CHAPTER VI - Stakeout

Brandon Cole was wandering the area of the upper floor in the ballroom after parting ways with his friends, Trent Thornton and Russell Stanley. Comparing their attire, the three of them realized his tuxedo didn’t fit with their suits, so he wouldn’t be able to take the cover of a security guard as he planned after splitting from his sister. Therefore, the young quarterback decided to do some snooping of his own, even if that was more Zack’s style than his own. Boredom was a big, unwanted enemy, so the young man figured he had to do something to keep himself active and moving. He shook his head, taking in all the sights around him.

“I dunno how they get used to this kind of thing,” he mumbled, thinking about his Ravers friends and that whole fancy environment with all those snobbish people.

While dodging the men and women in that hallway, Brandon almost bumped into Alice Phillips, of all people, who was hanging around a corner, looking as casual as possible. Now, he had noticed the pretty brunette before, hard not to when she wrote articles about the school’s sports teams for the paper and often chatted with the players. She was a combo that always attracted Brandon, smart and beautiful. However, that night, he was seeing more of her than he ever did, what with that really nice green dress hugging her petite curves. He was about to open his mouth to talk to her when Alice turned in his direction before he could, a small smile curling up her lips.

“Oh, hey, Brandon,” she said, motioning for him to hide behind the corner with her. “Enjoying the party?”

“Eh, not really my style, you know,” he said, catching the meaning of her gestures. It put him in close contact with her and he couldn’t say it was a bad thing. “You seem to have found something interesting to do, though. Did you break off from Zack and the others?”

“Yeah, your sister took my place. It freed me to do my thing,” she let out a light chuckle. Her friend’s twin brother had become one of her favorite players to interview, as he always had this air of goofy kindness that made him quite endearing, and his looks were definitely attractive if she had to be honest with herself.

“Which is…?” He trailed, looking over her shoulder and failing to see what had her so interested. The movement put his groin dangerously close to the small of her back, and looking down to make sure he didn’t touch her, the sight of her round ass under the fabric of her dress made his dick twitch at it.

“See that old man over there? The one with a guy standing right behind him?” She asked. “His name is Horace Castle, a friend of the Ravers family. He was just talking to Zack and the girls.”

“Hmm, now that you mentioned it, I think I remember seeing him at their place before,” Brandon slowly nodded, trying to summon up a clearer memory. “Why are you snooping on him?”

Alice chuckled again. “He’s an art collector, and from what I’ve heard of their chat, tipped Robert Ravers about the tape,” she explained. “I don’t know, I think I’m not buying it. I can be wrong, of course, but maybe this story has more to it.”

“I see,” Brandon said. He wasn’t into investigations and all that, hence why he volunteered for that cover in the ballroom with Madison, where they were only required to keep an ear out for anything out of place. If Alice said she had suspicions about someone, then he would trust her experience on the matter. “And… how often is your gut feeling right?”

“Not as often as I’d like to, I guess. Granted, I normally suspect everyone for something at some point, Vicky’s always more accurate about this kind of thing,” the petite reporter shrugged with a small smile.

The stocky quarterback laughed. “Oh, and did you suspect me of something at any point?”

Alice just cocked her head to the side with an enigmatic expression. “Well, wouldn’t you like to know?” She bantered, but then the look on her face completely transformed when she noticed Horace standing up. “Dammit, he’s on the move.”

“Wanna tail him?” He offered.

“Yeah, I need to see where he goes,” she responded with a business-like nod.

The two of them retreated further into the hallway to stay out of sight, and when Horace and his butler passed, the teenage duo moved to follow the man. The first few moments saw him doing the rounds in the upper ballroom, shaking people’s hands and laughing with them. That is, until Brandon caught sight of something downstairs that made him freeze, almost losing Alice in the process, but she was quick to notice he had stopped in his tracks.

“Oh, shit!”

“What’s it, Brandon?” She inquired, curious about what had affected him so deeply.

“My freaking parents,” he whispered, eyes widening even further. “They’re… here.”

Back in the van, after Logan and Grace saw Zack and the girls meeting with Horace Castle, and heard the entire conversation via the wire in his tux that the blonde could activate whenever she wanted, Logan sat back down with a contemplative look on his face. He had suspected that the contents of the tape could be what Horace described, but no one wanted to be the person giving credit to Hannah’s crazy theories. Turned out that the older girl was right and a chuckle escaped his lips at the thought of what would be Taylor’s reaction when she found out.

