“Uh…” I started to object, but Jenny left my room before I had a chance.
I felt a surge of concern when I heard Jenny’s footsteps going down the stairs. I might not have cared about a party, but the thought of her—doing whatever she planned with Pennington was enough to make me bolt for the door. I didn’t think Damien would forgive me if I just let her go without trying to intervene. I carefully walked down the stairs and saw Jenny in the living room. She was batting her eyelashes at Pennington and turning so that he could get a good view—he might have been Edgar’s loyal bodyguard, but I could see the temptation in his eyes. I was two seconds from bursting into the living room and putting a stop to it when I saw Jenny walk to the bar and pour a glass of whiskey—then she dropped two pills in the drink.
Is she going to drug him?
“We’re stuck in this house all weekend…” Jenny let the strap fall further down her shoulder and walked over to Pennington. “We might as well have fun.”
“Your father would not approve.” Pennington’s words were hollow, and he wasn’t taking his eyes off Jenny.
“My father doesn’t approve of half the things I do.” She tilted her head and handed him the drink with a grin on her face.
“You always were a little wild.” Pennington chuckled and took the glass of whiskey.
“Do you want to find out how wild I really am?” She turned and unfastened her jeans.
“Damn…” Pennington lifted the glass and downed most of the whiskey in a single gulp.
Pennington tried to reach out and touch Jenny, but she carefully avoided his hands. She slid her jeans far enough down to expose the top of her panties and then started to run her tongue across her lips. Pennington squirmed in his seat and immediately finished his drink. Jenny danced just out of his reach and continued to tease him—until his eyelids fluttered. He realized something was wrong, but when he tried to stand, his knees just buckled, and he sat back down. A hint of rage spread across his face, and he leaned forward—but that was it for him. His eyes closed, and he slumped forward in his chair.
“What did you do?” I ran into the living room. “Is he going to be okay?”
“Yeah.” She patted his head. “He’s just going to take a little nap.”
“You’re crazy…” I blinked in surprise.
“Do you need a drink too or will you stay out of my way tonight?” She fastened her jeans and put her hands on her hips.
“Have your party.” I held up my hands. “I really don’t care.”
“Good.” She grinned and walked past me. “It’s just a few friends—no big deal.”
This could turn out to be a blessing in disguise.
The first indication that the party was going to be bigger than Jenny let on was the truck that pulled up outside with several kegs of beer. A few minutes later, there was another delivery, and I watched from the top of the stairs as two guys brought what appeared to be four boxes of liquor into Sinn Manor. I probably should have intervened at that point, but I didn’t—and before long, the guests started to arrive. She definitely invited more than a few friends—I wouldn’t have been surprised to find out that everyone she knew had gotten an invitation.
I tried to drown out the music and ignore everything that was going on, but after a couple of hours, I started to get really worried. Guests were still arriving, and it sounded like a full-fledged concert was going on in the living room. I made my way downstairs through a sea of teenagers that were already drinking and found Jenny in the kitchen with a couple of her friends. They each downed a shot of tequila and bit into a slice of lime as I walked through the door.
“Jenny…” I raised an eyebrow. “There are a lot of people here.”
“Relax, Leigh!” She pushed the bottle of Patron towards me. “Have a drink and enjoy yourself.”
“I’ll pass.” I shook my head back and forth.
“Don’t blame me because you aren’t having fun.” Jenny pushed past me, and her friends followed her.
Sinn Manor was party central for the evening, and I had no idea how to handle the situation. I told my mom that I wasn’t going to be Jenny’s babysitter, but it seemed like she needed one—technically, Pennington was supposed to be taking care of that, but he was still passed out in the living room. Some of the guests had decided to use his face as a canvas, and he had a couple of crude drawings that were sure to piss him off when he woke up. I checked for a pulse just to be safe but finding out he was still alive didn’t make me feel any better about what was going on in front of me.
