Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

Spencer

I was already up and working on my second cup of coffee by the time West reached the kitchen. Between banging the hell out of him twice last night, I hadn’t slept much. Despite the lack of sleep, I was full of energy and planned on digging around for info on Skyler. I was eager to find everything I could about him. I just didn’t want West to know it yet.

Playing at Edge last night with Skyler had invigorated me, and it got West excited and energized again too. Both of us had nearly lost hope of ever finding a solid third.

“I’m surprised you’re not exhausted after last night,” West said as he set his coffee tumbler under the spout of the coffee maker and tossed a pod into the machine. I laughed and then took a sip of coffee from my mug.

“What are you doing today?” I asked, even though I knew he had something to do for work.

“Just some little stuff. I’m hoping to be home by nine tonight. What’s your schedule today?”

“I have a small pile of accounts to look into for Michael.”

“Have fun with that.” West snapped the lid on his coffee tumbler and walked toward me. “I’ll see you tonight.” He grabbed my ass and said, “Maybe tonight I’ll fuck the hell out of you and make you feel it tomorrow.”

West headed toward the garage as I hollered, “Are you feeling it today?”

“Yes, I am.” He hadn’t turned around but stretched his arm upward and flipped me off.

Once I got the notification that the garage door had closed, I headed to my home office to begin my digging. While I waited for the laptop to wake up, I sipped on my coffee and flipped to a blank page of my steno pad.

“Let’s find out some details about you, Skyler,” I said under my breath. I took one more sip from my mug and set it on the desk along with my phone.

First, let’s get your last name.

I started with getting into Edge’s system that housed the member profiles to grab Skyler’s last name. I wasn’t surprised that the security was bare bones on Edge’s site, and within moments I was in the database, scrolling through the photos of members. The butterflies fluttered around in my stomach the second I found Skyler’s picture.

“Skyler Diego,” I said under my breath.

I leaned back in the chair to admire the picture and stared unapologetically at him. I took a screenshot of his member profile page, including the picture, then cropped out everything with the exception of the photo and sent it to my phone.

He wore a confident smirk on his face, one that looked like he wanted to make sure he came off as a tough guy or was hard around the edges. West and I had seen that type of guy with our everyday jobs, and it usually annoyed the fuck out of me, but I didn’t mind it with Skyler. After seeing genuine tough guys daily, I could tell that Skyler was all bark and no bite.

The playful gleam in his eye told me he reserved that side—the playful side—for a select few. West and I wanted to be lucky enough to see that side of him. Hell, we wanted to be the men who pulled the playfulness out of him.

His jawline was a mix of masculinity and youthfulness. Though he wasn’t clean- shaven, I imagined it was a few days’ worth of hair growth. My guess was that he often kept the scruff so he’d look older and rougher. I smiled as I remembered how scruffy his face felt, but the hair wasn’t rough or abrasive. Yet.

I stared at him for a few long minutes, imagining how well he would fit in with West and me. Visually, Skyler did things to my body. Not only were the butterflies dancing around erratically, but my cock had stiffened and demanded attention. I unzipped my pants, reached into my boxer briefs, and took hold of my shaft. Leaning back in the chair, I pulled my shirt up so it wouldn’t get messed up while I jacked off to Skyler’s picture on the screen. I didn’t prolong anything and quickly came on my chest. That took the edge off for now, but I knew it was only a matter of time before I’d need more of Skyler. I sat upright as best as I could without making more of a mess and yanked a bunch of tissues out of the Kleenex box behind the laptop screen. As I cleaned the jizz off my chest and abdomen, I grew curious about the age gap.

“How old are you exactly?” I wondered out loud as I tossed the tissues in the trash can next to the desk. I scrolled below his picture and found the date of birth and did the math. “Okay, so twenty-four.” Not too bad. I didn’t feel like West and I were robbing the cradle at least. West was only eleven years older, and I was thirteen years older.

Working for Michael Alatorre at Black Diamond had afforded me access to nearly any system I wanted, or needed, access to. When looking up potential clients and partygoers of Michael’s, I had four systems that were tried and true. They always gave me a solid page or two of valid personal info that I needed in order to give Michael the approval or denial on whoever I was looking into. After the four systems had failed to feed me anything on Skyler, I leaned back in my chair and stared at the screen.

I was perplexed and a bit confused as to why I couldn’t find anything on Skyler while searching the routes that almost always turned something up. If I couldn’t locate info on someone using these methods, it typically meant the person was good at hiding and purposely trying not to be found. Those were the type of people I would advise Michael to steer clear of and not let into his resort parties or open a tab for. While common sense was telling me to listen to my own advice, my heart was telling me otherwise. There had to be some explanation.

“What are you hiding?” I murmured.

Determined to find out something on him, I moved on to the darker recesses of the web. I was immersed in searching and was startled when my phone vibrated on the desk with an incoming call. I pried my eyes away from the screen and was shocked to discover I’d been obsessively searching for hours, and now it was going on noon. I swiveled around in the chair to face the window while I answered the call from Sawyer. I didn’t want to be distracted by the screen when talking to him.

