Jake's Thief (19 page)

“I did monochromatic at my apartment, grey with black and red accents, but that wouldn’t go with maple floors. I’ll have to talk to Jake and see what colors he likes.” Davey frowned.

“Since we have four acres, I think I’d leave the windows uncovered or install the kind of shades that can come down at the push of a button on a track. The yard begs for a pool and the deck needs to be rebuilt.”

“Sir, I see the asking price is just under one point four million, how low will they go?” Davey asked.

“I think you can get it for nine hundred and fifty thousand, but by the time you finish with it you’ll end up paying two million with the renovations, if I know Jake,” Gerry said.

Davey’s phone rang. He turned to Brian and Greg. “It’s Jake, I have to take it, excuse me, Sir,” he said to Gerry.

“Do you mind if I put you on speaker, Sir?”

“No, baby, go ahead.”

Davey pushed the speaker button.

“I found us office space. I just finished signing the lease. Bear is going to be our landlord. Where are you? Bear and I will come join you.”

Davey looked over at Gerry. “Twenty-nine Birch Tree Lane, it’s at the southern-most end of Princeton. It’s off of two-oh-six,” Gerry answered.

“It needs renovation, Sir. But I really like it.” Davey clutched the phone.

“Papa…”

“Yes, cub.”

“It’s not our kind of house but even so— you’re going to love it,” Brian spoke to the phone.

“It what Jake thinks that counts. Jake, are we going for a ride?”

“Greg, see if you can get Cisco to come over, he redid his house, I’d like his opinion.”

“He doesn’t have a board meeting today, as his board members are out looking at real estate,” Greg teased. “I’ll call him now and let you know.” Greg pressed a number on his phone. “Sir, Bear and Jake want you to come to twenty-nine Birch Tree Lane, it’s off two-oh-six at the southern-most point in Princeton. It has four acres and is very modern. It’s close to both us and Gary, and not too far from Reed and Bear.”

Greg hung up his phone. “He said he’ll come out, Sirs, but he told me to tell you he expects lunch.”

Davey could hear Bear and Jake laughing. Bear said, “…and probably a donation.”

§ § §

Jake, Bear and Cisco arrived at almost the same time. “I love the outside, Davey, but you’re right, it needs landscaping and a new driveway.” He walked into the house. “This could be gorgeous.”

Cisco said, “I agree.”

“Do you have any ideas, Davey?” Jake asked. Gerry showed them into the kitchen and Jake noticed the floor down. “I don’t like parquet floors so I’d take the kitchen floor up and put in light maple.”

“I’d redo the kitchen. I know it was done two years ago but it looks very eighties. It would look good with maple cabinets and maple floors throughout the whole house, warmer, I think,” Davey said. He took Jake to the gallery and great room.

“None of our furniture would fit in this place.” Jake looked around at the window block walls and the wall of windows in the great room and across the gallery.

“Yes, you’d have to buy new and if you want me to decorate, I’d need the help of a decorator. This place is too big for me to tackle alone and work at the same time,” Davey told him honestly as he made his way around the vast space. “It’s kind of big for…”

“Yes, it is big for just us. Maybe we’ll adopt or get a surrogate.” Davey’s eyes went wide but he didn’t comment. Jake continued, “I could get the same architectural design firm that’s in the office building to do the house too and we can get a recommendation from them for a decorator who’s willing to work with their clients instead of shoving their own taste down someone’s throat and thus leaving everyone unhappy.”

He turned back to Davey.

“Sir, it has a garage apartment for a driver and a separate mother-in-law unit for a housekeeper.”

Jake perused the housekeeper’s quarters. “Maybe Marla might be willing to live in. She has no family, and I’ve taken seriously Bear’s, Caden’s and Gary’s warnings about kidnapping, so I think I’d want a driver.”

Jake and Davey walked out back. “There is also a perfect place for one of those natural pools, you know, like Gary has. Danny designs them and he could do the landscaping and give you the club discount. Greg told me all about it before you came, Sir.”

“Do you like to swim?” Jake gazed over the grass to the place Davey indicated.

“Yes, Sir, I used to belong to the Y before I lost my job.” Davey’s voice trembled.

Jake put his fingers under Davey’s chin and lifted his head up. “You’re right that is a perfect place for a natural pool. And for your information, no matter what happens Saturday night, you will still have a job.”

