Lucina caught Ivan smiling to himself at his thoughts and asked him about it.

“What is so funny?”

“Nothing, I’m just, ah…” He changed the subject and said, “Thinking about my brother being at this party.”

“What’s wrong with that?”

Although Derrick was nowhere near the businessman that she considered Ivan to be, Lucina didn’t have any particular problems with him.

Ivan said, “We’ll see,” and left it at that.

NELLY FURTADO didn’t have as many hot club songs on her résumé as Eve or Busta Rhymes, so Red Face Lion was forced to play mostly Timbaland-produced songs from Missy, Aaliyah, Ginuwine, Jay-Z, Tweet, and new ones from Justin Timberlake.

Nelly was reserved in the VIP crowd, while Timbaland danced in the midst of blissful women on the club’s dance floor, jamming to Missy “Misdemeanor.”

“Go, get your freak on…/…getcha getcha getcha freak on…”

Ivan slid up beside Nelly near the bar and commented, “That guy’s put a lot of hits out.”

She smiled and chuckled. “Yes, definitely,” she responded in her light accent. Ivan was surprised at how tiny she was. But her look fit right in with Lucina. She could pass for Lucina’s little sister.

“Hey, let me get a picture of that,” the photographer barked, catching them smiling together.

Ivan posed with Nelly next to the bar. They had all taken photos earlier inside the limo, outside the club, and over in the VIP section. But they could never get enough quality pictures to post on the website. And in San Diego, the Latino community was thick.

Julio popped up again and posed in a picture with Nelly for himself.

He said, “Hey, Ivan, she brought out the Spanish crowd for you tonight.”

Ivan nodded in agreement. “That’s good. I wanna party with everyone.”

“And everyone wants to party with you,” Julio told him. “I can’t wait until your birthday. I’m gonna bring my wife to that one.”

Ivan didn’t comment on that. Julio was all over the Spanish women in there. Ivan guessed that he would behave himself with his wife around.

At close to midnight, the club was jam-packed before Derrick ever reached the door.

“I’m on the VIP list,” he told security. “I’m Derrick David, Ivan’s big brother.”

“Oh, okay. Come on in. We can see the resemblance in the eyes,” the security guard stated.

Derrick said, “Yeah, these eyes run in the family. And they’re good for the women, too.”

The security guard laughed and said, “Yeah, we know.”

Derrick walked in ahead of Christina, who had just arrived at the party herself. She followed him in with forty dollars in her hand to pay.

Maya looked at her and frowned. “Hey, Chris, you don’t have to pay. But how come you’re not working with us anymore?”