I shrugged. “Austin.”
He chuckled. “That could mean any number ofthings.”
Tattling on my boy wasn’t part of my jobdescription, so I just waited. Shane finally continued. “Austin mentioned thatyou were going to be coming to the meeting tomorrow, but what Tanner didn’tknow was if it was in your official capacity or if it was as Austin’s…”
He left the word just hanging out there,waiting for me to fill in the blank. Again, wasn’t my job to tell anyone whatTrouble was thinking. If he hadn’t defined our relationship yet, that was up tohim. I wasn’t concerned and I wasn’t going to step in and decide for him.
“Both. I have some catalogs and a fewquestions.” And Austin wanted me there to walk through the space and talk outthe different options. I just thought he wanted me there to flirt with and makeup naughty fantasies with. But he was crazy if he thought I was going to fuckhim up against a wall where just anyone could walk in.
There was a big difference between afinished club with someone at the door and a rundown warehouse where anyonecould stumble on us…including the contractor and his workers. I wasn’t worriedabout what Tanner or the rest of the guys thought. They were opening a BDSMclub together. If they had issues about intimacy, they’d have to get over itpretty damned fast.
Shane nodded then watched me, maybe waitingfor me to say more. When I just waited, because I wasn’t a mind reader, hecontinued. “The contractor thinks we’re building a social club, so when he’saround it would be much easier if you’d just pretend that your only role was asAustin’s…significant other.”
That was such a stupid phrase I didn’t evenwant to dignify it with a response.
“Fine.” Not sharing with the contractormight have been practical for privacy’s sake, but I had to think that it wouldcreate more problems than it solved. But it wasn’t my job to say anything toShane. Now, Trouble…that was a different matter. He and I would have to talkabout it before we headed over tomorrow.
Shane chuckled quietly, but I wasn’t surewhat was funny, so I just waited. If he had a point, I’d listen, but otherwise,if he wasn’t going to shop I had better things to do. If he wasn’t a customerand wasn’t from the cops, I needed to get stocking and paperwork done beforeTrouble got home.
“Will you be bringing any catalogs orinformation for sites you can special order single items from?” The sentenceseemed oddly structured, so it took me a second to realize what Shane wasasking.
“Sure.” I thought that was enough of ananswer, but he raised one eyebrow, giving me my own look back. “I have a fewthings I can bring if you want to look at stuff for Tanner. Anything specificyou’re looking for?”
There were a ton of different options. Mostwere on my computer, so I didn’t have to bring anything physical, but it wouldbe easier to plan ahead if I knew what he was looking for. Shane wasn’thelpful.
Shrugging, he glanced around. “I’m stillnew enough at this that I don’t know what I don’t know.”
He was going to drive me crazy.
“Give me your email and I’ll send you somelinks. That should help you get started.” He could waste his own time browsing,not mine.
“Sites?” His eyes lit up. “I can’t findany.”
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t search for sextoys.”
He was smart enough that I should not havehad to explain it. When his brows pulled together, I sighed. “What does theoutside of the store say?”
“Adult novelties and gifts.” Then his eyeswidened. “So the manufacturers’ sites are labeled the same way?”
I nodded. “For the most part. There are afew that aren’t in English, but the website translators that pop up are fairlygood. Most aren’t dot com sites either. You’ll see when I send it. But youcan’t order directly from them, so let me know what you want.”
If he’d started looking up adult noveltygifts and had gone down the right internet rabbit hole, he’d have already foundwhat he wanted. Evidently he was a little too literal when he was researchingthings.
Shane nodded and I could see him mentallymaking notes as he pulled out a business card and started writing his emailaddress on the back. Handing it over, he pointed to the handwritten part.“That’s my personal email address. You can send the links there. But anythingelse about the club you can send to the work email.”
“Sure.” I’d have never tried to keep a BDSMclub quiet, but considering how much money and clout Tanner and Austin had, ifanyone could it was them.
Shane stepped away and started wanderingdown the aisle. Since the work part of the discussion seemed to be over, Ifigured it might be a good time to start asking some questions about the damneddriver. “Who pays the driver?”
Because that was who I needed to have thediscussion with.
Shane froze beside a selection of paddles.Since he didn’t seem to be fascinated by any of them, I had to assume myquestion was more interesting than I’d expected. Waiting him out seemed to bemy best strategy. Before he got to the end of the aisle, he was hemming andhawing.
“Well, that’s not an easy question. IsAustin’s driver having any issues? He’s supposed to contact me or Wade ifthere’s any—”
I wasn’t going to put up with any bullshit.Austin might worry that they’d be mad at him, but I didn’t give a flying fuckas long as it didn’t mess up my relationship with Austin. “Who pays the bill?”
Shane sighed. “Austin. It just gets routedthrough several accounts and isn’t labeled clearly. It’s all legal, but it’sjust a bit of creative accounting.”
