He must have sensed someone watching because he looked in my direction and smiled when he saw me. I looked away quickly. Oh fuck! I hadn’t been checking Derek out! He was just interesting to me because he was Braden’s cousin and apparently the black sheep of their family. It was too late though. The damage was done. Derek started subtly dancing the trashy twins over in our direction. Great!

I made sure not to look at him again. That’s what Braden had said and I think I had seen that in a wildlife documentary somewhere too. Never make direct eye contact with the deadly panther/poisonous snake/wild rutting pig/Derek. Unfortunately, that meant that I didn’t have any idea where he was or what he was doing. Too late I realized that “where he was,” was right behind me, and “what he was doing” was moving his h*ps against me. Derek was as tall and well-built as Braden and he felt disconcertingly similar but I knew it wasn’t Braden behind me. I would have just known anyway but it was a dead giveaway when Derek leaned down and spoke into my ear and he was all Derek-sounding.

“Gabrielle, you really know how to move.” Jesus, he made that sound so obscene! But then I had a feeling that he could make “pass the salt” sound obscene. I gave him what I hoped was a friendly (just a friendly!) smile and began moving away. Unfortunately, the floor was a bit slippery and I was a tipsy uncoordinated woman wearing six inch heels. My foot slipped out from underneath me and I went flying backward with one leg high in the air, landing squarely against Derek who caught me in what must have looked like some kind of fancy backward dip, because immediately the dancers around us backed up into a circle to watch.

With a sinking feeling, I recalled the surprise I had planned for Braden. I had decided to really go without panties and I had just flashed a portion of the crowd, including Jess and Lily, who were giving me an astonished look. I panicked, and attempting to right myself, I overshot and wound up pitching forward. I put my hands out to catch myself and landed in a push-up position, flipping over, landing on my butt and lower back, and spinning around in a circle with my legs in the air. The crowd started cheering! Holy shit, they thought I was break dancing!

Derek, who I was pretty sure I had also just flashed, apparently took this as an invitation. He came over and hauled me up and then spun me around, picking me up in the freaking air! The lights and the alcohol and the spinning combined to make me dizzy and when he set me down again I tumbled sideways and started flailing my arms in an attempt to catch my balance, first in one direction and then in the other. Derek followed right along and matched me move for move. I had a feeling that a new dance craze had just been born, The Flail, invented at Club 51 in Philadelphia. The crowd ate it up. Just when I was sure that I had reached the seventh ring of Hell the cavalry rode in to save me. Braden “cut in” on Derek, who gracefully stepped aside.

“What are you doing, Gabrielle?” he asked, speaking directly into my ear so I could hear him over the music. The crowd, including Jess and Lily, went back to what they were doing before Derek and I got jiggy. Derek himself had gone back to the Trash Twins, who I noted were now doing The Flail too.

“I was trying to move away from Derek and I slipped,” I answered back into his ear. I saw him try to stifle a laugh.

“That was pretty impressive. I think you and Derek could probably go pro if you wanted,” he teased.

“I’m just lucky I survived.”

Braden was a great dancer and he could even make me look good on the dance floor. I relaxed against him and let him guide me with his hands and legs and h*ps and soon I started really enjoying myself. We had slow danced but this was the first time we had danced like this together. We were pressed up against each other, shaking our booties, and bumping and grinding in complete synchronicity. But then we had a lot of practice with doing those moves horizontally. We weren’t actually simulating sex on the dance floor like Derek’s new friends were now doing with him - simultaneously I might add - but the way we were moving was most definitely very hot. The night was improving. I even saw a few more adventurous souls in the crowd doing The Flail. At one point, though, I looked over toward the bar and I saw Dollarella glaring at me and leering at Braden. I leaned up to shout into his ear.

“You never hooked up with that waitress?” I asked suspiciously.

“No! I swear. She always kind of creeped me out. I pegged her as a crazy stalker girl. Come to think of it, I don’t know if I trust her to serve you alcohol.”

“Maybe I’ll have Derek taste my drink first,” I joked.

“Good idea.” He laughed and dropped his hand to my bottom. “Are you wearing a thong?” he asked with a hot look. Apparently, he had missed the earlier part of the floor show.

“No. Actually I’m not wearing anything,” I answered and gave him my best bad girl smile. The hot look he was giving me became scorching.

“Naughty girl. If I had known that I would have occupied myself better under that table.”

Eventually Derek and the two women left together. Braden leaned down and kissed me deeply. Pulling back, he told me that he was going back to rejoin the other guys.

“Dance with your friends a little more. I’ll talk to the guys a bit and then I say we get out of here and go have a more private party.”

“That sounds good to me!” He left the dance floor and I moved back over to dance with Jess and Lily. The three of us kept dancing as another song came on and I watched the guys get involved in an animated conversation about something. Then I looked over toward the doorway arch and saw a woman with dark hair dressed in black who had her back to me. When she turned around I was surprised to see that I recognized her.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Jess and Lily were paying attention to the DJ at the far end of the room and didn’t see me leave but Felicity Mason was waving to me so I headed for the lobby.

“Gabrielle. Good to see you,” she said, actually looking like she might be expressing something close to an emotion.

“Felicity. Um, nice to see you too.” She looked just like she had when I met her at the Pierce Foundation fundraiser. She was dressed all in black but I could see her clothes were expensive. Her skin looked pallid, and her hair was dyed an inky color. She looked like a rich Goth chick. There was something odd in her tone. I have to tell you, though, ‘odd’ wasn’t exactly a shock when it came to Felicity or her family. Her mother reminded me of Cruella de Vil but not as warm. Her father was so nondescript that he would be easy to lose in the snow.

“You look good in black,” she said sullenly. I didn’t take it personally. Felicity said pretty much everything sullenly. “Come on. We should talk.”

