“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.”

“So they would have been nervous if someone like Ben Ginsberg, who’s helping legislators in New York to clean up crooked business practices, started giving Senator Pierce any ideas for similar legislation in his own constituency,” Adam summarized.

“Yeah, if that happened it could shut them down,” Cam added.

“So the question is, what were they going to try to do about it?” Braden asked.

“According to what we heard, they wanted to ‘take Gabrielle out of the picture’.” Adam said in his most intimidating prosecutorial voice. “I wonder if this is going to turn into a murder for hire investigation.”

“What?!” My father looked apoplectic. “If I find out that you had any intention of harming my daughter you’ll wish that a criminal prosecution was your worst problem.” His voice was colder and more deadly than I had ever heard it. Wow.

“Homicide?! Are you people nuts?! Nobody wanted to kill her! They just wanted them to break up, that’s all! Marla tried to get her pissed off at him by acting like the crazy ex-girlfriend and then Cole tried to seduce her away and when that didn’t work they tried to get her to leave by freaking her out a little. They had me write and deliver a couple of anonymous notes. I even followed her all the way to her parents’ place in New York. Not even that worked though! Finally, they just had me follow them around. Eventually, everybody does something dirty and I figured that I would just be there to witness it. Then maybe they could get them to agree to keep their dads out of our business, you know?”

“In other words blackmail us,” Braden said coldly.

“Semantics,” Walker said with a sneer.

“They didn’t realize that someone had overheard them, someone who may seem weird on the outside but is basically a decent person on the inside, and who appreciates it when people are nice to her,” I added quietly. I had been too quick to judge Felicity. Her parents probably had all kinds of criminal associations. Trying to warn me took courage.

“Well, even if your story turns out to be true,” Adam said, “sending someone anonymous threatening notes and following them around are enough for us to charge you.”

“And I think that a thorough investigation of the Hill Group might be warranted,” Senator Pierce said. “Don’t you agree Ben?”

“Absolutely, Tyler. In fact I would be happy to help out. Perhaps it will even lead to some new legislation regulating business reporting practices.”

“Which I would be happy to help out with,” Tyler replied with a smile. It looked like the kingmaker and the senator would be working together. Who knew, maybe it would even lead to the White House someday.

“I think that maybe Marla, Cole and the Masons may wind up with a bit more than just probation after all,” Braden said with satisfaction. The cops took Walker away and checking our watches we realized that we were five minutes late for our own wedding so we all headed downstairs.

“I guess you were right after all, Gabrielle,” Braden said. “You had those three pegged from the beginning.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t realize everything that was behind it, and I didn’t realize it was all of them working together. Very Agatha Christie.” I smiled.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

I went in to freshen up quickly and then we went downstairs. Judge Channing was waiting patiently for us. It was only our parents, Braden’s brother and sister and our closest friends who were with us. That was the way we had wanted it. Before we started Judge Channing asked to make a few remarks. He cleared his throat and spoke, mostly to our parents.

“Several months ago,” he began, “we started assigning lawyers to specific courtrooms and Mr. Pierce and Ms. Ginsberg were assigned to mine. I could see right away that there was a spark between them. They were always stealing looks at each other.” He smiled as if remembering. “I often wondered if they would eventually get together and I knew right away when they had, because they both looked really happy. Criminal law is a tough job and it can really get to you. I’m glad that these two have had each other to lean on. They’re both first-class lawyers and it’s been an honor to work with them.” He actually sounded a little emotional. I couldn’t believe it.

“Thank you, Your Honor,” I said and then I went over and I shook his hand. What the hell. Braden got up and did the same.

“So, now, let’s get you two married before any other crazy stuff happens,” he said, back to his gruff self. We went through the simple civil ceremony and Braden and I took our vows. We promised to love, honor and cherish each other, to always be faithful and to remain together through sickness and health until death did us part. Finally the judge pronounced us man and wife, and my beautiful blonde Braden, my husband, kissed me. I was lost in that romantic dreamy moment when I heard a yip. Bruno had hopped off of Aunt Beth’s lap and came over to beg to be picked up. At least he wasn’t trying to play the humping game anymore.

The guests had assembled in the Grand Ballroom and our dads went in to make the happy announcement that we had just been married. I heard surprised murmurs and then applause. Then I heard Braden’s dad introduce us for the first time in public as Mr. and Mrs. Braden Pierce and with tears in my eyes I let my husband escort us into the ballroom. The applause got much louder. He guided me to the middle of the dance floor, in front of a stage where a lone guitarist stood. And then Stan began to play Louis Armstrong’s What A Wonderful World and as we danced, I have to say that I agreed.