CHAPTER IV - Friend of the Family

Still a bit stunned, Zachary followed the man who had intercepted him, his host of dates trudging behind him. Despite his initial shock, once it settled in, he supposed it made a lot of sense that the man’s employer had come to the Windgrad Hotel that night, especially if the auction featured art pieces. The man led them through a set of stairs to the second floor of the ballroom, passing by a few guests until the group arrived at a round table, where an impeccably-dressed older man was sitting by himself, a grandfatherly smile on his face.

“Mr. Castle,” Zack greeted with a friendly grin of his own. “When Devon called out my name, I had to think to myself why I was not surprised you were here tonight.”

“Nevermind me, my boy,” Horace Castle responded, a hint of worry now crossing over his 60-something features as he dismissed his trusty butler. “Did your dad send you in his stead?”

“My Dad?” Zack asked, starting to get that confusion back.

“I think there are a few things we should discuss,” Horace chuckled. “But first, why don’t you introduce me to your lovely friends?”

“Oh, sure,” Zack started pointing at his companions without really looking, as he was too intrigued by the presence of his grandfather’s old friend. “This is Lisa Rivera, my girlfriend. I think you already know Ashley Woodsen, my best friend who’s the daughter of the District Attorney, and this is A… Madison Cole?” He did a double take at the last one. “The heck you’re doing here, Madison? Where’s Alice?”

Blushing a little bit, Madison just shrugged sheepishly. “We swapped on the way here, she wanted to go explore and I had nothing to do after Brandon got himself stuck in the bathroom with a stomach ache,” she had to lie about her own reason. Couldn’t very well tell her crush that she wanted to be closer to him.

Ashley and Lisa seemed to be just as flabbergasted, as they hadn’t noticed the change of companions as well. “Damn, had no idea Alice was that sneaky,” the blonde remarked with a giggle.

“Well, you look… stunning,” Zack blurted out, his gaze discreetly checking out his friend. He had always found Madison really pretty and fun, but her being Brandon’s sister always seemed to put a block in his mind when it came to her.

His comment caused Madison’s and Lisa’s eyes to widen, albeit for very different reasons. The latter made to open her mouth, but Ashley lightly pinched her arm to remind her not to cause a scene.

“Thanks…,” Madison smiled at the Ravers boy. “So…, what are we doing up here?”

“Oh, right, I was about to introduce you all to Mr. Castle,” Zack turned back to the amused old man, whose green eyes were twinkling at the teenagers. “He’s an old friend of the family.”

Horace Castle was one of Herbert Ravers’ oldest friends in Sunset Haven. An art collector, he had always been close to the Ravers family, his friendship transferring to Herbert’s children with time, especially Robert, who shared some of the old man’s opinions and proclivities in life. Zack had always found him fun to talk to, the man being able to discuss almost every topic with sharp efficiency. In a way, some of the Ravers children had a closer relationship with Horace than the stern Herbert Ravers.

“I must say, I’m worried about you being here, Zack,” Horace said, interlocking his fingers on the table. “When I approached Robert to inform him of what I heard about this night, I had no idea he’d be reckless enough to send his son and his friends here in his place. That’s not like him at all.”

“Well, as you could tell from my surprise, Dad doesn’t know we’re here,” Zack explained, seeing no point in lying about why they were there. “Does he know anything about the tape?”

That made Horace’s eyes widen for a brief second. “What do YOU know about the tape?” He wanted to be careful and not reveal anything the kids might not know, though that notion could very well have sailed far away from the port already. “I told your father, but if he doesn’t know you’re here, then I surmise you found out from someone else?”

“A good friend of ours overheard her parents talking about this tape going on auction that could destroy Sunset Haven as we know it,” the young man explained. “That’s why we’ve set up this whole… operation. We got concerned it could involve our families, especially mine.”

“I see…,” Horace said after a moment, lightly scratching his chin as he scanned the faces of the four teenagers in front of him before focusing on his old friend’s grandson once more. “And this is all you know about the contents of the tape?”

Zachary nodded and the white-haired man let out a sigh.

“In that case, it seems we really have much to talk about,” Horace declared again, reinforcing what he had said earlier in the conversation.

A few minutes later, Zack and the three girls came down the stairs back to the proper ballroom with a quite disturbed expression on their faces. The young man’s mind was reeling after the revelations Horace had imparted about what exactly was in the tape that could put the future of their town in danger. It was much worse than what he expected.

“Well…,” Ashley tentatively tried to break the ice. “It’s not like we didn’t know your dad’s reputation.”

“Yeah, but not my mom,” Zack fired back, a bit more intensely than he would’ve wanted. “And you’re awfully calm about your parents, Ash.”

“Oh, I’m deeply shocked too, I can tell you that much,” the blonde replied, grabbing her best friend’s arm and squeezing it. “But right now I’m more worried about you.”

“Do you think my mom could be in it too?” Madison quietly inquired, almost as a whisper. “She was in college with your folks.”

Zack sighed. “I really don’t know, Maddie. Horace only mentioned mine and Ashley’s parents.”

Lisa just shook her head, rich people could have such weird problems sometimes. The Woodsens and Coles weren’t exactly wealthy, but their close association with the Ravers family put them in the same social circle and that angered her, like she was inadequate to be Zack’s girlfriend and people expected him to date one of those girls instead.