“It has eight bedrooms, Sir— we really only need five or six so we can knock down some walls for a huge study or library,” Davey said. “But it’s very expensive, one million three hundred and thirty nine thousand. Master Brand said it would cost an additional million dollars to fix it up,” Davey said with trepidation.

“Davey, my condo in New York was twenty-seven million, not counting taxes or the decorator I paid to do it up and I paid cash.” He turned to Gerry. “How much are the taxes?”

“About twenty four thousand a year and you’d need insurance,” Gerry told him.

“That gallery is the perfect place to hang art. The condo was configured so that the only place I could hang art was the bedrooms where it couldn’t be seen. I love it, Davey. How much of an offer would you make, Gerry?”

“You could go as low as nine hundred and twenty-three thousand as a first offer,” Gerry suggested.

Cisco was peering into the cabinets, seemingly lost to the whole conversation said, “I’d make an offer of a million.”

“I concur,” Bear said.

“I don’t want to haggle back and forth, I don’t have the time,” Jake admitted. “Offer them a million in cash. I want to close within ten days. Can we wrap the paperwork up in ten days?”

“I can get a construction crew over here as soon as you get the plans. You probably want to show Davey the office. We can go back there now and talk to Evan, the chief designer, about how long it would take for them to produce plans.”

“Okay, Gerry, do you have the paperwork like I asked? All I want to do is fill in the numbers and sign.” Jake took out his pen.

“Sir, would you mind using my pen?”

“Not at all, baby, why?”

Davey handed him his pen. “It has sentimental value. It’s the only thing I didn’t sell. I bought it for myself for graduation from college. It’s a Mont Blanc.”

Jake signed the documents and put the pen in the pocket of Davey’s sport coat. “You have good taste.”

“I’m curious, why a pen?” Bear asked.

Davey blushed. “It was what the other graduates were getting from their families. I have no family so I got one for myself.”

“It’s all done, Davey. We have an office and a new house. We’ll talk more on Sunday.”

Greg took Davey aside. “What’s all of this about Sunday?”

“I think I’m going to find out if Jake wants me on Sunday.” Davey sniffled a little.

“What happens on Saturday?” Greg asked, incredulous.

“I think I’m going to get spanked.”

“How do you feel about that?” Greg moved into psychiatrist mode.

“The idea of it sort of turns me on but I’ve had many beatings over the years. I don’t like them,” Davey said honestly.

Brian walked over, hearing the tail end of what Davey said. “There’s a big difference between a beating and a spanking. I get spanked every morning, then I give Bear his morning blow job.”

“What do you get from it?” Davey was curious as to how Brian processed all of this.

“First, I get Bear, which is the most important thing to me. Second, I get grounded. When I’m not spanked in the morning, I feel scattered all day. I used to spend my days worrying about how I was going to eat and pay my aunt to take care of my mother. I didn’t have time to be scatterbrained. When I’m working I have perfect concentration, when I’m not focused on work, I tend to wander off, forget half of what I’m supposed to do and not get anything practical done. My spanking helps to keep me focused on pleasing Bear and taking care of myself and my friends.”

“Does it hurt really bad?”

“I fly into subspace pretty easily and can take a lot of pain. I worked the Shore clubs during college and the rules we have at Indiscreet don’t apply there. But with Bear only the punishment spankings hurt because he won’t let me get into subspace when he delivers one of them. But I have to do something terrible to deserve one of those. In six years, I’ve had two. The other spankings are erotic. There is a big difference. They hurt a little bit until you find subspace, but after that, it’s all good.” Brian turned and made sure the Doms weren’t listening.

“When I do something that puts me in danger or when Cisco doesn’t know where I am, I get a couple of swats with the cane. The cane is much worse than a spanking, but it doesn’t happen very often. Especially now that I know what he wants. He just has to know where I am so he doesn’t worry.”

“Yeah, punishment spankings are rare. I get them for the same reasons Greg does. Papa Bear is very protective of me. I was once almost raped and killed in front of him by a mobster who had it in for him, now he’s a fanatic about my safety, hence Junior.” Brian rolled his eyes over to the limo.

