“Good to see you again,” Xander greeted, his deep baritone warm and friendly. “You remember my wife, Mercedes.”
“Of course.” Dylan nodded toward the beautiful brunette at Xander’s side.
Taking a step back, he glanced at the others standing around, chatting and smiling.
“Dylan!” McKenna Murphy called out, stepping up to him when he turned. Her arms embraced him, her fiery-red hair tickling his chin. “So good to see you.”
“Thanks,” he replied, hugging her back and looking up to see her husband, Tag, staring back at him.
“We missed you at the wedding,” she said, stepping back and looking up at him.
Tag and McKenna had tied the knot a while back on a cruise ship. He’d been invited, but Dylan had had to refuse. He hadn’t been in the right frame of mind, and the last thing he’d wanted to do was bring the party down.
“Congrats, by the way.”
“Thanks.” She took a step back, positioning herself beneath her husband’s protective arm.
Dylan shook Tag’s proffered hand. “Good to see you.”
“Surprised to see you here.” Tag’s tone was cordial. “We thought you’d never show up.”
“First time for everything,” Dylan said, glancing around. He nodded at a couple of other people he recognized.
“Well, I think you’ll fit right in,” McKenna said with a smirk. “We know beneath that rough cowboy exterior there’s a devious kinky side.”
Dylan laughed. She was right about that, but he doubted many people knew that about him. That was a side of himself that he’d buried more than two decades ago, when he’d finally convinced Meghan to marry him. She hadn’t been into that scene, and he’d loved her too much to risk losing her, so he’d opted to pretend that part of him didn’t exist.
A waitress appeared. “Can I get you something to drink, sexy?”
“7-Up,” he said.
The woman’s dark eyebrow lifted. “That’s it?”
“Yes, ma’am, unless you’d like to toss in a lime.”
She nodded, then took drink orders from the others before disappearing again.
A hand came down on his back, and Dylan turned to see Cole Ackerley-McCoy standing beside him.
“So good to see you, man,” Cole greeted. “Welcome to Devotion.”
“Nice place,” Dylan said, glancing around.
“Thanks. We’re proud of it.”
As they should be. Dylan knew that Devotion was a highly coveted fetish club—one of the few in the area. After Luke had abruptly closed the doors on his last one, he’d opted for something slightly different. Thanks to a blackmail attempt—someone looking to leak the names of the club’s members—Luke had done what he had to in order to protect everyone involved. He’d shut the doors and opened Devotion. Needless to say, every member signed an iron-clad nondisclosure agreement as well as paid a hefty fee to attend.
“You bring a date?” Cole asked, stepping back and studying Dylan.
“Not tonight.” While he waited for his drink, he looked around, took it all in. There were quite a few single people there. More than he’d expected, actually. To hear Logan, Trent, Tag, or even Xander talk about it, couples seemed to make up most of their clientele, which made sense.
Maybe tonight was an exception. It did seem to be themed, though not many people were in costume, but there were quite a few masks worn. He figured that could’ve been for anonymity as well.
Once the waitress returned with his drink, Dylan took the glass, clutching it tightly in his hands.
“I don’t wanna keep you,” he told the others.
“We’re just here to hang out. Who knows where the night’ll take us?” McKenna said.
“Sounds like the perfect plan to me,” Dylan said, nodding toward them. “I’m just gonna…”
“Talk to you later,” Cole said, still watching him closely.
Turning away from them, Dylan headed toward an empty table in the far corner, hidden partially in shadow. Not many people were in that area and he wasn’t disappointed by that. He needed a little time to acclimate to the place. It had been a long damn time since he’d been out like this. Meaningless hook-ups weren’t his thing, no matter how much he tried to make himself believe otherwise.
“Hey, man.”
Dylan turned at the deep voice that sounded from his right. He smiled when Luke McCoy approached, holding out his hand to shake when Luke joined him. “How’re you?”
“Damn good,” Luke said with a smirk, giving Dylan’s shoulder a squeeze. “Never thought I’d see this day. Glad you could make it.” Luke peered around briefly. “You bring a date?”
That seemed to be the question of the hour.
“Not tonight, no.” Hell, he didn’t know a single woman who would be comfortable in a place like this. For a brief second, he tried to imagine Sarah here, but he couldn’t see it. She was far too sweet and innocent for a place like this.
“Well, there’re plenty of singles here tonight.”
“I noticed.”
The place was packed. Not body to body, but as the minutes ticked by, it seemed more and more people were coming in. He had no idea how many people officially belonged to this club, but he figured probably a couple hundred. Not to mention their guests.
“You doin’ all right?” Luke asked, drawing Dylan’s attention back to him.
“Yeah. Hangin’ in there.”
“I was talkin’ to Alex. He told me y’all are considering a merger?”
Dylan nodded. “It’s a done deal. Inevitable, really,” he admitted.
It was no secret that CISS wasn’t doing so hot these days. There were quite a few security companies in the area, one in particular that seemed to be choking out the rest of them.
“Sniper 1 Security’s not a bad way to go,” Luke admitted.
“No, it’s not. And if they agree to take us on, which it looks like they are, then we’re all set.” Although Sniper 1 would consolidate the home-monitoring division, keeping a majority of CISS’s employees, they would still have to eliminate a few positions. Dylan knew Alex was fighting tooth and nail to keep every employee they had, though, so negotiations were going slow.
“Glad to hear it. I think that’ll take a lot of pressure off Alex.”
Dylan was sure it would. Unfortunately, a lot of that pressure had been Dylan’s fault. If he hadn’t been so selfish over the past few years, giving in to the depression and ignoring everything else, he wanted to believe their company could still be thriving.
But one thing he knew for certain, he couldn’t change the past. Moving forward, one step at a time, was his only option.
“If you’re looking to invest in something else,” Luke began, turning to face Dylan completely, “you might want to talk to Trent Ramsey.”
“Your silent partner?”
Luke grinned. “Wish someone would explain the silent part of that to him. He’s in the process of opening another club. Cole and I will be involved, but he’s looking for someone who can manage the thing when he’s not here. His acting career hasn’t slowed down, but he’s insistent that this is what he really wants to do.”