Ivan’s staff promoted blog competitions to post the best articles on subjects involving the people, places, and events of San Diego. They all worked tirelessly to build I.D. Promotions into a standalone brand. And with the steady blossoming of ideas, sponsorships, and advertisement, ad sales manager Eddie K. kept his eyes focused on their increasing company value.

“We may want to extend our reach past just San Diego and include everything between here and Los Angeles at some point,” he suggested to Ivan. But Ivan was adamant about maintaining their dominance in the San Diego market before they expanded.

He responded, “We have that to look forward to, Eddie. But I don’t see the point in doing that right now. We’re still increasing our share first in San Diego. We need to keep our ship steady a little while longer,” he advised his veteran salesman.

By midsummer, he estimated that the company would pull in more than three hundred thousand dollars a month, a thousand percent more than their overhead. So Ivan saw no reason to disturb their gain with hasty expansion.

In Ivan’s growing real estate interests, Jeffrey Morefield joined him to invest in a Chula Vista housing development, while they continued to search for prime commercial property to build a Latino nightclub.

However, his baseball friend Emilio Alvarez was not as ready to join in on the deal.

Ivan told him, “It’s a simple plan, E. All you need to do is to talk about representing the Spanish-speaking community every time the media sticks a microphone in your face. The team is getting a lot more attention this year with the new PETCO Park downtown. They’re really pumping the Padres up this year. And once the Latino community knows that you’re looking out for them, as soon as we open up this club with your name on it, it’ll be like herding cattle.”

At Emilio’s three-bedroom home, located in the Poway area, Audrey warned him against it.

“Ivan is nothing but a user,” she told him. “He’ll do anything to get what he needs, but what about when you ask him to do something for you?”

Christina had told Audrey all about her falling-out with Ivan and how he had left her to dry. But Emilio argued, “Ivan’s not that bad. He was the one to introduce us.”

“Emilio, he only introduced us to get you to come to his parties,” she admitted. “That’s what made his parties more popular. But he didn’t know that I really liked you, and I didn’t want to keep being used by them while he and Lucina made all of the money.”

She continued, “Now he’s trying to use you again by opening up a nightclub in your name. I mean, it’s obvious.”