Page 8 of Tell Me Your Desires

Chapter Five

“Did you eat?” Max held the club door open for Jaime, a whoosh of cold air filtering out into the humid night.

“What are you, my dad? Jesus, Max.” Jaime immediately noted the darkness, the…unease of the place. She grimaced, not knowing what to expect as they followed the corridor. A well-maintained, black velvet carpet paved the way. “I’m a grown woman. I know how to take care of myself.”

“I’ll take that as a no,” Max gruffed. “I may not be your ol’ man, but I’m your partner. How are you supposed to have my back if you can’t fuckin’ stand because of starvation?”

Jaime scanned the interior of the club. It was high-end and clean, unlike some places she’d set foot in during her career.

Her eyes tracked the main area, knowing that Lady A could be any of these women hanging all over the patrons.

She tried to confidently put one foot in front of the other, but the idea of not knowing what she could come across weighed heavily on Jaime’s mind.

She had no qualms with sex workers—mostly, anyway—but places like this creeped her out.

The doors that lined the wall to her right, well, what was going on behind them?

Were the women safe? Consenting? Did they want to be here?

This club screamed, ‘I’m a guy, and I’ll do what I want,’ with the focus clearly on the male clients.

Only this time, the walls weren’t dank, and the stench of spilled liquor was nonexistent.

She scanned the room again. Did these women really want a profession like this?

It didn’t matter. It wasn’t Jaime’s business to save them. If they wanted to be saved.

“Baros?” Max nudged her.

“I had a sandwich,” she said distractedly. “I tried making something at home, but it tasted like shit. So, I grabbed something on the way back to the precinct. Happy?”

“As a matter of fact…”

Jaime eyed her partner. “Can we get back to being detectives now?” She smirked when Max flipped her off.

“Hey there. You’re new here. Come for a threesome?”

Jaime jerked her arm away from the buxom blonde.

Calling the woman a blonde was generous.

It was obvious that the color came from a bottle.

It was too platinum to be real. And her makeup was caked on so much that Jaime couldn’t gauge exactly how old the woman was.

But if she had to guess, she was probably in her early thirties.

“We’re here on business.” Jaime flashed her badge. “I’m Detective Baros. This is my partner, Detective Fraser. We need to speak with a Lady A.”

The blonde rolled her eyes. “Always Lady A. She’s busy as usual.”

“Don’t care. We need to talk to her.”

The woman sighed heavily. “I’ll get Frank.” She walked away, giving Jaime and Max a full view of her ample backside, with a thong riding up between her cheeks. That had to be uncomfortable.

“I could have lived a thousand years without seeing that.” Jaime shivered.

Max was still looking. “And you call yourself a lesbian.”

“Yeah, a lesbian. Not a pervert, Max.” She turned to him. “Listen, something has been bothering me about Jimmy.”

“The boyfriend?”

“Yeah. He didn’t seem very upset that his live-in girlfriend was dead.”

“Not entirely true,” Max reminded Jaime. “He was pretty upset about not having someone pay the rent. You don’t think he did it, do you?”

“Nah,” Jaime answered, resting her arm on her gun that sat on her hip.

“Whoever did that to that poor girl had a lot of hate. Jimmy couldn’t even get off the couch.

I think that’s what’s bothering me. Who lives with someone, calls them a boyfriend or girlfriend, whatever, but doesn’t give a shit?

Is that why she was here? Was she looking for something more… exciting?”

“Unfortunately, you can’t arrest someone for being a shit boyfriend. But if it makes you feel better, we can see if his name is on the apartment’s lease. If not, we throw his lazy ass out on the street.”

“Yeah. That does make me feel better.” Jaime saw a tall, heavy man walking toward them.

He gave her the willies. He was that sleazy type who wore polyester with his shirt unbuttoned to show off his hairy gorilla chest. If he gained any more weight, the straining buttons around his protruding belly would pop off.

She instantly didn’t like him. And not just because he worked at a brothel.

The way he looked at Jaime also didn’t sit right. Predator.

“What do you need, darlin’?” Frank had one of those “pornstaches” that was even more obnoxious as he smacked his gum. That was not what Jaime expected, given the style of this place. Honestly, she had expected some groomed younger guy who worked out more than he slept.

“It’s Detective Baros. This is Detective…”

“Yeah, I don’t care. I’m a busy man, darlin’. If…”

Jaime took a threatening step forward. “If you darlin’ me one more time, I’m going to shove that pole up there on the stage so far up your ass it’s going to come out your mouth like a skewered hog.”

