Gap Year - 96. Chapter 96

April 21, 2004

Escorial

Palo Alto, CA

Will

Travis and Jake sat next to each other at dinner, and even though I was sitting next to Travis, I could see their reflections in the mirror. It was fun to try and figure out how exactly their appearances were different, but I decided my initial conclusion was correct. They had similar major parts, they were just assembled a bit differently. I noticed, for example, that Jake had a higher forehead than Travis, which had the effect of scrunching Jake’s eyes, nose, and mouth closer together than Travis’s, which were more spread out on his face. Conversation flowed freely, but I couldn’t help but wonder how many of my family members were actually ruminating along the same lines that I was.

“I am assuming that you all heard about the man who was shot here today,” Jake said.

“What?” Marie asked.

“Someone was shot?” Jack asked, just as shocked as his daughter.

“I went out riding and spotted a dude lurking in the woods down by the creek,” I said.

“Will called security, and when they caught up with the guy, he pulled out a gun and our guys had to open fire to defend themselves,” Jake said. “The intruder was hit in his arm, and will recover.”

“Are we safe here?” Claire asked.

“We are,” Grand stated firmly. “The area by the creek is not part of our security perimeter. We are confident that if he’d approached that boundary, he would have been detected.”

“Do they know who he was?” I asked.

“More importantly, do they know if he was working for my father?” Travis asked.

“We found a picture of Travis in his pocket when we caught him,” Jake explained, so everyone would understand why Travis asked that question. “His name is Angel Kurtz, and we don’t know much about his motives. He isn’t saying anything, and he hired a good lawyer to defend himself.”

“So there’s someone with some money behind him,” I concluded.

“It has to be my father,” Travis said, shaking his head. “How’s he managing to swing that? I thought he was broke.” That was funny, but I forced myself not to laugh.

“We should know more tomorrow,” Stef concluded, then turned to Jack. “How long will it take to get the results from the paternity test back?”

“Normally it takes a week or so, but that’s usually because it takes time to ship the samples and to get in the queue for the lab,” Jack said. “With some appropriate pressure, this test has been prioritized.”

“Thank you for doing that,” I said to him sincerely.

“You’re welcome,” Jack responded pleasantly. “I expect we’ll know within two days.”

“That’s good,” Travis said. “I really appreciate you rushing things along. It will be good to know what it says before I have dinner with my family on the 24^th.”

“We’ll do our best,” Jack promised. We had a nice dinner after that, and when it was over, the staff brought out a cake for Marie. We all sang the birthday song for her, ate some cake, then it was time to go into the television room to open presents.

Marie got a lot of cool presents from everyone except Ryan, John, and her parents, because presumably they’d given her their gifts when they celebrated on her actual birthday. The nicest present was a Cartier watch that Grand and Stef got her. She finally finished all the presents but mine, which prompted Stef to give me crap. “I think it is time for you to give Marie her gift, the one you have been so tight-lipped about.”

“Sounds like I’m not the only one who doesn’t like secrets,” Dad said, getting a withering look from Stef, and laughter from the rest of us.

I reached into the pocket of my jacket and pulled out a box that was the same size as the one that had contained Travis’s Mont Blanc pen. It was wrapped nicely, courtesy of the store in Rome where I’d bought it, but had no bow on it because that would have just gotten smashed in transit, or in my pocket. “Happy birthday, Starfish,” I said, and handed it to her. She gave me a dirty look because she didn’t like her nickname, but took the present from me anyway.

“More expensive than my Porsche,” she mused, then she opened it. She stared at it, her mouth agape, and looked at me. “Is this real?”

“It’s real,” I confirmed. “One of only about 100 that are out there.”

“What is it?” Grandmaman asked.

Marie pulled out a necklace that consisted of a medallion of sorts on a silver chain. The medallion was actually a matte black circular mounting bracket that surrounded and protected what was an ancient silver Roman coin. The coin itself was about the size of a nickel. “It’s an Eid Mar coin!”

