gnawing at her more than it should. For the first time in years, she cared what a man thought of her.

No sooner had she hung up the phone than her office door opened. Jade looked up, ready to tell the rude person to knock first, but she held her tongue. “Mr. Morton. I thought you were in Milan.”

“Jade,” he said, walking slowly into her office like a big cat stalking a mouse. “I came home early.”

Jade came to the realization immediately that they were alone in the building, and while she had no cause to fear for her safety, she had never felt as comfortable with Jack Morton as she had with Sam Callahan. Her savior. Sam was a benevolent old man, and if he hadn’t taken her under his wing all those years ago, she shuddered to think where she might be.

Jack Morton was the polar opposite of Sam. Jack was short and slick, and his black eyes appeared to see all, and worse, see through her. “It seems we may have a bit of a problem.”

“Mr. Townsend’s death cannot be linked to the club.”

“I wasn’t speaking of Andy.”

She frowned, perplexed.

“What then?”

“I received a rather indignant call from a certain CEO two nights ago.”

Jade’s spine stiffened.

“Apparently, he was less than satisfied with the service he received.”

“Mr. Morton, Mr. Hiro received the regular treatment. Nothing changed on the club’s end.”

Jack smiled, and the gesture reminded her of a reptile. “Perhaps when I gave you that hefty raise, you didn’t understand how it affected your job description.”

“It was my understanding, sir, that my raise was part of the sales agreement with Sam.”

Casually he looked around her office, and said, “If you haven’t noticed, operations are…different now.”

Jade kept her composure, even knowing where the conversation was going. “I understand the stringent guidelines for membership have been relaxed, and with that the quality of members has dipped. It has created problems.”

Jack moved in closer to her. “No, you have created problems by not accommodating the new clients and the expectations of the established membership.”

“Are you implying that membership includes physical interaction?”

“Let me spell it out for you, Miss Devereaux. Katsuo Hiro paid a bonus for dessert. He didn’t get it. I had to refund him his fee and now he refuses to come back until you go to him at his suite at the Fairmont and make things right.”

“Let’s speak plain English, Mr. Morton. The bonus was for sex.”

“Exactly.” He stared at her hard and unwavering. “This was not negotiable.”

She stood. “I’m not for sale.”

“Everyone is for sale.”

Jade shook her head. “Not me.”

“That’s not what I hear. And quite frankly, it doesn’t matter. If you value your position here, make sure our members are satisfied in every sense of the word. If you can’t perform, then I’ll find someone to replace you. Genevieve has experience in this field as well. Whores, even high-class ones, are a dime a dozen.”

Jade slapped him, and as much as she regretted it, she wanted to do it again.

M
orton didn’t flinch, except to slowly rub his cheek. His dark eyes glittered maliciously. “Under different circumstances, that would have cost you your job. But as it is,
Ruby Leigh,
I think you’ll apologize and do what is necessary to see to our members’ needs.”

Jade froze, her blood slowed in her veins, and she felt the sudden onslaught of defeat. So that’s how Otis got in. “There seems to be some misunderstanding, Mr. Morton. You and a new member, Otis Thibodeaux, seem to have me confused with this Ruby Leigh person. I have no idea who she is, and would really appreciate it if you would refrain from calling me that. And if Mr. Thibodeaux continues to harass me, I will go to the police.”

Jack smiled, the gesture unnatural. “You’re a cool one, Jade. I’ll keep your little secret, so long as you keep mine.”

He turned then and walked out of the office, not giving her a chance to tell him to go to hell. In his wake she paced the small space of her office. She’d been outed! She felt trapped—suffocated, pushed against a wall. And no matter which course of action she took, she would lose, and lose huge. The sudden urge to run fast and far overcame her.

“Miss Jade?” Rusty asked from the door.

He startled her from her thoughts. She turned to see him calmly regarding her. Her tension eased.

“Rusty, what are you doing here?”

He smiled and blushed. “I left early last night, so I came back to clean up in the stock room.” He moved into the room and squinted at her. “What happened to your face?”

Jade inhaled deeply, then exhaled. She smiled at the timid boy. He looked so concerned. “I got a little too close to a wall.”

“Oh, sorry.”

“I’m okay. I have some paperwork to finish up here. You can stay as long as I’m here, but I’ll be leaving in about an hour.”

Rusty bobbed his head and backed out of the room. “Okay, holler if you need anything.”

She smiled again. “I will.”

As Rusty left the room, she let out a long breath. Immediately, guilt grabbed ahold of her. She felt like a rat on a sinking ship. Rusty depended on her for an income, just as the others here did. And while someone like Mac or Thomas or Bernard her doorman could walk into a job anywhere, someone like Rusty couldn’t. He was slow. He’d been desperate when she’d hired him six weeks ago, desperate, hungry, and willing to clean toilets for pennies just so long as he had a job. She gave him a chance. Many of the girls who graced the rooms of Callahan’s, while beautiful, were in similar situations. They had siblings they looked after or, like Dominique, student loans to repay. Jade knew all too well the hardships of being the one everyone looked to for survival. She didn’t want anyone to have to go through what she had gone through. So, here in her small part of the world, she could make a difference. Or had been able to. What Jack Morton wanted to do with the club would change everything. There was no pride in prostitution.

