The Gate

Chapter 16:

"Ella Rae. It's your father. Please open the gate."

I stood in the living room with Lily on my hip.

The voice came through the speaker again. Calm. Patient. Like a man asking for a cup of sugar.

"Go upstairs," Kael said again.

"Kael—"

"Go upstairs. Take your mother and Sierra and Lily. Lock the door. Don't come out."

"Kael."

He turned around. His face was flat.

"Ella," he said. "I'm not asking. Not this time."

I looked at him. At the door. At the speaker.

Then I handed him Lily.

"What?" he said.

"You want me upstairs? Fine. But my daughter goes with you."

He looked down at her. She was heavy with sleep and warm. She put her head on his shoulder.

"Ella," he said.

"You're not gonna fight with her in your arms. You're gonna hand her to Benny or Taz or somebody and then you're gonna do whatever it is you do. But she's not going upstairs without you knowing exactly where she is."

Kael looked at me.

Then he nodded.

"Benny," he said. "Take her."

Benny came in from the hallway. Big blond kid. Scared. Took Lily like she was made of glass.

"Take her to the safe room. Don't open it for anybody. Not me. Not Rook. Not God. Nobody."

Benny nodded.

Lily said, "Papa K?"

"Go with Benny, princess."

"Where you going?"

"To talk to somebody."

"Can I come?"

"Not tonight."

She looked at him. Then she put her head back down on Benny's shoulder.

"Okay," she said.

Benny carried her out.

I stood in the doorway.

"Ella," Kael said.

"I'm going upstairs," I said. "But I'm not hiding in a safe room."

"Ella—"

"You're not the only one who lives here now." I looked at him. "I'm going upstairs. I'm gonna stand at the window. And I'm gonna watch."

Kael looked at me.

"Fine," he said. "Stay out of sight."

"I will."

"Ella."

"I will."

He turned around and walked to the door.

---

The upstairs window looked out over the driveway.

I stood behind the curtain with my mother next to me and Sierra on the other side of the window. The yard was lit up like a stadium — floodlights on every corner.

Two cars at the gate. Black. Big. Men standing next to them.

And a man in the middle of the road.

He was tall. Thin. Gray hair. He had a coat on and his hands were in his pockets and he was looking up at the compound with the face of a man who was exactly where he wanted to be.

He didn't look afraid.

He looked patient.

"He's smaller than I thought he'd be," I said.

"He's not smaller," Sierra said. "He's just not rushing. That's how you know he's dangerous."

The gate opened.

Not all the way. Just enough. Kael walked through it with Rook behind him and Taz on the other side.

Three men. Against a man in a coat and two cars.

"Why did he go out there?" I said.

"Because he doesn't want him on the property," Colleen said. "If he comes onto the property he's got a legal claim. If he stays on the road, he doesn't."

I looked at her.

"How do you know that?"

Colleen looked at me.

"I was married to a man who had a lot of problems," she said. "But he wasn't stupid. He knew where the lines were."

We watched.

---

I couldn't hear everything. The window was closed. But I could hear enough.

Kael's voice. Low. Flat.

The other man's voice. Calm. Not raised.

I caught words. "Property." "Claim." "Daughter."

And then Kael said something that made the man in the coat laugh.

The laugh was soft. Almost kind.

Then the man in the coat said something else. Kael didn't move. Rook did. Rook took a step forward and Taz put his hand on Rook's arm.

The man in the coat turned around and walked back to the car.

He opened the door.

Then he turned around again.

And looked up at the window.

Right at me.

He knew I was there. He knew exactly which window. He knew the whole time.

He lifted one hand. Not a wave. Just — put it up.

Same way Kael did. Same way the man in the black sedan did.

And then he got in the car.

The two cars pulled away.

Kael stood in the middle of the road for a long time.

Then he turned around and walked back through the gate.

---

I was at the bottom of the stairs when he came in.

"What happened?" I said.

Kael looked at me. His face was flat but his hands were doing something — opening and closing at his sides.

"Taz," he said. "Get the men together. I need everybody on the property. Families included."

Taz nodded and left.

"Kael," I said. "What happened?"