Jenny had a keg in the foyer, a keg in the living room, and bottles of liquor everywhere. The doors were hanging off the liquor cabinet—it did appear that Edgar locked it, but that didn’t stop anyone from getting in. Edgar’s humidor was standing open, and someone had written Free Cigars on the inside of the lid. There was already enough smoke in the air for me to know that some of the people at party were indulging in his private stash. I could smell marijuana mixed in with the tobacco smoke, and that was topped off by various fruits and custards from the teenagers that were vaping. I finally found Jenny again—in one of the side rooms trying to convince a guy to do a keg stand.
“Come on, Dylan! You always do a keg stand!” Jenny gave him a nudge.
“I shouldn’t even be here…” He looked around nervously. “I didn’t realize you were going to invite your entire school.”
“If you do a keg stand, I’ll go get Anna.” Jenny winked at him. “I bet she would be impressed.”
“She’s got a boyfriend.” He scoffed. “You conveniently forgot to tell me that.”
“They’re not using labels.” She shrugged. “It’s never going to work out anyway. Bolt is going to get a scholarship to play football somewhere—and we both know it isn’t going to be at Carson Cove University.”
“Fine…” Dylan shook his head. “One keg stand, and then I have to go. I don’t want to be here when the fucking cops show up.”
Jenny got a crowd for Dylan’s keg stand, including the girl she referred to as Anna. The group pretty much cut me off from Jenny, so there was no way that I was going to be able to talk to her. I had never seen anyone do a keg stand before in real life, but it was pretty impressive—Dylan didn’t even need any help doing it. His shirt slid down his stomach when he balanced on the keg, which revealed washboard abs—that got a few cheers from the girls in the room, and if Anna had a boyfriend—she wasn’t bothering to look away. I decided to wait until Jenny wasn’t busy to try and talk some sense into her. I thought Edgar’s office would be safe, but when I got to the end of the hallway, I saw a guy sitting in one of the chairs in front of Edgar’s desk. He appeared to be more preoccupied with his phone than anything else that was going on.
“You’re not in the mood to party?” I walked into Edgar’s office and sat down behind his desk.
“I have a beer.” He reached down and held one up that looked like it had barely been sipped.
“If that’s your first one, then you’re way behind.” I laughed under my breath.
“I guess.” He sipped his beer and looked up at me. “I don’t think we’ve met. Do you go to Carson Cove High?”
“No.” I shook my head back and forth. “I’m Jenny’s stepsister. My name is Leigh.”
“Ah, okay. She said you were going to be here.” He nodded. “I’m Gavin. Most people call me Bolt.”
“Bolt?” I raised an eyebrow.
“It’s a nickname from football.” He smiled. “I’m faster than lightning.”
“Interesting.” I nodded.
“There you are!” I heard a voice and looked up to see Anna standing at the doorway. “You missed Dylan’s keg stand.”
“Do you really think I want to watch Dylan Benson do a keg stand?” Bolt turned towards Anna. “Have you met Jenny’s stepsister?”
“No…” Anna narrowed her eyes at me, and I saw her expression sour. “I thought you were going to hide in your room all night.”
“Appa
rently not.” I shrugged.
“Anna! Where did you go?” I heard Jenny’s voice, and her words were starting to slur.
“I’m in your father’s office—with your stepsister.” Anna’s voice was condescending as possible.
“What is your obsession with hanging out in my father’s office?” Jenny pushed past Anna and glared at me. “If you really want to look through his fucking computer, the password is Sinn123. It’s not like you’re going to be able to just delete your mom’s prenup!”
“Come on, Jenny. Let’s go do another shot of Patron.” Anna grabbed Jenny’s arm. “Bolt, are you coming?”
“I’ll be there in a minute.” He nodded, and they walked towards the kitchen.
“I really hope your girlfriend isn’t driving home.” I exhaled sharply. “I hope nobody here is driving home tonight…”
“I’ll make sure she gets home safe.” He looked down at his phone. “Are you going to try the password?”
