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“Yeah, I should have done that. I felt like Lenny and his crew were planning something and I should have done something. We had eyes on them. Even Nate felt like they were planning something. But I gave the order just to watch them.”
“A hard lesson to learn.” He let out a deep breath, shaking his head. “A very hard lesson. Yes, here you are. Learn from this experience and do better next time.” He tilted his head to the side. “Do you talk to your father about this stuff?”
I shrugged.
“He knows a lot.”
“I know but he’s also going through a lot, and I don’t want to bother him either.”
Lucian sighed. “I get that, but he doesn’t have a lot of time left, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. Bother him. Because when he’s gone, you’re going to wish you had. And you’re going to want those memories. Trust me.”
“You miss your father?” I arched an eyebrow.
“Oh, fuck no!”
The seriousness of his voice made me laugh.
“He was a son of a bitch!” He huffed, shaking his head. “I hated him, but I miss my mother and I wished I had taken more time, you know. Spent more time with her.” He shrugged. “But I was just so focused on showing him I could replace him, you know. Showing him I could do the job, and she kind of fell by the wayside. I didn’t even notice she was sick until it was too late. I was working so hard to prove myself to my father that I didn’t even notice my own mother wasting away. And that still gets me.”
His words struck me, hard. I was trying to do the same thing, prove myself to my father. Prove to him that he didn’t make a mistake in naming me the leader of the family. That his faith in me wasn’t misplaced.
“I get what you’re saying.” I let out a deep breath.
“Good.” A broad smile spread across his face. “Now, about the club, which looks amazing, by the way!”
“Thanks.” I smiled. It felt good to hear him say that he approved. I wasn’t sure why. “We still have some decorating to do, and I want to finish decorating my office. Now, we just need to figure out our first guests and what we’re going to do for opening night.”
“Got any ideas?”
“I’m thinking a costume party with masks.” I shrugged. “I was also thinking about using the area behind the house. You own that too?”
He tilted his head to the side, thinking. “You mean, all the woods and stuff back there? Yeah, we own that.”
“I still need to think some things through, but Nate said you had a guest list or something like that.”
Lucian leaned back in his chair and pulled out a drawer on his left. He took out two pieces of paper, closed the drawer, and placed them on the desk. “Okay these are just a few ideas. You need variety, you need exclusivity, but most importantly, you need power.” He slid the sheets of paper over to me.
“Oh.” I looked over the names, my eyes wide. He had the heads of the main families, a few prominent men and…. “I don’t know the last three names on the list. Who are they?”
“Eric Vaughn is the assistant to the Chief of Police, Mark Kinder is the assistant to the Mayor, and Brooke Umber is the assistant to the governor.”
“Why would we invite their aides and not them?”
“Because these men are going to wonder why they weren’t invited. The governor, the police chief, the mayor, and all of the prominent businessmen on that list hang out in the same circles. And when they start talking and they figure out they weren’t invited—”
“It’ll get them talking.”
“Exactly. They’ll say to their aides ‘can you get me any information on this new club?’ and the guys will say ‘I’ve been there.’. You want them to contact you. If you invite them to something and they don’t know who you are, or they’ve never heard of this club before, they aren’t going to come. But the aides probably will.”
“I get it.” I folded the piece of paper and tucked it into my purse. “Once I get everything the way I want it, I’ll start sending out invitations. Thank you.”
A smile lit his lips as he leaned back in his chair. “Don’t mention it.”
There was a soft knock at the door and then it opened. “Dad—” Suddenly, Charles was standing in the doorway, his eyes wide. “You’re up and out and talking!” He gave me a friendly smile.
I nodded. “I’m doing all three of those things, yes.”
He chuckled. “Good!”