“What is that?” John asked, unimpressed.

“They were coins minted after the assassination of Julius Caesar,” she said in a condescending way, since she was smarter than him. “Brutus minted them after he killed Caesar. If you look on the one side, that’s Brutus’s picture, while on the other side, it says Eid Mar and has two daggers and a cap.”

“The cap is a Pileus Cap, which was the Roman symbol for freedom,” Grand augmented. “The coin is also referred to as the Denarius of Brutus. That is a very impressive gift.” Of course, he would know all about it.

“Where did you get this?” Marie asked me.

“While Stef and Travis were shopping for clothes in Rome, I wandered into a jewelry store and found it,” I said.

“How old is that coin?” John asked.

“It was minted around 43 BC,” I said. “So it’s old.”

Marie put it over her head and then proceeded to gaze at it, much like I’d done with the necklace Zach had given me. I forced that memory out of my mind. “This is just the most awesome thing! Thank you so much!” She got up and gave me a massive hug.

“It seemed like it was perfect for you,” I said. “I’m glad you like it.”

“I should have gone in on it with you,” Travis said, to prompt me to tell him how much it would have cost. Talking about how much a gift was worth was crass, but I sensed that everyone was curious and, in this case, it wouldn’t be too tacky.

“Write me a check for $75,000 and you can,” I teased. It was funny how John suddenly perked up at that, because he hadn’t been all that impressed with it up until now. Uncle Jack caught my eye and winked at me, thanking me in his own way for doing such a nice thing for his daughter. Moments like this were especially meaningful since he didn’t really like me all that much. Ryan, on the other hand, could barely hide his annoyance.

“I’ll get you some Legos instead,” Travis said to her, making us laugh.

“Despite what Will says, I’ll pretend this came from you too,” she said to Travis, then spoke to Ryan. “Notice how well it complements the necklace you got me.”

Only at that moment did I notice she was wearing a really pretty necklace, and that she’d left it on when she’d put on the one I got her. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Ryan had bought her that one, and that I’d inadvertently totally showed him up. I felt like total shit. “If you say so,” he said, but smiled at her.

Travis picked up on the shitstorm I’d created and jumped in to bail me out. “I don’t mean to be rude, but I’m still jet-lagging,” Travis said. “If I don’t go to bed, I’ll end up sitting here yawning at all of you.”

“Me too,” I said. We stood up, gave everyone hugs, and managed to escape back to our room. “Thanks for the exit strategy.”

“Will, how the fuck were you supposed to know that Ryan got her a necklace, especially since we were in Italy?” he asked firmly.

“I know, but I still feel bad, like I ruined a special moment for them,” I said grumpily.

“How did you know Marie would like that?” he asked. “I mean, most chicks wouldn’t know shit about that.”

“Marie isn’t most chicks,” I said, my pride in my cousin clear in my voice.

“True that,” he agreed. Her organizational skills in Hawaii had singularly impressed him, especially since when it came to that, his ADHD ass was a basket case.

“We took a class on Classical Rome and Marie really got into it, so I guessed it would resonate with her,” I said. “Plus she’s big into Shakespeare, and we actually performed ‘Julius Caesar’ in English last year.”

“She’s into Shakespeare?” he asked. “Dude, I could never appreciate his stuff.”

“Guess you won’t get your start doing ‘Romeo and Juliet’,” I teased.

“Yeah, probably not,” he said. “I’m going to hang up this suit.”

“Good idea,” I said. We’d just finished stripping off our dinner clothes when there was a knock on the door. I hurriedly threw on sweats and a t-shirt, then went to see who was interrupting my attempt to get laid and crash.

I opened the door to find Marie there. “Sorry to bother you,” she said, noticing how disheveled I looked.

“We were just getting more comfortable,” I said. I led her over to the seating area. “Travis is still changing.”

“I just wanted to thank you again for the necklace,” she said earnestly. “It just shows how well you know me.”

