at me through the eyes of his mask. Then he turned on his heels and marched across the dance floor towards the guy he’d come with. I followed close behind, keeping an eye out for anyone who watched him a little too closely. Unfortunately, with an ass like his, the number was pretty high.
My mind still reeled with the knowledge that Malcolm Jacob Coben III was gay. Well, I suppose I shouldn’t assume. He could be bi or pan or any number of other options, but the one thing I was sure of based on the way he’d moved against me on the dance floor was that he liked men. A lot.
When we reached the man he’d come here with, I stayed far enough back to respect his privacy, but close enough to do my job. They were having some kind of argument, and finally, Trey threw up his arms in defeat, turned away from him, and stormed out of the club, not even waiting to see if I was behind him.
He stopped on the sidewalk out front and looked around him. He spun around to me. “I assume you drove your car?”
“Yeah, it’s in the parking lot not far from the one you came in, but you need to let me check the car first. It was sitting out here unsecured in the parking lot.” He let out a lengthy sigh but nodded his agreement. Once I cleared the vehicle, I pressed the button unlocking the door. He climbed in and pulled off his mask.
I got in and started the drive back to the house, trying to decide where to start. He couldn’t take off like that on me again, but I also understood why he hadn’t told me where he was going. Being in the public eye and in the closet at the same time had to be close to impossible. I also couldn’t imagine his father’s reaction if this made front-page news. Did the Senator even know? I doubted it, if for no other reason than because he sent Trey out to the pool house with me. The notes were starting to make a lot more sense. It also nailed home the point that he needed to take precautions with his safety. He had to realize that whoever sent the notes knew. So why would he risk his safety for a night out at a club?
We were almost to the house when Trey finally broke the silence. “He isn’t my boyfriend.”
“I’m sorry?”
“You said I need to go tell my boyfriend we were leaving. He isn’t my boyfriend. I don’t have one.”
“Okay. Good to know.” Just because it was important for me to know who all the players are, and for no other reason. I pushed any part of me that was pleased that Trey didn’t have a boyfriend into a dark, dark box, locked it, and threw away the key. Not my business. “Then, who is he?”
“He’s my best friend. His name is Ash Sutherland.”
“You two seemed to be fighting about something.”
He let out a frustrated sigh. “We were. He should’ve left when I did. I hated for him to have to cut his night short, but I hate the idea of him at the club by himself with no one to watch his back even worse. But he wasn’t ready to leave and told me I was being stupid.”
“You weren’t being stupid. You were being a good friend. It wasn’t smart for him to stay out by himself.”
“I know, but he’s a grown man. Nothing I can do about it. We’ve had this conversation before. He doesn’t listen.”
I pulled up to the gate, entered the code, and waited while it swung open. Once I parked outside the pool house, he turned and looked at me. “I’m sorry, Roman. You were right. It was stupid of me to go out. I just figured with the mask and everything it would be safe, and I couldn’t—”
“Tell me where you were going,” I finished. “I get that, Trey. But it can’t happen again.”
“It won’t.” We got out of the car and walked inside. Trey headed into the kitchen and got a bottle of water. I was running everything through my head and connecting dots. Obviously, whoever wrote the notes knew Trey’s secret, and that changed things. The threat wasn’t just a physical one, there was also the threat of exposure, and the possibility of blackmail. I opened my laptop to look at the scanned copy of the letters Fredrick