Binding Attractions

Chapter 10

Trey walked into the living room, stood, and folded his arms over his chest. “Do you think the treadmill can break from overuse?” he asked thoughtfully.

“Danielle on it again?” Trick asked the obvious. Danielle loved to run, so Trick knew there was no one else who would be testing the machinery’s durability apart from her. With the threat on her life still too fresh to ignore, Lorenzo had ordered her not to leave the building. Danielle took that as an invitation to run on the machine until her legs fell off or the treadmill broke. Which of these would happen first, Trick wasn’t sure.

“She’s been on it for two hours already,” his friend grumbled.

Trick shook his head, chuckling. “You must be doing something wrong if the woman still has that much energy to burn in the gym.” Trick didn’t look up from his tablet, but he could feel his friend’s glare on him and burst into laughter.

“I will not discuss the details of my bedroom activities with you. But I will have you know that I am not doing anything wrong.”

Trick and Trey shared one penthouse. So, he was well aware that his friend had been very busy behind closed doors. And sometimes not so closed doors. In fact, Trick could throw in the kitchen and hallway as well. That, however, didn’t stop Trick from looking up with a smirk. “Danielle is still running on that machine. Whatever you are doing ain’t draining her.”

Trey huffed. He opened his mouth as though he was about to tell Trick something nasty, but then changed his mind and shut it. In the next second, he turned on his heel, storming out of the living room and back toward the hallway and gym. “I’m going to get her off that damn thing.”

“And take her to bed?” Trick asked with a laugh.

His friend stopped and looked over his shoulder. “No actually. I want to get everyone together and cook us all a meal.”

Trick arched a brow in surprise. He hadn’t expected that.

An hour later, the whole family was gathered in Trick and Trey’s kitchen. A large modern space with black marble and lots of kitchen appliances Trey insisted every kitchen should have. Actually, theirs was the most equipped kitchen among the three penthouses. Which made sense since cooking was kind of Trey’s raison d'être.

They filled the stools around the marble island and chairs dragged in from the dining room. As large as the kitchen was, however, seven adults and a baby made space tight. But no one was willing to leave the kitchen while Trey was cooking and everyone else was trying to argue over the recipe.

One such argument made Trey turn away from the stove and threw the kitchen towel on the marble island in front of the others. “I seriously can’t believe that people who can barely do more than fry eggs and boil water want to tell me how to prepare a creamy lemon parmesan chicken.”

“I can cook more than eggs,” Abigail retorted with a wave of her free hand. “And all I’m saying is it needs garlic. Lots of it.”

Trey rolled his eyes and then went back to the stove to check on the boiling potatoes.

“I didn’t say anything,” Danielle supplied with a knowing smile. She burst out laughing when Abigail mock glared at her.

“We all know how cute it is to take your man’s side, but get with the program, Danielle.”

“Oh, no.” Danielle shook her head. “I have plans for my man after all this cooking. I don’t want him angry at me for doubting his cooking skills.”

Trick made a mental note to spend the night in Lorenzo’s and Abigail’s place, hearing that. It sucked being the only single guy in the house right now. Especially when his friends were behaving like animals in heat. Edward and Talia were just as bad as Trey and Danielle. At least Lorenzo and Abigail had a small baby with them, so they were the safer option.

Trey, on the other hand, seemed pleased by his girlfriend’s plans. He shot her a look over his shoulder that was almost as hot as the plate under his pot. He gave her a playful wink that had Danielle smiling ear to ear like a teenager with a first crush.

Trick rolled his eyes and looked away. Unfortunately, not everyone was willing to let that little act pass without comment.

“Trey, stop winking at Daniele and concentrate on the food. I don’t want to eat burnt food.”

“When have I ever burnt food, Edward? That’s your domain.”

Just then, Trick burst out laughing and shook his head, jumping into the conversation. “Actually, that’s Gabriel’s thing. The guy would burn water if it was possible. Do you remember when he insisted on cooking Christmas dinner? Dear God, I thought he would be treating us for food poisoning by the end of the night.”

“And hypertension. Had he emptied the entire pack of salt into that soup or something?” Trey asked with a shake of his head.

Lorenzo chuckled softly. He leaned forward and steepled his fingers. “He was so pissed when we ordered pizza and refused to kill ourselves with his food.”

“You are all talking as though he’s dead,” Edward suddenly said in a clipped voice.

All the laughter in the room died in a heartbeat. Trick felt as though a bucket of ice had just been poured over him.

Talia reached out and touched Edward’s arm. “They were just sharing a memory.”

Edward shook his head. But whatever he was going to say was suddenly disrupted when Trick’s tablet on the table made a loud, annoying beeping sound. All eyes turned and looked at him.

“What the hell is that?” Lorenzo demanded, already moving toward the tablet.

Trick had the tablet in his hands in a heartbeat. A deep frown furrowed his brows as he stared at the screen of his gadget in disbelief. He could read and understand what the notification on the screen said, but he still shook his head in denial. “Someone has hacked into my system,” he responded, almost in a whisper.