“Yeah, and it tosses out a big challenge to see what you’ll come up with for me in September,” I teased, since then it would be her turn to buy me a present. “I feel like shit, though. I didn’t know that Ryan bought you a necklace too.”

“He’ll get over it,” she said, rolling her eyes. “It’s not like I only have one piece of jewelry to wear.”

“Alright,” I said skeptically.

“Besides, I know how to make him forget all about necklaces,” she said in a sultry way, making me laugh.

“Sounds like we both have some work to do this evening,” I joked.

“Oh, it’s not work; it’s all pleasure,” she said, kissed me on the cheek, then left my room. I followed her to the door and locked it behind her.

“Did she say pleasure?” Travis asked me. He was standing in the middle of the room, stark naked.

“I’m all about that,” I said, then I got laid and got to sleep, just as I’d planned.

April 23, 2004

Escorial

Palo Alto, CA

Will

“Where’s Travis?” Grand asked, as he came into the kitchen. I was feasting on the breakfast Carmen had made for me, so it was no wonder he was surprised Travis wasn’t with me. We were all but inseparable, and as this was mealtime and we were both known for our voracious appetites, my being here alone was certainly remarkable.

“He’s moving slowly this morning,” I said, trying to sound upbeat. Grand raised an eyebrow and looked at me in an inquisitive way, since he’d picked up on my apprehension. “Or maybe he’s just avoiding you.”

“I fail to see why he would be averse to being in my presence,” Grand said huffily.

“Because when he sees you, you make him do homework,” I said, then chuckled at that.

“He is almost completely caught up. He will thank me on Monday, even if the benefits are not apparent now,” he said.

“If you say so,” I said dubiously, then got a bit somber.

“Is something bothering you?” he asked.

“This situation is frustrating,” I said. “Since that Angel dude was caught, we’ve been on lockdown here.”

“It has only been a few days,” he said logically.

“We can’t leave Escorial to go riding, use the ATVs, use the dirt bikes, and or even go hiking,” I bitched. “And since we can’t leave, we can’t even go shopping, or out to eat.”

“I think that caution is warranted,” he said, but he quailed a bit since he’d noticed how irritated I was.

“I can handle this, but I’m worried about Travis,” I explained. “He’s struggling with being here. If I had to guess, I’d say he felt like he was in a prison.”

“Escorial is surely nicer than that,” Grand said, acting offended.

“It’s not about that,” I said, rolling my eyes at him. “It’s that there’s not much to do right now.”

“He is bored,” Grand concluded.

“Yes,” I said. “And I don’t want him to hate it here.”

“I would be unhappy if he hated it here as well,” Grand said, lightly teasing me.

“I want him to feel like this is home,” I said, trying to explain my thoughts, but doing it badly.

“You are worried that he will not like it here, in which case he won’t want to come visit, and you could find yourself in a situation where you must choose between being with him and coming home,” Grand summarized.

I grimaced briefly. “Yeah, but you make it sound like I’m being completely selfish. That may be part of it, but this whole thing has been tough on him, so I want to do what I can to make things better.’

“I think that is an admirable goal,” Grand said.

“If we weren’t going to LA tomorrow, I would have insisted that we move to Santa Cruz,” I said.

“Security there is not as robust as it is here,” he noted.

“At this point, both of us are willing to risk it,” I said.

“It is unwise to risk so much for such a short-term problem,” he said sagely.

“I wonder if you would feel that way if you were locked in a cage,” I observed acidly. “We’re going to LA tomorrow, and we can at least surf in Malibu.”

“Have you spoken to Jake about security once you are down there?” Grand asked.

“No,” I said with dread. He gave me an annoyed look. “We’ll at least behave ourselves until tomorrow. Ryan, Marie, and John, and maybe a few people from school are going to hang out tonight and play volleyball with us.”

“Hopefully that will be enough to quench your wandering urges,” he said.

“Hopefully,” I agreed.