“What’s up, Sawyer?” I asked.

“Hey, Spence. Michael and I are in Denver for the afternoon. Want to grab lunch?”

“Yeah, that sounds great. Just tell me when and where.”

“We’re planning on stopping by my parents’ restaurant on Larimer.”

“I’m definitely down for that.”

“We’re on our way now, and I’ll let the hostess know you’re coming. I tried to reach West to see if he wanted to join us, but he didn’t answer.”

“He said he had some things to do for Michael today, so I imagine he’s occupied with that. I’ll grab my jacket and head over.”

“See you soon.”

As much as I would have rather continued on with my Skyler snooping, I knew better than to decline the invite to lunch with Michael and Sawyer. I closed down all the tabs on my laptop and powered it down before I went to change into something more appropriate to meet with Michael and Sawyer. I quickly put on some black slacks and a white button-down shirt, then slid a black sport coat on. I glanced at myself in the mirror once more and grabbed my key fob and wallet, then I was on my way.

About twenty minutes later, I pulled into the valet section of Lombardi’s. At times, West and I thought Sawyer was more connected than Michael was, even though Michael was head of the organization. Sawyer knew everyone, or people who knew everyone, which I thought might come in handy regarding Skyler. Sawyer’s philanthropic family was well known and loved all over Denver, which was so funny because if they knew the sinister things Sawyer was doing for Michael, they’d probably die of shock. But Michael’s group understood discretion and kept things close to the vest in regard to what we actually did.

“Welcome to Lombardi’s,” the young woman behind the podium greeted me as soon as I walked in.

“Hi. I’m meeting Sawyer and Michael,” I said.

“Right this way.” I followed her into the dining room and spotted Michael and Sawyer right away. They stood as we approached and smiled while the hostess pulled a chair out for me. “Enjoy your meal, gentlemen,” she said.

“Thank you,” Michael replied.

Before the three of us sat down, a server stopped by the table to fill my water goblet and take my drink order.

“Just an iced tea, please,” I said.

As soon as the server walked away, Sawyer groaned, and Michael and I looked him. Moments later, one of his sisters, Scarlett, appeared at the table. The three of us stood, and Michael walked around the table to hug Scarlett and kiss her cheek.

“These guys aren’t nearly as good-looking as Taylor is,” Scarlett said, teasing Sawyer about dining with Michael and me instead of Taylor.

“I assure you, we’re not that exciting either,” Michael added.

“I wonder what it would be like to be able to have a meal without my family harassing me,” Sawyer said.

“You’re the one who keeps showing up,” Scarlett said as she laughed. “It’s always nice to see you, Michael. And you, Spencer. Let me know if you need anything.”

“Thank you,” Sawyer said. He rolled his eyes as she walked away from the table.

Once our orders were taken, I decided to pick their brains about Skyler.

“Let me ask you about something. West and I met this guy, and we had a good time with him. I was trying to look into him some to make sure I knew what we might be getting into before we took things further with him?—”

Sawyer quickly spoke up. “Always a good idea, huh, Michael?”

“Knowing what you’re getting involved in before you get involved is always recommended.” Michael smiled as he looked at me. “In fact, I have a guy who does all of that for me,” he quipped.

I was his guy.

“Yeah, he’s good at finding things,” Sawyer remarked.

“Not good enough.” I laughed.

“You’re incredible at what you do, Spencer,” Michael affirmed.

“Thanks.” I took a sip from the water goblet, then looked at Sawyer and then Michael. “There’s something about this guy, I think.” I pulled apart a piece of a soft breadstick and popped it into my mouth, hoping to settle the butterflies in my stomach that started flying around.

“Why do you think that?” Sawyer asked.

“Does he have some Mafia family last name or something?” Michael asked.

“No, I don’t think so. It’s Diego,” I offered up.

“Nothing comes to mind about a Diego,” Michael said and then looked at Sawyer to confer. Sawyer shook his head in agreement.

“So why do you think there’s something going on with him or about him?” Michael asked.

“Is there a chance you’re just obsessed with him and are afraid to bring a third into the equation because it could cause problems with you and West? Are you just looking for reasons not to get involved and then blame whatever you dig up as the reason the three of you can’t be together, rather than have the balls to admit you’re scared?” Sawyer’s eyebrow was arched as he looked at me.

“Sawyer is watching too much daytime television,” Michael said as he shook his head.

“Speaking of obsession, how is Taylor?” I asked in an attempt to pull the topic away from me, because yeah, there might be some truth to Sawyer’s daytime TV regurgitation.

“She’s ghosting him,” Michael said.

“What? No, she’s not. I’m good to her.”

“Better be, or I’ll break your neck,” Michael threatened. It was a lighthearted threat, but it was also loaded. Everyone in the organization knew Michael and Sawyer were as thick as thieves, but Michael had an incredibly soft spot for Taylor. She was the only female who worked for Michael in the same capacity as me, West, and a few others. Michael would kill anyone who hurt her.

“My money’s on Taylor,” I said. “She could break his neck for you, Michael.”

