Chapter 50: Gate Crashing

As the helicopter approached the rectangular landing platform, I had a clear view of my grandfather’s vacation home below. The house was a massive three-story affair, made entirely of stone accented with white doors, windows, and shutters. A white and green porch stretched across the front of it, with one end continuing across the yard and onto a lake, effectively turning into a dock with what looked like a boat house. The back of the home was mostly hidden, but I briefly spied what appeared to be a pool as we descended.

A few vehicles were parked in the massive driveway opposite the dock, and a helicopter occupied one of the two spaces on the helipad we were quickly approaching—Chloe had understated just how many people were there. A fleeting thought passed my mind that perhaps it was a surprise party on my behalf, but that was stupid. If that were the case, Chloe and her team wouldn’t be on edge like this.

“It can’t be anything too dangerous,” I mused and glanced at one of the three security operatives in the cabin with us. “I can’t imagine anyone meaning us harm just leaving their vehicles in plain sight.”

“I’m not sure, sir,” he said, checking his sidearm. “Please stay in the helicopter, and we’ll inform you as soon as we’re sure it’s safe.”

A few minutes later, the helicopter touched down on the pad, and the three agents immediately filed out, dropping to the concrete and fanning out; their eyes searched the surrounding tree line and the house, looking for any sign of danger. Chloe returned from the cockpit and was about to follow them, but I placed a hand on her shoulder. “Chloe, I don’t want anyone leaving the house until I’m sure no one’s taken or messed with anything.”

My bodyguard glanced toward the house and said, “I’ll see what we can do, but I can’t promise anything. Judging by the vehicles already here, their numbers are comparable to ours if we’re lucky. I’ve called for backup, but it won’t do us any good for at least an hour and a half.”

“Just ... see what you can do,” I said. “If there’s a chance that the drive is in that house, the last thing I need is for it to slip through my fingers—or anything else that might be important. Besides, even if there’s nothing here, I’m tired of having people fucking me over and getting away with it.”

There’d been too many of those: Cartwright, Ashlee, Amber Bell, Roger ... they’d all managed to get one up on me without getting what was coming to them, and I had enough of that.

“Roger VanCamp didn’t,” Chloe pointed out.

“He got away,” I said.

“You don’t know that,” she pushed back and glanced at Helen. “And even if he did, he lost a lot to you. Take the win.”

I followed Chloe’s glance to Helen, who was whispering with Erin. She happened to look my way as I stared, and her blue eyes caught mine. She gave me a small, mysterious smile as she stared back at me. Maybe Chloe had a point.

“I’ll try to keep everyone where they are, though,” Chloe said.

“Thanks,” I said, letting go of her shoulder.

She dropped from the helicopter and took point, leading four agents—the three from my cabin and one that had joined her from the cockpit—across the yard toward the front door of my grandfather’s vacation home. Their guns weren’t drawn, and they all maintained a casual gait, but I’d been around them enough to notice how they kept their holsters clear from obstruction and their heads on swivels.

“How long do you think it’ll take them?” Emily asked, joining me beside the door.

“As long as it takes,” I replied as I watched them walk toward the home. Then I shut the door so we could at least wait in relative peace and quiet, insulated from the sound of the whirring helicopter rotor.

We spent the next twenty minutes waiting in the chopper. I ended up sitting on the interior’s carpeted floor, wondering what was taking them so long and contemplating all the possibilities. I envisioned all five members of my security lying dead on the floor or being held hostage, waiting for me to make a move. Perhaps they were standing in the middle of the living room with their guns drawn, trying to talk the mystery group into surrendering theirs.

If it came to it, I could always take off and leave my security behind. The chopper was still running, and a sixth security staffer—the pilot—was still in the cockpit, likely with orders to take off at the first sign of trouble. Considering the five ladies in the helicopter with me, I might have let him. They meant too much to me. However, taking off and leaving Chloe to die ... I don’t know if I could recover from that.