Angrily, Jade got back to the business of the club’s books. As she entered each number into the spreadsheet, her anger mounted. How dare Jack Morton! She deleted a file and started over, realizing she had put the bar order in with the linen order.

Rusty popped his head into her office and smiled. “I’m done, Miss Jade!”

Her mood instantly softened. “Thank you, Rusty. I’ll see you tonight.”

He left with a big grin on his face.

Jade finished up her paperwork and headed out of the office. She needed some air, she needed to get away, and for the second time in her life she needed to run away.

Squeezing the steering wheel so tight her knuckles whitened, Jade maneuvered south, suddenly finding herself driving through the Santa Cruz Mountains. She hadn’t planned on going to the club tonight, but Rusty had changed her mind. She needed to micromanage now. Too much depended on the club not being reduced to an all-out brothel. Despite her attack, the bruising was minimal and the swelling gone, and she could, with appropriate cosmetics, hide the evidence.

Her cell phone rang.

“Hello,” Jade said.

“Katsuo is waiting at the Fairmont, suite four forty-five,” Jack Morton said. The drone of the dial tone hummed in her ear. Angrily, she pulled over and then did a quick U-turn, heading back toward San Jose.

Forty-five minutes later, she pulled up in front of the Fairmont, handed her keys over to the valet, and went up to the fourth-floor suite.

As Jase stepped out of the elevator, he watched Jade enter the lobby. He stood back and watched her hit the up button to the set of elevators leading to the suites. Was she going to see Otis? Just as the doors closed behind Jade, Otis stepped out of the elevator that opened to the lobby. Jase stood back. If she were there to see Otis, she’d be back down in a few minutes. If not?

He waited almost an hour before she came back down. Her flushed and disheveled demeanor told the story of what she’d been doing for the last hour. Anger flashed hot and violent through Jase. He was a bigger fool than any of the members at Callahan’s.

Jase strode into the vestibule and caught her arm, frustration driving his actions. “Do you always take a room at the Fairmont in the middle of the day? Or are you working?”

Jade cried out and pulled her arm from his grasp. “Are you following me?”

“What if I am?”

“Then you have a problem. Leave me alone.”

She started to walk through the lobby.

“Why do you do it?” he challenged.

Jade ignored Jase’s question and felt the shocking sting of hot tears. He wouldn’t understand. She wasn’t sure she did.

She kept walking, but he grabbed her arm again and spun her around. He grabbed her other arm and pulled her out of the main lobby area and into a plant-shrouded alcove. She didn’t struggle; she refused to make a scene. When he roughly pushed her up against the wall and the long length of his body pressed against her, she felt a sudden hot swell of desire. It stunned and terrified her. He felt it, too. The hot flare in his eyes spoke volumes. Jade didn’t understand what happened next. Jase’s lips slammed hard against hers, taking, not giving, not caring. He invaded her space. He gave her no quarter, and to her utter shock, she allowed him. She didn’t recoil. She didn’t have the urge to run away, she didn’t feel violated.

She felt emancipated.

Just as quickly, the kiss ended. Jase cursed and pushed her away as if she’d burned him. He stepped back, swiped his hand across his mouth, and stalked past her. Breathless, she slumped against the wall and suddenly felt very cold and she began to shake.

He watched her slip from room 445 and his blood pressure spiked. Fury encompassed every cell in his body. She’d lied to him. She’d lied to them all! When the elevator closed behind her, through his angry haze he glanced up and down the hallway, then hurried to the door and knocked.

“Who is it?” Mr. Hiro called.

“Jade sent me,” he answered in a low husky whisper.

The door immediately opened. The CEO smiled, his kimono open, his erection twitching, and said, “I’m glad she—”

He shoved the smaller man back into the room. “Shut up and turn around,” he ordered.

The door closed heavily behind them. “What is the meaning of this? Where is Jade? Who are you?” Katsuo demanded.

“I’m her avenging angel. Now turn around and put your hands behind your back.”

Jase continued cursing. Son of a bitch! He slammed his fists against the steering wheel. She was a fucking whore! And a liar! And for the life of him, he couldn’t keep his hands off her. She’d invaded his dreams at night and his every thought during the day. She lied to him, she was breaking the law, and she was withholding evidence. And all he could think about was how fast he could get her out of her clothes.

Shit!

His cell phone rang. Grateful for the interruption to his raging libido, Jase answered. “Vaughn.”

“Jack Morton was seen leaving Callahan’s earlier today,” Ricco said.

Fuck me.
“I thought he was out of town.”

“Apparently not, and he doesn’t want to talk with us. But he talked with your lady.”

“She’s not my
lady.”

“Back down, just a figure of speech.”

Jase fumed. “Where is he now?”

“Not sure, but I’ve got a car on him, he headed up the one-oh-one. My guess is he’s headed to the city.”

