Destiny Undone: The Complete Series Box Set (11 page)

“Come on, Mills. I’ll take you home.”

“Mills! Wait! I didn’t—” Mom shrieked after us.

“—yes you did!” I turned my back on her and dared her to come toward us. I knew all about her and her greedy lust. I’d seen her get it on with my first crush, Christopher Escobar—the guy who washed and detailed our cars. I hadn’t quite forgiven her for that, either.

We hurried down the stairs, Mills slipped a couple of times, but I caught her. I bee-lined straight for the front door. The valet attendant eye-balled us suspiciously as we got to his station but I was in no mood to play games. “Just give me my freakin’ keys,” I demanded and just as I opened the door, I realized it was too late. The driveway was full of paparazzi, who snapped pictures from every angle. I couldn’t have a drunken Mills on the front page, so we ran back into the building. Daddy would kill me if she was headline news—especially as drunk as she was.

Church came stumbling down the stairs barefoot, with his shirt half-buttoned. “Pepper! Wait!” The guests were already staring, and him yelling down the corridor didn’t help. “You know that bitch is crazy. I thought it was you! I was looking for you and there you were—I mean there she was!” Next thing I knew, his hand was on my shoulder and he pulled on it, turning me around. “Are you listening to me?”

“Get.

Away.

From.

Me.”

I pushed him out of the way and circled the packed dance floor. I had to find Gabe. I needed help, and not from Church. My sister had finally stopped crying, and she was clearly drunk off her ass. Daddy had asked me to do one thing—take care of Mills—and I’d failed.

Finally, I saw Gabe. He was standing alone, leaning against the railing that overlooked the ocean.

“Gabe!” He turned and looked surprised when he saw me walking up to him with my drunk-ass sister. Aside from the one beer I’d had, I was sober. “Please, I need your help. I have to get her home and the fucking paparazzi are in the driveway. I’ve got to get her out of here.” I pleaded desperately.

“Sure, let me go get my car. Is there a back entrance to this place?”

Before I could answer him, Church had caught up with us. “What the fuck, Pep? I need to talk to you. How could you leave me like that?”

Immediately, I glanced at Gabe and his face revealed his emotions. I knew exactly what he was thinking—and I had to prove to him that he was totally wrong.

I stood by the railing and wondered what had happened to Pepper. I heard her call my name and turned around to look. Her little sister was with her and she was totally wasted. I really didn’t want to get drawn into the Anderson’s drinking and drama. This was exactly the reason I didn’t normally hang out with girls like Pepper. Too much chaos—and then Jonathan Church showed up talking to Pepper like she’d just been with him. He was bad news. He was a little older than I was, but I remembered him from school. He was a druggie back then, and probably still was. The guy was pretty well-built, but I’m sure as drunk as he was, if I were to punch him in the mouth right now, he’d crumble to the floor. Too bad I wasn’t that guy—and I probably shouldn’t have kissed Pepper, but I couldn’t help myself. She was one hot chick, and here she was, begging for my help with her sister and a half-naked guy that she was apparently pissed at. That was my cue to go—before things got out of control.

“Gabe, please,” her blue eyes pleaded with me. “I have to get my sister home. Can you help us out or not?”

I put my arm around her shoulder. “Yeah, Pepper, I’ll help you out, but this guy is going to have to back off. Give me a second.”

“Get off my chick!” yelled Church with his shirt still open.

“Relax, man. She needs a ride home.”

“Then I’ll take her!” he slurred.

“You aren’t taking me anywhere, Church!” Pepper said. “You need to leave me alone!”

I let go of Pepper and shook my head. I should have stayed home, but for a minute, I thought she was a great girl. “I’ll bring the car around the back.”
But I’m done with you after this.
I left that part unsaid, but I sure as hell meant it. I grabbed my keys out of my pocket and walked toward the front door.

“Hey, asshole! I’m talking to you!”

I turned to look at Jonathan Church and my eyes fixed on a beautiful woman at the top of the stairs. I nodded my head and gestured to Pepper to look, too. I knew it was her mother, Evangeline. “Church. Man, you’re drunk. I’ll call you a cab. You can’t be driving like that.”

