Devotion (Club Destiny #7) (7 page)

“You bring the paparazzi with you?” Luke asked before deciding to drop into his chair. Hell, he wasn’t intimidated by Trent, and if the man wanted to loom over him like he had all of the control in this situation, he’d let him.

“Let’s hope not,” Trent sighed, finally taking the seat across from Luke. The more days that passed, the calmer Trent became at least in comparison to that first phone conversation they’d had when Trent insisted Luke open the doors to the club once more. He hadn’t been happy when Luke told him that wasn’t going to happen. At least not yet.

“How’d you manage that?”

Trent held up a baseball cap and a pair of sunglasses.

“Does that normally work?” Luke asked, laughing.

Trent Ramsey was one of the hottest actors on the scene at the moment. Being a hot commodity didn’t allow for much anonymity; therefore, Trent had never out and out shared his interest in the club only because of the fact he didn’t want to bring the press down on them. Luke was pretty sure that was going to be a thing of the past now that Trent had decided to jump back into the game so to speak.

“Most of the time, yes,” Trent answered. “It helps that I sent a decoy out early this morning, and I’m pretty sure they’re hot on his tail by now.”

“I’d tell you I’m impressed with your evasive skills, but I’d be lying,” Luke said sternly, working to get them to the topic he knew Trent came to talk about. “If you came by to insist that I reopen the club, it’s not going to work.”

Trent’s handsome features changed from lighthearted to serious in the blink of an eye.

“When?”

“When what?” Luke decided to play ignorant. He’d had more than his fair share of these conversations with Trent in the last few months. He didn’t want to have another one. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever.

Club Destiny was his fucking club, and he made the decisions on whether the doors remained open or not. With Logan standing behind him on his choice, Luke knew he could make any decision he chose. Without a doubt, he knew his brother, as well as Sierra and Cole, would support him regardless of whether they agreed with him entirely or not. And between him and Logan, they still owned the majority of the shares.

“How much longer are you going to keep the doors closed?”

“Don’t know.” Since he had wiped out all of the previous members with the exception of a few, Luke wasn’t sure it actually would matter whether he opened the doors or not at this point.

“I think we need to put a plan together. We can’t keep them closed forever. We’ve got an opportunity to take this to the next level,” Trent said seriously. “It’s time we amp up our game.”

“We don’t have any competition in this, remember? It’s a private adult club. How the hell do you propose we do that? Advertise?” Luke could see it now: a billboard shining bright over one of Dallas’ main thoroughfares letting the great city know about the fetish club equipped with its very own dominatrix.

Not gonna happen.

“Not exactly what I was thinking.”

“Then what
were
you thinking?”

In all honesty, Luke had given significant thought to what he wanted to do with the club. He didn’t go into this business to manage a night club, but that seemed to be where he was at the moment.

With the fetish club seemingly nonexistent for the time being, he was spinning his wheels trying to come up with a plan. He’d even hired Kane Steele full time to work on growing their membership, but until Luke figured out what he wanted to do with the club, Kane couldn’t do much of anything more than conduct background checks and extensive research on the applications they were receiving. He had to be getting bored at this point, Luke knew.

“How are we going to fare against the Alluring Indulgence resort? Are they our direct competition?” Trent asked.

Luke watched Trent intently. He seemed to be fixated on the Walkers new resort, which amused him somewhat. Until now, Luke hadn’t tried to figure out exactly why Trent was so concerned about an adult resort being built three hundred miles south. Considering Luke was also an investor in the resort, he didn’t see a conflict of interest for himself; however, stepping into Trent’s shoes for a minute, he could certainly see the potential for concern.

“It’s not the same concept. They’re going all out with their resort concept. You know, spa, hotel, convention center. That sort of thing. Their clubs will be the only thing we have in common, but since they have yet to design them that I know of, I seriously doubt they’ll be our competition. On top of that, they’re three hundred miles away.”

“I heard Travis nixed the hotel idea,” Trent added, twisting his hulking body around in the wooden chair across from Luke. The way he continued to tap his sunglasses against his thigh was slightly annoying. It also was a tell for Trent’s anxiety level.

