by Erin R Flynn
“I don’t know what you mean, Sera.”
Dain and Brian both cursed quietly, probably mad they hadn’t figured out that was what this was all about.
“Yeah you do. You’re an international player. You don’t really want the boys but something from me. For the record, Alena Dorcas could give a shit over something like a sex tape. Most paranormals would feel that way. She would however take your head for what you did to me today. Just that, Jas, and she’d kill you. You are fucking with shit you don’t even have a clue about.
“If her sense of justice wasn’t stronger than her family bonds, I’d be dead for killing her son no matter if I was in the right. There wouldn’t be anyone or anything that could stop someone as powerful as her, and there’s no way anyone would catch someone as old and smart as her. So cut the shit and tell me what you want from her before I call my mom and inform her a mean boy tried to rape me on video.”
He went visibly pale, and as I went to put salt in his wound as payback, I caught a glance at the world map behind him hanging in Brian’s office. It was my turn to curse under my breath.
“Tell me the truth, Jas. You owe me at least that,” I muttered, forcing myself to meet his eyes. “Would you really have done that to me? Forget the competition and mission. I was your friend once. Could you really do that to me?”
“No,” he sighed heavily as he plopped down on one of the chairs. “No, I couldn’t. I planned on maybe getting some good shots or a tape for the threat, but I would never release it. That’s too far for someone I care about. The shot was—fuck, I panicked. You were growling and shaking, and you are still a new wolf, and I panicked. I wanted you to pass out remembering fun, not rape you while you were unconscious. I could never do that.”
“Okay.” I sat with that and nodded. “Now, have you already tried to make contact with Alena to set up your dream forward whatever to the Middle East? Get a Delta Force super strong paranormal team from there or whatever else you’re concocting?”
“You got all of that by glancing at the map?” Brian demanded, having caught what I’d glanced at.
“That and I know Jason.” The man in question didn’t say anything, so I sighed, pushing forward. “They won’t do it. They won’t get involved in a US and human conflict as they see it.”
“I know, and yes, I’ve tried, but they won’t so much as take my calls,” he answered with a bit of a pout. “But then I heard chatter about this Zach Brown guy and they found him and the name he was under.” He studied me carefully. “Do you know his transport was hit?”
I shot Brian a glance, and he looked just as startled. “No, but that’s some serious shit trying to go against the Shifter Council.”
“Oh, they didn’t win,” Jason chuckled darkly. “And they were able to keep it quiet. Many have tried to follow transports back to the secret facility, but there’s some sort of magic or whatever going on that no one can do it. They knew all of the potential paths and waited for them, but there are so many they spread themselves too thin, and apparently all they got was eaten from what the chatter said.”
I shrugged. “What does bad idiots getting eaten have to do with me?” I narrowed my eyes at him. “You sell me some shit about the terrorists or whoever you’re after being our hunters, and I will beat you for using the boys like that.” His eyes went wide that I’d put it together. “You drugged me, not lowered my IQ.”
“Smarty pants,” he teased, and I bit back a smile. He was so fucking gorgeous when he was amused, even if he was amused and picking on me. It was what had made me give in to just about anything he’d wanted when we were younger.
Plus, I really had loved him once.
“Sell your shit to someone else—”
“I swear to god that it’s the truth,” he promised, even crossing his hand over his heart. “It’s why we heard the chatter because we were already listening in.”
“It does make sense that zealots against freedom and cultures different from theirs would be zealots against anyone not like them, not human,” Dain muttered, giving Jason a funny look. “He believes in this cause.”
“He always does or he won’t do it,” I agreed, sitting back with a sigh. Then I jumped to my feet and slapped him. “Don’t ever do that shit to me again or hurt the boys, Jas. Not even your fucking digs and crap. If you had just come to me, or shit, through Brian and told us you might have something on the hunters, I would have called Alena. She would help on that. Stop making everything more difficult and drama.
“I have enough of that. Fuck, I might have talked her into helping or lending some type of aid just for the fact that you’re maybe one of the only people who could help me with what I’m dealing with. Why do you always have to make it like this? Why can’t you ever be the sweet boy I fell for who cried when his grandmother died because you’d never get to meet her and you had always wanted to?”
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, looking back at me with wide eyes that I’d lost it like that. “We’re not those kids anymore, Sera. We’re different people and…”
I had flinched. That was why he trailed off. I went for the door, embarrassed he’d seen it and would put it together. He stopped me by hugging me from behind and kissing my neck.
“Cut that out. I’m not your lover. Hell, I’d debate we’re even friends.”
“Funny, you said that same thing to me years ago and then when I saw you again way back when. Guess you are the same girl just older and wiser.” He pressed his lips against my ear as tears burned my eyes. “I don’t know what’s going on with you, baby, but you are still you, wolf, siren, whatever, you’re still Sera. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. If you start eating rare meat, then I’d worry.”