Erin had dropped to the floor next to me and leaned against my chest, holding my arm wrapped around her shoulders. My face was buried in her hair, enjoying her floral scent as I imagined all the horrible scenarios Chloe could be in. Helen was still petting Bobbi, who was back to dozing as we waited. She’d attached the leash to the submissive’s collar but had removed it on my request. I didn’t want a leashed woman getting in the way in case something crazy happened ... or to be a distraction. Natashya and Emily had taken turns watching out the window for any sign of change, and my sister was currently sitting in her seat, staring at Bobbi contemplatively while her girlfriend stared out the window.

“Here she comes,” Natashya finally said, pulling Emily’s attention from Bobbi as she crawled to her knees and leaned into the window next to her girlfriend. Erin and I got to our feet and approached. Sure enough, Chloe was walking toward us from across the lawn, looking completely fine. She was still wearing a light jacket, a pair of jeans, and a white blouse with no sign of a drawn gun. Approaching the helicopter, the blades whipped her hair around her head, throwing some of it in her face. She swiped it from her eyes as she approached the door just as Natashya opened it for her. My bodyguard climbed onto the helicopter and shut the door behind her.

“Well? I asked.

“It’s fine,” she said. “There’s roughly people in there having some kind of party. Only one of them’s armed.”

“Strangers just broke into Colin’s house?” I asked.

Chloe shook her head. “It’s one of the twins.”

“Twins?” I asked.

“Your brother. Quentin Gerrard.”

“Oh,” I said, trying to process that information. My brother was here. Quentin. I had a brother, and he was inside that house only a couple hundred feet away. I could feel my stomach turn at the thought of unexpectedly meeting one of the Gerrards. My understanding was that they all hated me; my aunt had confirmed as much at the meeting. However, according to Chandler, the twins simply couldn’t be bothered to make it to the meeting on Monday. Maybe I had family that didn’t despise me. Perhaps they were just lazy or indifferent.

Either way, I would meet another Gerrard today, whether I was ready or not. After all, he was technically trespassing in my house, and I already had plans to be here for the entire weekend. I couldn’t just turn around and head home when I had every right to be here. Everyone in this helicopter deserved a nice weekend away from the city.

“You said one of them is armed?”

“Quentin’s bodyguard,” Chloe said. “We didn’t confiscate the gun. I don’t see a point in it when there are six of us. It would only irritate the situation.”

“And the rest of them?” I asked.

Chloe shrugged. “Friends of his. None of them are dangerous or armed.”

“How can you tell?”

“Because most of them barely have any clothes on?”

“What?” I asked. I noticed Natashya’s interest pique along with Erin’s.

“Most of them are wearing swimsuits. Not much space to stow a weapon,” Chloe explained. “Roughly half are too inebriated to be of any danger at all. You want to go in or head back?”

“Go in.” There was no way I was missing a chance to check out the house and meet another Gerrard.

“Alright,” Chloe said, disappearing down the hall toward the cockpit. A few moments later, we heard the dull roar of the helicopter’s rotors slow as the pilot shut the whole thing down. Natashya and Emily started to retrieve their bags, but I stopped them. “Just leave them for now. Once we meet everyone inside and figure things out, we’ll send a couple of the guys for the luggage.”

The six of us piled out of the helicopter, where Chloe and the remaining agent were waiting for us. Then we followed her back to the house, with Chloe and I in the lead while the pilot followed last, trouncing across the yard toward the house.

“Hey,” Emily said, falling on one side of me while Erin walked on the other. “You have another brother, and you’re about to meet him. How does that make you feel?”

“It’s insane,” I said. “I mean ... it doesn’t change much. I already have two brothers. Hopefully, this one doesn’t turn out to be like Jacob.”

“God,” Emily said, breaking into a smile. “Can you imagine your luck in finding a new brother, and he turns out to be as much of a deadbeat as Jacob?” It was nice to see her smiling again.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I’ve had a lot of bad luck to offset the amazing luck from the money, so at this point, I think just about anything is possible.”

Emily grabbed my hand and gave it a squeeze, giving me a tight-lipped smile; I returned it, feeling grateful to have her here with me. Within minutes, we were walking up the front steps of the porch, and Chloe opened the door. The sound of rap music immediately hit us as we followed Chloe into the house.

