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“Yeah, but the rest of the stuff has nothing to do with William Steel. It has to do with our family and the lien we hold on Murphy’s.”
And liens we hold on the rest of the freaking town, but I’m not ready to tell Dad that Callie and Donny have done that research.
“Right,” Dad says, “but it does have to do with the Steel family. Then we have Talon’s shooting. Talon’s poisoning. The fact that someone had access to the atropine, which does have veterinary uses. We have the Steel property, and our family being implicated in”—he swallows—“something truly evil.”
“Right.”
“Then we have the GPS coordinates. Left for Donny by who knows who, along with an orange diamond ring that apparently once belonged to my mother, and which is now missing again.”
“True.”
“Someone left us these coordinates for a reason. And Doc Sheraton happens to rent this particular parcel of property.”
“And Doc Sheraton trains guard dogs, and guard dogs are most likely being used by whoever…”
“Right,” Dad says.
“So it’s all related, somehow. Who the hell is getting past our security, Dad? We’ve been so focused on other things, but someone left that glasses case in Donny’s mirrored cabinet, and someone took the orange diamond ring from Uncle Talon’s safe.”
“And the Monarch Security logs from those times just happen to be missing.”
“Have you and Uncle Bryce found a new security company yet?”
“We’re working on it. But we have to keep Monarch in place for now. We can’t just stop being monitored.”
“True.”
“I’ve known those people at Monarch for years. I can’t believe they’d…”
“Dad,” I say, “if they were compromised, they were given a lot of money.”
“Who has more money than we do?” Dad asks. “No. It’s not money, son. My old man may have been an asshole and a liar, but he taught me well. Only one thing trumps money.”
“And what’s that?” Though I already know the answer.
“Life, son. Someone’s life was threatened.”
I nod.
“And if whoever is doing this knows what they’re doing, they didn’t threaten one person’s life. They threatened the lives of their loved ones. That’s what will really get you.”
“You think?”
“You’re young, Brock. Unmarried, and you have no children. But I can tell you this for sure. If someone threatened my life, I’d fight like hell. But if someone threatenedyourlife? Your brother’s? Your mother’s? All three of you? I’d roll over so fast you wouldn’t see it coming. I would doanythingto save your life.”
I regard my father, and even though he’s looking forward, driving, I see the truth in his eyes.
He would gladly do anything to spare the lives of each one of us.
As much as I am harboring anger at my father—anger for keeping our family’s history from us—I see him for who he truly is at this moment.
A man. A man with sun damage to his skin and callouses on his hands from working outside. A man with wrinkles around his eyes, silver threading through his thick dark hair. A hard-working man who loves his family beyond anything else.
A man who would sacrifice everything for us.
A man who maybe has made mistakes, but he made them for the noblest of reasons.
“So someone at Monarch…”
