“I agree it’s not wrong and yes, it gives us more options which isalwayssmart,” 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’sbestclub,” 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.
