I really shouldn’t.
“Where has the money been? I know Bradley wouldn’t have left that much money lying around.” It would break the man’s cold, hard heart to see that big of a pot where it wasn’t earning as much as it could.
Austin grinned wickedly. “In diamonds under my bed.”
Of course.
And since those had gone up so much over the last year because of problems in Africa, he’d made a killing. “I hope you no longer have several million dollars in diamonds under your mattress?”
Austin nodded regally. “Yes, I took them to the jeweler last week and we started selling off the gems this morning.”
Which explained why he was up so early and so damned excited.
“Other than bragging, why are you here?” If he wanted to brag, I could fight fire with fire, but I had a feeling he’d invaded for another reason.
“The club.” He sat up straighter and extended his legs out. “You were serious? It wasn’t just your version of a drunken rant?”
Like I had drunken rants on a regular basis.
“Deadly serious.” I was tired of constantly hiding who I was and what I wanted from everyone but my friends. There had to be more people out there who were into the same things we were. Specifically…alpha people.
“Okay then.” Nodding, Austin seemed to go from diamond-hiding drama queen to business mogul right before my eyes. “I’d like to see the warehouse and start making plans. Some of the diamond funds can go toward renovations. Bradley should be pleased he doesn’t have to sell off any investments to foot the bill.”
I grinned. “I’m not surepleasedis how I’d describe his reaction when you tell him you’ve been sitting on millions of dollars. Literally.”
Austin rolled his eyes but nodded with a wicked gleam in his eyes. “He’s going to hit the roof.”
Oh yeah.
But I wasn’t going to jump in the middle of that. “When do you want to see it?” I glanced down at my watch. “If you want to do it today, I can probably get off a little early…say five?”
Austin nodded. “That sounds good. But if you make me have a meeting at five, you have to feed me. I want steak.”
Snorting, I leaned back in my chair. “Date backed out at the last minute?”
He sighed, some of the drama fading away to show the sweet but frustrated man underneath. “Damned alpha seemed fine online, but then once we exchanged real names he panicked.”
“Money panic or did you do something weird? I haven’t read the headlines in the last few hours.” Most of the time Austin liked to fly under the paparazzi’s radar, but sometimes he just couldn’t seem to help himself.
Austin’s hands came up in a “who, me?” gesture. “Money panic. He owns a bookshop. Isn’t that cute? I mean, I knew going in that probably meant he was so vanilla it would be frightening, but the cuteness factor could make me overlook that.”
“Sorry.” It might have been a simple statement, but Austin knew how genuine it was. I’d been in the same boat many times. Everyone said they supported omega rights, but that didn’t mean they were prepared for rich omegas that came with baggage.
He shrugged, not willing to let it get him down. “I’m going to hold out for wicked and dirty this time. I have a new online profile and it’s fabulous. I’m going to meet my badass alpha. I just know it.”
“If you end up on the news because they traced that profile back to you—”
Austin interrupted. “You worry too much. I got this one set up with a friend who does internet stuff and there’s no way it can be traced back to me.”
He was going to get hauled to jail for some kind of hacking scheme.
“I’m not going to bail you out if you get arrested. I’ll send Bradley or worse, Wade.” Bradley might get angry, but Wade would be worried and hurt.
“That’s just mean.” Austin frowned, taking me seriously. “No one is going to get arrested and no one is going to tell Wade about my internet fun.”
“You’re going to end up meeting a serial killer, or worse, some fringe lunatic who’s catfishing people.” This had bad idea written all over it.
“Which is why my friend has agreed to do background checks on anyone I meet.” Austin smiled like it was all perfectly normal. “See, I’m not a complete idiot. He just wants to be one of the first members of the club once it opens.”