Suddenly, a commotion in the vicinity of the entrance had the group looking toward the tall archway. Men and women, who seemed to be guests, judging by the way they were dressed, huddled around to watch out for someone that had supposedly just arrived at the hotel.

“Who’s coming there?” A man nearby asked.

“It’s Lady von Zluten!” A woman shrieked.

“Who?” The same man inquired.

“Lady von Zluten,” another man replied, albeit a little hesitantly. “I think she’s that heiress, you know?”

“The one who caused quite a stir in the Hamptons some months back,” a second woman offered, though it was even more apparent she wasn’t sure of what she was talking about. “She cleaned out that big, fancy poker tournament.”

“Wasn’t it in Milan? Or… Paris?” Another man tried to butt into the guessing.

“You’re all full of shit!” The woman who had yelled earlier admonished. “It was in LA!”

Ashley just released an annoyed, tired sigh. “I’m not seeing this,” she mumbled. “Zack, tell me I just didn’t hear these people.”

“Why?” Her friend asked with a raised eyebrow, but then he turned to the archway and understood it right away. “Oh, shit.”

Sexily strolling into the ballroom was none other than his first crush, Hannah Woodsen. Her blonde hair was up in an elaborate bun, and her voluptuous body was wrapped in a silvery, ethereal gown. The neckline plunged all the way down to her navel, and her quite large breasts were barely covered by the fabric, the smiling girl flashing a substantial amount of cleavage and side boob. Her athletic legs were also on display amidst the high slits in the dress.

“I suggested a cover name as a joke, Lady Winter von Zluten,” Ashley whispered. “I’ve never expected her to actually use it.”

“So we’re just witnessing a case of people wanting to look informed about a made-up celebrity?” Madison asked, impressed by the effect.

“Looks like it,” Zack nodded. “I had no idea Peter was coming with her, though.”

Ashley let out another sigh. “Han must’ve dragged him to make her cover look better.”

A couple of steps behind the fake heiress, clad in a black tux, was Peter Zander, the 21-year-old who was a childhood friend to both Hannah and Zack’s sister, Taylor. Zachary himself had a close friendship with the older boy, both enjoying an interest in novels and Peter having played a bit of a mentor role to him, Victoria, and Alice in the school newspaper.

“This is ridiculous on so many levels,” Lisa remarked, shaking her head at how much Zack seemed to be staring at Hannah and her slutty dress.

Hannah seemed to have spotted them at that moment, judging by the teasing smirk on her sexy features and the way she began sauntering toward the group. Peter reluctantly followed, keeping the same distance the entire time. It honestly reminded Zack and Ashley of the way Devon usually tailed Mr. Castle.

“Ah, my biggest adversary tonight,” Hannah said, faking an exaggerated British accent as she appreciatively sized up her best friend’s little brother in a tuxedo. “It’s a pleasure, Mr. Harper.”

Zack bowed to kiss her offered hand, slowly finding her over the top acting amusing. “I look forward to our match, Lady von Zluten.” It was very hard not to let his gaze lock on the abundant amount of titflesh she was displaying.

“Oh, stop that theater, you two,” Peter pleaded. Having dated Hannah for almost a year back in their senior year of high school, he was pretty used to her shenanigans, both as a friend and a girlfriend. “Don’t encourage her too much, Zack.”

“And you don’t be such a spoilsport, Pete,” Hannah said in a dismissive way. “We’ve got to keep up appearances and you’re not playing my butler very well, you know?”

“You know I won’t be your servant, Han,” the guy replied through gritted teeth.

“Oh, keep telling yourself that,” Hannah giggled before leaning in toward her younger sister. “You should’ve chosen a matching code name, that way we could still be sisters.”

Ashley narrowed her eyes. “Huh, people would recognize us as Dad’s daughters in an instant,” she responded in an aggravated whisper. “We shouldn’t even stand this close to each other!”

Peter shook his head and shuffled closer to Zack. “So, you holding up okay?”

Zachary shrugged as they observed the girls conversing. “I guess it’s kinda easier than I expected in a way. It’s just exhausting, trying to remind myself to keep up the cover all the time,” he replied, his eyes unwittingly fixing on Ashley and Madison, and how their dresses hugged their slender bodies. The way Ashley’s dress bunched up her chest, it now looked dangerously similar to her older sister’s, and he absentmindedly wondered if her breasts would grow more to evenly match Hannah’s.

“I can see that. Been playing Han’s butler for twenty minutes and I’m already begging to go home,” Peter chuckled and then smiled at his younger friend. “Just don’t fall into the same trap I did. I had other girlfriends after Hannah and they always hated whenever I paid her even a little attention.”

“Huh,” Zack turned with a confused eyebrow raised. “What do you mean?”

Peter clasped the black-haired boy on the back and let out another chuckle. “Never mind. I know it’s early, but have you guys made any progress with the tape yet?”

Zachary winced at the memory of what Horace had told him. “We don’t know where it is, but we found out what’s in it,” he answered, and at Peter’s inquisitive look, he elaborated. “Apparently, some of our parents, and I was able to confirm only mine and the Woodsens, decided it would be fun to have an orgy at some point during college, but they were careless enough not to check for the security cameras that caught the whole thing.”

“Holy shit!” Hannah blurted out, having heard what Zack had just said. A feral, almost unsettling, grin curled up her lips and quickly took over her entire face.