“It doesn’t work,” I sighed. “That’s the same one my mom gave me. I think Jenny’s dad changed it.”
“Move out of the way for a second.” Bolt stood up and walked around the desk.
“Why?” I looked up at him and slid my chair to the side.
“Don’t tell anybody I did this.” Bolt started tapping away on the keyboard, then put his phone by the computer and activated some sort of program.
“Are you…” I leaned forward. “Are you hacking it?”
“Nah.” He shook his head back and forth. “I’m just changing the password back to Sinn123.”
“Holy crap!” I felt a rush of excitement. “How!?”
“I know a few tricks.” The screen suddenly unlocked, and he took a step back. “Have fun.”
“Thank you!” I slid forward and grabbed the mouse.
Bolt left Edgar’s office, and I started clicking everything I could. There were a lot of documents, and just like my mom said, they were all related to Sinn Technology. The party raged on outside of the office, but I just closed the door and kept working. I had a brief interruption about thirty minutes later when a couple of drunk teenagers burst through the door and began to make out. They apologized and scurried when I cleared my throat—probably to finish what they started in another room. The excitement faded as I kept clicking because Edgar’s computer didn’t appear to contain any secrets—it was just a waste of time. Maybe I should have expected that, but I held onto one last shred of hope until it was officially gone.
“Still at it?” Bolt pushed the door open.
“No, I think I’m done.” I sighed and turned off the screen.
“You aren’t going to bring down Edgar Sinn from his home computer.” Bolt shook his head and laughed. “He’s too smart to leave incriminating evidence on there.”
“Who says I’m trying to do that?” I felt my stomach twist into a knot.
“I’ve seen you before.” He looked over his shoulder. “At Moretti’s—with Damien.”
“What?” I blinked in surprise and jumped to my feet. “You didn’t say anything to Jenny, did you?”
“No.” He shook his head back and forth. “I didn’t even make the connection until I realized you were Jenny’s new stepsister. At this point, I think she’s too drunk to remember it anyway.”
“Oh my god…” I looked down and sighed. “I should have stopped this party before it started.”
“Yeah—you may want to do that soon.” Bolt looked over his shoulder again. “Otherwise, she might burn this place down before she passes out.”
Bolt walked back into the main part of the house, and I followed him. I had no idea how I was going to get a bunch of teenagers out of Sinn Manor. It wasn’t like I could call the cops. I was technically the only legal adult there except for Pennington—and he had been drugged. The cops would put an end to the party, but I might be leaving in handcuffs. I actually contemplated contacting my mom, but I didn’t think that would end well. Jenny didn’t look like she was going to pass out anytime soon—far from it actually.
“Anna, it’s time to go.” Bolt put his hand on her shoulder. “Seriously.”
“She’s not ready to leave.” Jenny pushed his hand away. “We’re about to start really having fun!”
Oh god…
Jenny grabbed a liquor bottle—and then I watched in horror as she threw it at one of the windows in the living room. The liquor bottle didn’t break, but the window certainly did. Glass flew everywhere. All of the people that were standing in the room immediately spun around to stare at it, and then there was a cheer. Jenny staggered over to one of her guests, pointed at his liquor bottle, and then pointed to one of the other windows. He seemed to be hesitant, but the crowd starts to chant his name—apparently, it was Gordon.
“Fuck it.” Gordon shrugged and then threw his liquor bottle at the other window—it shattered just like the first one.
“Jenny! Stop this!” I ran up and grabbed her arm.
“This is my house.” She pulled away from me. “If I want to break all of the windows out of it, I will.”
“What are you trying to do?!” I pushed her against the wall, mainly just to stop her from walking away from me. “This is just going to piss your dad off and make things worse!”
“Piss him off?” She laughed. “No, Leigh. I want him to throw me out!”
