Gunner (The Bad Disciples MC Book 1) Page 16

  It was a bit depressing and for the moment she was going to indulge in her ice cream and watch the pain melt away.

  Just then the door opened and her roommate Liza Samuels walked in humming a jaunty tune as she usually did. She was wearing her jogging sweats as per her typical routine. Liza worked in advertising for the biggest radio station in town. She had a degree from Syracuse in communications and she spent most of her day trying to advise the radio station on how to make the most of its usable ad time. At least this was what she told people. Truthfully if pressed she would tell you she spent the day as an assistant to the head of advertising at the station, which meant she mostly ran errands, got coffee, lunch take out, typed up memos, etc.

  But Liza was always a happy camper. She was one of those people that was just able to let any sort of horrible news roll right off her back. Somehow she was able to not dwell on things and turn everything into something light hearted and hilarious.

  Ember and Liza had been best friends since they were roommates in college freshman year. The two girls were very different but somehow they just hit it off right away. It was probably because of the great way they complimented each other. Ember was able to inject a little bit of grounding into Liza and Liza was able to inject a bit of carefree craziness into Ember’s personality. The two fit perfectly that way.

  “Hey Ember,” Liza said grabbing a Gatorade from the fridge. She popped the top and took huge gulp, then took several long, deep breaths.

  “Hey, good workout?” Ember asked. She used to work out with Liza but the girl was in far too good of shape and Ember lost the motivation a while back. But she was thinking about getting back into it. Of course she was not about to adopt the two workout a day routine that Liza did. She would get up at dawn and run five miles. After work she would jog to the gym, hit the weights for an hour, and then she would jog back to the apartment.

  She still usually beat Ember home because the radio station was only six blocks away and Liza happily walked it. Ember on the other hand had to spend up to an hour and a half a day in rush hour traffic trying to get over to the east end of town to work.

  “Usually is,” Liza said with a big smile.

  “What’s his name?” Ember asked.

  Liza feigned shock. “Whatever do you mean?”

  “I mean, what is the guy’s name you met? You are the happiest person ever but even I can tell when you are extra giddy, which only happens when you meet some great guy.”

  “You know me too well,” she replied. “His name is Daniel. I met him at the gym. He is so hot and he is funny too. That is my kryptonite one-two punch of hotness that I can’t resist. You know this!”

  “Wait, what happened to the other guy? Troy?”

  “Troy was nice but he was a bit clingy. I was starting to think he was about ready to pick out a house in the suburbs for us to move to.”

  “What was wrong with that? He was gorgeous and he was a successful attorney.”

  “Yeah, on paper that sounds nice,” Liza grinned. “But deep down I love a bad boy.”

  “Aren’t you ever going to outgrow that? You aren’t in high school anymore.”

  “I’m not old either,” Liza replied. “I like fun, excitement. Troy was boring. He was fun at first, but ultimately boring.”

  “This is like the seventh guy you’ve dated in the past six months,” Ember marveled. “Where do you find the energy?”

  “Are you implying that I have loose morals?”

  “I did not say that,” Ember replied.

  “Well, I don’t sleep with all of the guys I date. I actually have very high standards for sealing the deal,” Liza said.

  “Really? Care to tell me more about these standards?” Ember teased.

  “Maybe. I’ll let you know when I decide exactly what they are,” Liza cackled.

  “I wish I could just not take life seriously like you, but unfortunately I have to live in the world of reality.”

  “I prefer to think I create my own reality,” Liza joked. “So, why are you so down tonight? I see you wearing the ‘my dog just died’ sweat pants and tearing up the Rocky Road. What’s up?”

  Ember told her about the student loan debacle and her dissatisfaction with her financial status.

  “Wow, that is rough,” Liza said. “Are you going to be able to put up your share of the rent? You know I’d coast you through but I am all tapped out this month myself.”

  “I know. Besides I would never ask that,” Ember replied. “I just don’t know what I am going to do.”

  Liza was silent for a few moments. “Well, I do have an idea…”

  “I’m all ears?” Ember replied scooting to the edge of the couch as Liza leaned against the doorway.

  “You would never do it,” Liza said.

  “What? How can you just rope me in that way and not deliver? Come on. I’m dying to know. You just heard how desperate I am.”

  Liza thought a moment. Then a devilish grin spread across her pretty face.

  “Have you ever heard of Club Privaat?”

  “No… what is that?”

  “Well, it’s a new upscale night club downtown. It opened a few months back. Anyway, it’s not like any other club. You see every night they host auctions.”

  “What kind of auctions?” Ember asked. This was not clicking so far.

  “They auction girls as paid escorts,” Liza said.

  “What? You mean like prostitution?”

  “No. Not at all. An escort is not a prostitute. Basically, these wealthy guys—and I mean super rich—are paying beautiful women to spend the evening with them. Whether sex happens or not is between you two and what you want to do, but they are only paying you for your time.”

  “Why would wealthy men need to pay women for their time?” Ember asked.

