Chapter 2: Offer
It was a now quarter-past eight in the evening, the man noted as he looked at the silver watch on his right wrist for the fifth time.
It was a quarter-past eight in the evening on a Saturday, no less on his day off that he'd been hoping to spend the evening home on. He'd have been listening to calm, ambient music while reading a book on 'knot tying'. He was almost finished.
Instead he was stuck waiting over an hour in the club listening to booming music while sipping whiskey on the rocks, getting more broody by the second.
If the person he was waiting on didn't show within the next fifteen minutes didn't show he was going to flip one,or if he did and didn't to pay for the drinks, then regardless of what the other person had to say, he'd be leaving right then and there.
"Richard!" Despite hearing his name being called, he kept his back towards the man and focused intently on his drink.
"Really sorry man, it wasn't my plan to take this long." The man gushed as he sat down next to Richard as he signalled to the bartender to get his usual, a simple Rum & Coke.
"If it wasn't planned then what was the great issue that demanded my full attention all the way out here, Daniel?" Richard grumbled roughly, swirling the Whiskey in his glass.
"Actually, it was a rather odd case in my club. Apparently someone, we are still in process of trying to figure out who exactly, had managed to set up a hidden camera in the rooms out back." Daniel explained, thanking the bartender for his drink while sipping from the glass.
"In this club?" Richard asked, raising an eyebrow as he looked over at his friend who gave him a thin stressed smile.
"Exactly, in the 5 years that this club has been around this is the first incident of this kind. The most likely answer is its one of the newer members here trying to test the waters and see what they can get away with. I find it highly unlikely that any of our older patrons would consider doing something so atrocious, as they are well aware of what the consequences are."
"I'm assuming that there were no finger prints anywhere on it?" Daniel shook his head defeated.
"Came back completely clean. So obviously someone kind of knew what they were doing." Richard hummed in response to his friend's reply.
Without any finger prints, it was going to be hard to figure out who bugged the room as the rooms were the only part of the club that weren't video and audio surveillanced.
"I'm going to assume that you're not going to start keeping surveillance in the rooms." Richard stated as he motioned the bartender to get him another drink.
"No, there won't be any big changes like that since this is the first time something like this has happened. Doing something like that would make club members both uncomfortable and suspicious that something was going on that they weren't told about." Daniel replied with a shake of his head,
"Enough about that, we should really be talking about what I originally called you down here for. But now that its getting more crowded I think we should move somewhere a bit less noisy."
What Daniel had said was true, the crowd had gotten a lot more packed in the half hour or so that they'd been talking- there was at least twice as many people as there had originally been, and that meant the DJ felt it was time to turn the music up a few notches.
Richard raised an eyebrow as he looked from the bartender over to who his mate had laughed at.
"Yes, drinks are on the house." Daniel laughed as he stood up motioning for his friend to follow him over to the elevator, which would lead them to the second floor.
"What did you want to talk to me about?", Richard asked once they were both in the elevator and the doors swiftly closed behind them.
"I'll show you once we are in my office, I forgot I had left the files up here anyways." His friend replied just as the elevator dinged signalling they have reached the top floor.
"Very well." Richard Followed his friend as they made their way over to the CEO's office.
"Maria, please make sure some refreshments and snacks to be brought up to my office." Daniel requested as they passed his secretary.
"Yes sir, I'll make sure its done in a timely manner." She responded, already reaching for the phone.
Daniel nodded his head in acknowledgement as he pulled his door pass out of his front pocket and swiped through the card reader before pressing his thumb against the finger print scanner.
A few seconds passed before there was a sharp beep and his office door opened. Daniel turned and motioned for Richard to enter before him, which he did silently, walking over to take a seat at the desk.
Discounting the general necessities of what would usually be found; the office was a fairly empty. Daniel closed his office door before heading over to his side of the desk as he opened up the top left drawer of his desk.
"This here is what I wanted you to take a look at." Daniel explained as he slide stack of documents over to his friend, who pulled them closer so he could get a good look at them.
"These are applications." Richard stated after a moment or two of looking through them.
"Yes, but you see exactly what kind of applications they are?" Daniel questioned as he pointed towards the top of them, Richard's eyes followed his finger to see what exactly he was pointing at.
"Application for approval to be a verified dominant for the Roses&Whips new bdsm pilot program." Richard read aloud,
"And What exactly does this have to do with me?"
"Because this is more your scene than it is mine and you're the only person I can trust to help me with this."
"But, what exactly would I getting out of doing this?" Richard questioned, his eyebrows furrowing.
"I would be paying you for this of course, you'd just come in a few hours every week during the evening to help with this and make sure it goes smoothly." He explained, giving his friend a pleading look.
Richard looked back down at the applications in front of him. Daniel was right. He was one of the few people who frequented the club who was into this scene, and was also that was trusted by the owner.
"I do already have a day job and if I come here, I prefer it to be on a pleasure only basis." Richard commented as he shifted the applications back over to his friend, who was starting to think Richard was rejecting him.
"However, I will take some to think it over and consider it." Daniel's face brightened up when his friend told him this, however before he had a chance to say anything there was a knock on the door.
"Come in." Daniel replied.
"I brought the requested snacks and refreshments. I also deeply apologize for interrupting, but there is a gentleman at the bar claiming he had an appointment with you tonight, but he's about twenty minutes late." The girl explained, placing the tray on the desk before turning to Daniel while looking slightly anxious as he looked at his watch.
"Well damn, I guess it is that late already. He's right, can you bring him into one of the private rooms and tell him I'll be there in about five minutes?"
The girl just gave a nod of her head as she left office to do as requested.
"I'm sorry, I totally forgot that I had a meeting scheduled with someone else. I hope you don't mind, it shouldn't take too long."
"It's fine." Richard replied, "I'll wait here till you're back or excuse myself if it takes too long."
"Fair enough." Daniel replied with a short curt of his head- he left the office.
Once the office door was closed, Richard grabbed the bottle of Champagne and popped the lid off, pouring himself half a glass. Setting the bottle back down, he swirled the sparkling liquid in the glass before bring the glass towards his lips, going to take a sip but something from the corner of his eye caught his attention.
It was the surveillance feed that Daniel had setup up through the main part of the building. The restaurant and club were always monitored, and Daniel had requested the surveillance feed be wired into his office as well so he could keep his eye personally on everything for days when he was too busy to be out of his office much.
What caught Richard's attention was a woman. A woman with fiery red hair surrounding her freckled face, looking so out of place. This however was not the only thing that caught his attention, no, something much more peculiar had caught his dark interest.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone