My Father

Chapter 14:

"He's your father, Ella."

The words didn't land right away. They just sat there in the night air, hanging between us, and I stood in my bare feet on the driveway of a biker compound and said, "What?"

Sierra's hands were still up. She hadn't moved. She looked at Kael, then back at me.

"Your father didn't die when you were twelve," she said. "He's alive. He's been alive the whole time."

"He's dead," I said. "I went to the funeral. I stood in a church and watched them put a box in the ground. My mother held my hand—"

Sierra's eyes flicked to my mother, who was standing in the doorway of the house now, white as a sheet. "Did she."

I turned around.

My mother was standing on the porch in her coat with her hand over her mouth.

"Mom," I said. "Tell her she's lying."

Colleen didn't say anything.

"Mom."

"Ella—"

"Tell her she's lying."

My mother started to cry. Silent. No sound. Just tears running down her face.

"Sierra," Kael said. His voice was flat. "You want to explain yourself before I put you through that gate."

Sierra lowered her hands.

"I didn't know about Ella until three years ago," she said. "I was sent away when Marcus went to prison. I was nineteen. I was told to stay gone. I got a call two years into it — a man's voice I didn't recognize. He told me there was a girl. A girl who'd been promised to the family. He told me to watch her."

"And you did."

"I watched her from a distance. For two years. I saw her run from Damon. I saw her get a job and I saw her walk into your bar." Sierra looked at me. "I'm the one who called Webb."

The night went very quiet.

"What?" Kael said.

"I called Webb. I told him there was a girl who needed watching. I told him it was club business and he should report to you. I knew if he reported to you, you'd check it out. I knew you'd find her." She paused. "I wanted you to find her. I wanted you to be the one who found her, because I couldn't be the one. I was too scared."

"Scared of what?" I said.

Sierra looked at me. Right at me.

"Scared of him," she said. "He's not a Blackwood. He's not club. But he's got more money than Marcus ever had and more people than Marcus ever had and he's been planning this since before I was born." She took a breath. "He had a daughter. One daughter. And he promised her to the Blackwood family before she was born. And then he faked his own death so no one would come looking for him while he built his empire."

I put my hand out to steady myself.

Kael's hand caught it.

"Ella," he said.

"Don't," I said.

"You're gonna want to sit down."

"Don't tell me what I want."

"Okay."

I turned back to Sierra.

"What's his name?" I said.

Sierra looked at me.

"I don't know his real name," she said. "Nobody does. Marcus calls him The Contractor. That's what everyone calls him. He's in the construction business. Commercial. Heavy equipment. Manpower. The kind of business where a man can move things around without anyone asking too many questions."

"Where is he now?"

"Here."

Kael's hand tightened on mine.

"In Ridgemont," Sierra said. "He's been in Ridgemont for a month. He's staying in a house on the east end. He's got a woman working for him — the one in the hoodie. And he's got Marcus."

"Marcus is working with him," Kael said. Not a question.

"Marcus thinks he's in charge," Sierra said. "He's not. He's a face. A name with history. The Contractor's using him."

"For what?"

"For the club."

Kael didn't move.

"He wants the club," Sierra said. "He wants what your father built. And he wants it legally. He's got a plan to take it over from the inside."

"That's not possible," Kael said. "The club votes. Nobody's got enough to buy the votes."

"He doesn't have to buy the votes. He just has to get you out. If you're gone, the club splits. He picks up the pieces." Sierra nodded at me. "And the fastest way to get you out is to go after her."

I stood there.

"What does he look like?" I said.

Sierra looked at me.

"Tall," she said. "Thin. White hair. Gray eyes. He wears a ring on his right hand — a gold band with a black stone. And he talks like—" She stopped. "He talks like he's doing you a favor. Even when he's not."

My mother made a sound behind us.

I turned around.

Colleen was on her knees on the porch. Not crying anymore. Just kneeling there with her hand over her mouth and her eyes wide.

"Mom," I said. "Mom. Look at me."

She looked at me.

"Gray eyes?" I said. "A gold ring with a black stone?"

She nodded.

"How do you know what he looks like?"

Colleen's mouth opened. Closed. Opened again.

"Because he came to the funeral," she said. "Your father's funeral. He stood in the back. In a gray suit. And he watched us the whole time. And when it was over he walked out and I never saw him again."