“I have to take care of a few things here.” Jase let out a long, exasperated breath. “Can you go up there and talk to him?”

“Not a problem.”

“Do you know anyone who works at the Fairmont?”

“Nope, what do you need?”

“I need to get a look at the current guest list. Miss Devereaux just spent an hour in one of the rooms.”

“Maybe she got a massage,” Ricco joked.

Jase was not amused. “Maybe she gave one.”

“How much do you think a woman like that charges?”

“I have no clue.” And Jase didn’t want to know.

“Ask her.”

“She swears she’s not in the business.”

“You don’t believe it?” Ricco asked.

“No. I don’t. Too much points the other way. Not only is she turning tricks, she’s hiding something, something other than her involvement with Townsend. It’s connected to Otis Thibodeaux.”

“I got a hit in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana. On a Colonel Leland Thibodeaux. Deceased. I’m digging some more.”

“Send me what you have. There’s a connection there, and I’d bet my next check our Jade Devereaux and this Ruby Leigh are one and the same. I want to know why she’s running.”

After Ricco hung up, Jase sat in his car for a long time, wondering why the hell he wanted a woman who, like his mother and sister, could not be trusted, and why it bugged the hell out of him she was lying to him.

He closed his eyes and rubbed his chin, then his temples. Jase expelled another long breath. Maybe it was just sex. With the exception of a few weeks ago, it had been months. Coming out of his last UC assignment, he’d taken some much-needed downtime in Cabo. No shirt, no shoes, no problems. And no sex. He didn’t want interaction on any level, he just wanted to feed his soul with utter nothing.

It had come to him down there on the white beaches of Mexico that he would never have what his longtime friend and mentor Ty had: a woman who made him a better man than he’d been without her, a woman who loved him unconditionally, a woman he could trust. A woman who wouldn’t trot off the minute a better deal came along.

Jase grinned as he thought of Ty and Phil. He never thought he’d see his buddy settle down, much less get married and turn into a freak over a woman. He supposed anything was possible. He sure as hell never thought he’d find himself thinking about a woman like he did Jade Devereaux. While he did not trust her, he admitted he lusted for her. And that was as good as he gave.

Jase understood the true ways of a woman very well. He’d lived it, what with the parade of men his mother brought through the house: always trading up, and realizing many times too late she had actually traded down.

Mother had taught them well. By the tender age of eight, Jase knew that if the front porch light was on when he got off the school bus, he was to play outside and not come in. His older sister, Dawn, would take him down the street to her boyfriend’s house, where he would have to sit in the living room while she went down the hall with Kyle. Jase learned quickly that the sounds coming from his sister’s boyfriend’s room and the ones coming from his mother’s room were one and the same. Like his mother, Dawn grew bored easily. Jase didn’t fall far from the tree. He’d lost his virginity at thirteen and went through girls quicker than his mom and sister went through lipstick.

Why then, he wanted to know, did he feel this unnatural attraction to a woman who got paid for her revolving bedroom door? The very things he despised in his mother and sister he despised in Jade. So, why the pull? She was beautiful, exotically so, but that wasn’t it. Was there some type of chemical reaction? Would sex tamp it down? Sex with a suspect wasn’t a good thing. He’d seen it cloud the judgment of his buddy Reese. Jase smiled. Despite the fact that Reese followed the crack, he’d found a damn good woman in Frankie, she had been suspect
numero uno
in a murder investigation. Jase wiped his hand across his face and clenched his jaw.

He knew if he got Jade out of his system, he could move on. Jase shook his head. Yeah, like she’d feel like relieving him of his hard-on. He turned the key in the ignition. Stranger things had happened. He’d go to the club tonight and watch her. She was guilty of many things, and by applying pressure by his presence alone, she would start to crack.

Frustrated and feeling as if her life was coming unraveled at both ends, Jade headed back to the club. In a valiant effort she tried to push all thoughts of a certain detective from her mind. But each time she tried, her blood quickened. Unable to beat him from her brain, she threw in the towel, pressing her fingertips to her lips and reliving the hard kiss. Jade moaned, the ache in her loins flaring. Dear lord, what was happening to her? How,
why,
did she respond to him as she had? And what the hell was she going to do about it? Nothing! This time, adamantly, Jade forced Jase from her head. She needed to focus. To take her mind off him, she tried Genny again. And finally Genny answered her phone. She didn’t sound well. “Genny? Are you all right?”

“Hi, Jade, sorry I didn’t call you back, I’ve been puking my guts up.”

“Flu?”

“No, food poisoning, I think. I feel better today, just a little weak.”

Jade got to the point. “Genny, Andrew Townsend is dead, and the police want to talk to you.”

“Oh my god! What happened?” Genny asked, clearly shocked.

“I’m not sure, but after he left Callahan’s Saturday night he was found dead a few blocks from here.”

“Oh my god, Jade, this is terrible. Do—do the cops think I did it?”

“I don’t think so, they just want to talk to you. You were the last person to see him alive.”