“Take it down?” McKenna’s concern rang loud in the otherwise quiet space.
Luke glanced at her before answering. “If Susan and Stephen release the information I’m sure they have, which is a list of certain members, all hell is going to break loose.”
That was an understatement in Tag’s opinion, although they still didn’t know which members might’ve come into contact with either of them. Other than those who were in attendance at the last member meeting where Travis Walker shared some insight into his new resort.
“If either of you read the article yesterday,” Luke continued, “then you know they’re gearing up and using all of this publicity to their advantage. At this point, winning the lawsuit isn’t going to prove a damn thing because even if we can keep Susan from talking, we’re going to have a hard time with Stephen.”
“Did he sign the confidentiality agreement?” McKenna asked.
“He did.”
When her attention turned to him, Tag shook his head. “We’ve got about the same leverage against him as we do Susan. But, in either case, with the blackmail, it isn’t going to make a damn bit of difference. If they decide to release the pictures of Sam, it isn’t going to be good for anyone, including XTX and CISS.”
McKenna seemed to contemplate that for a second. “What if we have something on him?”
“On who? Crawford?” Luke asked.
“Yes.”
“Like what?” It was Tag’s turn to question her. What the hell could she possibly have on Stephen Crawford?
“As I mentioned before, for the last few months, Stephen has been adamant that we do an article on him, but to this point, we’ve refused, mainly because the guy creeps me out.” McKenna shifted her gaze between both of them and Tag watched every expression. “Since we haven’t agreed, he’s resorted to threats.” McKenna held up her hand, stopping him from saying a word.
“No, I don’t have concrete proof they are coming from him; however, I do have the IP address and that should be easily traceable. And...” she paused momentarily, “I hired a friend of mine to track him for the last few weeks which has offered me a little bit of damning evidence, although I’m not sure how much it’s going to help.”
Tag noticed Luke was no longer leaning back in his chair, but rather resting his forearms on the desk and hanging on McKenna’s every word.
“What sort of evidence?”
“I don’t know for sure because there are hours of video, but I’d be happy to let you have a look at them.”
Tag heard every word they were saying, but his brain was still hung up on McKenna’s original statement – Stephen Crawford was threatening her.
“If you don’t mind,” Luke said, “I’d like to get the videos over to Alex at CISS and have him take a look at them. And if you get the emails over to Dylan or Cole, they’ll be able to track the IP address.”
McKenna glanced at Tag, but he still couldn’t say a word. What was there to say? Despite all of this, he wasn’t sure anything was going to help.
What they really needed to do was talk to Samantha McCoy and see what her take on the entire situation was.
Except there was one problem... she didn’t know about the pictures.
~*~*~
McKenna would’ve preferred to keep the upper hand and not share the information she had, but that was before she knew what Stephen and Susan were planning to do. If McKenna was going to help, she needed to know exactly what ammunition the two of them had. For now, she wasn’t going to question her own intentions because no matter what her ulterior motive might be, she felt as though this were the right thing to do.
“You mentioned pictures. What are they of?” She had a fairly good idea, but in her line of work, she did her best not to assume anything.
“The club has a monthly, how do I put it,” Luke looked as though he were searching for just the right word, “get-together. It takes place in the playroom.”
McKenna figured Luke thought that said it all.
“Who attends these ‘get-togethers’?” she asked, for his benefit.
“Anyone. Everyone. It’s a free for all in every respect and a few months ago, Sam was itching to be a part of it, so Logan relented. And Sierra was also in attendance.”
McKenna was watching Luke and noticed the sudden worry line that appeared in his forehead.
“Does Stephen have anything on Sierra?” She couldn’t help but ask the obvious question.
“If he does, he hasn’t brought it to my attention. However, he claims that he does have pictures of me and Cole.”