I wasn’t sure what I had expected when we walked inside, but it wasn’t this.

The den was massive, with stone pillars that reached exposed rough-hewn beams that traveled across vaulted ceilings. It was all white, reflecting the copious amounts of sunlight streaming in from the skylights and windows, showing a back patio where a couple of shirtless guys were laughing as they stood around a grill. A woman with shoulder-length brown hair walked past two of the windows toward the guys, and I watched as one of them said something to her, and she responded flirtatiously before disappearing beneath the glassy surface of a pool. There were others around the pool outside talking, laughing, and eating.

In the middle of the large den was a sunken area that held a couple of couches in an L-shape, facing a few more chairs with a coffee table between them. A television hung over a massive stone fireplace, displaying a college football game. A bald guy sat on one of the couches, wearing nothing but an open shirt and a pair of swim shorts. A girl lay across the rest of the couch with her head in his lap. She wore one of the smallest bikinis I’d ever seen, showing off a slender tummy and sporting a pair of breasts that might have been a small C-cup on anyone else but looked closer to a B on her tall frame. She must have been at least six feet tall, and while her legs had an appropriate thickness to them, they looked slender thanks to how long they were. Her light brown hair was short, cut in a boyish fashion that left her neck looking slender and swanlike. She had a bold nose, pouty ruby-red lips, and a pair of slightly downturned eyes that gave her an innocent girl-next-door quality. Her lips were slightly parted, and she appeared sleeping in the man’s lap.

A younger man with shaggy brown hair sat in the chair across the coffee table, talking to him animatedly. He wore a simple pair of shorts and a t-shirt, but I didn’t pay much more attention to him as I was immediately drawn to the several lines of white powder spread across the glass surface of the coffee table. A few straws were strewn around a few empty plates of bones, remnants of chicken wings, ribs, and a half-eaten burger.

I noticed another bikini top draped over the back of the couch and found a couple near a hallway. The man had a girl pressed against the wall with his tongue in her mouth; her bare tits were rubbing against his chest as she had her fingers tucked into the back of his pants, clearly kneading his ass. Five guys on the other side of the room were sitting around a table; two appeared to be in a deep discussion over something as they held cards in their hands. Two of Chloe’s men were standing in the room, taking in everything with mild interest.

“What is all this?” I asked, staring around the room.

“A party,” Chloe said.

“Eyyyyyy!” the bald man with the woman in his lap shouted, drawing my attention. He pointed and called out to me again, “You’re the guy!”

He seemed a little off, so I glanced around the room to make sure there was no one else he could have possibly been talking about and then said, “You talking to me?”

“Yeah! You! You’re the new ... guy! Man ... you’ve been all over the TV!” He looked back at the man he’d been talking to from across the table and said, “Yo! This guy’s the new guy! Fuck. What’s his name!?”

The shaggy-haired man glanced at me and gave me a brief once-over before leaning away from us and whistling. “Shit ... I could’ve told you if you hadn’t asked me. That’s ... uh ... shit! I can’t remember. That’s T’s brother, right?”

“Yeah! That’s right! Yo! New guy!” Baldy said, leaning forward as he placed a hand on one of the breasts of the girl passed out on his couch. She immediately began to stir and moan. “You want some?” He waved his hand over the table where the drugs were laid out. “Bring some of those fine honnies, too!”

I was reminded of the last time I’d seen white powder like that and looked at Bobbi. She held her bottom lip between her teeth as she stared longingly at the lines of coke running across the table’s glass surface. Her fingers were interlocked with each other in front of her, and she was fidgeting with them. Despite having not had access to the stuff for the last few weeks, it only took one look at the drugs to stir the monstrous cravings within her.

“Helen,” I said. “Why don’t you take Bobbi somewhere else?”

“Come on, pet. We both could use a bathroom,” Helen murmured, not hesitating to slip her arm around Bobbi and guide her little submissive down the nearby hallway, trailed by one of my security guards. Bobbi didn’t fight against Helen, but she did stare over her shoulder at the drugs openly displayed for the world to see. That look of desire in her eyes was palpable, and I knew that if given half the chance, she would indulge in some of her old habits, and I didn’t want that for her.

