Chapter 2

      Julie Dominick hung up the phone on her desk and jumped up from the leather chair. Her red high heels tapped on the tile floor as she rushed across the hall to the office of her business partner, Evette Dean. She gave two swift knocks on Evette’s open door before hurrying in.

      “You’ll never guess who I just talked to,” Julie said in a rush.

      Evette slowly turned away from her wide-screen monitor and raised a brow—her natural response whenever Julie came to her bouncing in excitement. Evette’s light brown hair was twisted in the usual no-nonsense bun at the back of her head, and her polka-dot tan blouse and matching black pencil skirt were flawless, as always. If not for the spark in Evette’s dark eyes, Julie would think she hadn’t garnered her friend’s interest.

      “Then you better tell me.”

      Julie stood before Evette’s neatly arranged desk. “Raymond just called.”

      Evette’s raised brows lowered into a frown. The spark of interest was gone. She waved a hand and turned back to her monitor. “I thought you were talking about someone.”

      Julie reached over and placed a hand over Evette’s hands, which were already typing away on the keyboard. “You will never guess what he wanted.”

      Evette sighed and turned back to Julie. “What did he want?”

      “He’s opening a nightclub, and he wants us to manage the development.”

      The interest returned full force. Evette sat forward, her eyes wide. “Are you serious?”

      “There are two things I don’t play around with, and that’s business and money.”

      “That’s great! When, where, what type of club?”

      Julie waved her hands back and forth to stop the flow of questions. “He’s finished the concert tour, and now he’s in Malibu, California. He wants someplace upscale but with a casual vibe where they can host live performances. He’s already bought the location and needs another partner to help oversee the day-to-day operations.”

      “When are you going?” Evette’s voice indicated that Julie should be packing instead of talking.

      Julie took a deep breath and fell into the leather chair across from Evette’s glass-top desk. “I’m not sure if I’m going.”

      Evette’s excitement morphed into confusion. Not surprising. Out of the two of them, Julie was definitely the one who didn’t hesitate when the time came to make bold decisions. “You’re not sure?” Evette asked. “When have you ever not been sure about doing something this big?”

      More times than Julie would ever admit. Faking confidence after walking away from Nexon-Jones, a powerhouse in the nightclub and restaurant development world, to start her own firm was proof of that.

      Some thought she was crazy for leaving Nexon-Jones, where she was on the fast track to being one of their most promising agents. The decision had been easy after her boss had asked her to get a little more comfortable with a potential client. Julie walked and started Dominant Development. A bold name for a bold move. Go hard or go home.

      The bold move worked enough to get Evette to walk away with her, and their combined determination had led to Dominant Development’s name being behind the openings of nightclubs around the southeast with more than a few celebrities tied to them. Having one of R&B’s newest stars as a best friend didn’t hurt either. Raymond had helped her get her first nightclub opened at the start of his career and later had introduced her to his celebrity friends. This was the first time he’d brought up opening a new place with her.

      “We need to fix the situation in Miami,” Julie said.

      “All the more reason to go,” Evette countered. “If you do this, everyone will forget about the failure of the Miami club.”

      Julie winched. “We don’t say failure. We say setback.”

      A big setback in the case of their small firm. They had started strong, opening successful nightclubs in Atlanta, Charlotte and Nashville. The name Dominant Development was garnering respect until the Miami nightclub. Crash-and-burn failure was an understatement. The place hadn’t stayed open for six months before fights between rival gangs and rumors of drug trafficking shut it down. Julie had been leery of working with the newly rich rapper who had wanted the club, but the guy was at the top of the charts at the time, and she’d fallen back on her go all in or go home rule. Regardless of how well her other nightclubs were doing, the disaster that was the Miami club is what people were talking about now.

      “Setback, failure, call it what you want. We need another big opening,” Evette said.

      “Yes, but we also just landed two new clients, and those projects are going to take a lot of effort. We are on the verge of needing one more agent.”

      Evette raised her pointer and middle fingers. “Two.”

      “Fine, we need two more people to handle the workload. It’s not a good time for me to hop on a plane and fly across the country to open a new nightclub.”

      Evette took a deep breath, which meant she was trying hard to think about Julie’s arguments instead of just blowing her off. “I hear what you’re saying, but I think this is the perfect time. If you open a nightclub associated with Raymond, and it’s successful, it will wash away the mess that was Miami and get us in the playing field on the West Coast. The jerks at Nexon-Jones will lose their minds. Isn’t this why you started this place?”

      No truer words were spoken. After leaving Nexon-Jones, Raymond had introduced her to rapper Antwan Harmon, who went by just Antwan. Her attraction to Antwan was immediate; she’d fallen for his swagger and intensity, and was even a little thrilled by his street appeal. When he’d stopped talking with Nexon-Jones about opening a club in Atlanta and trusted her to open the place instead, she’d fallen in love. She’d stolen a major client from her former employer and found the man she’d spend the rest of her life with. The former thought had worked out, the latter not so much. Opening night, she’d found out she was just one of many women in love with Antwan.

      Her heartbreak was coupled with the knowledge that her former boss started spreading the word that she’d only landed Antwan’s account because she was sleeping with him. She’d also heard that some blamed her for making the decision about the Miami club because of her “relationship” with the client. Now she made sure to keep a very wide distance between her and any person she worked for.

      “I’d feel guilty if I left you alone in the midst of this.”

      “Girl, quit being crazy. We’ve already narrowed down the agents we want to interview. I’ll handle bringing on the new agents.”

      “I wanted to be involved.”

      “Why? You don’t trust my judgment?” Evette asked without any indication that she believed the statement.

      “Of course I do,” Julie said with sincerity. She trusted Evette more than anyone. “If this pans out, I’ll be out there for several months, at least until the club is opened.”

      “You can come back once or twice a month if it gets really crazy back here. Let go of some of that control freak, and go get us more business. Besides, isn’t the point of having a famous friend is so he can help you out?”

      “Says