Club Privé
Book V
By M.S. Parker
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2014 M.S. Parker
Published by Belmonte Publishing.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
The Club Privé Series:
Book Description
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chasing Perfection Vol. 1 Preview
The Club Privé Series:
This is Book 5. You should start with Book 1 which you can get here.
The Club Privé series consist of 5 books in total; each book is about 25,000 words or 120 pages – a total of 600 pages.
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Book Description
What I heard and saw in Howard's office changed everything. The only question was, what would I do about it?
When Carrie Summers decides to find out what her firm's client, Howard Weiss, is hiding, she never dreams it will turn her world upside-down. Now she's caught in a more dangerous situation than she'd ever dreamed and no one is coming to save her. Her heart is broken, but is her spirit strong enough to survive what Howard has planned?
Don't miss Club Privé Book 5, the heart-pounding thrilling conclusion to M.S. Parker's Club Privé series.
Chapter 1
Howard
June 13th 2008
This was not the way I’d wanted to spend my day. It was a beautiful June afternoon in the Big Apple, but the atmosphere around me and my lunch companion was anything but pleasant. Earlier this month, after almost seven years, suspects in the attack on this city were arraigned. Today, there were rumors of a breakout of more than two hundred Taliban members from prison. Neither of these things made New Yorkers more inclined to be friendly to the Saudi man across from me.
I wasn’t talking to him at the moment, however. No, I was on my cell phone trying to figure out how much more damage control was going to be needed for the disaster that had happened several hours ago.
“Were you able to move the car without being seen?” I kept my voice low even though the surrounding tables were empty. One could never be too careful.
“Yes, sir, Mr. Weiss.” Gene was my fixer, the man I called when things went to hell like they had earlier today. “And I heard from my police contact, too.”
“And?” I asked impatiently.
“There’s a witness.”
I swore, my hand tightening on my phone.
“Sounds like he didn’t see much,” Gene continued. “It’s the woman’s fiancé. He was so busy with her, all he could tell the cops was that it was a black Bentley. He didn’t even get a single letter on the plate.”
I relaxed a little. Bentleys weren’t exactly common, but I was hardly the only person in the city who owned one. I owned more than one, in fact. If we played our cards right, this could go away.
“Tell your contact to keep you informed,” I instructed. “If the witness remembers anything else, anything that could come back on us, take care of it.”
“Got it.”
The call ended and I pocketed my phone. I turned back to my business partner, a smile on my face. It was almost all genuine. “Everything is clear. We can move on as planned.”
“Excellent,” he said in his heavily accented English. He leaned down and retrieved a suitcase. He slid it across the table to me. “The price we agreed upon.”
I opened the case, my smiling widening into completely genuine as I saw the neat little bundles of bills. “It is always a pleasure doing business with you,” I said as I closed the briefcase.
Now, if the little incident went away, it would turn out to be a good day after all.
Chapter 2
Carrie
Present Day
Shit, shit, and double shit. I silently cursed as my brain scrambled to figure out what to do. If I didn’t act fast, I was going to be caught with my hand in the proverbial cookie jar. Except the cookie jar was a locked filing cabinet, and instead of a cookie, I was holding in my hand the file of a missing girl. A file that contained some pictures that would be pretty good circumstantial evidence saying that Howard Weiss had been in contact with Patricia Vinarisky around the time of her disappearance.
I shoved the file back into the cabinet and closed it, hoping it locked automatically. Now I had to find somewhere to hide. The voices in the hallway had stopped in front of the office door and someone was turning the doorknob. Thankfully, the person on the other side of the door paused.
I ran across the room as quickly as my elegant evening gown and high-heeled shoes would let me. The door on the other side of the office led to a closet or bathroom, either one of which was fine with me. I just needed to be somewhere out of sight.
I ducked inside without looking behind me. The room felt bigger than I’d originally assumed, but I didn’t take the time to see why. All of my attention was focused through the thin crack in the door. I’d considered closing it all the way, but a part of me felt the need to know what was happening.
The door to the office opened and I watched two people enter. One was Howard Weiss, the handsome billionaire whose office I’d broken into. The other was his personal assistant, Annie. Like all of the other women I’d seen with Howard, she was beautiful. Tall, slender, with honey blond hair and light blue eyes. She could have been a model.
At first, I was so focused on hoping they didn’t look my way that I completely missed the angry expression on Howard’s face. It wasn’t until he spoke that I realized he and Annie were in here for something other than a quick grab of some papers or taking a memo. Something had happened while I’d been away from the party.
“How in the world do you lose a person?” His voice was low and angry, more so than I’d ever heard it before. The charming mask that he wore all the time had slipped away, and even though he still had his classic movie-star good looks, there was something ugly about him.
“I double-checked the flight manifests myself, sir. She was checked in.” Annie sounded nervous.
