Just like Hedon, this establishment makes usbank. People love their kinks and pleasures of the flesh.
But unlike many of our competitors, we operate without any predatory practices. We don’t demand or expect our employees to serve the customers sexually; instead, we have strict policies in place to restrict it. Another key difference is that our employees of all our businesses are paid exceptionally well, with benefits, sick leave, and pensions. As a result, our turnover rate is almost nil. Our employees thrive, but this isn’t some altruistic approach to business; it’s good for the bottom line to have a stable, loyal, and highly productive work force. Since Ash took over as president and expanded what Zeus had originally set in motion, the Havoc Guardians are stronger and richer than ever.
I’m driving my truck today and pull into the parking lot alongside the other vehicles. Some bikes are parked on the street, and I pass them as I head toward Vixen’s front entrance and the black door with an elegant V carved into it. Inside, it’s dark and decadent, elegant in a way that mirrors Hedon withoutmaking it obvious that the two businesses are owned by the same entity.
Blaze, the head of Vixen’s security, greets me as I enter, “Good to see you, Boss.”
“How’s everything today?”
He glances toward the main part of the club and shrugs. “The usual. Business crowd getting their early afternoon fix.”
“Hey, we don’t shame, kink or otherwise.”
He smirks with a laugh. “No judgment here. Speaking of kinks”—he steps closer, so no one overhears—“have you relaxed the strict rule of no Havoc Guardians getting a membership at Hedon?”
It isn’t common knowledge that we own Hedon, but Blaze, just like Tats, is higher on the pecking order and privy to more than most.
“The rule still stands.”
Hedon is my playground, where I shed my inhibitions and the labels of who I am.
Plus, if Leeva is going to be attending with me, I don’t want anyone, especially any of our subordinates, to see my perfect woman. Even if we don’t do anything in the main room, I like the idea of her innocence being preserved in the eyes of others, and that it’s marred only for me.
A lady in the streets, a freak in the sheets, I inwardly smirk.
“You’re such a hard ass,” he complains, shaking his head.
“There are other clubs like it in the city, you big baby.”
He huffs out a shocked laugh. I get it; usually, I’m cool and aloof. But with life thrumming through my veins in a way that it hasn’t for years, I feel like I’m coming back from the dead.
“Get back to work.”
He smirks. “That’s more like it.”
Liam, one of our prospects, enters, and I acknowledge him with a dip of my chin, then walk into the club.
As Blaze said, it’s early afternoon, and the business crowd is getting their fix. The place is filled with men in expensive suits and several women in corporate power attire.
Instead of wandering the floor, checking in with staff and greeting patrons, I head directly for the stairs to my office. There’s a mountain of work waiting for me because I’ve only been dealing with the most urgent issues for the businesses I personally oversee for the MC.
On the Council, we divided oversight of our business operations to keep things manageable alongside our assigned MC roles. It’s a careful balance of managing both the criminal and legal parts of our empire, ensuring the weight doesn’t rest on any one person’s shoulders.
But it’s not just work I need to go to my office for; it’s a change of clothes. I keep fresh ones in my office because more than once, I’ve crashed here instead of going back to the MC compound whenever the ghosts and memories of my little dove became too much. But now that burden has been lifted in a way I never allowed myself to hope for.
Christ, I feel almost giddy.
My office doesn’t have much, just a desk with a computer and monitors running Vixen’s security cameras. Other than my desk chair, there’s only one other chair, shoved into a corner because I rarely have company up here.
This is my space, and the staff knows to leave me alone when I’m working. If I need to meet with a staff member, we do it downstairs in one of the staff-only rooms.
After I change into fresh clothes, I sit at my desk and fire up my computer, which makes me think of Digits. Which makes me think of the rest of the Council, particularly Ash, and my promise to Leeva about coming clean.
My jaw shifts as I pull out my phone and stare at it. But this conversation can’t be done over the phone.
Yeah, right. You’re stalling.
I totally am, I know.
