I still hadn’t figured out who’d tattledbecause I’d been bringing in a laptop since they’d gotten small enough to carryaround. I’d narrowed it down to a few of the brokers who weren’t doing wellfinancially, but I hadn’t figured out who’d stirred shit up yet. If theythought getting me fired would cause me to lose my clients, they were crazy.
Most of my clients thought I was a bit ofan asshole, but they knew how hard I worked for them and how well theirportfolios had done since I’d taken over their accounts. I might not be therisk-taker that Austin was, but I made up for it with research and goodinstincts.
Heading out of the office, I nodded towardthe few stragglers left on our floor and walked to the parking garage. Inminutes I was driving toward the warehouse district. I couldn’t help but admithow excited I was to see the changes.
When we’d first walked through the site, Iknew it could be something interesting. But once Graham finally understood whatthe space would be, the changes he made had taken it to another level. Itwasn’t just going to be a BDSM club, it was going to be a beautiful space.
As I pulled up in front of the building,cars lined the side, so I knew the workers were still there too. At first,meeting them had felt strange, but now they were coming to feel like anextended family. They were like neighbors or maybe cousins we didn’t see oftenbut still recognized as having something in common with us.
I wasn’t the mushy type, but it was niceseeing the reality of what we’d always known. There were other people like usout there.
Heading inside, I could only shake my head;it looked more like a rave than a construction site. Music blasted from the newlyconstructed second floor and Austin was dancing around the room, swirling hiships like he was wearing some kind of skirt only he could see. Well, he andSilas, judging by the way his alpha was staring at him. Even some of theworkers were wiggling along with him as they finished up whatever they’d beendoing.
Tanner, Shane, and the rest of the guyswere in the corner going over the plans, so I ignored the attention whore andwent over to see where we were at.
Wade smiled as I approached the table. “It’scoming along great, but now Austin is convinced we need a sound system like aclub would have.”
I wasn’t sure if that was a legitimate ideafrom the insane—albeit genius—omega, or if he was just trying to drive everyonecrazy. “I don’t go to clubs.”
Tanner rolled his eyes. “Like any of therest of us do.”
“Then how should I know if we need a soundsystem like that?” Looking around at the wires that were starting to run alongthe beams, I had a feeling that if we needed a more advanced sound system, we wererunning out of time to make that decision. With any other contractor itprobably would’ve been past time, but they were family so I didn’t mind drivingthem crazy.
Graham was quietly talking with anotherworker, so I glanced around. A few of the workers were close enough that I knewthey were listening to the conversation, so I turned to a tall man wearing ablack T-shirt. “What do you think?”
He looked carefree enough that he’d be theright kind of person to hit the clubs. His gaze scanned the room and I couldsee from the way he was studying the space that he was seeing the finishedproduct, not the open walls and bare bones.
When he turned back to me, he gave a quicknod so I raised one eyebrow. He seemed to understand my unasked questionbecause he grinned. “Nash, sir.”
He pointed around the room. “I can’t seethe space being used as a traditional club or restaurant, but I think upgradingthe system that you picked out to extend it into the lounge area here and up tothe playroom would be a good idea. You’ll be able to run them separately and doquiet background music for out here, something more intense in the back andeven nursery songs or a movie upstairs.”
“So, no club and no pounding music.” Irolled my eyes and glanced over to Austin who was still enjoying the soundsfloating through the space.
Tanner snorted. “I can deal with that.”
Nash chuckled quietly then looked towardAustin, dropping his voice low. “Who’s going to be the one to break it to him?”
“Silas.” Tanner and I both spoke at the sametime, causing Nash to laugh.
“That’s what I thought.” Still grinning, henodded and went back to work.
Graham finally looked up from hisconversation. “How about a walk-through? You guys haven’t seen the second flooryet.”
As he led us through the building, with afinally more subdued Austin, Graham pointed out features he was proud of andrandom things he probably thought we’d be impressed by. I found myselfimagining what it would be like when it was done.
Through the random questions the guys askedand Graham’s chatter, I could see how it was all coming together. As we climbedthe stairs and walked past what would be the heatproof rooms, Austin started toget wound up again. But it wasn’t until we got to what would be theplayroom/nursery that he really started bouncing off the walls.
“You should see all the cute things I’vefound.” He crisscrossed his way through the room, pointing at random spots.“I’ve found the cutest cribs that are going to go right there. Two so theydon’t have to nap alone. Oh, and we’re going to have a low shelf full of kids’books and some oversized rocking chairs so they can be read to and cuddled. Ifyou know where to look, there are sites dedicated to making furniture forlittles. It’s fascinating.”
We all glanced over at Silas.
He shrugged. “I already told him hecouldn’t have a little. He knows they’re not pets.”
We were all wearing the same skepticalexpression. The fact that we were all thinking the same thing seemed to tickleSilas because he chuckled and looked back at Austin. “He’s planning on askingif he can babysit.”
For fuck’s sake.
Silas gave a careless shrug. “I alreadytalked him out of a puppy.”
