Page 3 of Bourbon Kingdom
“Yes,” I said breathlessly.
Seriously, award-winning performance.
Grabbing my hand, Rex stood me up and led me out of his living room.
“Where are we going?” I asked nervously.
“Just come with me, Kitten. You’ll see.”
The house was dark, and as Rex led me through an unlit hallway, he flipped on the light, revealing pictures of old Civil War paintings and memorabilia.
Bleh, boring!
Swords and old guns were mounted on the walls in glass cases, as well as documents that seemed pretty old, like they were once a piece of parchment on a scroll. I was tempted to break the glass, grab the paper and shout “Hear ye, Hear ye,” while holding it in front of me, but refrained from making an ass of myself.
I never knew Rex was a history buff, but by the looks of his decor, I was pretty sure he would spring a boner if George Washington walked through the door right about now.
Just when I was gearing up to see the Declaration of Independence pop out of a corner and bitch slap me with its old-time writing, Rex led me into a private den and turned on the light. The room matched the rest of the house with its colonial style decorating, but instead of ancient swords and guns gracing the walls, they were lined with rows and rows of books.
It was like I was in the movieBeauty and the Beast, when the Beast shows Belle his library. If I was a reader, I would be impressed, but who has time to read, am I right?
I tore my eyes off the books and saw what Rex brought me into this room to see. In the middle of the floor was a dark-colored console table, and on it was a constructed model of a building sporting multiple rooms. This had to be Rex’s and Jett’s dad’s plans for Lot 17, no doubt about it.
“What is this?” I asked as I took it all in.
The building was a modern-looking skyscraper that twisted in the middle, like someone took the building and tried to wring water out of it. The small rooms off to the side of the model were what I could only assume were different floors of the building. One room was an almost exact replica of the Toulouse Room, where Jett Girls put on presentations, but instead of using the purple theme Jett was known for, Rex and Leo kept everything black and gold. Yeah, it was slightly bad ass. Another one of the models on the table was full of some of the equipment I saw in Diego’s club with the restraints, but where his materials looked fun to play with, Rex’s looked almost sinister, like a torture room.
Yikes, I cringed from thoughts of what would possibly happen in those rooms.
Interrupting my thoughts, Rex said, “This, Kitten, is Masquerade. It’s a club I’ve been putting together with my friend Leo.”
His “friend” Leo . . . pfft. I kept my breath steady as I listened to Rex, making sure to show no tells that I knew anything.
“Wow, is it a hotel too?” I asked, observing the height of the building.
“You’re very observant. It is a hotel, but the top floors are where all the fun happens. The club will be very much like the Lafayette Club, but will differ in the fact that the girls are naked and the men are allowed to touch and take any girl of their choice back to one of the playrooms.”
Holy shit. Rex and Jett’s dad were running a modern-day brothel. Scandal!
Even though I was surprised, I shouldn’t be. I knew Rex through illegal sexcapades; it shouldn’t shock me that he’d turned his hobby into a lucrative business.
“Are you allowed to do that?” I asked, feeling a little uneasy about the fact that this was what Rex wanted to show me, what he wanted to talk to me about. How could this possibly involve me?
“We’re allowed to do anything we want, Goldie. We know people in the city.”
Nodding, I touched the model of the building and asked, “What does this have to do with me?”
Taking my hand, Rex made me sit down with him on a couch in his office. With his deep brown eyes staring directly into mine, he said, “After observing you with Jett and hearing Leo report back to me about Jett’s interactions with you, I knew it would only take some time until he, once again, messed up something good in his life. He did the same thing with his ex-fiancé, Natasha.”
I wanted to say, “Nuh-uh, you stole her,” but I kept my mouth shut and let him continue.
“We need a lead girl, Goldie. I need someone with experience to teach the girls we’re hiring how to please a man, how to dance for the city’s elite, who will be frequenting our club. You’re the only girl who can do that for me. You’re the only one who has experience and who I can trust.”
He wanted me to train the girls? Bad move, because I would train them to get their asses the hell out of that club.
Rex and Leo were running a brothel, and as I pondered that for a second, it hit me. This was what Diego was telling me when he said Rex and Leo were up to something illegal. This is what Jett was trying to find evidence for. This was how I was going to bring down Rex and Leo; I just had to figure out what the parameters were. Jackpot!
Rex continued, “You will be compensated well for your guidance.”
