“Gladly. I look forward to it.”
2
Kian
“What do you think?” Kian waved his arm around.
He was trying to figure out how to maximize seats in the new dining room once it was finished. Pushing the side wall out added square footage but not in the right direction. Instead of growing lengthwise, it grew widthwise, and a wider dining table wasn’t going to add a significant number of chairs. They would be able to accommodate two more on each side, but that was not nearly enough for the large dinner parties Syssi had in mind.
“Looks good,” Anandur said. “But watch your step. There are nails everywhere. These guys are not very tidy.”
One of the Chinese construction workers cast him a baleful glare as if he understood the comment. Other than the supervisor, none of the men were supposed to know English, but Kian had noticed them listening in on several occasions, so he assumed that it wasn’t entirely true. They must have understood it at least to some degree.
Feeling uncomfortable about the crew working inside the village, he’d had a chain-link fence installed around the house, and it was also covered in tarps. Officially, it had been done to prevent construction dust from getting into the greenery and the adjoining houses, but the real reason was to keep the crew contained and the village protected from their prying eyes.
To that effect, he’d also convinced Syssi to temporarily move into the house Annani had stayed in during her last visit. The other reason was that the noise and dust were not good for the baby.
“How big is the new dining room going to be?” Anandur asked.
Kian grimaced. “Not big enough. I’m starting to agree with Kalugal that we need a larger house. Syssi wants to host family get-togethers, and even the new and enlarged dining room is not going to accommodate more than sixteen people comfortably. We might be able to squeeze in twenty, but that would be a stretch.”
“What’s the alternative?” Anandur followed him out to the walkway. “There is no more room in this part of the village to build a new house.”
Brundar glanced at the next house over. “You could demolish this one and yours and build one big house on both plots.” He closed the chain-link gate behind them.
The idea had occurred to Kian, but he’d dismissed it. “That would be tremendously wasteful. These houses are brand new.”
“What other option is there?” Anandur snorted. “Do you want to build a castle for you and Syssi next to Kalugal and Jacki’s?”
Given the need for camouflage, the fanciful castle idea had been impractical, and Kalugal had wisely discarded it. Instead, he was building a large and luxurious home, but most of its square footage was going to be underground.
“I was thinking about the eastern slope.” Kian turned and pointed. “Since Kalugal is paying us top dollar for building his section of the village, and the contractor is already bringing more crews, we can use the money to develop more plots over there.”
Anandur shook his head. “It’s too far from the village center. Besides it being a security issue, you also need to think about the distance to the village square and the entry pavilion. For you, the extra ten-minute walk will not be a problem, but as Syssi’s pregnancy progresses, it’s going to be difficult for her.”
Kian waved a hand in dismissal. “The baby will be born long before the construction is done, so that’s not a problem. And as for security, I can build houses to surround mine and have the Guardians move in there.”
Anandur cast another glance at the slope, then looked at his brother. “What do you think, Brundar? Did our boss catch the snob bug from his cousin?”
Brundar shrugged. “It’s a good idea. Callie wants to open a restaurant. We can convert Kian’s old house into one.”
“After all that work?” Anandur waved at the construction. “That’s wasteful. Instead, let’s build a proper restaurant on the eastern slope. It can be a new hub for the people to hang out in. The café is already overcrowded, and we are getting nearly fifty new members.”
“Kalugal and his men are not going to be granted clan membership,” Kian clarified.
He still wasn’t sure how that was going to work. Until now, those who’d mated clan members had been granted automatic membership, but that wasn’t going to work with Kalugal’s men, mainly because his cousin objected to it.
Kian wasn’t thrilled about it either. That was one of the issues they still had to work out.
“I’m not talking about getting a share in the clan’s profits.” Anandur rubbed his hand over the back of his neck. “But who are they going to answer to? You have to be the one in charge of security.”
“Naturally. In everything else, though, they are going to keep the same social structure that they have now and answer to Kalugal. But you are right about the extra traffic at the café. I like the idea of having a new place for people to hang out in, but who is going to work in the restaurant? It’s not like our people want those kinds of jobs, and we can’t employ humans.”
Anandur shrugged. “Maybe Callie can hire some of his guys? Kalugal said that he barely has work for all of them, and now that he has Guardian protection, he doesn’t need them even for that. I would love to take Wonder out to dinner in a gourmet restaurant without leaving the village. Do you think that Gerard would be upset if Callie copied his recipes?”
Brundar snorted. “He would sue her.”
Kian had no doubt about that. Gerard wasn’t the giving type, and if he allowed Callie to use his recipes, he would want a major cut in the profits.
If he allowed it at all.
In the past, Gerard had made a big fuss about serving some of them at major clan celebrations. His stance was that whoever wanted to sample his exquisite fare had to pay the obscenely expensive membership fee he demanded for the privilege.
“Forget about Gerard. And as for Kalugal’s men, after the move, he will most likely keep them on the same security detail as before.” Kian felt his phone vibrate in his back pocket and pulled it out. “Speak of the devil.” He walked over to the nearest bench and sat down. “Hello, cousin. Are your ears burning?”
“Why would they?”
“Because I was talking about you with Anandur and Brundar.”
“Really? What was the topic of your conversation?”
“Your current security detail and whether you are going to keep it even after moving into the village.”
“There is plenty of time to think about that. I just approved the final building plans, and your contractor tells me that his part of the project is going to take at least three months, if not more, and then we need to put in the greenery and all the rest of William’s camouflage tricks.”
It was incredibly fast for such an ambitious project, but since no bureaucracy was involved, it was possible. Heck, if the contractor brought additional crews, he could finish the eastern slope development at the same time. And given that the architect was done with Kalugal’s plans, he was free to undertake the new project. Perhaps Syssi would want to assist him and design her future mansion.
Well, not a mansion, just a bigger house. As it was, they were pushing the boundaries of what William could hide with all of his camouflage tricks.