I let out a laugh and turned in his arms, hugging him tightly. “Don’t you dare use this against me. It’s only because I broke yesterday and what’s happened to me since I got infected. I’ll still kick your ass if you run your mouth again.”
“Deal, as long as I get to come to whatever fancy fancy that’s going on tonight I heard Havers talking about.”
“I have to call my business partner because she runs the day-to-day stuff and whatnot.”
“We can fit him at our table since I had to send one of the team out to DC for an investigation,” Brian offered. I turned to see the look he was giving Jason, and with the tone he used, it was very clearly implied that he wanted to keep a close eye on Jason.
Fine with me given he’d messed up not digging deeper and starting the dominoes to why I had a headache left over from being drugged.
Idiots.
5
Opening a club was a huge undertaking, especially one with such a niche and having so many components I had suggested adding on. Honestly, if it hadn’t been for Simone and all the help we got, there was no way we’d be pulling this out of our asses as fast as we were. And while the undertaking had a massive price tag, the longer things took, the higher that price went up as markets changed and time was money.
First, it had been getting the property. Simone had scouted several locations before we’d even gone to Vegas. After Vegas and having a rough, crazy idea, that had eliminated several, as they would have been complicated for construction or limitations.
Once I’d spoken with most of the zoning board about Vlad’s bad behavior and what they’d done—whether they’d felt threatened or not—I wasn’t shocked when our case got a hearing date right away. The location had already been commercial, so that was no problem. Except we were making it adult use, which was a special case, and there were some other additions onto our application that had left tons of forms and numbers, and my god, it hurt my head.
After that had come licenses. We had a liquor license. Chicago and Illinois business licenses. Corporation papers, as this was all separate from Simone’s other businesses and the paper trail Alena had made for the house. Then there were building permits and pollution permits and… A lot of fucking paperwork that I would never have understood, and I worked for
the FBI with all its red tape and reports and bureaucracy.
The one that had been the hardest was the federal license to serve blood, which was a brand new, less-than-a-year-old license that had bounced all around to become a law. I swear the only reason we’d gotten one was I was FBI, and they had been pretty upfront about that. Moving forward and progressing with how the world had changed since everyone had learned about paranormals was all good in theory, but implementing it made everyone nervous.
And fucking pissed off Vlad since he had been turned down, and well, a wolf had gotten it when the vampire hadn’t.
So some of that had overlapped with the buying paperwork and the deed signing and blueprints and construction. Noah’s buddies, who had done the job at my house, weren’t actually local, and to bring in that big of a team from out of state to get the job done, I’d had to go to Vlad for permission. He hadn’t wanted to give it, which was petty since it was temporary, not like him wanting me to permanently accept wolves in my pack who worked for him.
After way too much back and forth, Leo had actually suggested that on the new website where we talked about location and best ways to get to us, we also link to Timequake and Vlad’s other hotels for where to stay. That had given Vlad the access to the project, even in some small, stupid partnership way, and he’d allowed them to come.
Yeah, we would have done that anyways if he had asked since we all were committed to cross promoting paranormal businesses and he owned the only non-human owned hotels in Chicago. Idiot. Whatever, we’d taken the win, and construction had begun.
Which had led to protestors, as some group was pissed we were demolishing a building and had tried to stop us.
We’d won, and it had gone down.
Then another group was pissed there was the noise of construction and sometimes affecting the flow of traffic… Which was a joke because the building had gone up in record time given the teams of vampires who didn’t break for the night, as they could see fine. Granted, they did the quieter stuff then, but whatever, it wasn’t like it was ever quiet right near the river or lake.
Next came Puritan-type protestors who had thrown a fit at the idea of a legal sex club, not just some rented space that might have parties or swingers whatever. I wasn’t into that scene to know enough. But we had the right license and approval given it wasn’t shifter only and there would be nudity but not strippers like for tips and the main show. But there would be sex acts and not for pay, so it wasn’t prostitution.
Basically we skated several lines and got by solely because we didn’t cross any of them, and most didn’t seem to know what to do with us, and a lot seemed scared to offend us as they saw shifter ways almost like a religion. Whatever, it had gotten us what we wanted.
Just not the religious and other nuts who did everything from picket to block construction to paint scarlet letters on the building. Which was stupid because the surveillance cameras were seriously visible so people didn’t even try.
I hadn’t helped when I’d been caught on camera growling at a group and telling them to just get laid already and they wouldn’t have such a problem with other people having sex when they swarmed me getting out of my vehicle. Yeah, Simone had given me a lecture on eating shit when in public.
As all of this was going on, there had also been interviews for hosts and hostesses that would additionally handle being servers. Luckily, that had gone well. Sending them all to Tokyo to get trained hadn’t, as some had needed to get passports. Fine, we’d sent a group at a time. Expensive, but we’d done it.
Next were chefs. And security. And bartenders for upstairs. Someone to keep an eye on the dungeons. Also the hot tub floor. And we’d added cool roof access, so if we ever needed to expand into something, we could without major redesign.
