“You look so gorgeous, Gabrielle, I can’t wait to see Braden’s face when he sees you,” Beth said, sounding emotional. She had told me that there had been plenty of laughter and tears at the Pierce home the night before as well.
“I can’t wait to see him. I’ll bet he looks amazing,” I answered just as we turned a corner. I saw someone else who amazed me in the hall up ahead of us. I knew that bellman!
“It’s him!” Lily suddenly cried out. The figure looked up quickly and took off down the hall. Without even really thinking about it, I hiked up my skirt and took off after him.
“Wait, Gabrielle!” Jess cried. When I didn’t stop, my friends, loyal until the end, took off in pursuit with me. The bellman ran into a stairwell and I ran after him. I could hear him a flight below and I did everything in my power to follow and not break my neck. After two flights I heard him exit and I followed, yelling for him to stop. Jess. Lily, and Beth were not far behind me. He had exited onto a mezzanine that connected with the grand staircase. As I chased after him I heard a voice call to me from below.
“Gabrielle?! Baby, what are you doing now?!” Braden called out. I realized that this probably looked kind of odd, a bride and three bridesmaids chasing a bellman around a fancy hotel. We did seem to be attracting some attention. I hoped that they hadn’t let the media in yet.
“Stop him, Braden! It’s him! The stalker!” I saw five figures, Braden, Cam, Drew, Adam and Mark, all dressed in tuxedos, come bounding up the grand staircase with hotel guests scurrying to get out of their way. When they reached the mezzanine they took off after us and now all eight of us were in hot pursuit. The bellman dove onto an open elevator.
“Shit!” Braden swore. “Watch to see what floor he gets off on and call up to me on the stairs.” With that the five guys took off for the stairwell.
We watched and saw that he had stopped at my family’s floor again, which I called up to Braden and headed back up the two flights myself with my friends right behind me. When we got there we saw the guys knocking on doors and searching. Suddenly, I heard my cousin Rachel’s voice scream out from around the corner. We all headed in that direction and threw open the door to find Rachel in bed … with Derek! We all came to a crashing stop, almost knocking one another over.
“He went that way!” Rachel screeched and pointed to an open door.
“Why did Sam Walker just run through here?” Derek asked much more calmly.
“Who?” Braden asked, bewildered.
“Sam Walker, that sleazy f**k who works for the Hill Group. He must be trying to get some dirt on somebody.” I wondered how sleazy a person would actually have to be for Derek to call him sleazy.
“Hi, Gabrielle!” Rachel said. “You look gorgeous, darling! Mazel Tov!”
“Thanks. I see that you’ve met Braden’s cousin, Derek.”
“Get dressed! I may need you to identify him!” Braden demanded. Suddenly I heard a male voice yell out.
“Hey, lady! Back off! I didn’t mean to barge in on you! Ouch! Cut it out!”
“Who in the hell are you?! I didn’t call a bellman! Oy gevalt! What kind of crazy goddamned hotel is this?! The privacy of my own room and some meshugener bellman comes crashing in?!”
“Oh my God! He’s in Bubbe’s room!” I cried out. “Nobody deserves that!” I ran toward the sounds and my posse followed me.
We ran through the door and back into the hall where we saw Sam Walker go flying out a door up ahead while being chased by my grandmother who was beating him with a handbag. She was a fast old bugger. I noted that she left her cane behind. She was slowing him down and we were making ground fast but as we rounded a corner I saw that he had a straight shot for another open elevator.
“Get him, Bubbe!” I yelled. Just then I heard a familiar yip. They had brought Bruno and he was in my parents’ suite! I saw a teeny tiny head poke out of the doorway! “Bruno! Baby! Go get him! Go get the bad guy for Mommy and Daddy!” Like lighting Bruno shot out of the room and launched himself at the fleeing bellman, grabbing onto his ankles and sinking his teeth in. Walker screamed out in pain and fell to the floor where Bubbe overtook him and started beating him again with her handbag. We finally caught up and pulled Bubbe and Bruno off the beaten man on the floor. The guys continued to subdue him while we called security and the police.
They arrived shortly after and took Sam Walker, who was complaining loudly that he was being chased without reason by a bunch of crazy people, into custody and charged him with stalking and harassment. That was just for starters. We asked them to take him into a room for a few minutes first, though, before taking him to police headquarters, since Senator Pierce would probably like to speak to him.
Our parents had been alerted to what was going on and came up to meet us. Beth took Bruno with her to give him a special treat for being a hero. Drew took Bubbe down to buy her a martini as a reward for taking down a guy a foot taller and forty years younger than her. Someone had been sent to get Derek, who seemed to know this guy and he showed up five minutes later very calm, completely dressed and not at all disheveled.
“Well hello there, Sam,” Derek said as he strode into the room. “Still working for the Hill Group? Or can’t they afford you now that they’re out of the kinky party business?”
“You’ve been to plenty of those parties yourself, Mr. Fuckin’ High and Mighty.”
“Yeah, but just as a guest. At least I’m not a pimp,” Derek replied with a smile.
“What’s the Hill Group?” Tyler asked.
“It’s the group that owns Club 51. You know some of them already, Marla Benton, Veronica and Roland Mason, and Cole Stevenson.”
“They own Club 51?” I asked. Felicity didn’t want to meet there because it was a conspiracy club! She wanted us to figure out who owned it!
“Yeah and a few other legit businesses. I suspect they probably use them somehow to launder the proceeds from their less than legit enterprises.”
“Hill Group? Like the Fanny Hill Club?” Cam asked.
“That’s right,” Derek said with a lascivious smile, “Like the Fanny Hill club and a very high-priced ring of society call girls. Veronica’s not really the Madame – she just runs the parties. Marla’s the Madame. Roland does the books and Cole, at least in the past, helped to smooth the path with the local politicos and made sure nobody bothered them with any pesky new regulations.”