Sauter (Ironside Academy, #3)(76)

Finally, one of them responded.

Elijah: No. It was Kalen.

Kilian: What the fuck, Kalen?

Kalen (admin): Don’t start with me. You shouldn’t have kept quiet about this for so long.

Kilian: I thought we had enough to deal with. I just wanted to wait a little bit.

Kilian: What did you give them in exchange?

Kalen (admin): I agreed to one private session.

Kilian swore roughly, before hiding his phone screen and darting a look to the bed to make sure he hadn’t woken up Isobel. The Track Team had been trying to convince Kalen to take on private clients since he started at the Stone Dahlia, even going as far as to offer him a larger cut of his room fee. It was the difference between one thousand dollars and ten thousand dollars, but Kalen continued to refuse.

It was somewhat of an unspoken expectation that he would have to do whatever the client wanted if he allowed private sessions.

Kilian: Did everyone else agree to this?

The responses came immediately.

Mikel (admin): No.

Oscar: Fuck no.

Gabriel: None of us agreed.

Elijah: Kalen didn’t call for a group vote. He told us what he had done after he did it.

Kilian: You should have fucking left me there.

Kalen (admin): This was my decision, and it’s final. I can handle one private session.

Kilian: How do you plan on doing that?

Kalen (admin): I’ll figure something out. Stop worrying about me, Kilian. You’ve got enough on your plate, and it’s my job to worry about you, not the other way around.

Elijah: I’ve already figured it out.

Kalen (admin): Do not bring that up again.

Elijah: It’s a perfect solution.

Cian: First I’m hearing of a perfect solution?

Niko: Elijah’s plans always work. What’s the problem?

Elijah: There’s no problem. Kalen just thinks he can refuse until I come up with a different plan that doesn’t threaten his delicate sensibilities.

Kalen (admin): Watch your mouth.

Elijah: Save your bossy voice for Isobel. You’re going to need it.

Theodore: What? What does this have to do with Isobel?

Gabriel: Ah. Yes, that makes sense.

Moses: We’ll be the judges of what makes sense.

Moses: After you explain everything to us.

Gabriel: The club is trying to recruit Isobel. If she asks Kalen to be her sponsor, she can shadow him to all his engagements, even the private ones. If some rich cougar was hoping to get her claws into Kalen by spending a small fortune on a few hours in a private room with him, Isobel’s presence will prove disruptive.

Cian: So? What’s so bad about that plan?

Kalen (admin): That wasn’t the plan.

Elijah: The plan was a little more comprehensive.

Gabriel: Okay, never mind. I’m with Kalen on this one.

Theodore: No need to get comprehensive.

Moses: Can we go back to a few minutes ago when Gabriel was actually wrong about something?

Gabriel: No.

Elijah: If Kalen changed his act, we could mitigate all risk. I think the comprehensive plan is better.

Oscar: Isobel Fucking Carter is a virgin Sigma who still can’t meet our eyes while she’s talking to us half the time. She isn’t in the same league as a Shibari bunny.

Moses: Bunny, huh?

Gabriel: Awkward.

Elijah: Freudian slip, Oscar?

Oscar: I’ll Freudian slip my fist through your teeth.

Oscar: As soon as I’m done with Gabriel.

Kilian: Where are you right now?

Oscar: In Gabriel’s room.

Niko: What the fuck, Gabe. You let him in?

Gabriel: He was being loud. And I never touched Isobel. He has nothing to break.

Kilian: Then what is he doing?

Gabriel: He’s currently standing in the corner, glaring at me, and trying to figure out how I could possibly have anything to do with Isobel touching herself in the shower when I wasn’t even there.

Mikel (admin): For crying out loud, Oscar. Don’t make me come down there again.

Oscar: I haven’t hurt him yet. Everyone keep your panties on.

Moses: Speaking of panties. Want to search Gabe’s hiding places while you’re in there?

Theodore: Isobel isn’t ready, Kalen.

Kalen (admin): I know.

Elijah: You could get her ready.

Kalen (admin): I know.

Niko: But you won’t, right?

Kalen (admin): I need to get a better gauge of where she stands with all of this. She already asked me to be her sponsor.

Kilian: Don’t push her.

Kilian navigated out of the chat and flopped back onto the couch, staring at the shadowed patterns on the roof. Isobel was in good hands with Kalen, and they all knew it, but there were parts of the club that even Kalen couldn’t protect her from.

Things were getting more complicated … but a weight had just been lifted off his chest.

He didn’t usually keep secrets from them for so long, but he had thought it would be better if all their focus was on protecting Isobel.

He should have realised they already knew.





Isobel woke up an hour before her alarm was set to go off, her mind buzzing. She checked her phone just to make sure nothing terrible had happened while she slept, and then she snuck into Kilian’s bathroom to get ready for the day. She was halfway out of the dorm before she paused, remembering that Mikel had ordered them to go everywhere in pairs or groups.