“He didn’t nix it entirely. He just opted to change the floor plan so to speak. He’s not building a hotel, rather adding single, standalone bungalows in lieu of. He thinks it’ll give the guests more privacy.”

“Not a bad idea, I have to admit. Have you thought about broadening our scope?”

“Broadening how?”

“The resort concept is a brilliant idea.”

Luke knew Trent was hinting at something, but he was being evasive as usual. Was he interested in expanding on what they had?

Luke tended to subscribe to the “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it” concept. Since their doors were closed, it was obvious something had gone awry, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to start with a different concept. Interesting thought though. He’d have to talk to Cole and get his input. He valued Cole’s opinion as well as Sierra’s over anyone else because he was confident they had his best interest in mind.

“I’m not sure I’m interested in going that route right now,” Luke admitted honestly.

“What if we disconnect the two and let Kane take over running the show here?” Trent asked.

Luke thought about that for a moment. He liked the idea.

He openly would admit that Trent was the most creative of the three of them when it came to the direction they wanted to take the club. In fact, it had been Trent’s proposal to implement the general public bar in order to take some of the interest off of the adult portion of the club. Luke had been left to implement the idea, which he did, and until recently, they hadn’t had any significant road bumps along the way.

“What’s your biggest concern?” Trent asked when Luke didn’t answer his earlier question.

Luke narrowed his eyes at Trent, trying to gauge where he was taking this conversation. “With what?”

Luke wanted Trent to get to the point and he wasn’t interested in putting himself totally out there just yet. Not until he had a chance to talk to Cole.

“Let’s start with the members. I know you eliminated most of them, and it’s obvious the more we try to keep the club hidden, the more we’re going to risk as far as memberships being leaked. What if we go the route that the Walkers are going?”

“You mean not keep the membership secret?”

“Yes, in a sense. It’s not like we’d have to broadcast who belongs to the club, but if we make sure applicants understand we aren’t risking our own necks up front, maybe we’ll get a different type of clientele.”

The idea had merit. Luke had specifically closed the doors to his club because the members were more interested in protecting their own asses than helping to ensure Luke’s family weren’t thrown to the wolves. As far as he was concerned, Cole and Sierra came first and foremost before anyone else. He’d protect them and his brother with his life if he had to. And they knew it, which was why his family had supported him in his decision.

“Let me think on it,” Luke said. “I like the idea, and I think it’ll be easier to manage that way, but it will also expose us publicly. What does that mean for you? If we go public, where do you stand in all this?”

Trent had always been silent, and his association with the club was buried deep. So deep, Luke was almost certain no one would be able to link the two.

“Well, if you go public, I go public,” Trent replied.

Luke expected to hear concern in Trent’s tone, not the shit eating grin beaming back at him tenfold. From the looks of it, Trent was actually fond of the idea and Luke couldn’t help but wonder just what he was going to get out of this.

Chapter Six

To think that this was what his life had come down to. Only fifteen minutes in and Cole didn’t question whether this was about to take the same turn as the majority of other meetings he’d gone on for Alex in the last few months. Just like the others, it appeared that his boss was setting him up for failure. Thankfully, Cole only had to drive less than twenty miles for this head on collision.

Cole stared back at the uptight man sitting across from him, pelting questions at him left and right, practically begging Cole to prove to him that CISS was the best security firm in the state. It was the same song and dance, just different office and different asshole. What the hell was Alex thinking?

Mr. Carson Throckmorton was not the nicest person that Cole had come in contact with lately. In fact, he was getting damn tired of the man’s condescending attitude, and he was about ready to walk out the door. This was well out of his job scope, and as far as he was concerned, Alex could deal with this shit.

Instead of getting up and leaving, Cole smiled and continued with his spiel, informing Mr. Throckmorton of their proven success rate as a corporate security firm. He’d gotten rather adept at the whole pitch, but he was growing more and more irritated as the days passed. This wasn’t his job, it was Alex’s job. Except, for some reason, Alex continued to delegate these shitty assignments week after week.

