Chapter One
“Club Destiny.” Luke didn’t bother trying to hide the gruff irritation in his voice when he clicked the answer button on his cell phone and all but slammed it against his ear. The damn thing had been ringing nonstop for the last two hours, so he’d stopped bothering to look at the screen before he answered.
“Hey, bro. What’s going on?” Logan, Luke’s nothing-if-not-persistent twin brother, greeted back, seemingly immune to Luke’s umbrage.
Flying under the radar for the last two months had taken some creative manipulation, but Luke had pulled it off, making a full-fledged effort to work on some of his own personal issues. Nonetheless, said personal issues were not resolved, but he found himself right back in the thick of things once again. He shouldn’t be surprised that his brother was calling, and he wasn’t really, he just wasn’t in the mood to talk to him considering the ass chewing he was expecting.
“Not a damn thing. What about you?” He barked back, walking through the main floor of his club on the way to his office.
He’d spent the better part of the morning with Club Destiny’s head bar manager, going through their weekly order, and trying his damnedest to get back into the groove. Between that and answering the phone, he hadn’t had a minute to himself. Which in his current state was probably not a bad thing.
“Glad you could make it back.” Logan said, and Luke heard his brother’s sarcasm, as well as his frustration, but at the moment, he didn’t give a damn.
“What do you want?” Luke made it to his second floor office and slammed the door behind him.
Thankfully there were only a handful of people at the club that early in the day since they weren’t open to the general public yet. Only members were allowed in during the morning hours, and they all knew to give him a wide berth on a good day. Unfortunately for them, today wasn’t a good day.
Even with the few familiar faces he’d seen that morning, Luke’s only desire was to be left alone. Although he’d managed to abandon his responsibilities, as well as any of his personal relationships for the last eight weeks, Luke still wasn’t in the mood to be around anyone, and he wasn’t keen on the idea of talking to his brother either.
“What the hell’s wrong with you?” His brother never did have a problem calling him to the carpet so to speak, and apparently, Logan wasn’t in much of a better mood than he was.
Which was surprising with all that had apparently happened to Logan during the time that Luke had been away. The man was a husband now, for Christ sake. That alone should make his brother much more pleasant than he currently was.
With a silent groan, Luke flopped down into the high back executive chair that he managed to occupy for at least a few hours every day. Glancing around the immaculate office, gleaming with hardwood and soft, iridescent lighting, he tried to remember what made him find comfort in the place.
Oh wait. He didn’t.
The oversized mahogany desk, the full size, distressed leather sofa, and the intricate, way overpriced designer rug had been someone’s idea of soothing. Instead, the result was just fucking ugly. And the confined feeling that overcame him when he walked in didn’t help either. Without windows, the not so small space seemed more like a broom closet than an office.
Even after spending thousands of dollars on some highly recommended interior designer, Luke hadn’t felt comfortable in the space. Which explained why he spent most of his time down in the club or caught up on the mountains of endless paperwork from home.
Despite his discomfort with enclosed spaces, the club as a whole offered him a sense of peace that was absent from his personal life, thanks to his own demons that managed to haunt him day and night like a bad case of the flu. Rational decisions weren’t generally on Luke’s short list of things to do, so purchasing the club ranked right up there with one of the best he could come up with in quite some time.
Though he often wondered if the club actually intensified those demons.
Remembering that he still held the phone to his ear, and his brother wasn’t going to wait patiently for long, Luke answered. “Just trying to get some shit done around here.” And not succeeding worth a damn.
Luke almost felt guilty for directing his annoyance at his brother, knowing the other man had spent the last two months trying to juggle his own responsibilities, including a full time job and apparently a new wife, along with covering for Luke’s absence at the club. Yes, the wife part had been a surprise because when Luke had left town, Logan and Samantha were only dating. When he came back… Bam! – new sister-in-law.
For some unexplained reason, just the thought of Samantha had Luke’s body going instantly hard. Most likely that was due to the fact that he’d known Sam intimately, on more than one occasion, thanks to the few times Logan had invited him to be the third. The remembered feel of Sam against him, or her hot, sweet mouth on him, had Luke almost longing for another encounter with her. Almost being the key word.