I swatted at Kyria when she burst out laughing again. “And I have three vaults, thank you. Two at my condo and one hidden at…”
“You don’t know?” she checked, laughing all over again.
“Elijah technically is in charge of it. It’s a shared one. I’ve given him stuff to add to it, but it’s an emergency bug out for the VPs should we need it.” I frowned. “I forget where, but I know how to portal there.”
“Fair enough,” she said, the others agreeing.
But then they went back to trying to give me the money.
“Don’t ruin a nice gesture,” I grumbled and grabbed one of the muffins that were there that someone picked up. “I needed this nice after yesterday. Tell me your idea and let’s be nice.”
“It wasn’t just the murder. She went to ask Evan for a favor and was bummed when she came home,” Mason told themevasively but also to let them know it wasn’t bad or for them to worry about.
Yeah, that pretty much covered all the bases and I was glad he’d said it.
We sat down with breakfast, including a delicious breakfast casserole one of them made with taco meat and tofu that Mason promised to get the recipe for after I ate almost half the pan of it. Kyria made a point to say that she was proud of me to put so much into place personally after all I’d been through. That it was motivating for them.
I knew it was praise, but there was more to it, and that part confused me.
It made me feel very seen though and touched me, so I did confirm that when the apocalypse hit, I would have them all covered and keep them safe. I wasn’t sure what else to say.
And for some reason, it amused Mason.
“We appreciate that and yes, I personally will take you up on that,” Mindy said with a kind smile. “Truly.” She cleared her throat nervously and slid over a presentation packet. “But even today with having money on hand for something so generous, I’m much older than you and don’t have that.I should. I want to. I want—”
“We realized that we’ve been so busy surviving and trying to not be eaten by our traumas and pasts that we haven’t done as much as we could,” Lewis said quietly, looking out the window as his cheeks flushed. “Me and my stupid fancy cars while you have extra wealth and have saved so many personally.”
“My focus is always on the club and helping people, but never myself. And letting people still bully me at times that I’m selfish instead of healing and putting myself first has kept me from moving forward,” Kyria grumbled. “Realizing that I had nothing besides the club and our friendship. That’s not healing. That’s not living.”
I opened my mouth to say something, but there wasn’t much I could say without sharing too much for Melissa, Mindy, or even Lewis to hear.
Mason reached over and squeezed my hand. “I feel the same. I—it’s not excuses and I was never lazy, but I just rode the waves and did what I had to, never more. I never had goals or reached for more. You have. You are a superhero and not because you save people.
“You inspire them,” Melissa whispered. “That’s why I’ve always made it clear, no matter where I land and how I help the company, that I’m on your team and will handle your personal everything.” She gestured between the four of them. “We will.”
“Thank you, because I can’t function as an adult without a team,” I muttered, not sure where the conversation could even go from there.
Apparently, a lot of places.
First, I listened to an explanation of the housing crisis in several countries. Corporations buying houses to resell for more and driving up prices in the market, pricing out those who generally lived there.Orbuying them to rent them for way too much and that was the new standard and others were too greedy so would do the same.
I knew enough of the issues of rent prices having worked with dancers undercover and more, but I didn’t know how much was corporations behind the scenes. We regulated and managed that shit in Germany. Yes, we had corporations owning lots, but there were limits, and corruption didn’t rule our lawmakers to just be bought into not serving their people.
So the background and issues in multiple countries the company had properties in made sense given too much hadn’t been handled. We had apartment buildings we were total jerks on and… It was a mess.
It was a mess with over four thousand properties now, and rebranding that to Heavenly Properties was smart enough.
But I also had sixty-two personal properties of my own that were just sitting there being used for nothing. More than Lewis probably knew or handled—another mess.
“So you four are going to handle all of this for me,” I hedged. “I appreciate that and now wish I’d given you more money as a gift.” I snickered when all five of them sighed.
Hey, I had a lot of money, but I also had a lot of messes. I understood that.
Flipping the next page, I started to put the pieces together. They were making it so some of my properties could bemaintainedby Heavenly Properties. Managed. Leased out and—just like people could do in several countries when they had rental properties. It was better to have a third party handle it all.
It was a smart idea and a good addition to have more jobs for demons who didn’t want to… Everything that came with strip clubs or even clubs and corporate associated with them. Hell, it would be great feeds for wrath demons more than working the door and sloth demons like Melissa.
Pride ones who fed from people who couldn’t handle their situations or more. Envy. It honestly worked on alotof layers.
