Chapter 19
The next day, I had a lunch meeting in between the choreography marathon. I knew who it involved and could guess what was going on, but it made me nervous since it was the twins.
“You can say no and we’re fine, love,” Owen promised me and gave me a soft kiss. “You and what we have is the priority. Nothing more.”
That helped, especially when Evan said about the same thing.
Joshua actually took the lead which surprised me. A few other ancients who were VPs were there and that surprised me too… Especially when Natalia was locked down and clearly hesitant.
“I want us to buy their club,” Joshua started with a bang. “They want to sell it and I think—we’re not branching out into normal dance clubs tomorrow, but just as your idea of trying something new was smart, I think this could be.”
“You want a test case,” Natalia muttered.
“See if we can get more demons in to work at a real, nice club instead of the whores.” She let out a long breath and looked away when we all flinched.
“I know I do the job of being the public face well, but I’m not even the lust demon of us and that’s all I hear. That is what people will say.”
“She’s not wrong, but I also don’t think it’s a bad idea,” I said quietly. “Diversifying never is and we know the industry. There’s no reason we can’t have two different types of clubs in one city when it’s one like Denver. It gives our people living there more protection too.”
“I agree it’s not wrong and yes, it gives us more options which is always smart,” Natalia said firmly before focusing on Evan and Owen.
“But you both need to know that this could end the club. If this hurts our image like we’re trying to clean up our whorehouses—if it’s painted like that, we will just shut this down and not worry about your club. ”
They shared a glance and Evan nodded, letting out a slow breath. “That’s your call. You won’t just leave our people fucked and we don’t want to hurt what you’ve built either. We realized we could be of more help joining you in other ways instead of owning one club.”
“Agreed,” Natalia said firmly. “Full stop. Joshua has already been raving how great Owen would fit in his department. A director with an ancient shield and—I know. You helped Jasmine with training and Kyle said you found a lot of cracks to fill.” She sighed when I couldn’t hide my shock.
“I’m not a fan of mixing business with lovers. Falling in love with someone you work—”
“She wanted to make sure all the bases were covered,” Joshua said easily. “Good. We should think of this from all angles.”
So we did. There was a lot of back and forth and I was incredibly impressed with both Evan and Owen. There were several points that would have upset me or made me fly off even.
“I really do have a temper,” I grumbled, pouting when I realized it.
Joshua sent me a knowing look. “You’re spread too thin, Jasmine. You’ve been roughed up especially hard this past year. You used to have more patience. You’re—you’re doing fine. I blow too. It’s demons versus elves on this one, not a certain maturity level versus you.”
I blew him a kiss and we got back into it.
“Okay, I admit I should not be the one to officially decide this,” I hedged when I got stuck on one part.
I focused on Natalia because I couldn’t look at the twins when discussing this.
“I think we have to overpay for the club. Make it like it was just so fucking good that now that we’re in Denver, we want to test the waters into that type of club.
“They have go-go dancers. They have a steady stream. Make it like the value is more than there—more than that, I know Owen and Evan have some ideas but couldn’t do it on their own.
The ideas were included and we immediately launch them.
That’s how I see the framing to get away from the potential pitfalls. ”
“It’s smart,” she agreed, sharing a look with Joshua and then Elijah who had joined us late. “They were so good at running one club, we wanted them in corporate and to test this branching out. We don’t need to say where but—”
“The location alone is worth it,” Elijah muttered, looking over the specs sheets. “They didn’t realize the full potential of this place.”
Like that. I would have beat his ass to say that right in front of me.
Owen snickered, smiling when I glanced at him. “He’s not wrong and he’s not being harsh, but how pissed you get on our behalf is the balm to soothe us.”
“We had to do some things to curb our popularity or we could have gotten on the wrong radar. We knew we could never be Denver’s best club,” Evan reminded me… And them.
But it made sense and I was glad when the others accepted it.
“What are these ideas?” Natalia asked. “I didn’t see any listed.”
The twins shared a look, but then Evan fielded the question. “Because we would have told you anyways. I was just excited and wanted to tell Jasmine because I think it would be great for your clubs already and a way to give an alliance with an ancient group you could trust.”
I smiled at him. That was way too sweet because I knew one of the ideas was gold. He’d sent me the link and… It was a fucking amazing idea.
