Russian Roulette: Flashbacks [male x male]

Ch. 45: You'll not do that again

Then

"It seems we've got almost everything ready for tonight. Brannon?" Packard sat at his desk with a clipboard in front of him, looking up at the people in his office. The usual meeting with the Master Dom and Dommes had merely been a formality that day. He had breezed over their talks about trainees and show ideas to get to the good part, where people who normally would not attend the meetings had joined them. People like Brannon and Chess. Going over his checklist with those in charge of an area, everybody had reported all ok, so far.

"I'll be on entrance duty until we get past the initial rush, then Hamish and Alec take over for the night with Drew and Oscar as backups," Brannon informed between bites of the pizza slice in his hand. "I promised Eoin I'd not be working the entire evening."

"Are there extra wardrobe personnel too?"

Brannon rolled his eyes. "Yes, I've got it handled. It's not my first rodeo, you know. I do this for a living."

Chuckling lightly, Packard nodded in acknowledgment. Brannon knew what he was doing and had never failed him before. Since his promotion to head of security years earlier, things had run smoothly during every shift. Even on his days off, everything was under control. His reports were on time, and shift schedules for his areas were in the online shift roster fourteen days ahead of time for people to swap shifts between them if they wanted a specific day off that they had not informed him about. He had concocted a backup schedule for the part-timers to be on call if needed because of illness or unforeseen busy nights. Brannon had his shit together.

Packard hummed and checked off the entrance as handled. Brannon had already given him the advanced schedule for the evening for the wardrobe girls, bouncers, VIP doormen, and floating guards to roam the club during the night. He was grateful that Brannon wanted to step in on his night off, but like himself, he knew that Brannon never shut down his brain. He was working, even when he was not.

There was no reason for him to scrutinize him further. Packard moved on to the next item on his checklist.

"Chess, are all the bars manned and ready for a busy evening?" He directed his gaze to Chess, who sat on the couch to the side of the desk, also munching on pizza like the rest of them.

"Yes, Sir." Chess nodded, making his now blue hair flow around his head. "I've placed double teams in the club from the doors open and then tripled from midnight until closing. I've assigned the regulars in the VIP area and double teams in the private club. We have extra busboys, servers, and dishwashers on too."

"Good, good." Another checkmark on his papers. "And last, Phoenix, is the entertainment good to go?"

Phoenix stood leaning against the wall, a soda in one hand and a slice of pizza in the other. They were used to him coming in jeans and a shirt for the meeting, but as he had come directly from work, he was in his business suit and looked out of place among the people in the office, not that he made a show of it. "It's fine. The lounge band is setting up and doing sound checks as we speak. Our house DJ has brought a buddy to guest spot during his breaks, and I've already given you the schedule for the exhibitions for tonight."

Packard didn't question him because of the way Phoenix said it. It was in his nature to double-check everything before a big event, but they were qualified people who would be offended if he micromanaged them.

"I think we're good to go." Packard stood up and ran a hand through his white hair like he always did when he was stressed. Leading up to an event, though he had done it many times before and he had capable people working for him, he still stressed about every detail. He was a perfectionist, and it showed in his behavior and results in the end. "I hope this birthday party will be the best one to date. Go get changed and find your party spirits."