Travis came strolling in wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt, which matched my attire. “Morning,” he said, omitting the word ‘good’ because he wasn’t happy.

“Good morning,” Grand said. No sooner had Travis sat down and started putting food on his plate than my father and Jake walked in. Stef came in immediately after they did.

“Good morning!” Jake said, being all chipper. My father smiled at him lovingly.

I leaned over and whispered in Travis’s ear. “Looks like someone got some sexual healing last night.”

He started giggling, which sparked annoyed looks from Dad and Jake. “I know how that works,” he whispered to me.

“What are your plans for today?” Jake asked.

“Well since we’re on lockdown, we’re just going to hang out here and stare at the wall,” I said, being bitchy again. Travis giggled some more at my tone, so I counted it as a win: I had made him laugh and bugged the rest of them.

“I’d move around so you get to look at different walls,” Dad said, being a smart-ass.

“We’re going to play volleyball and hang out tonight,” I said.

“We are?” Travis asked and got all animated. “Kick-ass!”

“They’re setting up a net on the back lawn, so we can practice later on,” I said. “You probably need it.” He most definitely did not need it, because he was a really good volleyball player, but a little banter made life more fun.

“Right,” he said skeptically.

“I was thinking that if we go down to Malibu tomorrow morning, we may be able to catch some waves before we have to go to Beverly Hills,” I said.

“That sounds like fun, but let’s see how things go,” he said. That really shocked me, because I figured he’d be chomping at the bit to get back in the water.

“I’ve been working on a security plan for when you move back,” Jake said cautiously.

Travis eyed him intently. “What’s that mean?”

“I think we need to have better security at the house in Malibu, and I think that you should have a driver who can double as a guard,” Jake said.

Travis just sat there, looking like he was a simmering pot getting ready to boil. “Is this how my life is going to be? Am I going to have to live like this forever?”

“I think the best way to handle this is to be super-vigilant right now, and then ease up after we see how things settle out,” Jake said calmly. “So no, I don’t think this is how things are going to be forever.”

“I can see that,” Travis reluctantly agreed. “I’m sorry. I don’t want you to think that I’m not grateful for what you’re doing. I just don’t like dealing with a bunch of restrictions.”

“That is totally understandable,” Jake said.

“Jake and I have been talking about your party tomorrow night, and we were wondering who you wanted to attend?” Dad asked.

Travis looked at me briefly, all but asking me to have this conversation with my father. I almost laughed, thinking that most people usually delegated dealing with him to me. “Why?” I asked Dad.

“I’m wondering if it’s safe to have me, Jake, Stef, and Grand all there,” Dad said a bit nervously.

“You mean in case Curtis pulls out an Uzi and unloads it on all of us?” I asked sarcastically.

“Do you know for a fact that’s not possible?” Dad challenged.

“I know for a fact that’s not possible,” Travis countered. I looked at him, curious as to why he was so confident. “I told my mother last night that we were going to have metal detectors there, and if they wanted to come to my dinner, they’d have to pass through them.”

“You told her that?” I asked, stunned.

“I did, and they were all totally offended by my demand, but they all agreed anyway,” he said, shaking his head at the Bucks.

“I’ll bet,” I said chuckling. “So who do you want to be there?”

“I’d like all of you to be there, but I understand if you’re busy and you can’t make it,” Travis said, neatly tossing the ball back at my father.

“I’m not afraid of Curtis Buck and his goons,” I said, which got me a dirty look from my father, since I’d implied that he was.

“Jake and I will be there,” Dad said.

“I am not afraid either,” Stef said, “but I am wondering if it would be overkill for all of us to be there.”

“I do not think so,” Grand said. “I think that it is a very strong signal that we support Travis. As Jake has vowed to claim Travis as his son, that makes Travis one of us. I will be attending.”

“Thanks,” Travis said. “In addition to Curtis, Miranda, Taylor, and Big, my grandfather’s attorney will also be present.”

“Why is he going to be there?” I asked.

