His Indulgence || Book Two

Executing the Plan

Eric's POV:

Following the agenda, I entered from the side door on the first floor. Being so late at night, very few people roamed on this side of the hotel. Which was exactly why Santiago made me come here. Anyone who had been awake at this time was no-doubt at the slot machines, gambling away their fortune. And since it was a Wednesday night, even less people were here.

From the side door, I strolled down the long corridor, which branched off into several others, each stretching out into different directions.

Some of them containing the hotels banquet halls and meeting rooms, and others led back to the casino. Assuming since it had been a weekday, I took a guess that there had been no weddings or major parties which would explain why the hall had been so vacant.

The walk to the Monet only lasted about four minutes, but along the way I stumbled across beautiful architecture the hotel was known for having.

The spacious corridor was decorated with white crown moulding, laced at the ceilings edges. Its open archways were draped with thick, velvet curtains, embroidered with deep colors of royalty and elegance. A thick, deep maroon rug had been overlaid perfectly above the freshly polished granite floor, along with a few pairs of chairs dispersed uniformly throughout the walk.

Soothing, classical music hummed throughout the hotel, and I slowly began to get uneasy as I read a sign pointing into another hallway from afar— Monet. I surely was not anxious or nervous, but this feeling I had was something that always seemed to follow me at these very last moments. It was pure adrenaline, and it pumped rapidly through my veins.

Without needing to recall what number the room had been, I immediately spotted two men patrolling a closed double-door further down the corridor. They took up positions along the wall, looking stoic and threatening, just as their job description required.

I felt a sly smile creep on my face as I approached them. "Pizza delivery."

They found my inside joke amusing, a glint of humor sparked in their eyes as they acknowledged my taunt. "Good one,"  Their smiles dropped after nearly a second, and both faces grew dark and serious. "Now, if you don't mind, we gotta check you."

I lifted my arms, surrendering, though I knew already I had been clean. Well, more or less.

They scanned me with hand-held metal detectors, and once I had been cleared, one of the men held the door open.

The gloomy room had countless of admirable features from head to toe, though I didn't allow myself to stare too long at the art, it was distracting.

The elegant boardroom featured dark wood wall finish, and a spectacular square shaped board roomed table. There had been twelve leather chairs, though only four were being occupied. Joshua, sat at the furthest seat, and beside him had been three of his colleagues. Each as emotionless and grim, except for Joshua.