Chapter 32: Kyle - Humble Public Servants

Author’s Note: The gang starts to see a plan come together, and I hope you, as readers, see what is coming here and like the direction.

“You look pleased with yourself,” I said to Reed once I climbed into the passenger seat of Allie’s car.

“Let’s just say I’m confident Allie and I are on good terms again,” Reed said smugly, patting the pocket of his jeans.

“Good, glad to see you got your head out of your ass,” I said. I knew Lexi would be pleased too. I’d been briefly concerned Reed had reverted to the negative behavior I’d warned him against when I saw Allie enter Lauren’s house, but her demeanor had strongly suggested she was pleased, not upset.

“I do actually want to talk to you about something potentially interesting though,” Reed said. He handed me a manila folder. I opened it and began scanning the contents.

“Garrison gave me this earlier this evening. He obviously bought our bit about representing investors,” Reed explained.

“This is a property he’s proposing we invest in?” I asked as I looked through the documents.

“Right. I haven’t had a chance to properly scan things, but if you can navigate us to the address I was thinking maybe we could check it out,” Reed said.

I agreed and punched the address listed - 69 Tuna Run - into my phone.

“It’s close, only about a half mile away. Interesting that it’s in their neighborhood. Quick drive-by?” I suggested. Reed put the car in gear and we backed out of Lauren’s driveway.

We pulled up to the address and immediately realized where we were: the abandoned fitness club we’d seen the previous day.

“Want to check it out?” Reed asked.

“Let’s give it until tomorrow when it’s light out and all these LIMP jackasses are gone,” I suggested.

“Good call. This is intriguing though.”

“Yeah, for sure,” I agreed. I read more of the paperwork as Reed navigated us back towards the interstate to head downtown.

“This paperwork is incredibly shoddily put together,” I commented as I reviewed the documents.

“Makes sense, think about who we’re dealing with here. Them owning the club and keeping it closed does suggest they’re up to something though,” Reed said.

“You think they’re the ones who bought it with the intention of shutting it down?” I asked.

Reed thought for a moment. I could see his lawyer brain at work. “I suppose they could be, that’s a hell of a lot of money to drop just because you don’t like your wives going there. What do they want for it?” he asked.

“Over a mil. But they may not have paid that. I know Allie had great things to say about it, but you have to admit trying to operate a fitness club out here doesn’t seem like the best business model,” I noted.

“Right, there’s not that many people living out here, and you’re competing with a free clubhouse in this neighborhood,” Reed said.

“Exactly. Ol’ Gary’s prospectus here works from the assumption we would tear down the club,” I said.

“Hmmm so that price is just the land?” Reed asked.

“Yeah. Seems high. Sure this is a ‘nice’ neighborhood if you don’t know about the Alphas but it’s inconvenient to everything. I don’t think the land is worth that much,” I said.

“Well you could probably fit at least five or six houses on the footprint of that club right?” Reed asked. I shuffled through papers until I found a document that showed the property boundaries.

“Probably,” I agreed. “Although the frontage to the street is kinda narrow. So even though the property goes back a ways the driveways seem like they might be tricky. Not sure.”

“Right, and I can’t imagine the cost to demo a building that size is cheap,” Reed noted.

“Good call he does have that in here. This doesn’t seem like a great investment,” I observed.

“So what’s Garrison’s game then? I didn’t trust that assclown even before that bizarre rally, I’m sure he’s got an angle,” Reed said.

“Could be as simple as he’s hoping to rip us off. Maybe there’s HOA rules we don’t know about that would prevent us building more than one or two houses. It’s kind of notable this thing mentions costs to tear down the club but nothing about potentially subdividing the lot,” I noted.

“Yeah, if he was trying to make it more appealing as an investment he should have at least included like a sketch or something of that, I would think,” Reed said.