Page 5 of Such a Grumpy Omega (His Alpha Desires #9)

Fraser

I’d been approached by three separate investment groups while waiting for the contract with Cuffed to come through.

But I hadn’t been idle, and I was working on something I’d had in the back of my mind for a long time.

So, when my lawyer’s office called and told me the documents were ready for signature, I was excited and felt on the way for the changes I hoped to make in my life.

Everything I was throwing at my relationship with Cuffed came from my personal accounts, but the other project would have to work with my existing staff and resources in the office.

People depended on me for their livelihood, and I couldn’t just toss them aside to live my dreams. And that meant I had to find a way to finance the projects to cover all their expenses and make a profit. Reality could be harsh.

As soon as I clicked the transfer, I received an invitation to a group text including, from what I could tell, all the owners of Cuffed.

I accepted and a string of welcomes, followed by a “reminder” of a meeting at the club at seven that night, rang out.

For the rest of them, it was a reminder, but it would be my first one.

And I couldn’t wait to hit the ground running.

Turned out, I truly did that. With the new building starting to shape up, they were ready to get them done and also had been discussing their ideas about the next club.

I could do a lot with the expansion but a brand-new club?

Especially if they were willing to build from the ground up, I was definitely their man.

As an owner, my services wouldn’t be paid in salary form.

Each had his responsibilities and earned profits, although if I had wanted to be a silent partner, I’d have had to pay a larger share to start with.

One of the biggest draws to me was the fact that each person put in their effort, sweat equity, as well as a monetary investment.

The people who provided most of the money for those gated communities probably wouldn’t know what sweat equity was.

They had made accommodations for someone who just wanted to pay, but I couldn’t help being glad that so far, nobody went that way.

“So, what do you think of the expansion so far?” asked Talon, finding me in the littles’ garden.

“I think I’ve never seen adult-sized playground equipment that looks like fun and not just for exercise.”

“Right? We are allowing the non-littles in once in a while, but”—he moved to sit on a swing—“of course, being an owner has benefits.”

I never thought I’d see Talon kicking his feet to move a swing, but I couldn’t let him do it alone, so I joined him, and swinging gradually moved to discussion over some of the issues that were happening in the design and execution of the bridges they wanted to connect the original club to the buildings on either side.

Originally they had been designed and approved, but while just about everything else seemed to be moving along, a new inspector had taken issue with that one aspect, and an already done deal seemed to be undone.

Confident I could make this right, I asked for a copy of the blueprints and the design documents to show to a consultant I’d worked with several times.

I also asked for the contact information for the inspector.

Generally, if the plans were approved, the inspector was not going to argue about them, unless there was an execution error.

But it didn’t seem to be that, so I needed more information.

Feeling good about being useful so quickly, I fought the urge to leap from the moving swing. I broke my ankle that way at about ten years old, and there was no reason to attempt a repeat. “Looks like it’s opening time. I’d better get in there.”

Most of the owners, in addition to their administrative duties, occasionally filled in on the floor as a bartender or dungeon monitor, something like that, and there were always at least a couple of them floating around on any given night.

Tonight, I planned to shadow a DM for a couple of hours to be sure I knew exactly what to do in the future.

Of course, I’d seen them in action on the floor, but there was a big difference between casually noticing someone doing their job and doing it myself.