Auctioned Mates Revenge
Chapter 63

Felix's

POV

When Matt called me to tell me he had bought Club Heaven, I had been intrigued. When he called me about prescription lines and the botanical auctions, I was excited to know that he was thinking about more than alcohol for his new club. It would put him on the map in Midnight and across the continent as there weren't many clubs that offered recreational drugs of any sort. They were usually reserved for lounges and certain kinds of bars.

Brothels didn't even tend to have legal recreational drugs, which I always thought was such a waste. Drugs and s*x went hand in hand when everyone agreed while sober.

Still, nothing was more surprising to me than hearing Matt offer an undetermined favor in the future for picking up two women from the airport. Who were these two women? It wasn't like him to put so much care into taking care of any of the women he pretended to fool around with.

Maybe these two women were actually his lovers.

As they came down the stairs from the plane, I had to hand it to Matt: he had exceptional taste. I had never been picky about coloring, but between the golden blonde and the vibrant magenta and black of the other woman's hair, I could imagine the picture they made in bed together.

"Welcome back to Midnight, ladies. I am your humble escort, Felix Devereaux," I gave a mock bow. "Matt has placed you two in my care. Whatever happens from here on is his fault."

They laughed. The blonde seemed like she could use it.

I offered my hand to the blonde, "Are you Grace the Cunning?"

She smiled and shook my hand, "I am. It's a pleasure to meet you."

I turned to Renda, "That makes you Renda the Lucky."

Her lips twitched, "I suppose so. Though I usually go by Renda."

"Maybe it should be saucy." I opened the back seat door and ushered them in. "Your chariot awaits, mes chers."

I climbed into the driver's seat and checked my mirrors, "Are you hungry, ladies? Should I drive you to the penthouse? The mall? Or will you be riding along with me for these errands that Matt has entrusted me with?" "What sort of errands?"

"Little things," I shrugged, "Pick up some things at the border's stopping points, poke and prod a few others to get moving, check on the progress of Club Heaven.... I think I'm supposed to be looking over his business plan for the club." "You must be a club guru."

"I've never opened a club, but I've been to enough of them to know what makes a good club."

"He did mention you at the start of the renovations," Renda said. "He told the renovators to make it a place that you would willingly go to."

I grinned, "Well, let's see if they get it right, hm? We'll start at the border office since it's close, grab lunch, and go see what Matt's been up to at Club Heaven."

"How long have you known Matt?" Renda asked, "You're not much like Armand."

I laughed, "I'll take that as a compliment! Armand is nothing but trouble!"

That wasn't entirely true. He was the exact opposite actually, but his approach o prying Matt out of his mostly-functional depression was boring. Matt wasn't going to go out and live any sort of life through suggestions, gossip, and responsibility. He needed to get out of his head for long, sensuous bouts of time and go to therapy when he was ready.

Pretending that Ben wasn't a bastard and that even rich kids had it hard wasn't going to help Matt, contrary to some of Armand's beliefs, but I knew that Matt knew who had a better understanding of what was going to happen, so I didn't worry about it. Armand wanted to force acceptance on Matt when Matt needed time, space, and a reason to forgive himself. Only he would know what that meant.

In my opinion, life was too short to be worrying about shit we couldn't change. It's the shit that was coming down the pipeline that should be giving us angst and fainting spells.

At that thought, my watch beeped and I shook out a prescription cigarette out of my case, rolling down the window as I cranked up the engine. I lit the end, took a deep draw, and breathed out.

Calm settled through me and I felt the edge of those thoughts ease. I smiled a little. Middle Ground wasn't the most popular blend my company sold, but it was one of the most potent and useful for my brand of crazy.

"It smells a bit like... Buoyant," Renda said.

"Buoyant?" I asked, curious about what she was talking about.

"It's... a blend by Blooming Vibes."

I frowned, glancing in the rearview mirror. I'd never heard of it, "Not a popular blend, huh?"

"It's a pharmaceutical-use only blend."

I nodded. I wasn't surprised. Getting your blends to be pharmaceutical-use only meant you could raise the price and probably weren't making as much of it as other blends.

"What's the recreational version?"

She hummed, "Mellow."

Mellow I'd heard of. I reserved it for when I needed more than the steadying calm Middle Ground gave me. I'd modeled my recipe after Mellow, but the botanicals I used didn't have the same potency, and the blend wasn't identical.

The rumor was that Blooming Vibes used a practicing physician to develop their blends and a medical-grade horticulturist and botanist to develop the crop in Fluorite, but no one could confirm that.

The way it had turned out, when Fluorite fell, plenty of people had been hoping to get a hold of some living stock, but it had been scorched during the fall or poisoned. I didn't believe that was entirely true for a moment, but I contented myself to keeping my ear to the ground for auctions and refilling my stores as I needed.

"A fellow connoisseur of the finer things in life!" I turned the corner, heading towards the border's receiving port. "We'll have to compare notes. This cigarette is one modeled after Blooming Vibes' Mellow. I hear that Matt's bought Blooming Vibes?" "That's true," Grace said. "Walter's a very nice man."

I nodded, "I'd love to know what the hell Matt offered him to sell. I'd been trying to buy Blooming Vibes out for at least a few months. I guess Matt's edge serves him well even when he doesn't know shit about the industry."

"He doesn't?" Grace asked, "I got the sense that he knew enough."

"Matt's not the type to indulge," I shrugged. "You won't ever catch him drunk, high, or enjoying himself unless it's midnight, alone with a bottle of regular whiskey. He can make any drink you want, but don't ask him to drink with you." Grace and Renda looked at each other, "What... do you mean? At the party..."

I glanced in the rearview mirror as they glanced at each other and seemed to be confused.

"Oh, he's good at pretending. He'll sip one flute of champagne for hours if he picks one up at all. It's a work in progress."

I pulled up to the port's office and finished my cigarette before climbing out and helping them out.

"Shall we ladies?"

With one of them on each arm, I led them to the front door. The officer on the other side of the desk looked disgruntled as I grinned at him.

"Hi, Matt Wallber sent me here to pick up his parcels on his behalf."

The man glowered at me before typing on his computer, "Parcel pick-up closes in half an hour. We stopped looking them up ten minutes ago."

I fished out a slip, "Good thing I have the call list then."

He sucked on his teeth as I grinned at the two women. He lifted the phone from the cradle and began to speak to the person on the other line, but an officer appeared from the back and waved us to the back. I took the slip back and led them back. Towards the pallet of things that were shrink-wrapped and marked with the Warhammer commerce seal.

"Don't suppose you plan to carry all this out?" He asked smugly, "There's only one truck bay open."

"Which one?"

"Bay 13."

I nodded and called the truck I'd asked to head towards the office for Matt's order. It was good that I had a private contract with one of Midnight's certified trucking companies, or this would have been such a headache.

I waved them back. Worked hopped out of the truck and drove a small forklift out the back and down the ramp to lift the pallets into the truck.

"Ah, Felix, I thought that was you."

I turned around and I smiled even as my heart started to race. I was glad that I'd smoked the entire cigarette before getting here and I had a pack of Mellow in the car. "Alpha Ben, what a pleasure to see you."