Page 35 of Damian’s Conquest

He cast her a sideways look and hesitated for a moment, before answering, “My father and his best friend own the Mezzanine. They’re both directors at Scanguards, in fact, Samson is the owner and founder of Scanguards. It’s a security company, you know, providing bodyguards. But it’s more than that. We have our own investigators, our own patrolling units, our own medical service, our own emergency services. We can handle this.”

Surprised, Naomi contemplated his words. “Are you saying the police aren’t getting involved in this?” Was that the reason why the police had dismissed Mrs. Zhang’s allegations?

“The mayor trusts us to handle any issues concerning Scanguards ourselves. And that includes the welfare of our employees. Think of it like a large university having its own police force.”

When he put it that way it sounded almost reasonable. Almost. “Interesting. But you don’t work for Scanguards, you work for the Mezzanine, right?”

“Actually, I work for both. That’s why I share the management with Patrick, so I can work part-time at Scanguards.”

“Oh! And what do you do at Scanguards?”

“I’m a bodyguard.”

“You are?”

He nodded. “I went through rigorous training.” He winked at her, just as he stopped at a red light. “But I’ve never guarded such a beautiful body as yours.”

Before she could react to his words, he leaned over and kissed her on the lips. Slowly, she was getting used to the idea that Damian really liked every bit of her. It made the need to come clean even more urgent. If she told him the truth tonight, then maybe it wasn’t too late yet to save their blooming relationship.

Impatient honking behind them made Damian sever the kiss and continue driving. Moments later, he pulled into the parking lot in the back of the Mezzanine, and got out of the car. She followed him, and he took her hand and led her to the back entrance of the club. There was a lock that could be operated with a key, but also a scanner. When Damian put his thumb over it, Naomi realized that it was a biometric scanner.

“That’s quite some security,” she commented.

“It’s handy.”

Inside the club it was loud. Damian led her directly up to his office, where a young man, whom Naomi assumed to be Patrick Woodford, was already waiting with a pretty woman with long red hair.

When Patrick’s eyes fell on her, he shot an annoyed look at Damian.

“Hey Patrick, evening, Angelica,” Damian said and walked straight to his co-manager, and whispered something into his ear.

“All right then,” Patrick replied, before casting Naomi another look. “I’m Patrick. I think I saw you at the Halloween party. Little Red Riding Hood costume?”

“Yeah, that was me.” The way Patrick looked at her now made her suspect that he’d seen her and Damian make out on the dance floor. “Nice to meet you, Patrick.” Then she looked at the young woman. “Hi, Angelica, I’m Naomi.”

“Hi,” she said, then looked at Damian. “Damian, you need to help me find Mick. Something must have happened to him.”

Damian motioned to the seating arrangement for her to sit, and sat down opposite her. “Tell me what’s going on. When did you last see him?”

“Mick was at my place two nights before Halloween,” Angelica started. “Everything was fine. I knew that he had to work the night before Halloween and the Halloween party, so I’d made arrangements to go to a private party at a friend’s house. Mick was supposed to head over to my place after the party at the Mezzanine, but he never showed.” She sniffled. “I figured maybe it had gotten so late that he crashed somewhere else and wasn’t worried at first. But when he didn’t call me back, I went to his house. You know, I have a key. So I went inside, but he wasn’t there. It looked like he hadn’t been there in a couple of days.”

Damian nodded. “We have his cell number. I’ll have Eddie triangulate his phone, see where he is. Should be easy.”

Angelica shook her head. “He doesn’t have his cell with him.” She dug into her handbag and pulled a cell phone from it. “I found it in his kitchen. And he never goes anywhere without that phone.”

“May I?” Damian asked and reached for it.

Angelica handed it to him.

“Do you know his passcode?”

She shook her head. “Mick’s really private about that.”

Naomi watched Damian exchange a look with Patrick.

“Eddie or Thomas can probably hack it,” Patrick said with a shrug. “See who he’s been in contact with before he disappeared.”

“Yeah, let’s do that. I’ll bring it to them,” Damian agreed. Then he looked back at the clearly distraught Angelica. “Is there anything else that was different about Mick in the few days and weeks before he went missing?”