Open Doors (Suncoast Society #27)(18)

“Okay.”

“So in the next round of invites, we’ll suggest that it’s better to keep things keyed back a little.”

“How do we word that?”

“I’ll think of something. I’m sure Kaden and Ed will have suggestions.”

Boy, would they.

“It’s just Saturday night felt so…real. I know that sounds stupid, but it wasn’t like a few people at a house party. It felt almost like a club vibe. In a good way.”

“I know.” He went quiet as he glanced at her clipboard. He pointed. “Can I see that?”

“Sure.” She handed it over.

Hell, the quality of the plans she’d sketched out was damn good. “Where’d you learn to do this?”

“Duh, I told you. I picked up a lot of this on job sites. My step-dad. If you hadn’t convinced me to work with you, I probably would have gone for my contractor’s license.”

“Maybe we should still let you go for your contractor’s license.”

“Uh, yeeeaaah, no. One more job. Nooo, thank you.” She took back the clipboard. “I have my hands full with our business and now this place. Like I said, I’m just glad you’re not working for Dad anymore.”

They’d met after Derrick had gone to work for her father at his accounting firm. He’d worked there for a couple of years before they opened their own office, Marcia coming to work with him.

“Yeah, that might have made things tricky,” Derrick admitted.

She snorted. “Not just tricky, but impossible. He would have been all over us about this.”

Her father had just retired last year, turning all his clients and employees over to Derrick and Marcia. He and his wife now had an RV and toured the country with their two dogs.

He got up and retrieved their coolers, loaded them in his car, and returned. “You want me to stay with you?”

She didn’t look up from her sketches. “Nope, I’m good. I’ll be out of here well before dark.”

“Okay.”

As he drove home, he realized maybe he’d created a monster. Marcia was just as tenacious as he was. Now that she’d thrown herself into being involved with the club, she seemed to be all in.

Whether or not she’d murder him in his sleep when she saw the tab from Kaden and Ed remained to be seen. Hopefully, it wouldn’t stifle her enthusiasm for the club.

Because he damn sure knew he really needed her help with it. The club wouldn’t support hiring paid employees, and he needed her keen eye for detail and organizational skills.

I hope this wasn’t a big mistake.





Chapter Nine


The next Monday afternoon, Marcia walked into Derrick’s office, closed the door, then slammed the papers in her hand down onto his desk.

Considering there were only three pieces of paper, he considered that quite the feat.

“What the f*ck is this shit?” she scrispered.

That was what he’d dubbed her “screaming whisper,” the tone of voice she used when she wanted to dress him out for something but not have the entire office hear it.

“Um, papers?” he innocently suggested.

“Why did we get an invoice from Ed Payne and Kaden Erikkson for legal and incorporation services?”

He felt his balls shrivel.

Oh, f*ck.

He’d meant to tell Ed to send that to the club’s mailbox over at the industrial complex. “I love yo—”

“Oooh no. Don’t.” She jabbed a finger at him, still scrispering at him. “Do not even. Eight thousand dollars? Are you shitting me? I could have done it online at one of those legal sites for like a hundred dollars!”

“Hey, I got the friends and family discount—”

She held the finger up at him. “No. No. We talked about this, and said we weren’t going to sink our own money into this.”

“No, technically, that’s not what—”

“Derrick!” she shrieked.

He imagined the whole outer office probably froze and went silent for a moment, listening, before getting back to work.

She lowered her voice. “Eight thousand dollars?”

He raised his hands to placate her. “It’s okay. Look, seriously, you were worried about liability. This fixes everything so no one can pierce the corporate veil.”

She stared at him. “Eight thousand dollars?”

“Kaden set up an offshore corporation in the Caymans for us. It owns the LLC that has signed the new lease with Kel, and for the new bank account and stuff. It’s tricky now with all the Homeland Security bullshit because they’re looking for drug traffickers and stuff and—”

“Eight. Thousand. Dollars!”

“Part of it was the bank account we needed to create. Kaden got everything set up, including the insurance. There’s even a business license, state sales tax certificate, EIN for the IRS—the whole thing. It’s its own self-contained entity that is completely untraceable back to us personally for the sake of liability.”

She stared at him for several long, uncomfortably silent minutes. Finally, “Give me one damn reason why I shouldn’t divorce your ass right now? Derrick, eight thousand dollars? Eight hundred? Okay, I would have given you stink-eye over that, but no problem. Eight thousand? Do you have any idea how much we’ll have to make, or how long it’ll take to make it back, in addition to operating expenses holding parties once or twice a month?”