“Talk? I have to tell my friends where I am then or they’ll worry,” I said, looking back toward the lounge. Braden would probably have the place raided by a SWAT team if he discovered I was missing. She ignored me, though, and turned around and headed down another hallway. Curiosity got the best of me and against my better judgment, I followed. She led me to a small private room with a couple of couches. I walked in and she closed the door behind us and sat down, waiting for me to join her.

“You and Braden are still together,” she said as she stared at me gloomily.

“We’re very happy together.” I wondered if I should explain what “happy” meant. I sat down on the couch opposite her, crossed my legs and tried to make myself as comfortable as one could be having a private tête-à-tête with Elvira, Queen of the Night in a back room at a conspiracy club.

“You should be careful. There are people who might find that threatening,” she replied in that flat-sounding voice of hers.

“Why?” I asked suspiciously, eyeing up my exit path to the door. I was starting to wonder if she might be a little nutty. I couldn’t figure out why anyone would find my love life threatening.

“Because of your fathers.”

“What are you talking about?” I turned back to her in confusion.

“There was an article in the paper …”

“What, that Kingmaker thing in the New York Times?” I interrupted, feeling impatient. I wished that she would get to whatever her point was.

“Uh, I guess,” she said, looking uncertain. “I didn’t read it. I just overheard some people talking about it. They didn’t want your dads to work together.”

“And who are these people? Give me some names.”

“I don’t really know,” she said, avoiding my eyes. “It was at the fundraiser and I didn’t get a good look.” I had a feeling that she did know but that she just wasn’t going to tell me.

“And what did these people say exactly?”

“A guy said, ‘You read that article. If Ben Ginsberg and Tyler Pierce get together it could ruin everything.’ Then another guy said, ‘We need to take her out of the picture so that they never do’. Then a woman said, ‘Leave it to me. I’ll handle it’.”

“Someone’s been sending me anonymous notes and following me around everywhere. Do you know anything about that?”

“What? No! “ She looked shocked … and then she looked scared. “I’ve got to go. I have somewhere I have to be.” She got up and quickly headed for the door. She seemed freaked out.

“Wait a minute! Did you leave the napkin?” I wanted some answers now and I stood up, preparing to go after her if necessary.

“Yes, I left it, the napkin that is. And I asked you to meet me here at this club for a very specific reason. I don’t know anything else, though, so please don’t ask me any more questions.” With that she took off out the door and by the time I got there she was gone.

Okay, that was really weird. I wasn’t sure that I even believed her. That story about overhearing someone at the fundraiser was just so crazy. Speaking of crazy, I headed back to the lounge and when I got there I found everybody going nuts.

“Gabrielle!” Braden called out with obvious relief. He rushed over toward me and pulled me into his arms tightly. Great, I had managed to make him worry about me more than he usually did.

“Where did you go?” Jess demanded, sounding stressed and stalking over to me with her hands on her hips. Apparently, I had worried everyone.

“Braden, honey! Air,” I gasped. He was still clutching me so hard that I was starting to feel lightheaded. He loosened his hold but he didn’t let go of me. I had a feeling that between him and my dad I was going to have to start wearing a homing beacon soon.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare everyone. I just had a very strange conversation with Felicity Mason. I saw her out in the lobby and she waved me over, then told me she wanted to talk, but she took off before I could tell anybody, so I just followed her to see what she wanted.”

“Felicity?” Cameron asked, sounding surprised. It wasn’t exactly shocking that she would be hanging out at a weird club but I guess it was kind of surprising that she would actually converse.

“Let’s sit down, okay?” I asked and we all headed back to our table. Braden kept his arm around me and held me tightly by his side. This was much more than a nestle. He had a grip on me like a vise. I quickly summarized the high points of our little chat.

“What in the hell was she talking about?” Drew asked, sounding confused.

“There was an article in the New York Times,” Mark explained. “It suggested that Gab’s dad might be powerful enough to pick the next president and that he seemed to be showing an interest in politics lately. Especially in backing politicians with views a lot like your dad’s.”

“There are so many nutty people out there,” I pointed out. “It’s possible somebody took that article in the Times too seriously. My dad even mentioned something like that once himself. And she said she wanted to meet me here for a specific reason. This place is all about conspiracies.”

“Okay, so say it’s some conspiracy theorist who’s harassing you, who would it threaten if a powerful businessman backed a moderate Republican for president?” Mark asked.

“Extremists,” Lily answered. “And Gabrielle’s Jewish too. You’ve heard of all of those crazy conspiracy theories about the Elders of Zion, and Rothschilds and all that garbage.”

“What, some far-right anti-Semitic hate group is investing their time trying to get Gabrielle and Braden to break up?” Adam asked sarcastically. “Don’t they have anything better to do, like bring about the Rise of the Fourth Reich?”

“Remember that she said she overhead someone talking at the fundraiser,” I reminded Lily. “It would be kind of hard to picture Senator and Mrs. Pierce inviting a Klansman or Neo-Nazi to their party. Although, I guess it’s possible it could be someone who secretly holds those views.”

“I have a thought. Maybe she’s nuts,” Cam said, looking disgusted.

“Yeah or just lying,” Mark agreed. “She could be making the whole thing up because she’s bored or jealous or something. Hell, maybe she sent you those notes herself. She admitted that she left you the napkin.”

“Well, I know one thing. She wasn’t the person I thought I saw staring at us on the night of the fire alarm, and I thought I saw that same guy following me that day when we went to the prison, Mark. I just didn’t realize it until later. And her reaction to me telling her about it looked like genuine fear. I’ve never seen this woman express an emotion before.”

“Okay, well I guess it wouldn’t hurt to share it with the police, although I’m pretty sure they’re not going to be able to do much,” Braden said. “Maybe they’ll at least question her.”