He sneered at me. “I’m Jonathan Church, and I don’t need a fucking cab.”

“All right then. You don’t need a cab, but maybe you should get dressed. There are a ton of minors here and I’d hate for you to do something stupid.” I turned to Pepper who was glaring at Evangeline. “I’ll meet you in the back, Pepper.”

Her eyes never left her mother and she replied, “Okay, I’ll be there in a sec.”

“Are you okay for a minute? I’ll have to get through the paparazzi.”

“Yeah, I’m just gonna help Mills to the back.” I glanced up at Evangeline again and she seemed to have a evil smirk on her face. A look I’d never seen from someone’s mother. I nodded an okay to Pepper and ducked out of the building. I really wanted to punch that dickwad in the face. Obviously, he’d been drinking and making out with someone, I’d hoped it wasn’t Pepper and the tension I felt between her and her mother was thick. I didn’t even want to know what all that was about.

She was right about the cameras. When I got outside, there were photographers everywhere. Luckily, I’d flown under the radar with these guys when I was growing up. I’d led a rich, but boring life in the shadows. I’d failed to entertain them so they’d left me alone, except for the occasional few who thought they could dig up something on me. Once they found out how boring I was, they never bothered with me again. Unfortunately for Pepper, she was young, beautiful and frequently in the public eye.

I managed to get to my car easily and drove down the road to the side street that would take me to the back of the building. For a moment, I paused. Should I just go home? Fuck this nonsense.
Shit. I can’t do that.
She’d be at Sea Lab bright and early Monday morning and I really didn’t want to go through the backlash.

I’d barely pulled up, when the two girls came stumbling out the back door. Mills was barely able to stand up, but at least Pepper was sober. Thankfully, Jonathan Church was nowhere to be found. It had been a long time since I’d gotten into an actual fist fight, but I was sure I could take him if needed.

I threw the car in park and got out to help the girls. “Come on, Mills. I’ve got you.” She murmured a thank you and looked up at me with bleary eyes. “Pepper, flip that seat up.” I eased the girl into the back seat of the car. She flopped on the seat and groaned then laid her head on the back of my seat.

“Oh, God,” she said, and I silently prayed that she wouldn’t throw up in my car, but I accepted it was a distinct possibility.

“Pepper, help me please,” she groaned.

Pepper slid into the seat next to me and angrily put on her seat belt. I couldn’t help but steal a look at her beautifully long, tanned legs.

She turned her head over her shoulder and said, “Mills, why would you do this?” I put the car in gear and we drove off. I avoided preaching to Pepper about her sister’s behavior since it probably wouldn’t go over too well to say, “She’s only following in your footsteps,” but that was exactly what I was thinking.

“Thanks for coming to our rescue, Gabe and I’m so sorry to involve you in this. I just didn’t know who else to call or what to do.”

I probably should’ve said something nice like, “It’s no problem,” or “I’m glad I could help,” but nope—instead, I asked, “Is he your boyfriend?”

Pepper stared at me like I was speaking another language. “I know you don’t really know me, but how dare you think I’d be kissing you one minute and doing something with him the next. That’s so typical. I can’t believe you.”

I was angry now, so I leaned away from her and focused on the road. I couldn’t afford to get a ticket with a drunk minor in my back seat. That wouldn’t look too good on my record—right next to the underage drinking ticket I got about ten years ago. “Forget it. You don’t owe me an explanation.”

“That’s just great, Gabriel. Thanks for telling me what I already know.” Mills moaned from the back seat and banged on the console. “You need to pull over—she’s going to throw up.” I pulled over as quickly as I could. Mills moaned again and I put the car in park. Pepper jumped out, popped the seat up and helped Mills out of the car. I closed my eyes. I could feel a headache coming on while Mills puked by the side of the road. After a few minutes, the girls got back in and I handed Mills some napkins from my glove compartment. Before I could put the car in gear, another car pulled up behind us and at first, I thought it might be a police car, but it wasn’t. It was fucking Jonathan Church—asshole extraordinaire.

