“Wow, it looks like you are the star of the evening,” Harrison said sitting down beside Zander with an entire bottle of Jack Daniels. He sat two glasses down on the table and poured them both three quarters of the way full of whiskey.

“Well, that’s very generous of you,” Zander said. “I don’t remember a time when you ever gave away anything for free, especially booze.”

“Have you forgotten already? You just paid this club twenty grand,” Harrison said.

“That is true,” Zander replied. “Truthfully I would have paid more.”

“Wow, this girl means that much to you? I mean, I saw you chatting her up earlier, but wow… you aren’t going soft on me, are you? I mean I came to you about investing in the club but if you’ve developed a conscience or something I’m not sure we can do business together.”

“Oh, my conscience is clean. It may in fact be missing,” Zander said. “But I do have to admit there is something amazing about this girl that really grabs me in that special way.”

“Yeah, I know that way. The kind that will turn your body into a human pretzel trying to impress her in bed.”

“I don’t mean that,” Zander said. “And I don’t ever try to impress anybody. I don’t have to. I’m impressive as is.”

“And I thought I was an arrogant jerk,” Harrison joked.

“You are.”

Harrison gave a fake glass and finished gulping the whiskey.

“Wow, you drink like a college kid on his twenty-first birthday who just heard that tossing shots back is all the rage.”

“I prefer to think I drink like a man. You got to toss it back,” Harrison said.

“Nah, I drink like a gentleman. You are holding in your hands a fine bottle of top shelf whiskey. It may not be as expensive as others but it is in a league of its own for sure,” Zander began. It was time to teach this fool a lesson about fine liquor. He held his cup in his hands, watching the amber liquid move back and forth. “You see you want to warm up the glass with the whiskey, to make sure that all there is no separation between the oils on the glass and the whiskey itself; that can muddle the flavor. Now, you take a good sip and you don’t swallow right away. No, you got to hold it in your mouth, feel that sweet burn moving up your nose and down the back of your throat too. Then after several seconds you swallow it. That is how you drink whiskey, my friend.”

Harrison was staring at him like he was a fungus. “You are out of your mind. I don’t know what drugs you are on, but it ain’t just whiskey.”

Zander laughed. “You know I’ve been thinking that I might invest in your little operation after all.”

“Outstanding. See, I knew you would come to see the light.”

“But,” Zander started.

“Here it comes; I figured there was a catch. There always is with you.”

“I want sixty percent,” Zander said. “I guarantee I can devote the time this place needs to make it something monstrous. I’ve been looking for something new and exciting to sink my teeth into and I think this might just be it.”

“Wow, amazing how you can change your tune after an amazing girl puts the whammy on you, isn’t it?”

“No one is putting the whammy on me. I am not whammied,” Zander joked.

“Oh, I am not so sure about that,” Harrison said. “But sixty percent… wow that is really cutting into my turf, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, that is the idea,” Zander said.

“Normally when people screw me they buy me dinner first,” Harrison said.

“Yeah, that isn’t my style.”

Harrison looked at him for a moment. He recognized that evil look, that gleam of arrogance that was pretty much Harrison’s staple.

“Ok, done. You twisted my arm into submission; congrats,” Harrison said holding out his hand.

Zander shook it. He was glad to make this deal. He was definitely seeing the potential of a place like this. For Harrison, it was just a goof, something he did one day because he was bored and he liked to have multiple back up plans. And it also gave him a legitimate business for his money laundering he was most assuredly into. Zander wasn’t sure exactly what illegal operations Harrison was a part of that required his money to be laundered but he’d heard rumors and seen the signs that pointed to some not so legal transgressions.

“Pleasure doing business with you,” Zander said as he finished his drink. “If you will excuse me, I do have a lady waiting.”

“Go get her champ!” Harrison said as he poured another glass of whiskey.

Zander made his way across the crowded floor of the club over to where the girls are waiting to be claimed by their dates and another lovely woman is finalizing payments with a line of guys, all eager to start a fun evening.

