Chapter Thirteen

Steph's POV

"Steph, I need to talk to you."

Jeanne Ellen and Zoë had just left after our lunch together, and just after I stood to put my lunch trash in the garbage bin, Tank started the conversation that I didn't know at the time was going to change the rest of my life.

"Sure. What's up, Tank?" I asked, sitting back down.

"Let's go to my office," he replied.

We walked to his office, and he sat down on the couch and motioned me to sit next to him.

"Uhm. This is hard to talk about," he began.

"We're family, Tank. My life is a trainwreck and I assume you're about to tell me about something else I don't know. Just tell me."

He took a deep breath and looked intently at me. "Steph, are you aware of sex tapes of you and your husband online?"

I felt like he sucker-punched me. With all the worst-case scenarios of what could have happened running through my head, that question never entered my thoughts. My eyes widened and I felt my breath catch in my throat. "Sex tapes?" I squeaked out.

He was watching me carefully. "I think you just answered my question."

"What are you talking about, Tank? Please tell me there aren't tapes of me," I began whispering, "having sex online?"

He nodded gravely. "I'm afraid so."

"How many?"

"I don't know exactly, Steph. I found at least fifteen videos. I think from a few different…ahh…occasions. They don't all seem to be taken from the same time."

"Oh my god," I cried.

"I didn't watch them," he rushed to assure me. "I watched only enough at the beginning to ascertain if it was you two and whether it was all one occasion that had been cut up into different segments for distribution."

"How can I get rid of it all? Can we get the videos taken down?" I asked. My mind was reeling. My brother in law, a man I had the utmost respect for, had seen videos of me having sex!

"It's probably not feasible, Steph. Once something like that is online, it's virtually impossible to get rid of it entirely. We may be able to remove it from some websites, but there's no telling who has downloaded it and whether it will ever appear again." He shook his head wearily. "I guess we can assume your husband had something to do with this." He spat out the word 'husband' angrily.

"I guess so. I didn't do it, and he's the only other one in the videos. Can you email me the links to the videos, please?" I asked in a small voice just above a whisper.

"I can, and I know some people who are good at this type of thing." I raised my eyebrows at him, and he chuckled. "I mean, getting stuff taken offline. Hector could do it; you remember him?"

I nodded. "I really don't want anyone to ever see it again, but I guess that's not possible. Hector will be discreet?" I asked plaintively.

Tank moved closer and wrapped his arm around me, patting me on my shoulder blade. "He will be the model of discretion. I'm so sorry you have to go through all this, Steph. But I promise you, we'll make him pay."

The following day, I was performing some background searches on potential clients. These weren't as intensive as the searches done on prospective employees, but Ranger and Tank wanted to know about their clients before they signed contracts with them. I was deep in one search when my cell phone rang, breaking my concentration.

It was Mr. Manoso calling to let me know he'd like to set up another meeting for the following Tuesday. I agreed and we settled on nine o'clock in the morning. I thanked him and hung up, then booked it to Tank's office, skidding to a stop in front of the door when I saw Ranger sitting there. "Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt," I said, blushing slightly.

"It's no problem, Steph. Ranger just got back from an out-of-state apprehension and we were catching each other up. What's going on?" Tank asked.

I entered his office and said, "well, I just got off the phone with Ranger's dad, er...Mr. Manoso, and he wants to meet on Tuesday at nine. And I really want to file the divorce papers soon after that. The asshole expects me to move back in with him and look the other way when he needs to get 'his needs met' elsewhere, since apparently, I'm such a frigid bitch." I chuckled bitterly. "Though I guess not too frigid for him to take secret videos of us having sex and uploading them for the entire world to see!" I sat down on Tank's couch in a huff.

Ranger raised an eyebrow. "Your husband took videos of you and him and uploaded them to the internet?" he asked in a low, menacing tone.

I nodded. "Tank found them." A thought struck me and I turned to face the man. "Tank, how did you know about or find them?"

I swear he blushed, but it was hard to tell on his dark skin. "Um, well, Steph. That's the thing. I didn't find them exactly."

"What do you mean? You told me about them." I frowned slightly.

He let out a groan and covered his face in his hands. "I found two of the men watching the video and I took the device and recognized you."

I gasped. "Are you serious? The men here have seen my sex tape?" This was quickly going from awful to horrifying.

He nodded quietly. "I don't know if more than just the two I caught watching have seen it. And I don't believe you've met the two men I'm talking about. Manny and Vince?" He raised his eyebrow questioningly and after a moment of thought, I shook my head no.

"Do you think they showed anyone else?" I asked.

His answer was definite. "They've been informed in no uncertain terms to never watch it again. They won't, I'm sure of that."

I didn't reply to that, but my mind was racing. How could I ever meet anyone else from Rangeman again without wondering if they'd seen the video and recognized me. Or worse, if they thought less of me because they saw me having sex. Yesterday, after I put Zoë to bed, I opened the emails Tank sent me with the links and I watched all the videos I could find, and then I went looking for any others. I made a note of the tags in the videos he shared, then did private google searches for those. I found more of the same videos but posted on different sites. As I watched the videos, I remembered the occasion on which they must have been filmed because of what I was wearing at the start. One was taken on our fifth anniversary and Richard had taken me out to dinner and a comedy show. I had felt so good about us that when we got home and dismissed our nanny, I had taken control and had been the aggressor, demanding he fuck me hard until I came. Heat flooded my cheeks as I wondered if Tank had seen that.

From what I could tell, there were two cameras in our bedroom, and I couldn't figure out why I hadn't noticed them, but maybe they weren't always there. One of them was obviously on our dresser directly across from the end of the bed, and one was somehow at the head of the bed, but above us. Maybe camouflaged by the large painting we had above our bed? I'd have to investigate the next time I went to the apartment. One thing is for sure, going back to Richard was not going to happen. It wasn't going to happen anyway, but in a dark corner of my mind sat the shameful knowledge that I was a tiny bit scared of my husband. He'd never physically hurt me before, but sometimes I thought I saw something in his eye that said he was capable and willing to inflict pain on me.

Bringing myself back to the present, I squared my shoulders. "Well, if they have seen it, there's nothing I can do about it. I just hope no one is stupid enough to mention it." I thought for a moment. "Did you get a chance to talk to Hector yet?"

Tank nodded. "He's working on getting as much of it down as he can, but he has to be careful since he's not exactly going through legal channels to do so."

"And you told me you did new searches with information we didn't know before, right? Can I see them?"

He opened his desk drawer, retrieved a folder and wordlessly handed them to me.

"Thanks. I'm going to review them tonight. But I need to figure out what to do with Zoë this weekend. I want to spend the entire weekend gathering information to metaphorically hang my husband. And Tank? I want to lay his shit bare."