Howard took a step towards his assistant, his eyes darkening to almost black. “I don’t give a fuck if she checked in. I want to know why, when my client went to the airport to pick up his package, she wasn’t there.”
I pressed my hand over my mouth to stifle my gasp. Was I hearing correctly? Or was I just reading into it because I didn’t trust Howard?
“Do you have any idea how much money this is costing me?” The rage in his voice had slipped away and now his tone was flat, and it was somehow more frightening. “My top girls, like her, bring in thirty thousand a night in Saudi Arabia. She was supposed to serve my client for three months. Do the math, Annie. That’s a hell of a lot of money.”
“Yes, sir.” She nodded, her face pale.
“And it’s not just the money.” He stepped around behind her, using his body to turn her towards his desk. “You know Saudi Arabia is my biggest country of export. That’s why we have a partner there. We don’t want to disappoint him, do we?”
When he put his hands
on either side of the desk, encircling Annie in his arms, my stomach clenched. What the hell was he doing? This wasn’t flirting or even inappropriate comments, this was full-blown sexual harassment.
“No, sir.” Anna’s face turned even paler.
“If I can’t provide assurances to my clients regarding delivery of their merchandise, they’re going to go elsewhere.”
He put his mouth against Annie’s ear as his hands moved up to take her wrists. He put her hands flat on the desk. I couldn’t see all of her face, but I could see enough to notice how her expression had changed. She didn’t look annoyed or frightened now, more like she knew what was coming and wasn’t sure how she felt about it.
“If they go somewhere else, Annie, that would be very bad.” Howard’s voice was almost too low for me to hear. He slid his hands up Annie’s hips, over her ribcage, and then around to cup her small breasts through the thin silk of her dress.
I swallowed hard, wanting to look away but unable to actually do it. Annie wasn’t fighting to get away, but rather arching her back, pushing her breasts further into his hands.
“I want to keep you here with me, Annie.”
Howard dropped one hand, moving it low enough that it was out of my line of sight. I was able to see, however, the material of the dress shift, and then Annie caught her breath. I didn’t need to see what was happening to know where Howard’s fingers were now.
“But I need a replacement for my missing girl and unless you can find one for me, I’ll have to send whoever I happen to have on hand.”
Annie made a noise half of protest, half of pleasure. Her face was flushed, her eyes closed.
“And I’d have to make sure they know I punished the person responsible, so I’d be forced to hurt whoever is being sent.” He wrapped his free hand in her hair and pulled, yanking her neck back until she gave a cry of pain. “I’d have to mark their skin with a cane, and still, my client will likely negotiate for their time and inconvenience.”
He pulled his hand from between her legs and she made a sound of frustration. He pushed her forward until she was bent over the desk. He ran his hands over her body, his fingers flexing and squeezing.
“Because of your mistake, I might even have to give them that replacement permanently.” One of his hands went back up her skirt, this time from behind, and she yelped in pain, her nails scratching over his desk. “Do you know what they do to their permanent girls? The ways they fuck them? How many men use them at a time?” He chuckled, and I could see on his face that even though he was angry, he was enjoying himself. His hand moved under her skirt, continuing to do whatever it was that was hurting her.
“What about that new woman, Carrie?” Annie asked, her voice strained.
I caught my breath. She couldn’t be talking about me.
Howard scowled. His hands both moved to the front of his pants, but I wasn’t really paying attention to that now. I wanted to hear why Annie had said my name.
“Carrie’s not ready yet,” he said. “I thought for sure she’d be groomed by now. Gavin has really disappointed me. I’m starting to doubt that he’s the one to take over as my recruiter after all.”
Chapter 3
My head spun and, for a moment, I was afraid I was going to pass out. I stayed at the door, staring into the office, but I barely registered what Howard was doing to Annie now. Her cries and his grunts were background noise to the chaos in my mind.
Howard was selling women. He’d probably sold Patricia. The women downstairs recruited for him. Gavin recruited for him. Everything between us had been a lie. Every touch, every kiss. It all fit. He’d been grooming me for Howard, teaching me how to submit and obey, conditioning my body to respond to commands. His comment about spanking made perfect sense now too. I was learning obedience. Next, he needed to teach me how to enjoy pain.
I put my hand over my mouth and tried not to throw up. My stomach was churning, the champagne I’d drunk threatening to make an appearance. I forced myself to take slow, deep breaths. I couldn’t leave any evidence that I’d been here. Howard was just as dangerous as I’d thought, but now I couldn’t even count on Gavin to protect me. He was part of this.
A sharp cry of pain drew my attention back out in time to see Howard finish. Annie was slumped over the desk, her face turned away from me so I couldn’t see her expression. She had to hate what he’d done to her, had to want him to pay. Maybe I could get her to talk to me, give me the evidence I needed. I wanted everyone involved to pay for what they were doing to these women. My nausea faded as my anger flared. I wanted everyone to pay.