  “Well, wealthy men like to think they can buy everything. Funny thing is the more money they have the more easily things just come to them for free. But there is no excitement in that. So they love the idea of buying a beautiful woman’s time like they buy an insanely expensive bottle of wine. They love everything fancy and they love to pay top dollar for something they could have had for free. It’s a weird mental satisfaction. I don’t fully get it either.”

  Ember smiled. The idea was ludicrous, but interesting…

  “Wait… have you been doing this?” Ember asked.

  Liza smiled. “I haven’t, yet. But I did go with a friend of mine—Tracy at work, that’s how I found out—and I was very intrigued. I got to watch the whole thing go down. I’m going to do it. I’m going to sign up to be auctioned tomorrow night actually.”

  “I don’t believe this! This doesn’t make you feel weird? Or cheap?” Ember asked.

  “Not at all,” Liza replied. “If you get a high enough price tag then it will be well worth the time. The girls get twenty percent of the price. I saw one girl get auctioned off last night for twenty grand. That is a pretty nice pay day for being taken out for a lavish night on the town.”

  Ember shook her head trying to wrap her mind around it all. She’d never considered anything like this. But she had to admit she was intrigued.

  “So, are you in?” Liza asked slyly.

  “What?” Ember replied. She wasn’t suggesting—

  “Are you in? You would be perfect for this,” Liza said.

  “I couldn’t,” Ember said shaking her head violently. “There is no way.”

  “Come on. You are hot. You do realize that, right?”

  Ember felt a blush coming on. “I am not!”

  “You don’t see the way every guy coming and going stares at you in total shock? I see guys hitting on you all the time, yet you ignore them. When was the last time you had a date?”

  “I had a date two weeks ago, with Matt,” Ember replied indignantly.

  “And why has he not called back?”

  “He has, like eight times,” Ember replied.

  “What was wrong with him?”

  “I don’t
know. I just didn’t feel the spark.”

  “That’s what you say about all guys. But the point is that guys find you to be hot. Admit it,” Liza said with a goofy grin.

  Ember groaned. She hated to admit it, but her friend was right. Guys had always found her to be rather attractive. She had a lot of offers from guys for dates and whatever she wanted them for, but for whatever reason she had always been so picky. She would meet a guy she liked and then on the first date he would say or do something that would totally turn her off. And she was aware most of what she saw was probably imagined. But that was the way she’d always been; when it came down to a man she wanted to spend time with she was just very picky.

  She’d always been that way. It was something she knew she had to work on, but it wasn’t a pressing concern for her right now.

  “Ok, I guess. But I still don’t think I could go through with this.”

  “Why not? You need money. It’s really just dating, only on this date you get paid. And again, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. But when you see some of these guys you might want to do a lot more than you think,” Liza said. She gave a little giggle to emphasize her point.

  Ember thought a moment. The idea sounded intriguing, and not just because she needed the money. It was interesting because it sounded so wrong. Her whole life she’d kind of gone forward into the world with a sound head on her shoulders, been seen as a girl who was up and coming, only to be heading nowhere fast it seemed. She was sure she was just being impatient. No one started out on top, but if she could make a few thousand dollars for one night’s work then why wouldn’t she go for it?

  No one else would ever have to know, would they? This could be a whole other side to Ember Rogerson. She was tired of doing what was expected of her. It had kind of run its course. Maybe this was something new she might actually have fun with.

  “Well, you think on it,” Liza said. “I’m hitting the shower.”

  By the time Liza came walking back into the living room wearing her bathrobe and waiting for her Ramen noodles to cook Ember had made a decision.

  “So, what should I wear?” Ember asked.

  Liza giggled and punched her playfully on the arm.

  2

  Zander

  Zander Michaels closed the huge oak door to his large office and took several long strides over to his massive mahogany desk. Every time he laid eyes on the desk he beamed with pride. He’d paid almost thirty thousand dollars to have it handcrafted using the finest wood that money could buy and it had been made directly to his specifications. Every time he sat behind the desk he felt like he was sitting on a large throne.

  He slid behind the desk and leaned back in the Italian leather chair and smiled to himself. He’d just closed a deal to acquire an exciting new startup that was going to net him an even bigger fortune than the one he’d already built. He’d been after this one for a while and he’d finally managed to outmaneuver his competition and sway the twenty year olds who had started the business which would revolutionize the video game market to sell it to him. He’d basically just used tried and true practice of intimidating his competition (some might call it blackmail; Zander referred to it as aggressive sales strategy) and then he simply outbid the only ones left.

  He paid his personal private investigator Marco his fee for digging up all the dirt he could find on the other interested parties and now he just needed to talk to Tom, his top strategist on how to best go about amplifying the profits of this fledgling startup and turn it into a global monster.

  Oh, life was good. The next few years were going to be very lucrative indeed.

  Zander grabbed a bottle of Wild Turkey and from his mini bar in the corner of the office and poured himself a highball, his favorite. It was getting towards the end of the day and he felt he’d earned it. Although, he often felt he deserved a good drink to start the day with too. That was one of the perks of being your own man, being the boss.