“Caden’s got his place wired up like it was a Swiss bank. Johnny’s money makes him vulnerable to kidnapping. Caden is very happy that Aubrey drives Johnny around but is still thinking of hiring a bodyguard to ride with them. Brian’s vulnerable to that too, because of Bear’s money as are Cisco and I for the same reason. But Cisco keeps a low profile. We have excellent security and a nice house but we don’t live ostentatiously. Gary worries about some of his former fans who are bigots. He gets hate mail and worries about Danny, but his security is top notch too.” Greg glanced over at the Doms. “It would be much simpler if they all were like Reed, Tom or Bull, but that’s not the case and you could be exposed to violence by loving Jake.” Greg patted Davey on the back and Brian gave him a hug.

“In the city, Jake’s building had tight security. So did his office, yet you were able to get to him. Think about what would have happened had you been a kidnapper or a gunman.” Davey’s face blanched.

“So you can be sure that he’s going to be concerned about your safety. That’s why we have the sub club. The Doms know we can get into trouble, but nothing violent and we are all on the approved friend list.” Brian gave Bear a sideways look. “In the beginning only Jim and Greg were on my list and Greg was only there because I was his patient.”

“Well, the approved friends list is all right with me. I don’t have any friends except for you guys and we’ve just met, even Harry who roomed with me for four years tried to kick me out of my apartment until Jake stopped him.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Friday Afternoon

“Where do you want to go for lunch, baby?” Jake leaned down and whispered in Davey’s ear, “Don’t say McDonalds or Cisco will have a cow right here on our new front lawn. We’re going out to celebrate.”

“We got it?” Davey’s mouth hung open in surprise.

“They accepted the offer immediately. All we have to do is get title insurance and Gerry says he can get that done today if we use the same title company the current owner did when they bought it in two thousand and thirteen. We can close on Monday.” Jake hugged Davey. “Bear is drawing up the paperwork for the office lease. I’ve called Carlo to come and meet us there at three.”

Bear walked over to the group. “Gerry’s going to take the rental back. Jake and Davey, you’ll be riding with me. Cisco will take Greg.” Davey looked at Jake.

“My car will be waiting at the hotel, baby. Edith picked it up at the condo. Bear will take us to the hotel and from there we’ll go to the new offices.” Jake draped his arm around Davey’s shoulder.

“Where do you want to go for lunch?” Bear asked.

“We’ll go to the Peacock Inn, my treat. That way Cisco can’t bust my ass.” Cisco heard his name and dragged Greg over to the group.

“What’s the Peacock Inn, Sir?”

“It’s a five star restaurant in the middle of Princeton.”

“Now that’s more like it, an idea I can get behind.” Cisco purred. “Maybe I can actually eat something that doesn’t squawk or have gills.”

“St. Mary’s isn’t getting any money today, Cisco. I put my up my city condo for sale and until that sells my money is going to be tied up in fixing the house and the offices.”

Cisco frowned. “Do you need a loan, Jake? I can give you one and I won’t charge interest.”

Jake got serious. “You’re a real friend, Cisco. No, I have enough to do what I need to do and the condo will sell fast. It’s in the second most desirable building in New York. Even the price won’t put them off.”

“What are you asking?”

“Thirty million, if I list it with a realtor, it’s one of the two four bedroom units in the building,” Jake told him.

“Would it be a good investment opportunity?” Cisco asked.

“It would rent out for almost seventy thousand a month on short term leases if you choose to go that way and the laws of the condo association say you don’t need approval for a sale or lease,” Jake answered. “There are condo fees but those would be taken care of by the tenant. There is a firm that does property management for owners. They collect the rent and the fees. Maintenance is done by the building and is included in the condominium dues.”

“Sounds like a turnkey operation,” Cisco observed.

“Luxury real estate is selling fast in Manhattan. There are only a total of four apartments available in the building. You’d have to ask Gerry what the return should be on a rental. You’d make more money hooking up with Sam Stein and renting it out with short leases for some of his clients who are in New York on a movie shoot or to make a record. He’d pay you a yearly fee to keep it available and he’d be responsible for any breakage or repairs. The client would pay Sam for any damage to the unit. Renting it furnished would bring more money.”

“Are you taking your furniture?” Cisco asked mildly.

“No, it doesn’t suit the new house. I’m taking my art and my kitchen, my dishes and silverware, and linens, anything that isn’t furniture,” Jake said.