I stared at Jenny in stunned silence as she pushed my hand away. There was a method to her madness—but having clarity didn’t make me feel any better about what she was doing. She didn’t know that her father had some nefarious plan—a reason for making her come back to Sinn Manor. I couldn’t tell her—it was too risky. I didn’t even know if telling her the truth would put a stop to the chaos. The only good thing that came from it was that quite a few people took it as their cue to leave. They must have realized it was a bad idea.
I have to call Damien. I don’t know what else to do…
I ran up the stairs as the drunken teenagers who didn’t realize that trashing Jenny’s house was the worst idea in the world started helping her. My mother had worked really hard to replace the pictures in the hallway—Jenny knocked them off one by one. I could hear glass breaking in the room next to Edgar’s office—I didn’t know if it was a window or not. I felt like it was only a matter of time before the cops showed up. There were no houses close enough to hear what was going on—but if someone drove by and saw the broken windows, it was sure to attract attention. There was also a chance that someone who decided to leave would call them. I closed my door, and when I heard footsteps on the stairs, I pushed a chair under the doorknob just to be safe. I pulled my cell phone and started frantically typing a message to Damien.
Leigh: Hey! Please be awake…
Damien: I’m awake. Is something wrong?
Leigh: Yes! Your sister threw a party, and now she’s trashing Sinn Manor!
Damien: What the hell?
Leigh: She said that she wants your dad to throw her out…
Damien: Are you safe?
Leigh: I’m barricaded in my room. I don’t know how long that’s going to keep me safe.
Damien: Okay, I’m on the way. Don’t try to stop her on your own.
“I already tried that…” I threw my phone down and cringed when I heard something else break downstairs.
Please hurry…
Chapter Eighteen
Damien
The last thing I expected was to get a message from Leigh telling me that my sister was trashing Sinn Manor. I knew she was pissed off at our father—for leaving our mother and for making her move back in with him. I just didn’t think she would go off the deep end. She might have thought trashing Sinn Manor would piss our father off enough for him to throw her out, but that wasn’t going to happen if he needed her for something. She was just going to make her situation worse. I would have to figure out if there was a way to undo that part later—first I had to make sure Leigh was okay.
I drove as fast as I could, and when I turned into the driveway, I
could already tell that there wasn’t going to be any way to undo what my sister had done—not easily at least. Several windows had been busted out, and a kid that I assumed was one of Jenny’s friends was spray-painting the front door. I scared him off by honking my horn and hopped out of my car. The inside was worse than the outside. We jokingly said that it looked like a tornado had gone through Sinn Manor after we finished moving my mother out—Jenny had managed to make it look like a real tornado had touched down directly inside the living room.
“Jenny!” I hit the button that controlled the sound system in the house so that the music would stop playing.
“Oh shit!” A guy came running into the living room—and immediately made a break for the door when he saw me.
“What happened to the music?” Jenny turned the corner and stopped in her tracks when she saw me. “Damien? Why are you here?”
“I think that’s the least of your problems right now.” I glared at her and looked around the room.
“We’re just having fun.” She looked down and giggled.
“Are you drunk?” I took a step towards her.
“I told you—we’re having fun.” She shrugged.
“What do you think our dad is going to do when he sees all of this?” I exhaled sharply. “Jenny, this…”
“Hopefully, he’ll kick me out!” She looked up and beamed with pride.
“I don’t think that is going to happen.” I shook my head back and forth. “Sit down. I’m going to try and get rid of all your friends.”
“You’re no fun.” The smile disappeared from her face, but she did what I asked.
It took almost thirty minutes for me to round up all of the teenagers that were still there. Thankfully, most of them weren’t completely smashed like my sister. I did my fair share of partying when I was their age—so I couldn’t fault them for trying to have fun—but the night had obviously gotten out of control. Once I was sure they had all left, I went back to check on my sister—she had put her head down on the couch and fallen asleep—or passed out. In the chaos, I hadn’t even noticed that Pennington was sitting in one of the chairs in the corner of the room. He was out cold, and someone had drawn all over his face.
Devious Intentions (Carson Cove Sandals Book 3) Page 19
