Devotion (Club Destiny #5)(17)
Author: Nicole Edwards

Logan joined him beside the window and glanced down at the bar. Luke watched as Dylan held up a hand motioning for Lucie to bring another drink. From where he stood, it was clear that the man wasn’t drinking water. Whatever it was, he was doing doubles, and he was rapid firing them as soon as Lucie handed them over.

Luke couldn’t help but think that Dylan’s day was going about as shitty as his own. Not only had Trent postponed their morning meeting to the evening, Luke had the pleasure of sitting in a room with a decidedly unhappy Domme for the better part of an hour. Serena didn’t talk often, but when she did, it was hard to get her to stop. He didn’t mind for the most part because he truly needed to know what was going on between her and Trent Ramsey.

As it turned out, after sixty minutes of continuous chatter on her part, Luke had learned nothing.

“Something wrong with him? Besides the obvious?” Luke asked, watching as Lucie handed Dylan another glass, nearly half full with clear liquid. It didn’t take long for him to down that one. He had to be feeling good and numb by now. When he called Lucie over again, this time she had the proper sense to ignore him momentarily and shoot a glance up at the window. Luke knew she couldn’t see him, but he could see her.

“You want to go talk to him?”

“Not really, no,” Luke admitted.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to talk to Dylan, but he knew the man was going through a tough time right now. The anniversary of his wife’s death was never an easy day, and although Luke didn’t want Dylan to pass out cold on his bar floor, he knew someone had to go talk to him.

“Fine,” Logan said, turning to walk away.

“Hey,” Luke called to Logan, turning to face his identical twin brother. “Why the hell are you here anyway?”

The grin Logan tossed at him said Luke wasn’t going to like the answer.

“I heard you were supposed to meet with Trent. I knew by your mood when I walked in that it hadn’t happened yet.” Logan didn’t look nearly as pleased with himself as the words came out.

“He should be here any minute. You might want to go talk to Dylan, or I’m tempted to force you to hang out with us.”

“Oh, hell no. Give me the drunk guy any day,” Logan responded at the same time there was a knock on Luke’s office door. Before he could call out to whoever it was, the door opened and in walked Trent. Somehow Logan managed to slip out of the room without even having to talk to him.

Bastard.

Luke had been expecting Trent for a while now, and like usual, the man seemed to keep his own schedule, the rest of them be damned. Ever since the night he gave a tour of the club to the Walker brothers, Trent had been pacing like a caged tiger. It was clear he had something on his mind.

“What brings you slummin’?” Luke greeted Trent with the question as he moved closer to his desk. He wasn’t sure he wanted to sit just yet. At six-foot-five-inches, Luke was by far a small man; however, it was interesting because even though Trent was probably an inch or two shorter, he was larger. Strangely, he was bigger both in size and personality. It explained why he was in the industry that he was in.

“Slummin’?” Trent laughed, his deep, raspy voice sounding oddly jovial and putting Luke’s back up.

What was he up to?

Luke, Logan, and Trent went way back. Although Trent was five or six years younger, the three of them had somehow forged a friendship prior to Club Destiny’s inception. Theirs was one of those friendships that coincidentally happened – right place, right time and all that. The three of them shared the same unique appreciation of adult clubs and many years later, here they were.

With the help of Trent’s and Logan’s capital, along with almost every penny Luke had in savings at the time, the club had been born. Going into it, the three of them knew they had bigger dreams than just creating a public bar.

Their intention was to create and expand a fetish club into something much bigger than what Club Destiny even was today. Considering recent events, they seemed to be moving in the opposite direction which had obviously pulled Trent out from behind the scenes.

“You bring the paparazzi with you?” Luke asked before deciding to drop into his chair. Hell, he wasn’t intimidated by Trent, and if the man wanted to loom over him like he had all of the control in this situation, he’d let him.

“Let’s hope not,” Trent sighed, finally taking the seat across from Luke. The more days that passed, the calmer Trent became at least in comparison to that first phone conversation they’d had when Trent insisted Luke open the doors to the club once more. He hadn’t been happy when Luke told him that wasn’t going to happen. At least not yet.