He asked, “So, what are you thinking about going in on next? You know, we may be able to include you in on some things.”

“Lucina, too?” Ivan asked them. It sounded like they wanted to be friends.

Ralph said, “Are you guys, like, full partners, or do you just partner up on different projects? I mean, does she, like, own a piece of IDPromotions.com, or is that question getting too personal?”

That’s the good old divide-and-conquer technique, Ivan told himself. Looks like they’re not friends with Lucina. He was nearly ready to smile in amusement. These guys were tremendously obvious. And if they could be that blatantly disrespectful to his partner, then why should he trust them?

He answered, “Yeah, that is a little too personal there. But, you know, if you guys have something coming that’s big enough, where you feel that we could all make something off of it, then call me up and let’s talk.”

Ralph looked around at Lucina’s girls and decided to hold his comments until they could have a more private meeting of the minds later.

“All right, well, we’ll talk then,” he stated before handing Ivan his card. “I have my personal cell number on the back.”

When they turned to walk off, one of Lucina’s assistants offered them each one of Ivan’s business cards.

“No, we know how to get in touch with him,” Randy said, rejecting it.

Yeah, fuck those guys, Ivan told himself. They’re typical white boys trying to snatch up all the marbles off the table.

Before Ivan could even turn around, Lucina was right there beside him in a flash.

“I want to talk about them later,” she commented, and walked away.

Ivan grinned and chuckled. I can’t blame her, he told himself. It looks like the next level of business is about to get anxious now.

Zee-Dog, Perry, Emilio, and some of the other Chargers and Padres players had formed their own huddle inside the room.

“Yeah, this shit right here is definitely Jeffrey’s kind of party,” Perry grumbled. He watched as his teammate made business talk around the room with his fiancée in tow. He said, “They don’t have the right kind of music for me, or even dark enough lights in here.”

Zee-Dog laughed and said, “It’s a network party, man. Folks wanna be able to see who they’re talking to.”

“Well, as long as nobody’s asking me to sign any damn autographs in here, I’m cool,” Perry said.

Emilio only listened to them and smiled. He dreaded not being able to bring Audrey, but she refused to come. She wanted to keep her distance from Lucina, Ivan, and the whole clan. She considered Emilio to be her protected prize now.

“So, how do you guys feel about Ivan?” a bank executive asked John Hutch and Barry Mitchell in their own huddle.