Page 31 of Tangled Souls

My gut is telling me she’s going to get herself fired before she even knows it.

I shake it off, knowing it’ll happen the way it’s supposed to happen. However it ends remains to be seen. No matter what, I’m sure it’ll be entertaining.

As the silence stretches in the office, I blurt, “I think we need to be seen more.”

The guys freeze and then look toward me slowly with shocked expressions. I’ll admit, they should be surprised. Putting our woman in the spotlight isn’t really something I want to do, but we need to.

As much as I hate to admit it, Hendrix was right. Putting our woman in some tower isn’t the right thing to do. If I keep doing it, if I keep insisting on it, I’ll be denying her, and us, the woman she truly is. That would be a huge shame.

“Are you sure?”

I look up to find Baker studying me. My throat closes up and it takes a lot of effort to swallow past the lump in my throat. The idea of our woman being out there and being in danger kills me, but we can’t lock her away and keep her happy.

Something has to give, and it needs to be me. Between the four of us, we can protect our woman. It’s not like she’s ever going to go out somewhere by herself. If we don’t have her back, then she’ll have protection.

“I’ve been kicking around an idea since we went to Second Circle,” Maxim throws out there.

When I look at him, he has a mischievous sparkle in his eyes. My gut is screaming at me that I’m not going to like his idea at all. But then again, he loves our wife just as much as I do and he’ll always act with her well-being in mind.

“Is this going to make me want to shoot you?” I can’t help but ask the question.

Maxim barks out a short laugh and shrugs. “Probably,” he admits.

“I’m not opening a fucking brothel,” I growl in warning at my brother.

“I don’t want to open a brothel,” Maxim huffs and rolls his eyes, “don’t be ridiculous. I do think that we might want to consider a nightclub.”

“A nightclub?” Huck looks like he’s considering the idea.

It’ll probably be only a few minutes until he grabs his tablet and starts to do some research and crunch some numbers. Baker is already shaking his head, which doesn’t surprise me. A club sounds like a horror in terms of security and that would fall completely on Baker’s shoulders.

“Do you realize how much time a club would take up? How much time it would take away from Oaklynn?” Baker asks, clearly annoyed.

“We know how to hire the right people. Sure, at least one of us would need to come through a few times a week, but I’m not suggesting we spend all our time at a club,” Maxim fires back. “It’s like White Stone. We hired the right people, empowered them to do their jobs, and ensure they feel ownership when it comes to the business. Why can’t we do that with a club?”

Baker’s shoulders slump slightly, knowing full well that Maxim won’t be put off. It’s not like the idea is a bad one either. The problem is that Baker’s first priority is safety. It’s what his mind mulls over all the time. He’s always assessing the world around us and looking for the pitfalls.

“We’ll need to talk to Oaklynn about it, but I’m not opposed to getting in the nightclub business,” I offer.

“I think we should look for a club which is already established and buy it as is. We can change things as we need, but there’s no reason to reinvent the wheel,” Huck offers.

His fingers fly over the screen of his tablet. I’m sure he’s checking the numbers to see if this is something we want to consider from a business standpoint. I have a feeling it will be.

There’s money to be made in a club, but it has to be run well. The service provided, along with the way the club is branded, is the key to success. Just like with White Stone.

“I do like the idea of buying a club that’s already established,” I muse.

“What about Aamon’s club?” It sounds like Baker is forcing the words past his lips. When I look at him, his face is twisted up telling me that he’s not a fan of contributing to the conversation but is doing it anyway.

It would be comical if I didn’t understand his reservations and feel them myself. I don’t want to do anything to hurt our woman. And we’re already spread so thin.

But I think we can handle adding this to our plate.

Baker snaps his fingers, “Pulse.” When I give him a look, he flips me off and shakes his head. “The name of the club. It’s Pulse. I couldn’t remember it for a moment.”

All I can do is nod to let him know I heard him. My mind wanders to Aamon. He’s a wannabe.

And I mean that in every sense of the word. He wants to be someone who people like while also being willing to dip his toe into illegal bullshit. He’s a shifty fucking character.

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