“I don’t know, and I don’t think anyone else knows either,” Travis said.

“Should be an interesting dinner,” Jake said. “I have to run.”

“Me too,” Dad agreed. Jake, Dad, and Stef left with remarkable speed, which was especially surprising where Stef was concerned.

“I have been accused of compelling you to do homework whenever I am around you,” Grand said to Travis. “While I do not think that is the case, if we were to devote a couple of hours to your studies, you will have completed all of your assignments, and you can then return to school on Monday no worse for your long absence.”

Travis gave him a foul look, and the whole scene was so funny I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. The dirty looks I got from the two of them only made me laugh harder, so I ultimately left the kitchen and I decided to take Psyche for a ride and I was so bold that I even broke the rules and took her off our property and onto the Stanford lands. I reasoned that I wasn’t the assassination target.

We had the afternoon free, so I bugged a few of the staff members to play volleyball with us so we could practice, then I decided to give Psyche more exercise and made Travis go riding with me, only this time I adhered to the security guidelines and we stayed on the immediate grounds of Escorial and in the paddock. It wasn’t all that exciting, but it was something to do. I gave him one of the mares, which turned out to be a good thing. First, he wasn’t awful on horseback, but the gentle mare helped him get acclimated to riding again. In addition, Psyche didn’t try to nip at the other mares like she did Charger. I wondered if horses could be lesbians.

Our peaceful interlude was interrupted when Ryan, Marie, and John came home. They played volleyball with us for a couple of hours, until we finally cut our athletic time off by 6:00 so we could get ready for dinner.

We got back to our room and hurriedly stripped off our clothes. “That was a fun day,” Travis said cheerfully as we walked into the bathroom. I was too busy ogling his gorgeous ass to reminisce about the last 8 hours.

“Yeah, but the real fun starts now,” I said, then dropped to my knees and inhaled his cock. We’d been really active, and that meant he was pretty sweaty. His smell was like an aphrodisiac, firing me up to the point that I was all but crazed. I ended up with my back on the vanity while he fucked me, then I stopped him and we continued our session in the shower. I had inadvertently made sex last so long that we only had fifteen minutes to get ready, and had to damn near sprint to the dining room. Even then, we were two minutes late.

“You’re late,” Marie observed, giving me shit. Her smirk told me that we must both look like we’d just had sex. I chose not to let that bother me.

“I am sorry we are two minutes late,” I said to Grand. “I let my carnal drives take priority over my schedule.”

“Then it sounds as if your priorities were in the right place,” Stef said, winking at me.

“That is fine,” Grand said. “You are not the only ones.” Only after he said that did I notice that Dad and Jake weren’t here yet.

“Perhaps they also gave in to their carnal desires?” Grandmaman asked, making the rest of us chuckle.

“Perhaps,” Grand allowed, but smiled anyway. We’d just started eating when Dad came into the dining room.

“I’m sorry I’m late,” he said to Grand. Travis gave me a knowing look, because I’d explained how uptight Grand was about people not being on time for dinner. “Jake was in the middle of an important phone call and got stuck in traffic, so he’ll be even later.”

“We will try not to let your tardiness destroy what looks to be an excellent dinner,” Grand said. It was funny that he was willing to give Dad more shit about that than he gave me. That was our cue to start eating.

“I don’t know exactly how his conversations were going, but I’m pretty confident that you’ll find them interesting,” Dad said cryptically.

“We will see,” Grand said, then turned to Travis. “I hope you are enjoying your stay here.”

“It would be more fun if we weren’t on lockdown,” I said to him apologetically.

“I mean, that’s kind of a pain, but I really appreciate how all of you have helped make this not feel so confining,” he said, then turned to me. “Especially you. It’s incredibly nice that you’ve gone out of your way to think of things to keep us busy.”

“Is this where the carnal activities come in?” John joked, cracking us up.