“Aw ... why’d you make ‘em leave?” Baldy asked as he and Shaggy both leaned over the coffee table. The movement disturbed the tall girl, and she pulled her head off the lap she’d been resting in, slowly sitting up and stretching as she looked around the room at the newcomers. Her dark blue eyes focused on me as much as they could.

“Who’s that?” she asked.

As she dropped her arms from her stretch, one of the straps of her bikini slid down her shoulder, and the small strip of fabric slipped, exposing tiny pale pink nipples surrounded by small areola. My eyes immediately tracked to the exposed flesh, and I unconsciously licked my lips. Bobbi had her drug, and I had mine. Fortunately, I had a little more self-control than my submissive—barely.

“He’s the one all over the news,” Shaggy said. “It’s—”

“Oh! That’s his brother!” she said, suddenly going from mildly interested to very interested. Unaware that she was partially exposed, she stood up to her full height. She had to be over six feet, which made her taller than even Emily ... possibly equal in height to me. Her pale legs were long and coltish as she sidled up to me, so close that I could smell the old chlorine and something slightly medicinal on her. She gave me a smile meant to be seductive but was a little off, thanks to whatever she was on. I had to admit, though ... she was cute as hell.

“Hi,” she said. “I’m Wendy.”

“Hi, Wendy,” I said, cataloging that away. I might have been very interested in getting to know her in another setting, but I couldn’t afford the distraction right now. Besides, she didn’t look like she was all there right now. “I’m Marcus,” I said, my tone a little flirty despite my decision.

“Seriously?” Emily said, looking at me.

“Yeah ... she looks like she needs a doctor more than some dick,” Erin muttered.

“Don’t shame Marcus,” Natashya said. “She’s lovely ... even when she is that color.”

Her eyes seemed to take on a bit more life, and she started to open her mouth to say something ... Then, her complexion took on a light shade of green. She clamped her mouth shut, and the attempt at seduction vanished, replaced by a look of extreme discomfort.

“‘Scuse me,” she muttered and bolted down the hall where the two were making out.

“Poor thing,” Natashya said, watching the tall, slender girl make her escape.

The two on the couch cracked up laughing, and Baldy hunched over the coffee table to do another line. “Don’t worry about her. She just doesn’t know how to hold her drugs yet.” He leaned into the back of his couch and inhaled deeply, his eyes closed. “Want a bump?”

“Thanks,” I said as I approached the coffee table, eyeing the white powder. “I appreciate the invite, but I’ll pass this time.”

“Cool,” Baldy said. “More for us,” he said with a wide smile.

“Knock yourselves out,” I said as I noticed a man rounding the corner of the door leading to the outdoor patio. He had a plate piled high with various selections of meat, stood about 5’9” tall, with lean muscle and angular features, and was good-looking enough to be an actor. His nose was sharp and hawkish; he had a bold chin, high cheekbones, and damp hair slicked back with strands falling just above his eyes. He spotted me and immediately broke out into a grin.

“You’ve got to be him. Marcus, right?” He asked, approaching us.

“Yeah,” I said cautiously. “Quentin?”

His eyes never leaving me, he set the plate down on the coffee table, then rounded it and approached me, extending his hand in greeting. “I hear we’re brothers.”

I stared down at his hand, a little thrown off by this whole scenario—the drugs, music, and the presence of people I didn’t know ingesting God knew how many different inebriants. Thanks to movies and my experience with Bobbi’s dealer, Candice, I expected people who were emaciated, with bad teeth and other health problems to attack us or get aggressive about taking drugs.

What I hadn’t expected was for the people to be relatively good-looking and the place to be so clean. Yeah, there was some trash on the floor, the table was covered in drugs, and the smell of marijuana hung in the air, but other than that, the place appeared to be intact. All the people here were clean-cut, looked like they went to the gym several times a week, and would have fit perfectly in any high-end office job in the city. I guess drugs didn’t take as much of a toll on a person when they could afford to stave off the consequences.