Page 46 of Marcellus: House of Drakos

The entire family sat around the huge dining table in the dining hall and waited for Marcellus to come downstairs.

It was after midnight, but all of his children were there, except for Kalayna, and all of his baby mothers too.

Natalia looked as if she’d been crying all that night, but she was there too.

Alex and Oz, along with Kari whom the baby mothers actually took to while the men were gone, were also at that table. They were showered and dressed and ready to assist Marcellus wherever they could. Alex was one-hundred percent sold on the man. Oz was getting there.

And then the elevator doors opened and Marcellus, with Savannah right by his side, made their way to the dining hall.

Juliet and Sharon looked at each other. Natalia and Peggy looked at each other.

None of the baby mothers wanted her there.

But the sons didn’t give a shit. They just wanted their sister back.

Marcellus sat Savannah down next to the chair at the head of the table and then he sat down at the head of the table. Scottie stood at the head of the table on the other end, a spot usually reserved for Olivier.

“What do we know so far?” Marcellus asked him.

“They found her security detail overnight.”

That interested everyone. “Where were they?”

“They had been removed from their vehicles, by heavy gunpoint apparently, and placed in a van. That van took them to another remote location where they were all shot and killed, execution-style, and left.”

Gasps could be heard. “It’s too much!” Natalia cried out.

“Sounds like either Mafia, or hired guns,” said Oz. “More likely hired guns.”

Scottie nodded. “That’s what we think too,” he said.

Alex and Kari looked at Marcellus when Natalia cried out.

And they could tell his heart was with that woman.

But when they looked at Savannah she seemed unfazed.

As if she was either resigned to the fact that Marcellus and Natalia would always have an unusual relationship, or she was wholly unthreatened by it.

Knowing the little they knew of Savannah, they would go with the latter option.

“What I don’t understand,” said Freddy, “is what could Zorbo Lay have against you, Daddy? He never spoke of any gripes with you.”

“Maybe there’s a different connection,” Alex said.

Everybody looked at him. He was famous as far as they were concerned. He once dated A-list, Academy Award winning actresses and hung out with Presidents and Kings. He had instant credibility with all of them. “What do you mean?” Freddy asked him.

“Perhaps the connection could be, not between your father and Zorbo Lay per se, but between Zorbo Lay and Grishom.”

“Why would you think that?” Oz asked his brother.

“It’s been a decade since you sued Grishom, right?” he asked Marcellus.

“At least that, yes.”

“Why would he suddenly want to be involved with something to do with you unless somebody else, like a Zorbo Lay, had recruited him just as he said. But maybe they both felt that you somehow destroyed their lives.”

“I don’t even know Zorbo Lay except in very minor ways. How could I have destroyed his life?”

“I don’t know,” said Alex, “but it has to be something recent.”

“Recent?” said Marcellus. And as soon as he said it, he realized it. “That’s it.”

“What Pop?” Scottie asked him.

“Freddy?”

“Sir?”

“Can you pull up the manifests of all of our planes from one of my computers?”

“Absolutely. You have mainframe capability on all of your computers. Ollie saw to that.”

“Go to my office and get my laptop.”

Freddy did as he was told, came back into the dining hall with his father’s laptop, and entered his father’s password (that all of his children knew). “Which manifest you want me to pull up, Dad?”

“The very first crash we had.”

That seemed like an odd request to Freddy. Olivier too. “The first one since our inception?” asked Olivier.

“No. The first one of this latest spat of accidents. The first one from a couple months ago.”

“Oh,” said Freddy, and he pulled up the manifest.

“Was there a Lay on that plane?” Marcellus asked.

As soon as he said that name, they all understood what he was looking for.

But Freddy exhaled. “No. No Lays listed.”

“Ah man!” said Scottie.

“Wait a minute,” Olivier said. Then he quickly got on the phone.

“Who are you calling?” Freddy asked.

“The head of HR.”

She answered the phone. “Hello, Ollie. How can I help you?”

“Put it on Speaker,” Marcellus ordered.

Olivier placed the call on Speaker. “I need you to pull up Zorbo Lay’s personnel file.”

“One moment please.”

It took about a minute. “Okay. I have it on my computer. How can I help?”

“Go to next of kin and tell me who’s listed.”

“There are two listed. A Kyle Janssen and a Marvin Newman.”

“Okay thanks, Ashley.” He ended the call.

“I’m on it,” said Freddy.

“Who are they?” asked Marcellus.

“I knew Zorbo had baby mamas too. Only his baby mamas didn’t want their sons to bear his name. He used to gripe about it.”