“Ahem.” Max stepped in between them. “Are you the manager here?”

“I own this place. And I don’t appreciate you barging into my business flashing your badges. What we do here is legal.”

“What happened out there,” Jaime pointed toward the parking lot, “isn’t. You had a gruesome murder on your property. What kind of scum opens for business after that?”

“We all have to make money, D…etective.”

“Did you know Maisie Freeman?” Max asked, trying to keep Jaime’s temper intact. “Was she a customer?”

Frank’s face was expressionless. “She was Lady A’s assistant. Sad what happened to her. But for the rest of us, life goes on.”

Jaime’s nostrils flared. “Where is Lady A?” The woman’s fucking assistant was dead, and she had the audacity to keep spreading her legs for money. Now, now, Baros. Less judgment.

“She’s busy.”

“Get her. Now.” Another threatening step forward for Jaime.

“Do you have a warrant?”

“We don’t need a warrant to talk to a person of interest, you….”

“We just need to ask Lady A some questions,” Max said quickly. “It could help us determine what Miss Freeman was doing before she was murdered.”

“She doesn’t know anything.”

“We’ll establish that once we speak to her,” Jaime asserted. This was becoming annoying. For all she knew, Ol’ Frank here was stalling so Lady A could make a run for it. “If you don’t want us flashing our badges and talking to every single person in this place tonight, you’ll get this Lady A….”

“I’m Lady A.”

Jaime turned toward the seductive voice.

She certainly wasn’t ready for what she saw.

A woman with cascading auburn hair stood before her, hand on hip, clad in black leather from head to toe.

The top half of her face was hidden behind a red and black laced mask.

This woman didn’t fit with this place. Okay, perhaps she did, but Jaime hadn’t expected someone so…

intriguing to step out of the shadows. As a detective, Jaime took her initial reaction to people seriously, but this was.

.. different. Lady A? Oh, she was a whole lot of woman, and Jaime was not prepared for her body’s knee-jerk response to her.

Fuck that, Jaime thought, casting her gaze on the interior of the club again. And the people who strolled around. She had to remember why she was here. What this place was. The glossy black walls, the chrome poles. Yeah, she remembered exactly where she was.

“A, I’m taking care of this. Get back to work.”

Lady A glanced at Frank before turning her attention back to the beautiful detective.

She took a moment to appreciate the slim, athletic build.

The basic black slacks, tight V-neck tee, and black blazer seemed to hug every curve of the detective’s body.

The long, wavy black hair curled past her shoulders, causing her to appear softer than the scowl she wore.

“Come back to my chambers,” Lady A said, ignoring Frank. “If I can do anything to help, I will.” She turned, fully expecting the detectives to follow despite Frank’s objections.

This time, Jaime and Max were greeted with a fully covered yet incredibly sexy ass. Neither had any quips or comments. They just followed Lady A to wherever she was taking them.

Lady A walked through large, ornate double doors directly to one of the velvet couches.

She gestured to the open seating. “Please. Tell me…what I can help with.” This isn’t a session, Lady A.

These are the police, and they have questions about what happened in the parking lot. So, stop thinking about how gorgeous—

Jaime sat on the edge of one of the couches opposite Lady A. No telling what the fuck goes on in this—what did Lady A call it? Her chambers?

“How well did you know the victim?” she asked, her voice harsher than she intended.

This day needed to end. She shouldn’t be having such a visceral reaction to a…

sex worker. It was disrespectful to Taylor’s memory.

Besides, Jaime didn’t have time to question why her body reacted to this woman.

There was a serial killer out there, and Jaime was determined to end the killings before another innocent life was lost. This Lady A was a person of interest. Nothing more, nothing less, unless she became a suspect.

But the one thing this wasn’t was a social visit.

Lady A frowned. “I’m not sure I did. There are so many that come through here.”

Max gave Jaime a look and shrugged. “How many have you had?”

“Oh, I haven’t counted. Look, I’m not sure if I can help you, but if you have a picture, maybe I’ll have a better idea of who your victim is.”

Jaime took her phone out, opening it up to crime scene and autopsy photos. They were jarring, but it was an excellent way to gauge a person’s reaction. She handed Lady A the phone. “Her name is Maisie Freeman. We were told she was your assistant.”

Lady A’s heart dropped. The phone slipped out of her hand as she stared at the detective. “No. No, Frank said it was a homeless man. H-he said Maisie called in sick.”