Chapter 1

“In one mile, turn left onto Highway 54. Your destination, will be on the right.” The robotic female voice announced through the GPS app on my phone.

I was dressed to impress, as requested or rather, instructed. I had worked for over six months to get an invite to this prestigious party. Little lunch get-togethers once or twice a week, coffee meet ups on weekends, all of which were used to get to know the folks who wanted to join this particular group.

These meetings were less about us getting to know everyone else and more of a vetting process for those in charge. This was their chance to weed out the riff raff. Everyone knew or assumed what the basic rules were, and saying something about the next party or what we could do to get an invitation was a sure-fire way to be denied entry to their group and ultimately, their parties. Parties you could only dream about. Parties you’ve surely heard of but had no idea where to find them. Yes, this party ... was one of those.

I was wearing a pair of band new, sandy colored suit pants and matching vest. A brown leather belt that matched the new pair of Italian leather soled dress shoes that came to an exaggerated point at the toes. The matching jacket was hanging on the headrest of the seat next to me. All three pieces were cut and tailored perfectly, just for me. My sky-blue, herringbone dress shirt was starched and pressed; the French cuffs clasped with my father’s gold cufflinks. I left the top button of my shirt undone, for now, showing off the slightest hint of chest hair.

“In one-hundred feet, turn left onto Highway 54.”

I veered into the turn lane and stopped at the single, solitary, flashing red light that hung over the middle of the intersection. I grabbed my phone, which was secured on the windshield with a magnet and double checked the address.

11963 Hwy 54, 10:00.

I had heard enough horror stories of people blindly following their GPS’s and driving their vehicles right into a lake. That was the last thing I needed to do, so I had to make sure I was going to the right place. Imagine if I pulled up at the wrong address because I didn’t put in the right address. Showing up at some unsuspecting person’s house, this late at night? Yeah, that would be terrible.

It didn’t take long before my trusty navigator announced, “Your destination is on the right.”

The road was pitch black. There weren’t any streetlights this far outside of town. Thankfully, on the right side of the road I could see the address numbers on the big, black mailbox reflecting off my headlights.

Here we go...

I turned and stopped in front of a pair of massive, wrought-iron gates that opened silently of their own accord. When they were out of the way, I proceeded forward down a gravel driveway, which was more of a road than anything, and almost a half mile long. The first quarter mile was densely lined with trees, blocking any potential views of the surroundings. That was probably deliberate. When I broke out of the dense cover, the grounds opened up, and I saw a large sprawling mansion perched on a small hill.

“Holy shit, look at this place!” I said to myself.

As I got closer to the monstrosity of a house, I started to see parked cars in the grass along the side of the driveway. On instinct, I started looking for a place to park. If there were cars this far back, that had to mean there weren’t any spots closer. I drove all the way up to the house before going around the loop in front and heading back out the way I had come.

I managed to slip into a spot much closer to the house than I expected. I put the car in neutral, pulled the handbrake to hold the car in place and unbuckled my seat belt. I pulled down the driver’s side visor, so I could give myself one last look over in the mirror.