with just flirting over time and seeing what happens, but you’re not.” Wade shrugged as I glared at him. “We all know you’re just going to end up turning to him one day and laying it all on the line or pulling an Austin and asking for a spanking. So there’s no point in lying to yourself.”
I liked lying to myself.
I was damned good at it too.
“You guys are so helpful.” Closing my eyes, I relaxed back on the chair again and gave up. “We’ll talk and then see what happens.”
“Good.” The eagerness in Wade’s voice was cute. He was clearly imagining dirty fairy tales when he thought about the possibility of me with Tristan.
Refusing to burst his bubble with the reality of how badly it would probably go, I gestured around the room. “Club. What did people have to say about that? Anything we should note?”
They must have decided to take pity on me because they allowed the change in topic. Tanner picked up the thread and ran with it. “Yes, we need to go over everything while it’s fresh in our minds. Can anyone take notes?”
I knew every eye turned to me. “You wouldn’t let me keep my notebook today, remember?”
Bradley huffed. “I’ll use my phone.”
Paper was better than electronic crap.
“Okay, first question.” Tanner was starting to sound like he was in a business meeting. “Did anyone meet someone that they really didn’t like? They were an asshole or asked bad-weird questions or even just gave off a bad vibe?”
Negative sounds came from almost everyone until Wade cleared his throat. “There were two alphas and one beta that didn’t seem to like taking no for an answer. I made it clear I wasn’t interested in getting into any kind of personal conversation with them and I had to repeat myself a few too many times before they listened to me. I know that’s not—”
We all jumped in but Bradley spoke first. “Oh no, we don’t have to make excuses for something like that. No means no unless there are safewords in play.”
I looked up to see Wade nodding, and as he spoke, he sounded more confident. “Yes, you’re right. It wasn’t enough to make me draw the line and say no to admitting them right off the bat, but I think having Eddie look into their backgrounds a bit more might be a good idea.”
“Yes.” Austin straightened. “Eddie did a fairly thorough one, but the goal was to make sure they were in the lifestyle and there were no red flags, nothing deeper than that.”
“There wasn’t time to do a crazy check on that many people.” Sitting up, I focused on the business and not my wandering thoughts of Tristan. “No one is blaming Eddie or anyone. We need to get their names to Eddie and also see who put their names up for the party.”
“Good idea.” Bradley kept making notes, his fingers going a thousand miles an hour on his phone as he gave Wade a quick glance. “Did you catch their names?”
Wade nodded and gave the information he remembered. One of the guys he just remembered the first name, but Bradley wrote down the details Wade gave him. “I think Eddie should be able to use that to figure out who they were.”
Relaxing back into his seat, Wade looked more in control. “Was there anyone else?”
I thought back to everyone I’d met and then to my impressions of everyone as they’d talked. I’d admit that I hadn’t been paying the strictest attention to the details, but characters were easy to remember. “There were a group of guys…small betas or omegas over in that corner. They looked like they came together. They were nervous, overly so, and one of them gave off I’ve been abused but I’m trying to overcome it vibes. Do we have a therapist on the list of potential applicants?”
Austin perked up again. “I think so, but I don’t remember what kind of therapist she was. Let me check with Eddie. I’ll have him do a deeper background check on her as well.”
“Great.” I looked over at Bradley. “Hey, make a note to have Eddie tell us if he finds any red flags on his end that we need to help with. Like they can’t afford the fees but he thinks they’d be a good fit or if it looks like we need to step in on other things. Finding a therapist or legal help for something to do with the lifestyle is almost