“Taylor’s got it bad for me. She just doesn’t like admitting it yet,” Sawyer pointed out while Michael and I laughed.

“Give me something to go off of, Spencer. What’s giving you bad vibes about the guy?” Michael turned the topic back to me.

“I can’t find anything on him. It’s like he’s a ghost.”

“What do you mean you can’t find anything on him? This is what you do.”

“I know. That’s why it’s concerning. I spent most of the morning looking. The only thing I can come up with is that he has a fake driver’s license and used it to become a member at Edge.”

“So you just have an alias?” Sawyer asked.

“Yeah. Oh, and an address where he lives. The property is buried with a rental management company, and the owner of the management company is another company with multiple owners and LLCs.”

“You and West have been with him, though, so you have a face to go from, right?” Michael asked.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and brought Skyler’s picture onto the screen. I turned the phone around so Sawyer and Michael could see it. Sawyer reached for the phone, but Michael grabbed it first.

“He’s a good-looking guy. I’m sure you and West will love waking up with that on your dicks each morning,” Sawyer stated.

And yes, it was true. I knew without a doubt that West and I would love waking up to seeing the top of Skyler’s head between our legs.

Michael held my phone in his hand and studied Skyler with his eyebrows furrowed.

“What did you say his first name is? Skyler?”

“Yes. Skyler Diego is what he’s registered in the club’s member profile as and what matches his driver’s license. But obviously, the ID is fake.”

“Yeah, it’s fake.” Michael handed me the phone back and his eyes bore into mine. My heart pounded wildly in my chest while the butterflies fluttered around.

“What? Do you know something?”

Michael looked at Sawyer and then back at me. “That’s the picture of a wanted man.”

“What?” Instantly, a chill washed over me. Somehow, West and I fell hard and fast for a guy who had already pissed off the wrong people in life. My stomach dropped, and I felt sick. I was angry at myself for believing that the perfect third was out there, and that West and I had found him.

“I can’t remember his first name, but his last name is Gardner. He’s the son of Steven Gardner?—”

“That piece-of-shit senator who’s running for president again?” Sawyer asked.

Fuck.

Michael nodded. There were so many things racing around in my head. Too many things to just focus on one. I thought the senator’s wife was worth more than he was. She was an actress with a perfume line. I could picture the billboard ads of her perfume bottle.

“What’s he wanted for?” Sawyer asked.

Michael snapped his fingers and gestured to the phone. “Shawn Gardner,” he said with confidence and nodded. “Shawn is his first name.”

“He was supposed to marry the daughter of Dimitri Bruno.” Michael gestured to the picture of Skyler—Shawn. “He didn’t show up for the wedding and just vanished. That’s why he’s wanted. Dimitri and the senator had some business arrangement that obviously went south over this. So it makes sense why he’s using fake credentials,” Michael said.

“I wouldn’t want to be married to a Bruno,” Sawyer commented.

“You don’t want to be married, period,” I countered.

Sawyer grinned.

“But no one had seen Shawn, until now,” Michael noted.

Suddenly, I worried about what Michael was going to do about it. My thoughts must have been written all over my face because Michael tried to put my concerns to rest.

“Relax, I’m not going to hand him over to Dimitri. I’m more interested in making sure you and West are happy.”

I leaned back in the chair and stared at the plates of food being brought out and set in front of us. I wasn’t hungry at all, but shoveled the food in anyway.

“Dude, relax,” Sawyer said.

“I can’t. This guy must constantly be looking over his shoulder.”

I thought about how heartbroken West was going to be. Like me, he believed this was right and was going to work out.

The three of us finished lunch and walked out of the restaurant together. While we waited for our SUVs at the valet, Michael looked at me.

“Spencer, if you and West want to pursue Shawn, do it.”

“Knowing that someone could be coming for him would put all of us in jeopardy,” I said. And that was the honest truth. If another family felt disrespected, they would have words, potentially violent words, with any of us associated with Michael Alatorre for sheltering Shawn.

Sawyer’s Range Rover pulled up first, and as he walked past me, he mumbled, “Love makes you do anything for it.” He turned around and slowly walked backward toward his SUV. He gestured with his thumb toward Michael. “I take my life in my hands daily for Taylor,” he said, and disappeared around the Range Rover.

Michael sat in the front passenger seat with the door open and looked at me.

“Get your guy, Spence. We’ll take care of the mess,” he said.

I was once again filled with hope, and I wasn’t going to push for the details of how he was going to fix it. All I could do was trust him.

“Thank you,” I said.

My Porsche was now waiting for me. As soon as I got in it and pulled away from the valet of Lombardi’s, I called West, and he answered on the first ring.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey. Are you busy?”

“Kind of.”

“Okay, when you have a few minutes, call me back. We need to talk about Skyler.”

“Wait! What is it?”

“I had lunch with Michael and Sawyer today and found out some interesting things about him.”

“What? How? How would Michael know anything?”

“It’s a long story. Besides, I thought you were busy.”

“I have a few minutes. I’m kind of doing some surveillance. Hurry and tell me,” West insisted.