  Zander had always loved being the boss. Ever since he’d started his real estate company right out of college he knew that it was what he wanted to do. He’d worked a few summers learning the business by helping his uncle Rich flip houses and turning a pretty profit. By the time he was entering his last year in college Zander was flipping and selling houses on his own. And his profits were skyrocketing. He’d already made his first million by the time he graduated. After that the sky was the limit and he was able to devote all his time to his business endeavors, branching out into convenience stores and the restaurant business too.

  But then he got involved in acquiring his first start up and it became his new passion. It was fairly easy to do. He hired the best team to search the world until they found the newest and most interesting startups that showed the greatest promise and then he offered them the kind of money for it that they never dreamed was possible.

  Of course these kids didn’t dream it was possible because they had no idea what they really had or how they were practically giving away untold sums of riches for a few million dollars. In the past seven years from startups alone Zander had added almost fifty million dollars to his wealth.

  “Mr. Michaels?”

  Zander pressed the button on the phone to answer his receptionist, Margo.

  “Yes?”

  “There is a Mr. Hunt on line one for you,” she replied.

  Zander sighed. “Ok.”

  He waited a moment before picking up. He had not spoken to Harrison Hunt in almost two years. The guy was a snake in the grass, plain and simple. Zander at one time considered Harrison to be one of his closest friends, but then the bastard betrayed him by moving in on a new startup he was working on. Zander thought that the deal was done and he was just about to swoop in when he discovered that Harrison had dug up some blackmail material on the kids who owned the startup. He basically blackmailed them to sell to him at a much cheaper price than what Zander was going for. So he used Zander’s own methods in a far shadier way as far as he was concerned.

  This was the cutthroat business they had chosen. It was not a place for the meek that was for sure. It was in fact a place for one who had no scruples left.

  Zander picked up the phone.

  “Harrison, long time- no word,” Zander said in his usual jovial voice. He was fighting the impulse to give this guy the tongue lashing of the century but for now he could fish around and see why Harrison Hunt would be calling him of all people.

  “Hey, Z man! How the hell are you?”

  “No complaints,” Zander replied. “How are things in your neck of the woods?”

  “Perfect as always,” he said. “You know how it is.”

  “Yeah, unfortunately I do remember how it is,” Zander said a bit of cold taking shape in his voice. How dare this jerk act like they were going to let bygones be bygones?

  “I deserve that,” Harrison said. “I did you raw, and I understand that I am probably not your favorite person.”

  “What do you want, Harrison? I’m a very busy man,” Zander said.

  “Right to the point. I’ve always dug that about you.”

  “I’m still waiting…”

  “Ok, you know this new club I opened up called Club Privaat?”

  “I’ve heard of it,” Zander replied. He used to go to the club when it was called The Paradise Palace. But when Harrison bought it he decided to go elsewhere for fun and drinks.

  “Well, it’s shaping up to be one hell of a lucrative deal.”

  “Good for you,” Zander replied. “You still aren’t getting to the part where I care about this.”

  Harrison laughed. “Well, this is no ordinary club. We do wealthy auctions with some of the most beautiful women you have ever laid eyes on.”

  “You do know that I am rarely lonely for the company of beautiful women, right?”

  “I vaguely remember,” Harrison joked. “But these women are incredible. They are like none you’ve ever seen. Most of them are wannabe models who have decided to go a more lucrative
route. I think you would be interested in bidding on some of these girls. They are ten times better than the ones over at Maluchi’s.”

  “How do you know about Maluchi’s?”

  Harrison chuckled. “Please, I know. In fact I’ve called him a few times to just gloat about how much better my girls are.”

  “So, you want me to come to the auction? If you are doing so well, then why do you need me?”

  “I was hoping to clear the air a bit with you. Two guys like us, if we put our heads together there is no telling how much of a splash we could make. With all of the things on my plate I hardly have time to really run the place properly. I could use an extra guy.”

  “So, you want to be partners in this new venture?”

  “Well, yeah. Plus it’s a great way to drum up business, find out how other guys in our community are running their business and how we might be able to steal their customers.”

  Zander laughed. “Same old Harris, always pulling some kind of crazy angle.”

  “Well, you can’t really blame me, can you?”

  “No,” Zander replied. “I can’t say that I can.”

  “So, what do you say? At least come tonight and check out the auction. If things aren’t to your liking I’m open for suggestions.”

  Zander thought a moment. Did he really want to even consider going into a partnership with this slime ball? The man was not to be trusted. But then again all Harrison really did was beat him at his own game. In fact, he had to admire the tenaciousness of his stunt. It was deceptive, underhanded, and totally against the law. Zander couldn’t help but respect it on some level.

  “Ok, I’ll come and check it out. That’s all I’m promising,” Zander said.

  “Great,” Harrison replied.

  “But if I do decide to go in on this I want seventy percent,” Zander added.

  The line was silent for a second. Zander smiled. He could practically hear Harrison about to bang his head through a wall at the audacity.