Devotion (Club Destiny 5)

“How’d you manage that?”

Trent held up a baseball cap and a pair of sunglasses.

“Does that normally work?” Luke asked, laughing.

Trent Ramsey was one of the hottest actors on the scene at the moment. Being a hot commodity didn’t allow for much anonymity; therefore, Trent had never out and out shared his interest in the club only because of the fact he didn’t want to bring the press down on them. Luke was pretty sure that was going to be a thing of the past now that Trent had decided to jump back into the game so to speak.

“Most of the time, yes,” Trent answered. “It helps that I sent a decoy out early this morning, and I’m pretty sure they’re hot on his tail by now.”

“I’d tell you I’m impressed with your evasive skills, but I’d be lying,” Luke said sternly, working to get them to the topic he knew Trent came to talk about. “If you came by to insist that I reopen the club, it’s not going to work.”

Trent’s handsome features changed from lighthearted to serious in the blink of an eye.

“When?”

“When what?” Luke decided to play ignorant. He’d had more than his fair share of these conversations with Trent in the last few months. He didn’t want to have another one. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever.

Club Destiny was his fucking club, and he made the decisions on whether the doors remained open or not. With Logan standing behind him on his choice, Luke knew he could make any decision he chose. Without a doubt, he knew his brother, as well as Sierra and Cole, would support him regardless of whether they agreed with him entirely or not. And between him and Logan, they still owned the majority of the shares.

“How much longer are you going to keep the doors closed?”

“Don’t know.” Since he had wiped out all of the previous members with the exception of a few, Luke wasn’t sure it actually would matter whether he opened the doors or not at this point.

“I think we need to put a plan together. We can’t keep them closed forever. We’ve got an opportunity to take this to the next level,” Trent said seriously. “It’s time we amp up our game.”

“We don’t have any competition in this, remember? It’s a private adult club. How the hell do you propose we do that? Advertise?” Luke could see it now: a billboard shining bright over one of Dallas’ main thoroughfares letting the great city know about the fetish club equipped with its very own dominatrix.

Not gonna happen.

“Not exactly what I was thinking.”

“Then what were you thinking?”

In all honesty, Luke had given significant thought to what he wanted to do with the club. He didn’t go into this business to manage a night club, but that seemed to be where he was at the moment.

With the fetish club seemingly nonexistent for the time being, he was spinning his wheels trying to come up with a plan. He’d even hired Kane Steele full time to work on growing their membership, but until Luke figured out what he wanted to do with the club, Kane couldn’t do much of anything more than conduct background checks and extensive research on the applications they were receiving. He had to be getting bored at this point, Luke knew.

“How are we going to fare against the Alluring Indulgence resort? Are they our direct competition?” Trent asked.

Luke watched Trent intently. He seemed to be fixated on the Walkers new resort, which amused him somewhat. Until now, Luke hadn’t tried to figure out exactly why Trent was so concerned about an adult resort being built three hundred miles south. Considering Luke was also an investor in the resort, he didn’t see a conflict of interest for himself; however, stepping into Trent’s shoes for a minute, he could certainly see the potential for concern.

“It’s not the same concept. They’re going all out with their resort concept. You know, spa, hotel, convention center. That sort of thing. Their clubs will be the only thing we have in common, but since they have yet to design them that I know of, I seriously doubt they’ll be our competition. On top of that, they’re three hundred miles away.”

“I heard Travis nixed the hotel idea,” Trent added, twisting his hulking body around in the wooden chair across from Luke. The way he continued to tap his sunglasses against his thigh was slightly annoying. It also was a tell for Trent’s anxiety level.

“He didn’t nix it entirely. He just opted to change the floor plan so to speak. He’s not building a hotel, rather adding single, standalone bungalows in lieu of. He thinks it’ll give the guests more privacy.”

“Not a bad idea, I have to admit. Have you thought about broadening our scope?”