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He pulls up a chair. “Keep rolling last night’s footage. Finding the UNSUB is more important than your insurance claim right now.”
I hate this guy—but he’s right. The sooner we can discover the identity of the UNSUB, the sooner Sadie is out of harm’s way.
Carson looses a heavy breath. “Damn. This is going to take hours. Skip ahead to the timeframe where the UNSUB sent a pic of Sadie to your phone.”
He doesn’t know all the details, but he knows just enough to make me uncomfortable. The letter the UNSUB pushed under my door last night feels heavy in my pocket. It’s too damn close to him right now.
I move the footage up to later in the night…and spot Sadie. Sitting at her table, just like the image of her on my phone. I try to remember the angle of the pic. Where is he? My eyes scan the edges of the room, the stage, the bar…and then the screen goes black.
“What the fuck?” Carson says.
My sentiment exactly. I tap the keyboard, trying to figure out the glitch. But my gut says this is no malfunction. “It’s gone. Deleted.”
“Sonofabitch.” Carson slams his hand on the desk. He whips out his phone. “Quinn, we have a problem. The security files at the club have been tampered with. Some footage from last night is missing.” A beat. “All right. I’ll keep you posted.”
He ends the call and says to me, “Make a copy. I’m getting a uni to deliver the original to the techs at the department. They might be able to recover the deleted footage. We’ll keep watching the rest to log any suspects.”
And so that’s what we do. We settle in for the long haul. With hours and hours of surveillance footage to watch, and my goddess too far away.
* * *
My eyes feel like they’re bleeding. Carson isn’t fairing any better.
“I thought this would be awesome,” he says, rubbing his temples. “Hot Dominatrixes working guys over. Nasty sex kittens getting it on with each other… But I gotta tell you, I think I’m scarred for life.” He blinks hard at the screen. “There is such a thing as too much porn.”
I exhale heavily. “It’s not porn. No sex happens on the floor.”
“And off the floor?”
I grit my teeth.
“Whatever,” he says. “You know what I mean. Too much of a freaky thing is just too much of a freaky thing.” He checks the time on his phone. “Why isn’t your brother returning your calls?”
“He’s recently engaged. I’m sure his fiancé is keeping him busy.” Or he left. Sadie’s call to him to obtain a lawyer for me probably scared him off. Julian’s already been through one investigation with Carson; he won’t stick around for another.
“You want to know what I think?” Carson says, propping his booted feet up on the desk. I crane an eyebrow, annoyed. “There was no forced entry. Someone with a key walked right into this club and deleted surveillance files. And now, that someone is nowhere to be found.”
As much as I loathe the guy, he has a point. Julian and I are the only ones with keys to the club. Since I was with Sadie at the department this morning, that leaves the question of my brother. But why? Not to protect me, that’s for sure. And doing something so obvious only implicates him further. There has to be another reason, like high profile members being on those surveillance files. Maybe he’s trying to protect his cash cows.
Or… “Someone could’ve stolen his key,” I say, a sudden fear washing over me. The UNSUB got to me easily; he could’ve just as easily gotten to Julian.
Carson sinks his chin on his hand, his eyes looking glazed and far away as he considers this possibility. “We need to go.” He leaps up, already grabbing his jacket.
“I’m not going anywhere. I’m sticking right here and finding this son of a bitch on this footage. He’s here somewhere, and I’m going to match him to Sadie’s profile.”
“Profile,” he mocks. “I spent time at Quantico. I can tell you the fucking basics of a serial killer, too. And I can tell you he’s not on that footage. He’s smart enough to have us chasing our tails for weeks. You think he’s just going to pop up on the screen? We’re wasting our time here. Besides, the techs are going over the surveillance. They’ll find something before we do.”
“I’m not here for you. I’m here for Sadie. This is how she feels I can help, so it’s where I’m focusing.”
He smirks. “Man, she has you whipped. Not hard to figure out who’s the dominant in your relationship.”
Fire simmers beneath my skin. “I’m not ashamed to admit I serve her. Worship her. If you think you’re insulting me, you’re wrong. I’ll always obey her orders.”
His forehead creases. Then he turns to go. “Fucking freaky shit…” he says under his breath.
“Good luck trying to find Julian on your own.” I have a good idea where my brother took off to, but I’m not letting Carson bring him in without me.
Carson reaches for the doorknob right as the door opens. He steps back as a man in a black trench coat enters. “Who the fuck are you?”
