I was regretting getting soft and letting her have an out. Being a real boy was bad for busniness.

“The basement is the security holding center for anyone that doesn’t want to behave. Sex makes people crazy, makes them do things they would never ordinarily do in a million years.” I leered at him and saw his jaw clench so hard I was surprised his teeth didn’t break. “You know what I’m talking about, cop.”

He didn’t respond to the verbal jab but he did talk into the radio headset he was wearing to let the rest of his team know he was headed to the basement. Someone must’ve barked back that he needed to wait for backup because he coolly replied that he had the situation under control and would report back once the area was cleared.

Once the doors opened to my concrete prison, I saw Titus’s eyes get wide and his irritation grow. He cut me a hard look as we stepped from the elevator into the barren hallway.

“You’re a sociopath. You do know that, right? What kind of person builds their own jail under a nightclub?”

It was my turn not to respond. He did business his way, and I did it mine. I told Chuck to go ahead and let the cop wander through all the empty rooms, and stood back and watched his fruitless search. Even if I’d been inclined to keep a stash of dope on hand, I would never be stupid or simple enough to leave it in a place that would be so easy to find.

Titus was meticulous. He picked through each and every room, turned over tables and chairs, tinkered with light fixtures, and knocked his knuckles along the solid surface of the walls. If there had been drugs in my dungeon, the cop would’ve found them. He was at the last room, finishing up his thorough search, when all of a sudden ice-cold water started to rain down on us from the ceiling. All three of us barked out different swearwords and I looked at Chuck, who was on his phone screaming at his guys.

The water continued to cascade down from the ceiling, so there was no use in trying to wipe it out of my eyes or shake it off of my clothes. Titus was shooting every dirty word that existed at the ceiling and I knew we were going to have to hike out of the basement using the stairs because the elevator wouldn’t work if there was a fire.

“What’s going on?”

I asked Chuck the question when he was close enough that I could talk to him without having to shout over the roar of the sprinkler system.

“The cops upstairs were poking around in the ceiling looking for the supposed stash. One of them accidentally hit the valve for the fire prevention system. They can’t figure out how to turn it off. It looks like our little rodent problem might have messed up some of our plumbing. Nasty little fuckers.”

“Shut all the water down in the building before everything gets flooded.”

Chuck shook his head as we reached the metal fire door and pushed through. “Can’t. Fire systems run on a different source, so that even if something happens to the main water supply in the building, they still operate. We’ll have to call out a professional to shut it down and we need the plumber to get his ass back in here.”

I shook my dripping hair out of my eyes and glared at Titus, who was huffing along behind me, his gear making the climb out of the basement slightly more taxing for him than it was for me and Chuck.

“You and your boys cost me another day’s worth of business, cop.”

He whipped his soggy hat off of his head and blinked the onslaught of water out of his eyes.

“You can afford it, and I bet those private rooms you somehow managed to get around the antisolicitation laws are probably due for a good old-fashioned scrub-down.”

His quip made Chuck laugh, but once we got to the main floor and hustled everyone outside, the laughter died in his throat. As the water continued to gush, the sight of half the police force and all of my staff shivering and cold shut down any humor he found in the situation.

I took my sodden suit jacket off and grimaced as rivers of water poured off of it and onto the ground around my feet.

“Expect a dry-cleaning bill.” I muttered the words out of the corner of my mouth to Titus. “And good luck trying to get laid tonight. Your girl is going to be pissed that you kept the raid from her, but she’s gonna be really pissed when she finds out you shut me down for no reason.” I wiggled my eyebrows at him. “Like you said . . . she likes me.”

I thought the big detective was going to lunge at me, but Chuck stepped between us and put a hand on the man’s Kevlar-covered chest.

“Enough. There were no drugs, but you succeeded in ruining the boss’s day, so let’s all consider that a win and head to our separate corners of the city, shall we?”

Titus pointed a finger at me. “One of these days you’re gonna give me a reason I can’t ignore to lock you up, Gates.”

I shrugged my shoulders and then cringed as the motion sent icy water right down the collar of my shirt and along my spine. “Probably.” I mean I was already doing a shit ton of stuff that would mean a jail sentence if he knew about it, but I never had any intention of serving time. My entire life before the Point had been a long, horrific prison sentence, so I’d already done time as far as I was concerned.

I looked at Chuck. “Since we’re dead in the water—literally—I have something else I need to take care of tonight.” I made a face as water squished out of my shoes as I walked toward my new car.

The gold tooth flashed at me. “Do I even want to know?”

I smiled back at him. “I’m going Squirrel hunting.”

His chuckle followed me as I sloshed my way to my SUV. I needed answers. I needed information and I needed a change of clothes. I was going to get my hands on all three and track down whoever this Tyler was and find out why exactly someone so young had it in for me. I wasn’t an easy enemy to have and I couldn’t figure out why the kid had decided to take on someone like me his first time out of the gate.

Chapter 15

Keelyn

I was really starting to hate the words “I have something to take care of.” Whenever Nassir told me that, it meant he was dropping out of contact and was up to his neck in trouble. It was testing all my self-control not to bombard him with questions about what was on his agenda for the night as he changed into a very un-Nassir-looking outfit of black jeans, a black knit sweater, and heavy-looking black boots. There wasn’t a logo or label to be seen, and when he twisted up his long hair into a perfectly coiled man-bun at the back of his head, I knew something was up. He never did anything with his hair, and once it was tied up and out of the way, all I wanted to do was pull it down and mess it up. He kissed me on his way out and told me not to wait up, which made me want to kick him. I believed he would keep me in the loop if it was something I needed to know, something that affected me or the club, but sending him off to do God knew what with God knew who was hard when we were so newly settled into sharing this life together.