He walked past me into the kitchen. I followed him.

He poured a glass of water. Drank half of it. Set it down on the counter.

"He made an offer," he said.

"What kind of offer?"

"He wants to buy the compound."

I stared at him.

"He wants to buy the compound."

"Him and his company and a group of investors. He wants to make a bid. He's got a legal team and he's got paperwork and he's got a plan. And if we refuse—" Kael stopped. "He's got enough to go to the county and file a nuisance claim."

"A nuisance claim?"

"Property owners. Neighbors. The businesses around the compound. If enough of them complain about noise and traffic and criminal activity, the county can shut us down. Force a review. Force a sale."

"Can they do that?"

"Not normally. Not on their own. But if the right people are making the complaint—"

"And he's got the right people."

"He's got the right people." Kael picked up his water. "He's been buying property in this neighborhood for six months. He owns two lots on the south side and the old warehouse on the east side. He's been moving families in. He's been moving votes in."

"You didn't know?"

"I knew somebody was buying property. I didn't know it was him. I thought it was a developer. I didn't care." He set the glass down. "I should have cared."

I looked at him.

"What did he say about me?"

Kael didn't answer.

"Kael."

"He said his daughter was on the property. He said if we don't negotiate he's gonna go to the county and file a welfare complaint."

"A what?"

"A welfare complaint. He's gonna say there's a child on the property who's living in an unsafe environment with known criminals. He's gonna ask the county to remove the child pending a full investigation."

I sat down.

"On Lily."

"On Lily."

"But I'm her mother."

"You're her mother and you're living in a compound with a motorcycle club and you've got a documented history of running from a man who's now in the wind. He's gonna say you're unstable. He's gonna say you're at risk. He's gonna say the child needs to be removed for her own safety."

I put my face in my hands.

"He can't do that," I said.

"He's got a lawyer who's done it before. He's got a judge who's sympathetic. He's got a county that doesn't like us. He can do it."

"Kael."

"I'm not gonna let him."

"Kael."

He walked over and crouched down in front of me.

"Look at me," he said.

I looked at him.

"He can't take her," Kael said. "Not while I'm breathing. Not while this club is breathing. Not while we're standing on this property."

"But he can make it hurt."

"Yeah."

"He can make it hurt for years."

"Yeah."

"We can't fight lawyers, Kael. We're not lawyers."

"No," he said. "But I've got a lawyer who hates him."

I looked up.

"Who?"

Kael stood up.

"Get your coat," he said. "I'm taking you to meet him."

---

We drove for twenty minutes in the dark.

Not the compound SUV. A different car. A small gray one. Kael drove. He didn't say anything. He just took the back roads through the east end and pulled up to a house on a street I'd never seen.

It was a normal house. Small. Lights on. A motorcycle in the driveway.

"Whose house?" I said.

"Taz's mother's."

"Is she a lawyer?"

"No." Kael turned off the car. "But the man who lives in the basement is."

We got out. Kael knocked on the door. A woman in a housecoat answered. She looked at him, then at me, then smiled.

"He's in the back," she said.

We walked through the house. Downstairs. Kael knocked on a door.

It opened.

The man standing there was short. Wiry. Gray hair. He had glasses on and a pen behind his ear and a room behind him full of papers.

"Kael," he said. "You look terrible."

"Thanks."

"Who's this?"

"Ella," Kael said. "She's the one I told you about."

The man looked at me.

Then he stepped aside and said, "Come in."

Kael put his hand on my back.

We went in.

And what I saw on the wall of that basement made me stop.

Photos. Dozens of them. Of the man in the gray coat. At a restaurant. At a church. At a courthouse. Standing next to Marcus Blackwood. Standing next to Damon Cross.

Standing next to my mother.

"What is this?" I said.

The man smiled.

"This," he said, "is the man who faked his death when you were twelve years old. His real name is Silas Kane. He's got three passports and two shell companies and one daughter. And he's been arrested twice for fraud and never convicted once."

He pulled out a chair.

"Sit down," he said. "We've got about an hour before he files the paperwork."

I sat down.

Chapter 16 Ends.