The shock in the room was almost comical. Jaws nearly hit the floor in speechless shock.

Abigail’s eyes widened. “Is that possible?”

Trick didn’t respond. He was dashing out of the kitchen to grab his laptop in the living room where he had left it earlier. After a few seconds of tapping at his keyboard, he looked up with an even more baffled expression.

“Someone locked me out of my own system. Whoever it is is coming up in the private elevator right now. But all the cameras are dead. I can’t see them.”

A frenzy broke out as soon as the words left his mouth. Everyone was reaching for a gun. Abigail carried Arlo to Trey’s bedroom together with Talia. Danielle refused to follow despite the glare Trey gave her. Thankfully, they didn’t have time to argue, because Trick announced the elevator had reached their floor.

Edward stood by the door that led to the hallway where the elevator opened. Lorenzo was covered by the kitchen marble island where he crouched. Trey and Danielle took opposite sides of the threshold that led to the living room.

Trick crouched behind a couch with a gun in one hand and his laptop at his feet. He was still trying to regain control of his system, but he could already tell it was going to take more than a few seconds.

Outside the penthouse, in the hallway, the elevator doors opened and for a second, no one came out. Everyone held their breath. Even Trick had stopped typing and he just waited. Curiosity and anger flooded his veins in equal measure.

“Don’t shoot,” a female voice finally said.

“Come out!” Edward shouted.

“Don’t shoot,” the voice repeated.

A beat passed. And then Lorenzo stood up and moved toward the door. “Step out of the elevator with your hands where we can see them and we won’t shoot.”

“That won’t be easy to do,” the woman who hadn’t yet shown herself responded.

At this point, Trey and Danielle had also moved toward the door, with Trick right behind them. Even Abigail had opened the bedroom door and peeked out.

Lorenzo looked at the people around him, he pursed his lips and then assured the woman they wouldn’t shoot. That didn’t make any of them lower their guns, but they didn’t fire when the woman finally stepped off the elevator.

Nothing obstructed Trick’s view when the woman finally stepped out of the elevator. For a second, he thought everything froze around him, including his heart. His eyes moved up and down, taking in every detail he could while his brain tried to process his own reaction.

The woman who was still standing at the threshold of the elevator was in her mid-twenties, by his guess. She was lean, as though she had missed one too many meals and was dressed in distressed jeans. Trick could tell she had a pretty face, even though she appeared worn out with dark circles under her eyes. The short black hair with blue highlights looked in desperate need of care. Finally, he took note of the tattoos on her exposed arms and the piercings in her lip, nose, and eyebrow.

Okay? he thought to himself. Not what he had been expecting.

Once his brain was done processing her appearance, it finally caught on to the laptop she carried in one hand, which confirmed she was the one who had hacked into his system. She also appeared to be carrying a very small baby, wrapped in a blanket and held tightly against her chest. A diaper bag hung from one shoulder while a backpack occupied the other.

Many questions flooded his brain and the need for answers could no longer be delayed. “Who are you, and how did you get past my system?” Trick stepped forward and demanded.

“The who can wait.” The woman dared to smirk even though she had more than five guns pointed at her. “As for the how…” She shrugged. “I tapped my fingers on the keyboard.” She lifted the laptop she held a little to emphasize her point. “I believe you are familiar with the process.”

“Smart ass answers will get you shot,” Lorenzo cautioned.

“He asked a stupid question. Stupid questions get smart-ass answers.”

Trick bristled at her response. And he wasn’t the only one. Lorenzo looked like he was grinding his teeth together and mentally counting to calm himself.

“Who are you?” Lorenzo pressed after a beat.

The woman shook her head. The smirk was gone, and she looked around like she was looking for someone and couldn’t see them. A frown creased her brows.

Trick caught movement in the corner of his eyes and watched as Danielle carefully lowered her gun an inch. She then jerked her chin towards the woman. “Who are you looking for?”

The woman snapped her eyes to Danielle as though shocked someone had bothered to ask. After a stretch of silence, she finally answered. “Gabriel. I’m looking for Gabriel.”

Every eye almost immediately snapped to the baby she was carrying, who had suddenly let out some sound like it was about to cry.

There was a shock in their gazes before it morphed to sadness and anger. The woman was obviously perplexed by their reaction. Instinct only helped her decode the first part of their reaction and she immediately jumped in to rectify the assumption they had all obviously jumped to.

Her arm tightened around the baby. “It’s not like that.”

“I was about to say, I hadn’t known Gabriel had been that busy,” Trick mumbled. Then he looked at her tattoos and piercings again. “Or that wild.”

Lorenzo kept a stern look on his face. “If it ain’t like that… then why exactly are you looking for Gabriel?”

Sounds behind them announced that Abigail and Talia had joined the party. Everyone was there, and they were all waiting for the answer.

The woman looked from one face to the other as though gauging if she should answer or not. After a few seconds, she sighed. She had reached a decision. “I’m looking for Gabriel because… he’s my brother. And I am in a s**t ton of problems. I need his help.”