Chapter 86

The first step you took was finding Eric.

You couldn’t really believe that it was ever a ‘good’ idea to find him for anything, but it was what it was.

Eric had gotten in with his bro-crew or whatever they called themselves. You and Gemma found him over in a cluster about halfway between the main bar and the dancefloor, him and his guys chatting up several women who looked like they might have been a few years older than the three of you. You clapped him on the shoulder, and he turned to you in surprise.

“Hey,” you half-shouted to him over the noise. “You busy?”

Eric looked back to the woman he had been chatting with, but she seemed much more interested in one of his buddies. He turned back to you and shrugged. “What’s up?”

You gave Eric the situation about the DeezChains guy harassing Gemma by sending people to her and, of course, he didn’t see any problem with it. What he did respond to was the chance to get one over on such a ‘high value guy,’ which seemed like the pettiest shit you could come up with but still somehow convinced him.

Together with Gemma, the three of you came up with a messy plan and headed towards the VIP area.

The raised platform of the VIP was accessible up a short flight of stairs, with a bouncer manning the velvet rope to block off access. As you and Gemma approached, Eric slipped off onto the dance floor - and you could only hope he was actually going to do what he said he would. The Bouncer took one look at Gemma and started unhooking the rope to let her in, but then hesitated when he saw you were with her. He still unhooked the rope, but put a hand up towards you.

“Invite only,” the big guy said.

“I’m invited, right?” Gemma asked. “He only sent three different people to come tell me as much. So I’m inviting my boyfriend.”

“That’s not how it works, miss,” the bouncer said with a deadpan expression.

Gemma gave him a look over, then leaned closer and yelled to be heard over the music. “That fuckwit is harassing me despite the fact that I made it clear I was not interested in his pathetic advances. So you can either allow me to go make sure he understands in no uncertain terms that I consider any further advances by him or through a proxy to be sexual harassment subject to the laws of the State, or when he does it again I’ll hold this club liable for the sexual harassment as well since it’s employees like you that are perpetrating it on his behalf. So, are you going to let me and my escort through, or would you like me to be filing a legal suit on Monday?”

The bouncer looked at you and you just smirked. “We both work for a prestigious corporate law firm,” you said. “I wouldn’t test her.”

“Fuck,” he grunted. “Just don’t make a fucking scene about it, alright?” He moved the rope aside to let us through.

“I’m not the one making a scene,” Gemma countered. “I’m the one ending it.”

I took Gemma’s hand and led her up the short flight of stairs and headed toward DeezChains’ table. There were five tables in all, each one looking out over the dance floor and surrounded by plush black leather couches and chairs. DeezChains’ table was packed while he held court from the middle of the couch with his arms around the shoulders of a woman on either side of him. It looked like a couple of his buddies were occupying the two big armchairs, while another half dozen women were hanging around sitting on the arms of the chairs and soaking in the VIP bottle service.