“What?” Grace inquired from her seat in front of the screens. “You find this funny?”

Logan just stared back at her with a bemused smile. “What do you want me to say? I have no power over what my uncle and aunt did with their friends so many years ago at college.”

“Are Paris and Zachary the exceptions in your family?” She fired back in a challenging tone. “Didn’t it cross your mind that your parents could’ve been there? Isn’t your father just a year younger than your uncle?”

That made the young Ravers laugh, insanely amused at what she just suggested. “Oh, trust me, Grace, my parents would be the last people you’d find somewhere like this supposed orgy.”

“A debauchery you’re finding quite amusing, it seems,” she repeated, crossing her arms.

He shrugged, letting out another chuckle. “Like I said, I’ve got no control over what they did, and frankly, I don’t wanna judge,” he couldn’t resist the small jab at the end.

Grace gave an ironic laugh in return. “Of course, figures.”

“Speaking of that,” Logan put on the Ravers smirk in place as he crossed his arms as well and regarded the lovely blonde with his electric-blue gaze. “You were about to tell me what’s your beef with me or my family, whatever, when we were rudely interrupted by Zack and Mr. Castle.”

She rolled her eyes in annoyance, and she couldn’t tell if it was more at the question itself or the handsome, distracting smirk plastered on his features. “If you don’t know, I’m not gonna tell you, Ravers.”

He threw his hands up in mock surrender. “Then it’s gonna be really hard for me to help you.”

“Huh, who says I need your help in anything?” She shot back and then swiveled her chair around. “Now let me work, I could be missing important stuff here and you keep distracting me.”

“Oh, so you do admit I’m distracting,” Logan chuckled, leaning back on his couch.

Grace let out a groan of anguish, wondering what she had done to carry such a heavy cross, not that she was into any religious stuff, but it was the best analogy she could find in such a short time and with her mind so worked up. She focused on the screens, trying to find their friends and waiting for Sharon to put her part of the plan into action. The redhead was already wandering the ballroom with Chloe and Zachary’s older sister.

Meanwhile, Logan’s phone pinged and he curiously pulled it out of his pocket to check who could be texting him at a time like that.

Hey, handsome, Paris told me you guys were in Sunrise Hills. Are you at the Windgrad Hotel, by any chance? This party is boring me like hell and I wanted to check if you’re free. Text me back if you’re interested. Kisses, DM.

Now this was interesting, really fucking interesting. Someone he always had fun with whenever they hung out, and insanely hot to boot. They never got hot and heavy with each other, not for a lack of trying on Logan’s part. He guessed she didn’t want to get involved or maybe there was another deeper reason for it that he wasn’t privy to. Either way, she was their classmate, one of his cousin’s cheerleaders, and he didn’t see any harm in bringing her into their plan. At least things would get more amusing in that van. Arguing and stirring Grace up could only be fun for so long before it got repetitive.

He regretfully watched her working hard on the keyboard. That round ass, covered by her tight yoga pants, peeking from underneath her hoodie. Her cute feet lazily rubbing together encased in those simple flip-flops she was wearing. Why do you hate me so fucking much, Grace? He asked himself. She was just so gorgeous and smart, any guy would be lucky to be with her if they got past her grumpy walls, but it seemed that those walls were even taller when it came to him. He quickly typed a reply and put the phone aside.

A few minutes of silence passed before it was broken by some loud knocking on the side door, causing Grace to jump on her chair, startled by the sudden noise as her green eyes widened in fear.

“Frack! They found us!”

“Relax,” Logan laughed as he stood up. “It’s just a friend coming to visit.”

“Wha… friend?” Grace shot back, anger seeping into her tone and posture. “Ravers! This is a serious operation! You can’t just invite whoever you want to hang out in the fracking van!”

“It’s one of our classmates, don’t worry,” he casually nodded at her, opening the door before the blonde could scream at him in a non pleasing context some more.

On the other side, standing on the sidewalk of that secluded alleyway, was a sultry-looking teenage girl smirking at the Ravers scion. Long, lustrous jet-black hair framed an olive-skinned face, with onyx-colored eyes that were dancing with mirth. Her voluptuous body rocked a strapless dark-blue dress, snug in all the right places, such as her bountiful chest and round, bubble ass.