Howard took a step back and I heard Annie suck in a sharp breath of air. He didn’t bother to fix her dress, but rather slapped her ass hard enough to make her jump. “Good girl.”
My hands curled into fists. If I thought I could physically take him, I would’ve been out there in a minute, but all that would do would give him one more victim. I knew self-defense, but this dress would hamper any sort of movement I tried to make. No, I had to bide my time. I needed that file, and I needed to see if he had any more records of what he was doing. When he left, I was going to grab as much as I could carry and then figure out what to do next.
A knock at the door startled all three of us. Annie straightened, a pained look crossing her face before it became blank. Her make-up wasn’t even smudged. For a moment, I thought maybe they’d just been role-playing, that he hadn’t really hurt her, but then she took a step and I saw her wince.
“What is it?” Howard asked sharply, raising his voice to be heard through the door.
I wondered if whoever was out there had heard the end of what had just happened and what they thought about it.
“Sir, one of your guests has a concern regarding the origin of the fruit being served. He’s worried about whether or not it’s organic.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” he snapped. He wheeled on Annie, who flinched a little. “Since apparently none of my employees know how to do anything on their own, I need you to go handle whatever the hell this is and then come back.”
She nodded without looking at him and started for the door. When he spoke again, she paused.
“And, Annie, darling, remember, if this situation isn’t resolved, what I just did to you is going to seem like a picnic compared to what will happen.”
I saw her shoulders stiffen, but she gave no other outward sign that she’d heard the threat. How could she let him do that to her? Hurt her, threaten to sell her off? And it wasn’t like she was some escort he’d hired or one of those bimbos downstairs. That would’ve been bad enough. Annie was his assistant. She had a legitimate job with him and he hadn’t even hesitated to hurt her. I was no psychologist, but I could tell this hadn’t been the first time he’d done this. She couldn’t actually care about him, could she? Was that why she hadn’t gone to the police? Or, the thought came to me, was it something more basic? Howard wasn’t only rich and with friends in high places, but his family’s history meant he probably had friends in low places too. Even if someone did believe her, she’d never be safe. I realized that meant the same for me. If I tried to follow through with this, there was a good chance I could get hurt. I could just walk away, tell Mimi that my relationship with Gavin had ended and I couldn’t be objective. I’d stay away and pretend like none of this ever happened.
The thought was fleeting and immediately followed by the images of Patricia, that sweet-looking girl, and how she’d been degraded and used. I knew now that those pictures didn’t even tell a small portion of her story, and if she was still alive, she was experiencing things worse than I’d just seen. I squared my shoulders and set my jaw. No, I wasn’t going to let fear of what could happen to me keep me from doing what was right.
I turned my attention back to Howard. He opened the filing cabinet and began shuffling through its contents. I took a moment to look around while he was occupied. I needed to know more about my surroundings in case he decided he needed something from wherever it w
as that I’d hidden myself.
I’d been right when I’d thought the space I was in was too big for a closet. It was actually a small bedroom. Well, more accurately, a room with a bed, a double that took up most of the room. The only other thing was a small table to one side of the bed. There was another door, and what little I could see in the dark interior told me that it led to a bathroom. A bathroom off of his office made sense, but if I hadn’t just seen what Howard had done to Annie, I would’ve been puzzled by the bed. After all, he was in his house. It wasn’t like he needed it in case he worked too late. I knew, though, that this bed wasn’t for sleeping. I had a feeling if I looked closely, I’d find the same kind of restraints on this bed that I’d seen on Howard’s yacht and at the club.
A noise from the office pulled my attention back. Howard had set a stack of files on his desk and was putting them into a briefcase. I hoped that meant he was about to leave, even if he was taking the files with him. As long as I could get out of here in one piece, I could figure out a way to find those files again. Howard struck me as the kind of man who’d never deign to destroy anything, no matter how incriminating. He was more of the “keep a trophy and brag” type.
He turned towards the bookcase and my heart started to pound. I knew where he was going even before his fingers brushed over the spine of the book. He frowned as he pulled it out, and I felt a stab of fear. Had I put it back in the wrong place?
Shit.
He opened the book and I could see his body tensing.
The article. What the hell had happened to the article?
With panic threatening to take over, I watched him looking around. When he bent over, I knew he’d spotted it. Would he think that it had just fallen when he’d opened the book and he hadn’t seen it, or would he realize that someone had been snooping? The moment he straightened, I knew that he was suspicious. I needed to hide better.
I started towards the bathroom, but stopped. I didn’t know if it was just a toilet or if there’d be a shower I could hide in. And what if the shower doors were glass? No, I needed somewhere else.