Zane felt refreshed by the time that the evening was coming to a close. He managed to escape dealing with his father for most of the night and got the bonus of heading out and doing something he enjoyed after the overall tense day that he had.
Juliet wasn't bad company either once she realized that the mafia boss's son really wasn't anyone that she needed to worry herself about. She was actually a rather interesting person to watch even though she was not someone he was interested in being with.
The nightclub was one of the more upscale ones in the city. It seemed to suit his companion's taste as she appeared to have no interest in having random men approach her.
Zane wasn't there to babysit her however. Though he did have Clive keep on here, his only interest was in having fun himself.
He also made sure to shut his phone off as well. Not that he could hear it over the music, he just wanted to make sure that his father wouldn't be able to track where he was.
Decrease the risk of the older man being able to ruin his night more than he already had.
"Tell me Clive, do you think there's anything wrong with what I'm doing?" Zane was sipping on a whiskey when he asked this question.
"Do you want my honest opinion or that of the man who serves the Red Scorpions?" the other asked. He was sticking with a club soda since he still had to drive the younger man back once they were done.
Zane hummed softly as he watched the dance as people flocked to the middle the moment a more upbeat song started playing.
"You know that I always expect nothing but complete honesty from you Clive. Nothing you say to me here will make its way back to my father." He assured the other man.
"Then I would say that I don't think there is anything quite wrong with what you're doing." Clive answered as he turned in his seat to face the other.
"Your father has always been very good to my family and taken care of us for all the years that we have worked closely with you him and now you. That doesn't mean however that he is immune to making kind of mistakes or creating problems that need to be dealt with." Clive continued as the other watched his face rather intently.
"I think that collecting information just to see what is going on won't cause any problems. You will be taking over eventually but you're not planning on using it against him. How he will react, I cannot answer for but I can tell you that you have my full support."
"Does that full support extend to helping me escape from having to deal with any future match-making from my father in the future?" Zane teased causing a small smile to break out on the other man's face.
"I cannot promise that. I will divulge what information I know as I hear it. However, I believe that your father is clever enough to know how close we are and that anything disseminated to me might reach your years ahead of time which would be problematic for him." He turned his head in the direction of Juliet who was talking with the bartender.
"Perhaps in your father's defense though, I cannot deny that in many ways she would be a good candidate for you to get acquainted with if you're going to be forced in the end to marry someone that your father has chosen. I would rate her higher up on the scale." Zane scoffed when Clive said this and shook his head before downing the rest of his whiskey.
"She's by no means a bad girl nor is she hard on the eyes and has quite an interesting personality. I have no intention of marrying anyone my father picks for me, however. That level of control is not something that I am willing to hand over to him." Zane told the other as he stood up to get his glass refilled.
"If I end up someone at any point in the future, they will be the person that I chose for myself and that no one has will dictate to me." He headed off to get his glass refilled before Clive had a chance to say anything in response to what he said.
The driver however knew though that there wasn't much that he could say to change the young mafia boss's mind.
Relationships were something that Zane was determined would all be made by his own doing no matter what type of relationship they were except in the area of business. He allowed his father to connect him with certain partners that would be mutually beneficial.
Even within that however, the eldest son didn't let his father dictate how the relationship developed.
Clive had no objections to this. Having worked with Zane closely for the last four years, he had no doubt that the younger man had a smart head on his shoulders and knew what he was doing. He was also a much better ruler than his father was. He would make sure that whatever he did, no matter how selfish or one-sided it was didn't turn around and end up impacting anyone else but himself.
For that one reason above all else was why Clive would not tell Bernard anything his son did that could cause the older man to block him or prevent his progress.
The right-hand man wasn't sure that it was something that his own father would approve of, but he was sure the older man would understand his reasoning if they talked about it.
Pity he wasn't here to see how things were progressing. He might have actually been able to make things take a more positive turn rather than allowing them to go down the road difficult road they currently were traveling on.