Chapter 84

Around two am, I noticed that the music had gotten considerably better. The crowd had thinned out to about a third of the start of the night and Giovanni looked damn good dancing with the rest of the boys. Even Sid Ravi-Houseman had relaxed, and was dancing with his sisters.

Much to my surprise, Drew and Lorraine were still in the thick of things.

"Pregnant, not dead!" Lorraine laughed when I asked about her bedtime. "This is probably the last time I'll get to party all night. I'm fine, Uncle John - no one's smoking and I'm not drinking." She did throw herself around me. "Thank you so much for this! I love you so much!" I saw the camera flash.

"Come on, kid. Don't get all sentimental, now. I don't do family."

She rolled her eyes as she let me go. "Such a liar! And I haven't forgotten about this thing with Juan. When Drew and I get back, you and me are gonna talk."

I let her go back to dancing and I went back to looking for Janos so I could go nine-for-nine on the night.

I finally found both Twins with Sean, manning the DJ booth.

"What happened to the guy they hired?" I asked.

"Wanted overtime." Sean shrugged. "The same with the bartender; he's packing up now."

I nodded. "You still have Yann's remote?" He pulled it out of his pocket and handed it to me when I reached for it. "Twins, give him Yuehan's. Johan, stay here until someone relieves you. Janos, come on. I'm putting you on the bar."

There wasn't much alcohol left - not compared to how much we started with at least - so I left Janos at the bar and found the thickest group of the boys - and found Giovanni in the center.

"I don't want anybody stuck at the booth or the bar all night so rotate often, got it?" They all did. "Good. Who wants first bar shift?"

"I'll do it." Giovanni volunteered. "I went to bartending school. Besides, I should earn my keep somehow."

"We all do." Juan commented. Then he shivered and Ian snickered.

"I was wondering where I could use you." I said.

"I have a suggestion." Yann offered.

"Me too." Ivan snickered.

"No kidding. How about the rest of you idiots. Do you have any suggestions on where I could use Giovanni?"

"Definitely." Zane sighed as Ian and Yeuhan nodded.

"Well then, Giovanni, looks like you're our bartender."

"Excellent!" He grinned, having absolutely no clue what was really happening around him. He headed off to the bar.

"You boys rotate those remotes too. And anybody who doesn't have one of these, get one. We're definitely going to be having fun with this toy." I tapped Yann's twice as I walked away and was rewarded with a squeak of surprise from him.

I went back to the bar and found Giovanni already making drinks and Janos looking a bit down - which was the first time I'd ever seen that.

"Something wrong?" I asked him.

"No, boss." He tried to perk up, but clearly, he was upset and I suspected I knew why.

"Yeah. Come. I'll bring him back. Here." I gave Giovanni Yann's remote. "I'm still testing this system. Every time you make a drink, tap the 'on' button. The counter only goes up to seven, so when it get there, just tap the 'off' button instead until it gets back down to one. I don't care how often it goes off, I just want to check the computer file later and make sure the signals all got through."

"Oh. Sure." Giovanni smiled. "On to go up, off to go down. Got it. Boss."

I pulled Janos with me and hushed him as he tried to protest.

I went straight to the west wing. I did pick a different room at least.

I pushed Left Angel against the wall, kissing him and opening his shirt. "I told your brother, I'd already done you because I found him first and I didn't want him to be upset." I whispered.