He was supposed to be the guy who came in after the deal had been made so he could get a decent feel for what would best protect the company. Throckmorton was nothing more than an arrogant show off who wanted people to believe he was bigger than what he was, and honestly, Cole was getting tired of the bullshit.

“And you’re going to guarantee –”

Carson’s voice brought him back to the present and Cole stared at him, trying to figure out what he was saying. That’s when the words sank in.
Guarantee.
Right. Figuring he was about three seconds from losing his temper, Cole stood, putting his hands out in front of him, signaling his surrender, and staring down at the creepy guy who’d been shunning everything he tried to tell him for the last half hour.

“Mr. Throckmorton,” Cole dropped his hands and glanced over at the door, then back, “it’s clear that you’re not interested in what my company has to offer you, so rather than wasting any more of your time, or mine, I think we can safely conclude this meeting.”

“That’s it?” Mr. Throckmorton asked incredulously. It dumbfounded Cole at how obtuse some people could be.

“As far as I’m concerned, yes. You and I both know there are no guarantees in this world, and I’m not going to sit here and shed blood to try and prove to you that we are who we say we are. Nor am I going to risk the possibility that we can’t please you. I think it’s in both of our best interest if you go with the other choice of security firms. I’m sure they’ll be able to suit your needs just fine.”

Cole turned on his heel and moved to the door of Mr. Throckmorton’s office. He didn’t bother stopping when the asshole began to tell him exactly what he thought of his attitude.

Quite frankly, Cole didn’t have it in him to deal with a lot of shit these days. He was too busy elsewhere to bother with it. It seemed like Alex McDermott was sending him to these asinine meetings at least once or twice a week, and for some reason, he wasn’t handling them well.

It was almost like CISS had too many hands in the pot, even if they were apparently one man down for whatever reason. Jake, the young man Dylan had hired to handle the residential sales, was getting restless being under Alex’s thumb all the time, considering he’d certainly had more free rein when Dylan was at the helm. Cole couldn’t blame the kid. Dylan didn’t take a turn for the better like they all thought he would shortly after Nate, Dylan’s son, graduated from high school. From where he stood, Dylan was digging himself deeper and deeper into depression, and he seemed to be chasing the demons with alcohol which somehow had left Cole picking up the slack.

He was pretty sure he’d get an earful from Alex after Mr. Throckmorton gave him a call.

He really didn’t care.

As Cole was walking out of the office toward his truck, his cell phone rang, and he almost laughed. Glancing down at the caller id before answering, he noticed that it was Sierra and not Alex as he expected.

“Hey. Everything ok, baby?”

“Absolutely perfect,” Sierra replied sweetly, her cheerful tone immediately making Cole feel better. “I wanted to see if you could meet me for lunch.”

Cole glanced at his watch. He didn’t even realize it was after noon. “I’d be glad to. Want me to pick you up? Or do you want to meet me somewhere?”

Cole loved these impromptu lunch dates with Sierra. Since her business was still growing and she had decided to work out of the house, they had more time to spend with her these days, although they generally revolved around an hour or two at lunch. Granted, he was hoping one of these days they’d have the opportunity to spend more time together, all three of them. Life seemed to be getting in the way of that dream though.

“I’ll meet you. Where are you at?” Sierra answered.

Cole explained where he was and which direction he would be heading. They worked out where to meet and what time before Sierra hung up.

Rather than wait for Alex to call him and chew his ass out, Cole called his boss from the truck on the drive to the restaurant.

“I didn’t expect you to call so soon. I figured you’d need some time to cool off. Didn’t sound like it went well?” Alex stated in lieu of a greeting when he answered the phone.

Apparently Cole wasn’t as quick as Mr. Throckmorton.

“That would be one way to look at it.”

Pulling out of the parking lot, Cole aimed his truck for the restaurant he was to meet Sierra at while Alex’s voice reverberated through the Bluetooth speaker in the truck.