He shared the link of the expo on a small cocktail jelly business. He admitted it was stealing the idea, but not their recipes, and Jell-O shots weren’t exactly a new idea for clubs. They’d been sold before, but these were just fancier and artistic.
Something that would do well especially in Europe. Even if not just for our clubs, bringing this partnership could give a pack or supe group a real income source.
“There’s limitless possibilities for this, but it would need to be something—there would need to be an actual alliance and whatnot,” Natalia muttered. “And I think we give the ‘cookie’ to the kids who reacted the best.”
“Whatever you guys think is smart on that side and the politics,” I agreed. “But the idea is perfect. We’ve handled issues with most of our distributors that were being messed with or just messing with us, but we always need to branch out and keep things fresh.”
They all agreed. Basically, we were going to buy the club and bring Evan and Owen on board, but the specifics were a bit fuzzy. There also wasn’t a rush like they were underwater or struggling.
They just wanted to reinvent themselves and have more freedom in their lives.
I fully understood that. Fully.
Their desires were full of relief when the meeting ended and I was glad I could just go see Mudbug with them. Even quickly since I had to get back to my own everything as Jasmine. I just wanted to… I was relieved too.
And no one could resist cute little Mudbug.
Who was getting bigger and bigger all the time.
I brought them through the portal in their condo and the plan was to take Mudbug out for a quick pee. I did have to get back, but we just needed a few moments to decompress.
Instead, when we reached the ground floor, one of the last people I expected to see was standing there.
Bain.
“I’m so sorry, love,” Evan said quietly. “I thought you knew. It was your—”
“My idea he use the condo here,” I agreed, nodding my head. “I just didn’t know he’d done it.” I shook off my shock and smiled at Bain. “I hadn’t known you’d done it.”
“Sorry,” he mumbled, looking a bit like he thought he was going to get swatted or something. He stepped aside and let us off. It was so horribly awkward I wasn’t even going to say goodbye, but then he was in front of me. “Can we talk? I’m really glad you’re here and—”
No. No, not another one.
I slapped on a smile. “Sorry, no, I’m just doing this real quick and then I have business and people waiting on me.”
“Right, right.” He bobbed his head. “Can we talk later?”
I gave a half shrug. “You have my number. Hope you’ve settled in well and things are going good.” Then I walked off with Mudbug.
“A bit cold, love,” Evan hedged when we were outside.
I swallowed down something nasty that I wanted to say and then sighed. “The one thing Dylan did that upset me the most and was a clear sign—I knew I should have said something to—”
“He saw you when it was convenient or just hung around to see you,” Owen said gently. “He didn’t reach out. You just saw the same warning.”
“Yes.” I gave a half shrug. “It’s fine. Bain and I weren’t even anything. I don’t blame him at all and he’s been drowning. I wish him the best.”
I just also wished he had thought well enough of me to make the effort and reach out if he truly was thinking of me, not this “oh, while you’re in front of me” bullshit. I was worth more than that.
I had pretty shitty self-esteem at times and even I knew that.
I wasn’t just something convenient. I deserved more. And yes, Bain was a pup and going through a lot, but… He wasn’t the only one. I went to him when he was drowning and helped.
Even when I was struggling. Sure, I’d gotten the nudge, but—I’d done it.
So it pretty much said it all that he didn’t care to do the same for me.
Or I was being slightly harsh but not unjustified in how I felt.
I decided to leave it alone and ask the twins about how things were going otherwise. If they were excited for the prospects or just nervous to take this chance?
They both took the hint but also probably saw I was genuine in wanting the answers. I hoped they did because I was being genuine. I cared deeply for the twins.
I was sad it had to be quick, but we were planning to get back on track with our TV nights and more. I was glad for that too because even if I had trouble relaxing and doing yoga during was the answer, it had been fun and just what I’d needed.
We all needed.
Aidan was waiting for me when I arrived back at corporate. He looked deliciously handsome as he stood patiently off to the side and just watched the people in the lobby. Not in a bad way or even like he was spying. More like people watching and thoughts drifting.
“Councilwoman, I hoped I could steal a few moments of your time,” he said when I approached him. “Very quick, but I wanted you to know in person.”