“You’re actually serious,” Donna Morrison said, her mouth gaping in amusement. “When you told me you were in a stakeout, I just had to come and see for myself.”

Logan chuckled, discreetly checking her out for a brief moment and loving what he saw. “Let me guess, you thought I was full of shit?”

“You do realize how utterly absurd this sounds, right?” Donna bantered back.

“Well, **** times call for **** measures,” he cocked his head to the side. “So, are you in or not? Can’t tell you anything if you stay out there.”

“Alright, you got my curiosity piqued,” Donna let out a chuckle of her own and climbed into the van, doing a double take at the sight of the vehicle’s other occupant. “Oh, and… Grace Smith?” She turned to Logan with a bemused smile on her face. “Had no idea you already had company.”

“I’m not compa…”

“We got partnered up,” Logan quickly interrupted as a means of explaining the blonde’s presence, successfully avoiding one of her tirades as she rolled her eyes. “Okay, here’s what’s happening…”

Over the next couple of minutes, Logan did his best to bring Donna up to speed, explaining how they learned about the tape and the auction, devised the idea of infiltrating the Windgrad Hotel, and of course, the facts they had just learned about the contents of the tape. To say the sexy cheerleader was shocked would be a big understatement.

“And Heather’s leading this… operation?” She inquired. Heather had always been headstrong over the entire time Donna knew her, but she couldn’t imagine the cheer captain willing to get her hands so dirty for this. There was family involved, though, and Donna supposed she would do the same thing in her shoes.

“Yeah. Well, Heather and Victoria are the brains behind this,” Logan explained, and then pointed to himself and Grace. “We’re all playing roles and helping.”

“Wow…,” the dark-haired girl whispered, genuinely impressed. “Did Heather invite many cheerleaders for this? She never hit me up.”

Logan gave her a small smile, knowing there was just a tiny bit of friction between Donna and his cousin. Heather was never too happy about Donna unwilling to follow all her orders to a T as a cheerleader, not that the latter minded too much, or at all. Even before Heather became captain, they were often disagreeing over one thing or another.

“Not every one of them,” he answered, pointing at the screens. “There you can see Ashley and Madison with Zack, then Tanya must be with Heather wherever they are, and that’s Sharon there with my cousin Taylor and Chloe McRose.”

“They’re dressed as freaking Playboy Bunnies?!” Donna gushed, breaking out laughing at the sight, which made her largeish tits bounce a little in her dress.

“It was the only cover they could think of,” Logan shrugged with an amused grin, trying not to get too distracted by her chest. “Hannah Woodsen got it with a friend, so they had to use it.”

Grace just took a deep breath, maybe Donna Morrison could be a better company than Logan Ravers. Like herself, Donna belonged to one of the less known wealthy families of Sunset Haven, so they had at least one thing in common, and that already made the other girl more tolerable than her current partner, at least. From the corner of her eye, she could spot Sharon Miller slipping toward a corner of the ballroom, close to where Zachary had taken Lisa a couple of minutes before, and touching her ear.

“I’m listening,” Grace slipped into business mode and talked into her microphone.

”I’m gonna try and look for the IT room,” the redhead, wearing her red bunny suit, whispered, the sound cutting off any conversation between Logan and Donna as they also listened intently. ”Point me at it.”

“At once, your highness,” Grace replied in a mocking tone. After covering her mic, of course. “I think it’s not too far from where you are, if the floorplans I downloaded are right.”

Logan silently cheered for his best friend, there was a big chance she would bump into the mobsters on the way, and he only hoped she could weasel her way out of it if his fears were confirmed. Her seduction powers were always on point, at least.

“Damn, is that Scarlett Soren on the stage?” Donna asked when her gaze took her to another one of Grace’s screens. “She’s performed a few times at my dad’s club, but whoa…, she looks completely different there.”

Grace took a brief glance at the screen in question while she guided Sharon through the hallways, silently cheering for her singer friend. Scarlett’s cover was the only one their team didn’t really need, but they figured another person in the ballroom could always be useful, especially one with access to the backstage. Plus, when Scarlett learned about the operation, there was no way anyone could keep her from taking part in it.