Janssen isn’t listed,” said Freddy. “But two Newmans are.”

That gave the room hope. “Who are they?” Olivier asked.

“A Jennifer Newman.” Then Freddy smiled. “And a Marvin Newman.”

They all sighed relief. “Jennifer is Marvin’s mother,” said Olivier. “I remember him mentioning a Jennifer.”

“So what does it all mean?” Niko asked.

“It depends,” said Marcellus. “What is their listed status in the NTSB disaster report, Fredrick?”

Freddy had to go to different screen on the laptop. And that was when he saw it. “Jennifer Newman listed as deceased. Marvin Newman listed as deceased.” He looked at his father. “They both died in that first plane crash.”

“And after that,” said Marcellus, “Zorbo undoubtedly blamed me and did something about it.”

“So you’re saying that first crash wasn’t sabotage?” asked Savannah.

“Right,” said Marcellus. “But Zorbo did something to make sure I got the blame for all the other crashes.”

“Wow, “said Oz. “Zorbo Lay has a major-ass gripe against you. You killed his child.”

“And his baby mama,” said Natalia, “that he probably still loved.”

Everybody looked at her as if she was speaking about herself.

But Marcellus was anxious. “Now that we know his motivation,” he said, “we’ve got to find him before another plane crashes. We’ve got to find him!”

“What if,” said Savannah, and everybody looked at her.

“What if what?” Marcellus asked her.

“What if they did it again.”

“Did what again?” Olivier asked her.

“They took Niko to his own bar to hold him captive. What if they took Kalayna to her own home to hold her captive?”

Everybody saw the brilliance of that argument. “It would be the last place we looked,” Marcellus said.

“Especially since we knew she had been snatched before she made it home.”

“But I sent a team to her house,” said Scottie. “They turned that place inside out. Nobody was there.”

“Not right away,” said Oz. “But after they took care of her security detail, they then probably brought her to her home later that day. They wouldn’t have taken her there right away.”

“She’s home,” said Marcellus. “As soon as Savannah said it, I felt it. That feels right.”

They all jumped up.

“We can’t all go,” said Scottie. “No way. Explosives are involved.”

They’d heard about Bobcat Grishom’s role.

“So who gets to go?” asked Niko.

“We’ll pick up Grishom on the way in case we need him to diffuse his bomb.”

They all looked at each other. The idea of explosives terrified them.

“But who’s going, Daddy?” asked Freddy.

“Me, Alex, and Oz will go,” said Marcellus.

“What about me?” asked Scottie.

“No,” said Marcellus. “You hold down the fort here. That means he’s in charge, Olivier, not you.”

“No problem,” Olivier said, although they all knew it was.

“Just the three of us will go,” said Marcellus.

“So who are you?” asked Niko. “The Three Musketeers?”

“No,” said Alex Drakos. “Three brothers.”

The room went still. It was as if, by Alex Drakos acknowledging publicly the blood kinship, a shift had occurred. And Alex and Oz went from being hated outsiders to family.

“But what if she’s not at her house?” asked Freddy.

Marcellus exhaled. “Then we’ll be right back where we started from. At least this is something to try. Pray she’s there,” he added.

And Freddy nodded. But Marcellus could see the fear in his big eyes. “We’ll bring her back home, Fredrick. Don’t doubt that.”

“I won’t, Daddy,” Freddy said, although that look in his eyes said different. He and Kalayna were very close. Their mother saw to that.

“We need to get prepared,” said Alex. “Are you armed?” he asked Marcellus.

“To the teeth,” said Marcellus. “Follow me.” And Alex and Oz did just that.

And everybody else settled back down for the ride.

But for Savannah this whole time felt like a bumpy ride. She wondered, not for the first time, if she should get off now before it was too late. But she thought about Marcellus. He was worth every bump.

She instead called for the chef to serve some food. She, for one, was hungry. And as it turned out, so was everybody else.

And Chef, approved by Bernard, went to do exactly as Savannah had ordered.

Which shocked the baby mamas. “We asked to be served earlier,” said Juliet, “but we were rebuffed by you, Bernard, as if it wasn’t our place. But you had no problem taking orders from her?”

“That’s correct madam,” Bernard said without hesitation. “Mr. Drakos has made it clear to myself and the entire staff that Miss Richardson, whenever she’s in any home he owns, is the lady of the house.”

Kari smiled. Savannah, who had no idea such a directive had been issued, did too. Bernard inwardly smiled as he left the room. He didn’t care for any of those so-called baby mamas.

But smiles didn’t last long when they heard the front door close and the men leave.

Nobody was smiling then.