Chapter 44.

**Narrator’s POV.**

The three brothers waited anxiously in the airport, “What is taking him so long?”, Kevin who was pacing asked,

“Don’t ask me”, Alex shrugged and continued to tap his feet- it was his own way of dealing with the whole situation, “I don’t work here”, Kevin rolled his eyes, stopping his pace while he said,

“It’s funny because you think I was talking to you”, he tilted his head to the side to give his statement a dramatical edge,

“Oh, screw you, you asshole”, Alex said rolling his eyes before ducking his head back into his cellphone.

“I’m not gay, I can’t say the same about you”, Kevin was just looking for a fight- saying that made it extremely obvious,

“I think we both know that’s not true Kev”, a sly smirk was evident on Alex’s face, “And I’m pretty sure your mum agrees with me”,

“You fucking-”,

“Would you guys cut it out already?”, Gabriel growled at them, he was tired of listening to their continuous and never ending back and forths- worse, most of them were absolutely pointless, “Jesus Christ! Can you guys just stop it for a damn minute? For the love of God, what we’re doing here is extremely important so could you just push whatever marital issues you’re having to the side for a few days?”, he ran his hand through his already messy hair and sighed, “If you guys know that you won’t take things seriously, you can hit the fucking road. I don’t mind doing this on my own”.

Gabriel grabbed his duffel bags and boxes, dragging them away. He was trying to get as far away from them as possible, he needed some time to think and it was hard to do that with them always arguing and fighting about one thing or the other. He had to go over his plan again and again and the more he thought about his ‘plan’, he realized it could never work and it was half-assed.

What on earth were they meant to do? Barge into the house and demand that Tessa be released, what? With five hand guns? He was more than sure that his father’s men would probably be using the adult sized version of their guns- they would be fully equipped and ready for anything. Unless… his back immediately left the back board of the bench and a low scoff of amusement left his lips. He knew exactly what they needed to do- it was literally the go to plan in every movie.

After a few more minutes of thinking things over, he finally spotted the man they had been waiting for and so had his brothers, “Finally”, Kevin sighed, “What on earth took you so long?”,

“My flight got delayed”, the man explained, “I am so sorry”, he said in a hurry, “Also, I don’t really think a lot of people fancy coming to Wyoming”, he shrugged before cocking up an eyebrow in question, “Why do you think she’s going to be here though?”,

“Because we just realize that our father is a basic bitch-”, Alex stated,

“And a lunatic”, Kevin added, “This is where our father grew up, in a small house up north but he bought himself a new house- a bigger one”.

“We don’t know where that is though”, Alex butted in again,

“We know its definitely going to be huge- that’s a start. How hard would it be to find a house here?”, Kevin was trying his best to be optimistic with everything that was going on,

Finally, Gabriel decided to add his input, “I say we check the old house for clues. We are leaving no stones unturned”, his voice was firm and he looked determined- she had to be here, she just had to. If she wasn’t here, everything was going to shit, he would have to give up and pray for a miracle to happen- not that he would ever do that, or he could swallow his pride and beg his father to release Tessa, he would go back to work and if not talking to her was part of the deal, he would do it, as long as it guaranteed her freedom.

He just hoped it would never get to that.

***

“This house is smaller than I imagined”, Drew said in a whisper as the climbed up the short flight of stairs leading to the house,

“Well, our father did not grow up rich”, Gabriel shrugged, “He has never told any of us how he built his empire but all I know was that he was small town boy chasing fairytales”,

A scoff of disbelief left Drew’s lips, “Well, that fairytale became a reality alright”, it still baffled him how someone who lived in such a tiny home could one day own an entire estate and many more properties.

“I’m quite sure my father’s fairytale has not turned into a reality just yet. You know, if there was something like the president of the world, he would run for it”, Gabriel said humorlessly, “Hell, he was planning on running for president a few years ago- I got his Personal and financial advisors to talk his stupid ass out of it”, thank God it had worked, “Now that I think about it, he really is dumb- he is into some kind of illegal shit and he was planning on running for president? Like what? The opposing team wouldn’t dig deep and find out about it- damn”, he had just realized that when it came to power or showing coercion, his father never thought things through. He acted solely on impulse and never paused to think about the consequences of his actions- it was quite dumb in his opinion and it was really annoying that all of them; he, Kevin and Alex had taken a few traits and bad habits from him.

“Isn’t this breaking and entry?”, Drew asked as Kevin pried the door open, “Could we get arrested for this?”,

“Yes, we could if it wasn’t willed to me by our grandparents”, Gabriel shrugged and walked into the house, “I mean, I don’t think I can live in it but at least I know its here. Or, I can just rebuild it into something bigger, I don’t know. Maybe retire here with my future wife or turn it into a holiday home”,

“A holiday home in Wyoming?”, Alex burst into a fit of bubbling laughter, “Your children are definitely going to hate you and I wouldn’t blame them for it”, Gabriel chose to ignore him and continued to walk further into the dusty, unkept home,

“Really Gabe? You couldn’t even hire a cleaner or something? I mean, grandma died almost four years ago”, Kevin said in a cough as dust infiltrated his nostrils, “I still don’t get why you got to have the house”, he mumbled,

“Really Kev?”, Gabe raised up an eyebrow and turned towards him, “First of all, I am the first son of their son. Secondly, green doesn’t look good on you and thirdly, don’t act like you were going to leave your princess popstar lifestyle to live here someday. Face it, Kevin, Los Angeles is were you will always belong and I’m not saying that in a bad way”, he pointed out and turned away from a now speechless Kevin.

“What are we meant to look for exactly?”, Alex said awkwardly, breaking the silence,

“I don’t know, clues like contact logs, addresses, boxes of belongings, dad’s old stuff- those should be in the storage room”, Gabriel said with a huff, he wasn’t sure about what they were meant to look for, he just knew that they had to find at least something that could lead them to their father’s home.

“And if we don’t find anything?”, Drew asked,

Gabriel gave him a hard stare and through clenched jaws, he said, “I think I will prefer a little bit of optimism right now”, they were going to find something, they had to find something.