Page 48 of The Good Girl Effect

“We were overcrowded last weekend, and it created security issues,” Phoenix adds, taking my side.

“So we increase security,” Julian argues.

“Increasing security doesn’t change the fact that the building can only hold so many,” I reply with a tense, angry tone.

“Nobody wants to go to an overcrowded sex club,” Elizabeth says flatly while staring at her phone.

“Exactly,” I say, glancing over at her and hoping she’ll look at me for even one second. She doesn’t. “It should be moreexclusive,” I say, straightening my spine and loosening my tie. “We’re not even vetting membership anymore. We can’t have a sex club that’s full of unchecked, drunk partiers. That’s not how Ronan and Matis ran L’Amour, and that’s not how we should run Legacy.”

Julian shakes his head without looking at me. I see the way his jaw clenches as he heaves a sigh.

He hates me, and that’s fine. I’m not doing this to get in his good graces. I’m doing this to prolong my godfather’s legacy and set my sister up for success after I leave. I can’t walk away knowing she’ll have Julian’s mess to clean up later.

“So what are you suggesting?” he asks. “We close down the club and only open to a select few?”

“Yes,” I reply confidently.

He finally turns my way. “It’s easy for you to say, Jack,” he bites back. “You’re not here half the time, and if you are, you’re fucking around in the BDSM room. And we all know you’ve got one foot out the door already, don’t you?”

It grates on my nerves to hear him talking about my plans and my life like he knows a damn thing about me. “And what about you, Julian?” I fight back. “You’re not here out of the goodness of your heart either. We all know you’re just here to have a place to party and get laid.”

“Enough, both of you,” Phoenix snaps from the front of the room.

Elizabeth lets out a huff.

As of now, it’s only the four of us. Amelia and Weston don’t bother to even show up to most meetings.

Everything we started nearly one year ago is falling apart. It’s embarrassing. Our parents left us the keys to success, and we’re throwing them away.

I just keep telling myself it doesn’t matter. I’ll be gone, back home in California soon. At least I tried to work with the team tomake it better. At least I stuck around for this long. But no one can expect me to endure this any longer.

“Why don’t we all just accept defeat?” Julian says dramatically.

“Do you even care about this club?” Phoenix asks with a shake of her head.

“No, obviously not,” he replies sarcastically. “I don’t care about anything, right?”

“Let’s just finish this meeting,” I say, rubbing my forehead with a sigh.

“I think this meeting is over,” he mutters, standing from the table and marching out the door.

What a prick.

Elizabeth doesn’t say anything to either of us before she leaves too. Phoenix and I are left alone in the conference room above the club.

She stares at me with exhaustion in her eyes. “What a mess.”

“Why is he such a self-indulgent asshole?” I say with annoyance.

“The two of you can’t hold a civil conversation to save your lives,” she replies with a tilt of her head.

“Me?” I say in disbelief. “You think I’m part of the problem?”

“It doesn’t matter what I think,” she replies. “But we can’t run this club when you two do nothing but fight at all our meetings.”

Maybe she’s right. But he’s the one who wants to run this place into the ground. He makes all the wrong choices, doing whathewants instead of what is right. He doesn’t care about anyone but himself.

As for me, I’ve been under a lot of pressure lately. I’m failing as a father and now as a business owner. Nothing I do seems to go right. Maybe that’s why I’m actually considering taking on mydaughter’s nanny as my submissive. Because at least that I know I can’t fuck up. That is something I excel at.