"You're lying," I said.

"I'm not."

"You're lying, Mom. You have to be lying. Because if you're not lying then that means—"

"That means he faked his death," Colleen said. "And he's been watching us for twelve years. And I didn't know."

I turned around.

Kael was already moving. He pulled his phone out and said, "Rook. East end. The house Sierra's got. I want every man you can spare. Not in uniform. Not in cuts. Cars. Get me a perimeter."

Sierra said, "He'll know. He's got men on every street in the east end. If he sees you coming—"

"Then I'll see him first."

"Kael," I said.

He looked at me.

"Stop," I said. "Stop."

"Ella."

"Stop. Just — stop for one second."

He stopped.

I stood there in the driveway. Barefoot. In my pajamas. With a man on the phone and a woman at the gate and a mother on her knees on a porch behind me.

"He's my father," I said. "My father is alive. My father is alive and he's been watching me for twelve years and he's been planning my whole life and he's the one who paid my mother to leave me and he's the one who—"

I stopped.

"The funeral," I said. "I remember the funeral. I remember the box. I remember the church. I remember my mother crying. I was twelve years old."

Colleen said, from the porch, "He was your father."

"No."

"He was your father, Ella. The man in the box was your father. The man at the back of the church was—"

She stopped.

"Was what?" I said.

"Was the man who paid me," she said. "The Contractor. He was never your father. Your father was a good man. Your father was a good, quiet, ordinary man who died of a heart attack when you were twelve. And the man at the back of the church was the man who'd been watching us since before you were born."

I sat down.

Right there on the driveway. I just sat down.

Kael crouched down in front of me. His hands on my knees.

"Hey," he said. "Look at me."

I looked at him.

"One thing at a time," he said. "You hear me? One thing. You don't have to figure out the whole thing tonight. You just have to figure out the next thing."

"What's the next thing?"

"The next thing," Kael said, "is getting you and Lily behind a locked door and keeping you there until I find out what's in the east end."

I looked at him.

"And then?"

"And then I'm going to find him," Kael said. "And I'm going to ask him a few questions about his daughter."

I looked at him.

"He's not going to tell you the truth," I said.

"I know."

"Then why are you going to ask him questions?"

Kael looked at me.

"Because the lies are going to tell me what the truth is," he said.

---

He stood up. Walked over to Sierra.

Sierra was still standing at the gate. Hands at her sides now.

"You can come in," Kael said. "You're gonna stay in the house with Benny on the door. If you leave this compound before I know what's in the east end I'll put you in the ground."

Sierra nodded.

"Thank you," she said.

"Don't thank me. Thank her." He jerked his head at me. "She's the one who wants to hear what you have to say."

Sierra looked at me.

I looked at her.

"Come in," I said. "But not because I trust you. Because I don't have anywhere else to go."

She nodded.

The gate opened.

---

We were in the kitchen when my phone rang.

I'd left it on the counter. It had been buzzing all night with messages from Rita and Delphine and somebody from the diner who wanted to know why I hadn't shown up for my shift.

I picked it up.

An unknown number.

I answered.

"Hello?"

A man's voice.

"Ella Rae," he said. "You look just like your mother did at your age."

The kitchen went very quiet.

Kael was on his feet.

"Who is this," I said.

"You know who this is." A pause. "You have your mother's eyes and your father's chin. Your father was a good man. A quiet man. I liked him. I was sorry when he died."

"Who is this."

"You've been running for a long time, Ella Rae. You've been running and hiding and doing all the things I told you to do. But you're not running anymore. You're standing still. And that's exactly where I want you."

"I'm going to ask you one more time."

The man on the phone laughed. Quietly. And then he said:

"Ask your mother what she did with the money."

The line went dead.

I looked at Colleen.

And Colleen was already shaking her head.

"Ella," she said. "Please. Please don't."

"Don't what?"

"Don't ask me that."

I looked at the phone in my hand.

Then at my mother.

"What did you do with the money," I said.

Colleen put her face in her hands.

And she said, "I bought a house. On the east end. With a garden. And I lived there for eight years. And then three weeks ago a man knocked on my door and said it was time to pay up."

Chapter 14 Ends.