Page 71 of Rough

Felix did as I asked, and I continued stroking his hair. We sat together in a comfortable silence, absorbing each other’s energy and mentally contemplating our next moves.

19

Felix

I was determined to look out for Garret, no matter what. He wasn’t thinking straight, and he needed a voice of reason in his life. It was my job to be the most incredible partner I could be to him, and make sure that he didn’t sabotage his entire career with poor choices.

The next day, I told Garret I needed to go home and take care of some things, but what he didn’t know, was that I had planned a meeting with my architect friend, Adam Jones. Adam was the best in the business, an expert in the field, and incredibly talented at commercial building designs.

As an architect, he had contacts and knew the ins and outs of the business when it came to dealing with developers. He even knew a few who would be excited to build on the land outside the city that I had inherited from my uncle.

Garret knew none of this. I hated keeping things from him, but this was a big secret that I felt could benefit him in the end, and I needed to have all my ducks in a row before proposing any ideas to him.

Garret was the type of guy who needed all the facts laid out for him. He wasn’t going to wait and watch me dawdle. If I was going to propose something to him, I needed to be one hundred and ten percent ready for the task. I couldn’t leave one stone unturned.

Adam and I were set to meet at the site of my land. It was an empty lot that would work perfectly as Garret’s new club. It was just outside the city limits, but it was still within a reasonable distance to keep some of the existing club members. He could even gain some new ones that lived in the up and coming neighborhood.

Adam showed up at the site with his developer friend Rhett Woods. They both looked eager and determined to help me get out of this unfortunate situation with the current club location.

“Thanks for agreeing to meet me on such short notice,” I said as I enthusiastically shook their hands.

“Are you kidding? I was happy to help out an old friend,” Adam said with a gleam in his eye.

“That’s great,” I said. “Well, as you know, this is my land, and I was going to sell it, but I now have the perfect opportunity to build a commercial structure on it if everything works out. It’s for my… partner who also lives in the area. He’s potentially looking to relocate his current business and I feel that this is going to be the perfect spot.”

“Where is he?” Rhett looked confused as he glanced towards our parked cars on the side of the street.

“He had other obligations and couldn’t make the meeting today,” I said.

It wasn’t a total lie, just a slight bending of the truth.

The two men didn’t seem fazed by my explanation, and we quickly jumped into the plans that Adam had worked up on a program on his phone.

He pulled out his tablet and began scrolling through mock-up pictures that he had created on my behalf.

“I have to tell you, Adam, these look absolutely amazing.” I glanced up at him and beamed.

“Thank you.” Adam nodded humbly, but there was a flicker of pride in his eyes.

“I’m seriously impressed,” I said as he pulled up another program with a 3D model of how the building could look.

Even the most minute details were included, like outlets, exits, and everything to present as up to code for a commercial building of this size.

“I can email you the plans, so you can show them to Garret,” Adam suggested.

“That would be wonderful,” I said.

“And for a building of this size, you have the perfect plot of land here. I can have it bulldozed and leveled, with permits for construction before you know it,” Rhett mentioned.

“You guys are going to seriously be our saving grace,” I admitted.

Rhett handed me a manila envelope with papers in it. “If you take these to City Hall, they will begin to start the process of permits and permissions if you decide to build here.”

“Thank you so much.” I owed them a debt of gratitude that I felt I could never repay.

We wrapped up the meeting at the land site and I rushed straight to City Hall. I didn’t want to waste any time because I had no idea when Nelson might strike again. I had to beat him at his own game, but I still needed to convince Garret to sell first. I knew that with Garret’s mentality, it was just a matter of principle, but he couldn’t afford to choose pride over his life and wellbeing in this situation. Nelson Sanderson was a serious threat, and I was afraid that Garret was too blinded by his own stubbornness to see exactly how dangerous Nelson really was.

After visiting City Hall, I parked my car in front of the club. Bubba was already there, cleaning the windows and preparing for the opening later.