Simone was requiring her panthers to take a shift a week to do something to help in the beginning. It didn’t matter if they came in to wash dishes or explain the lockers to people—which was a smart addition for newbies—or anything else we could always use an extra hand for. I’d made the wolves do it too along with those attached to me, whether I’d sirened them or not.
Which gave us a lot of help given how big the pack was, and we’d changed it to a shift every other week. We wouldn’t need them for long, just as we got such a huge endeavor up and running and positively talked about. If this went well, it was a step in the right direction for all paranormal-owned businesses and for Chicago, and if we prospered, so did her panthers and my wolves.
Especially with all the jobs it was bringing in, as no matter the laws, people could easily turn away paranormals for employment without getting caught just like any other discrimination. Hell, we weren’t hiring humans, but that fell under safety, as the guests would be paranormals and drinking, which could lead to accidents.
Which led to my insisting we had rules and waivers every new guest had to read and sign. Simone hadn’t liked that part, but she did agree with covering our asses, so she’d let it go… Along with my implementing Vegas level security Laila had given us access to. Then Brian had helped us upgrade so it was integrated with local police and our offices. It was pretty cool and hopefully would keep anyone bad out or catch them right away.
There was still so much more that I couldn’t even wrap my head around how we’d gotten it all done so fast. Part of it had been Simone’s connections from her other places and so we didn’t have to shop for which distributors to use for much. Though what we had looked into had not been fun. We at least agreed on the importance of recycling and reusable, from shot glasses to just about everything.
Since she was putting in most of the time and knowledge, I was putting up most of the money, which was fine with me given it all came from Alena’s deal for Igor’s stuff. Laila and Gearmo had about fallen over as she’d casually slipped in that I’d acquired treasures from all the major dynasties and monarchies and way too much stuff.
And by casual I mean it wasn’t casual at all.
They had both jumped at the news and not only had bought stuff for their private collections but leased whole collections for the galleries they had in Vegas and beyond. Alena had tried to buy some Greek stuff, but I’d told her no way I’d take money for it after all she’d done with sending more people and facilitating everything, so she had taken back a huge win for the family, pack, and Greece in general.
There had also been a large amount of Roman Catholic goodies that the Vatican was horrified they had come into my possession. They had no legal claim, as there was no proof the goodies had ever been theirs, but they’d paid a hefty amount to get them back. Fine. It was easier to give the goodies to them than private auction, and they were happy the stuff was out of a demon’s hands, as that’s how they viewed clairvoyants.
They hadn’t even accepted my argument that I was an ineffective one. It made me smile to piss them off though and for them to realize one day that the money they’d paid had been used to build a club that would have premarital sex and lots more they stood against. Shit, they could constantly find problems with what we did, and they’d helped fund it.
But then came some of the complicated stuff, as they were new and untested ideas. Like using fashion design students from the colleges in Chicago to make outfits and costumes. Some had turned up their noses at the idea of having their designs at a place “like ours,” which made us laugh because with that attitude, they would get their humility fast in the real world.
The deal was we were working with several classes, and we had to see sketches, either from proposing ideas or we were giving them themes. They had to handle the sewing and whatnot, able to use employees for models and not just given sizes, which helped both sides.
If the design went over well, there was a wolf out of Des Moines that had clothing lines and factories we got involved, and they would add it to the collection to be bought, the club getting some of the profits. Also the designer. It was a great stepping stone for newbies and even better promotion for the club, as it was going t
o be under a Siren’s Kiss line that linked to the club and what our hosts and hostesses wore, plus our shows.
We’d borrowed a few choreographers from Laila and had hired one to handle everything once the others went back. That was going well from what I’d heard, but I’d had no part in it.
All of that and much, much more led to my pacing in the office of Siren’s Kiss just before we were to open for our first preview at quarter to six for dinner to start at six. I was wearing a gorgeous blue, green, and silver revealing gown made with fairy material and designed by Laila’s people. It wasn’t trashy, very elegant even, but it had dips and slits everywhere, so I couldn’t even wear anything under it.
Simone and I had ones for all this week, as Laila wanted to start her own line and thought it would be good cross promotion along with publicly saying we were buddies with the fairies and their queen liked us.
“Sera, all you have to do is try the food, fill out the cards, and spread lust in the club along with feed,” Simone reminded me, her eyes filled with mirth at my nerves. “I’ve got the rest, okay?”
“That’s not really a fair distribution.”
“It is given our roles, so chill out. I know you’ve had a rough time lately.” She didn’t elaborate, her gaze kind and still worried. “There’s going to be at least twenty mistakes tonight. It’s unavoidable. It’s why we have a preview, so just chill. Okay? Go eat nummy food.”
“I can’t believe you know there will be mistakes and you’re not freaking,” I grumbled as I left. I couldn’t even fathom that. Then again, I was used to a profession where mistakes could get people killed—or infected with lycanthropy as I had been—but really the worst that could happen tonight was courses came out late or the warmer for the blood drinks failed.