As he stands in line he can’t believe that he paid so much for Ember. When he heard the other guys bidding he was amused. It was a fun game to see how they would bin low and then he would bid high, but as the game continued they started to get into some serious cash. He wasn’t aware that most of these men had quite that much money to just play around with, but then again most of them were “paper rich”, meaning they were rich only on paper. They were all in debt to their eyebrows and most of them were just one bad business deal away from the poorhouse pretty much all the time. They lived on the illusion and promise of money; not real cash.

But when a few guys started to bid into the twenty thousand range Zander got a little nervous. He’d seen the look in Ember’s eyes practically pleading with him to make a bid and get her off that stage. He knew that she wanted him, just as he wanted her. The connection they’d made with each other was unprecedented. He’d never experienced anything like it before. It was uncanny, strange, exciting, and most of all… fun. He felt like he was fourteen again standing on some girl’s porch ready to take her to his first school dance. His mind played through all of the scenarios of how badly things could turn out, most of the ideas involved her father shooting him in the face if Zander touched his daughter in any way.

But luckily, he touched all of their daughters in every possible way. And he’d only been shot at two or three times, a few fathers and one boyfriend. Ah, those were the days. He knew then that life was going to be all about taking risks, gambling. Those who were afraid ultimately stood on the sidelines and just watched everything. They were too afraid to get involved and they lived empty, half-lives. It was pretty silly and a total waste.

Zander had always just gone for it. It didn’t always work, but it worked enough of the time.

“Hey there, mister big spender!” The woman said congratulating him as he approached the table.

“Thank you so much,” he said as he signed the authorization for them to charge his card and finalize his bid. “Just put everything on my tab.”

“Ok, we will do that,” the lady said flirtatiously.

Zander hardly noticed as his eyes were diverted by the beauty walking towards him in the red dress. She had a sexy smile on her face that could end all of the worlds ails he felt right then.

“Wow, you are even more beautiful with every second,” he said not even caring that it totally sounded like some lame pick up line.

“Well, thank you,” Ember said leaning in close to him. She whispered, “You don’t look so bad yourself.”

Zander held out his arm and she took it, the two of them walking out the side door which led down a long somewhat empty hallway. Zander was amazed at how many entrances and exits this club really had. It was a bit like a labyrinth of sorts; he felt like he was trapped in a maze, but he was walking with a beautiful woman so things could have been much worse.

He saw a sign up ahead over top of a large double door that said EXIT.

Zander pulled out his phone quickly as they walked and ordered his driver to meet them at the side exit. He was not totally sure what side this was on, but there was a reason he paid his driver a hundred grand a year. Ben was simply the best driver around. He was funny, always upbeat, drove very smoothly, and was not against ignoring traffic laws when need be.

As they got closer to the exit Zander could feel Ember’s hand on his arm getting a bit tighter. She was still not so sure about all of this. It was understandable. Just because he was rich did not make him not a serial killer. He hoped to put her mind at ease though and show her that he was a really nice guy, when he wanted to be anyway.

“So, where are we going?” Ember asked, the nerves in her voice becoming more apparent.

Zander smiled. He thought her nervousness was somewhat endearing; it was just another thing she did that really drove him wild.

“Well, I have a few ideas. You are just gonna have to trust me when I say that we will have a lot of fun.”

“Oh, where have I heard that line before?” Ember teased.

“Nowhere. It is a Zander original.”

“Uh oh, now I think I am really in trouble. You are starting to lay down some cheese.”

“What? You don’t like cheese? Everyone likes cheese.”

“I only eat cheese on pizza and nachos,” Ember joked.

“Well, those are the best things in the world, right?” Zander replied.

A bouncer/doorman opened the door for them and said goodnight. Zander nodded as they walked out the door, down a few steps, and out another door to the streets where Ben was waiting for them with the limo.

“Wow, you ordered a limo?” Ember asked.

“No, I take this limo almost everywhere. Or at least when I don’t want drive, which turns out is a great majority of the time.”

“Madam,” Ben said opening the door for Ember.

“Thanks,” she said getting into the car.

“Thanks Ben. We are going to my penthouse,” he said.

“As you wish, sir,” Ben replied closing the door behind him.