“We didn’t let him in,” Logan sighed. “He’s blackmailing Luke.”
What the fuck?
“What the hell does he have on Luke?” And why the fuck didn’t he already know about this? Tag might not be a joint owner in the club, but he was expected to represent them and to ensure that the club and its members were legally safeguarded from shit like this.
“It’s complicated.”
Tag peered back at Logan waiting to hear the complicated version. Shit, he didn’t care which version he received, but damnit, he deserved one of them. And fast.
“What do you mean ‘it’s complicated’? How fucking complicated could it be?”
“It’s about Sam.”
What the hell? Tag was thoroughly confused at this point, but he waited as patiently as he could for the rest.
“Luke is taking the brunt of it all, but actually, this bastard has pictures of Sam.” Logan sighed in defeat. “From one of our visits to the playroom at the club.”
“How the hell did that happen?” Was he in the fucking Twilight Zone? Tag was so damned confused that his head was beginning to hurt. “I thought the club was secure. How the hell did someone get a camera in there?”
Logan leaned back in his chair as he ran his hand through his thick, dark hair. The man definitely didn’t look like he had been sleeping lately. Tag could imagine why. If pictures of Sam were to get out, that could be a huge hit to a lot of people. Including XTX where Sam currently contracted, as well as CISS and definitely Club Destiny.
“We don’t know who is responsible, but we do know that Stephen Crawford paid the person off. Apparently money goes a long way these days.”
“And he’s not blackmailing Luke for money?”
“No. The little fucker is insisting that he be allowed to join the club. After several repeat denials of his application, apparently Crawford wasn’t willing to give up.”
Tag wasn’t happy about the situation in general, but at least there was a method to the McCoy’s madness. For the life of him, he never could understand how Crawford was allowed in.
“Does he know about...?” Tag didn’t finish his statement, but he knew he didn’t need to.
“No. And thankfully neither does Susan Toulmin. Neither of them were ever trusted enough to be invited to The Club.”
Well, at least they had that going for them.
“According to that article, they’re going to start sharing names. The good thing – not that any of this is good – is they only have the names of the few people they might’ve met along the way. Unfortunately, some of those are very influential.”
Which meant Club Destiny was in a world of hurt at the moment.
Neither man spoke for several long minutes as Tag scanned the article in front of him. The only thing he knew for a fact was that Susan and Stephen together was a recipe for disaster.
“Does Travis know about this?” Tag had no idea why he would, but with their newest venture also on the line, he wondered whether they had shared it with him.
Logan nodded but didn’t say a word.
“And why the fuck did I not know about this before now?” Tag was furious, and he was more than a little offended that the brothers’ wouldn’t have sought his help in the matter.
“Shit. I don’t know,” Logan exhaled. “This is Sam’s reputation we’re talking about. And you know I’ll go to any lengths to protect her.”
Tag understood the message. Logan meant that he would go to lengths outside of the law in order to protect the woman he loved.
He didn’t like it, but somehow, Tag understood.
~*~*~
By the time Tag returned to the office, McKenna was just finishing up. He’d been gone longer than she thought he would, but he had been thoughtful enough to send a text message telling her that he would be delayed.
Five hours were one hell of a delay.
Since she hadn’t talked to him, she didn’t know what had called him away for so long, nor was she sure she wanted to ask. Not after the way he was looking at her now.
Her day had been a long, very stressful one, and at the moment, she wanted nothing more than to sit in a dark room and sip a glass of wine. It was that bad of a day. It hadn’t started out that way, but ever since she received that nasty email from Stephen Crawford, things had gone downhill rapidly.
To pass the last few minutes, McKenna had been glancing at today’s newspaper articles online and ran across one in the Dallas Morning News that caught her attention and was probably the reason Tag ran out on her earlier in the day.
“You ready?” he grumbled as he stood in the doorway.