“If I were to guess, I would say that Will wanted to make sure you enjoyed your time here so you’d be willing to come back more often,” Stef said. My initial reaction, which I managed to hide, was that Grand had told him about our conversation, but I negated that immediately. Grand wouldn’t have said anything to Stef. It was actually a sweet indicator of how well Stef understood me.

“You don’t have to worry about that,” Travis said, and put his hand on my leg. “I’ll come up here and hang with you anytime.”

“Good to know,” I said, beaming at him. I heard the front door close loudly around 7:18, and a few seconds later Jake all but burst into the room.

“I am so sorry I’m late,” he said to Grand.

“Most people know that if you’re more than ten minutes late, it’s best to just go out to eat so you can avoid Grand’s wrath,” I said, getting chuckles from my cousins.

“That is fine,” Grand said, even as he gave me a disapproving look. “I am assuming you have a reason for your dilatory arrival?”

“We have an attorney monitoring the Angel Kurtz case, and he wanted to bring me up to speed on the latest news,” Jake said.

“And what is this latest news?” Dad asked.

“Angel Kurtz fired his attorney, the expensive one that was hired for him,” Jake said.

“Why did he do that?” Claire asked.

“Because he finally realized, with a little help from our guy, that the lawyer hired to represent him was more interested in protecting the guy who hired Angel, and not Angel himself,” Jake said.

“I don’t get it,” Travis said.

“The hired attorney was recommending that Angel do a plea bargain where he vowed that he was working alone, and that he take a reduced sentence,” Jake said. “The DA offered him a much better deal if he rolled on the guy who hired him.”

“Do they know who hired him?” Grand asked.

“They do now,” Jake said. “Curtis Buck.”

All eyes zeroed in on Travis, who shook his head sadly. “He’s relentless. He’s willing to spend what little money he has left to get to me.”

“They don’t know what the plan was,” Jake said. “It’s possible that Angel was supposed to shoot you, but we don’t know that yet, and we won’t until he finalizes his plea deal.”

“Why else would he have been here, armed?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Jake said.

“While the evidence suggests that was indeed the plan, as Jake has noted, we don’t have any proof that was Curtis’s intention,” Grand said. “It is possible he was here merely to find out if Travis had arrived at Escorial.”

“If that’s the case, then does that mean he’s just the scout, and the real hit men are still out there?” Dad asked. That sent a shockwave of panic around the table, as everyone wondered if a Goodwell-type assault on Escorial was imminent.

“Even if they are, I am quite sure that we are safe here,” Grand insisted.

“If they had a plan to do that, I wonder what would happen if we flew to LA tonight?” I asked.

“I don’t think it’s smart to travel at night when there’s the potential for danger,” Jake said.

“I would think that we would be safer here than in Malibu,” Grand noted. I thought about how our house was on the beach, and how the walls facing the water were composed mostly of windows. That would seem to make us more vulnerable.

“We should probably just stay here,” I concluded.

“I need to go brief the security team,” Jake said, and stood up. “I’ll eat something later.”

“Before you go, I have some news as well,” Jack said. “I just got the results of your genetic tests back.”

“When?” Dad asked.

“At 6:54pm,” Jack said officiously.

“And what did these results indicate?” Stef asked.

“I can’t tell you that unless Jake and Travis are alright with my divulging that to everyone,” Jack said.

“I’m fine with that,” Travis said hastily, so anxious was he to know.

“Tell us what they said,” Jake instructed.

“Jake is not Travis’s father,” Jack said. It was both sweet and sad that both of them looked so disappointed by that. For Travis, thinking that Jake was his father had been like a salve to his psyche, giving him at least one genetic contributor to his DNA who wasn’t completely fucked up. And Jake had looked at Travis with such pride, seemingly happy to have a son of his own. His reaction was probably not all that unlike how Robbie had felt when Matt had walked into his life. Only now that link that was so important to both of them was shattered. It was tragic.

“They have to be related,” I objected. “Look how much alike they are.”

“They are related,” Jack said. “They are half-brothers.”