I got out of the car and stood by the door. “What do you want?”

“I want to talk to Pepper.” He’d buttoned up most of his shirt, but it was uneven—the idiot hadn’t even bothered to line up the buttons with the holes. I hadn’t noticed before, but he had pink lipstick smeared all over his face, looked like the same color Pepper wore.

“Get back in your car now!” I shouted, but instead of heeding my warning, he rushed towards me. He was drunk so it wasn’t hard to dodge him and I let him fall to the ground. He got straight up and swore at me while he swung his fists. I blocked him, then popped him on his jaw, sending him back in the dirt.

Pepper jumped out of the car “Stop! Please! Stop it, Church! I’ve got to get my sister home. She’s sick!”

I picked Church up off the ground and drug him to his car. “Get your ass in your car and go home.” I slung him over the hood of his car and walked back to mine. I was furious that this guy would even think about following us and sure enough, a bevy of photographers had followed him from the party and jumped out to snap photos of Church and the ass end of my car as I drove away. “Fuck!”

“Oh my God, Gabe. I’m so sorry. Now they’re behind us and you’re hand is bleeding!” Pepper dug in the glove compartment for some more napkins and patted the blood off of my hand. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Your house is on Ord Road, right?” I really wanted to get these girls home and out of my life. This was too much bullshit for me and I just wanted to get back into the comfort of my own home. No drunks, no drama and definitely no hot chicks with long legs that I wanted to feel wrapped around my waist. Mills grumbled from the back seat, I looked over at Pepper and then back at the road.

“Hang on, Mills. We can’t stop again right now. You’ll have to hold it.”

I slung the car down a side street and quickly lost the photographers after a few turns. In less than a minute, we pulled in the driveway of her house, closing the gate behind us.

“Mills, we’re here, baby. Wake up. Mills?” Pepper let out a long sigh. I had no idea how she lived this life. I was a grown man and I knew I wouldn’t be able to handle all the stress. Good thing we were at her house and I could get these girls out of my life. “Can you help me get her to bed? My Dad’s not home. I don’t see his car.”

“Sure.” We tried to get her to wake up but she was out cold. Whatever she’d drank, it had knocked her out good. “That’s not going to work, I’ll just carry her.”

“Okay, that’s probably a good idea.” She gave me a grateful smile, moved out of the way and opened the front door. I scooped up Mills, who must have weighed less than a hundred pounds, and Pepper led me inside and up the stairs to Mills’ room. I laid her on the bed and let her sister tuck her in while I waited in the hallway. Once I heard Pepper say goodnight, and I knew Mills was safe in her bed, I figured I should go into the bathroom to wash the blood off my hands.

“Gabe? Are you in there?”

“Yeah, you can come in,” I said.

“Let me take a look at that.” She examined my hand and looked in her medicine cabinet for cotton swabs, band aids and all kinds of stuff that I didn’t really need. She tucked a loose tendril of blonde hair behind her ear and smiled at me again. She was still gorgeous, even after all the action. “Thanks again for tonight,” she said. “I don’t know how I’d have lived through it without your help.”

“You’re welcome.” I didn’t know what else to say. “Is your life always so… exciting?”

She grinned, “Sure is. Wait until you see what I have in store for our second date.”

“So tonight was a date?” I rarely flirted. I wasn’t very good at it, but she started it and she was very easy to talk to. I just didn’t know if I could actually deal with all the stress. The Anderson girls were way more trouble than I’d imagined. Too bad, because I kind of liked Pepper, just not her lifestyle.

“Let’s see…we took a helicopter ride. We kissed. You also got a taste of the paparazzi. And a fight.” She dabbed my knuckle with something that stung. I winced and she giggled. Fuck, her little laugh was sexy. “Big baby. Oh, and yes, someone got drunk and passed out. That sounds like one of my typical dates.”

I laughed—until I heard someone calling her name. “Pepper! You up here?” Her blue eyes told me everything I needed to know. Jonathan Church wasn’t expected. I walked out of the bathroom with Pepper on my heels.