Chapter 2 - The Man at the Gate
The gunshot sounded like thunder.
Rosa screamed from down the hallway.
Nathan did not move.
The bullet struck the security camera over the east gate, turning the screen into a burst of static.
Marcus had not tried to shoot through the gate.
He had shot the camera.
A message.
Nathan checked the remaining feeds.
Marcus climbed into the pickup and backed away from the gate.
For several seconds, the truck remained visible through another camera.
Then it disappeared into the storm.
Nathan immediately called the county sheriff.
The dispatcher answered on the third ring.
“This is Dr. Nathan Pierce at Cascade Ridge Estate. A man armed with a handgun just fired on my property. Three hypothermic children are inside. Their mother may be critically injured at another location.”
The dispatcher’s voice sharpened.
“Name of suspect?”
“Marcus Kane.”
“Relation to the children?”
“Father.”
“Is he still on the property?”
“He left the gate thirty seconds ago.”
Nathan gave Sarah’s address from memory.
He hated that he remembered it.
He had searched it online hundreds of times over the years without ever driving there.
An hour away in normal weather.
Tonight, perhaps impossible.
“We’re dispatching deputies to both locations,” the woman said. “Medical response is already approaching your residence.”
Nathan ended the call.
Then he stood alone in his darkened entryway with Sarah’s note in one hand.
Do not trust William Crowe.
William had been at Nathan’s parents’ funerals.
He had negotiated the sale of their father’s company.
He had handled Nathan’s first property purchase.
When Nathan opened his surgical foundation, William drafted the documents.
When Sarah married Marcus against Nathan’s wishes, William advised Nathan to “let the girl learn.”
When Sarah supposedly demanded her portion of the inheritance immediately, William had brought Nathan the paperwork.
Every signature.
Every withdrawal.
Every angry letter.
Nathan suddenly felt sick.
He called William.
No answer.
Again.
Voicemail.
He sent one message.
Call me immediately.
Then Nathan entered the medical room.
Lily was awake.
Rosa had dressed her in one of Nathan’s old T-shirts, which hung nearly to her ankles, and wrapped her in three blankets.
The twins rested in bassinets Nathan had purchased years earlier for visiting friends with infants and never expected to use again.
Owen was crying now.
Nathan had never been so relieved to hear a baby scream.
Ethan remained quieter.
Lily watched Nathan carefully.
“Did Daddy leave?”
“For now.”
Her expression told him she understood those words better than any five-year-old should.
Nathan sat beside her.
“Lily, do you know what Box 317 is?”
Her face changed.
She looked toward Rosa.
Then back at Nathan.
“Mommy said I’m not supposed to tell anyone.”
“I understand.”
“She said only you.”
Rosa stood immediately.
“I’ll check on the babies.”
She moved to the opposite side of the room.
Nathan leaned closer.
“You can tell me.”
Lily lowered her voice.
“There’s a bank.”
Nathan waited.
“Mommy took me once.”
“Where?”
“By the big clock.”
Nathan knew the building.
First Cascade Bank in downtown Leavenworth had an enormous antique clock above its entrance.
“Did she open a box there?”
Lily nodded.
“She put papers inside.”
“What kind of papers?”
“I don’t know.”
Then Lily’s eyes widened.
“And videos.”
Nathan’s pulse quickened.
“What videos?”
“Daddy yelling.”
Nathan’s stomach dropped.
“Was he hurting your mother?”
Lily looked down.
Nathan immediately regretted asking it that way.
“You don’t have to explain.”
“He breaks things.”
Her voice became smaller.
“Sometimes Mommy tells us to go in the closet and sing.”
Nathan stared at her.
“Why sing?”
“So Owen and Ethan don’t hear.”
Rosa stopped moving across the room.
Nathan felt something hot and violent rise behind his ribs.
He forced it down.
This was not about what he wanted to do to Marcus.
It was about what these children needed.
“Did Marcus ever hurt you?”
Lily went very still.
That was answer enough.
Nathan changed the question.
“Did your mother ever try to leave?”
Lily nodded.
“Lots.”
“What happened?”
“Daddy found us.”
Nathan remembered her words.
Daddy always finds us.
“Where did you go?”
“Hotels.”
“Friends?”
Lily shook her head.
“Mommy said friends can get hurt.”
Nathan closed his eyes briefly.
Sarah had spent years running alone because she believed she had no one.
Or because someone had convinced her she had no one.
A siren sounded outside.
Lily flinched violently.
Nathan reached toward her but stopped before touching.
“It’s the ambulance.”
She stared at him.
“You promise?”
“I promise.”
Rosa opened the security feed.
An ambulance and two sheriff’s SUVs were approaching through the gate.
Nathan released the lockdown.
Paramedics entered moments later.
The room transformed.
Vitals.
Warm blankets.
Questions.
Equipment.
Nathan stepped back.
He was a surgeon, but right now he was family.
One paramedic examined Lily’s feet and looked toward Nathan.
“She needs a hospital.”
“I know.”
“All three do.”
“I’m going with them.”
A deputy approached.
“Dr. Pierce?”
Nathan recognized Sheriff Daniel Reeves behind him.
Daniel was in his late fifties, gray-haired, broad-shouldered, and had once brought his wife to Nathan for emergency surgery after an aneurysm.
“Nathan.”
“Daniel.”
“I heard Marcus Kane discharged a weapon.”
Nathan handed him his phone with the saved security footage.
“He also may have seriously injured my sister.”
Daniel’s expression tightened.
“Deputies are heading toward the Kane residence with a snowplow.”
Nathan lowered his voice.
“There’s something else.”
He showed Daniel Sarah’s note.
The sheriff read it.
“William Crowe?”
“You know him?”
“Everybody knows Crowe.”
Daniel looked uncomfortable.
“He represents half the money in this county.”
“He represented my parents.”
“And Sarah?”
Nathan nodded.
Daniel looked at the bracelet.
“Box 317?”
“First Cascade Bank.”
“You planning to go there?”
“The minute it opens.”
Daniel handed the note back.
“Don’t.”
Nathan stared at him.
“Excuse me?”
“Not alone.”
Daniel glanced toward Lily.
“If Marcus was willing to follow a barefoot five-year-old through this storm, and if he fired at your security camera because he thinks she brought you something, then whatever is in that box scares him.”
Nathan knew Daniel was right.
A paramedic carried Ethan past them.
Lily saw the infant oxygen tubing and panicked.
“Is he dying?”
Nathan crossed the room immediately.
“No.”
“But he’s not crying.”
“He’s tired.”
“Mommy said babies have to cry.”
Nathan knelt despite the chaos around them.
“Listen to me. Ethan is going to the hospital. Owen too. And you.”
“What about Mommy?”
Nathan had no answer.
Lily’s chin trembled.
“You have to get her.”
“I will.”
“You promise?”
Nathan hesitated.
Promises were dangerous things.
He had promised Sarah when they were children that he would always protect her.
Then he had let pride turn seven years into silence.
This time he chose his words carefully.
“I promise I will not stop looking.”
Lily studied him.
Then she nodded.
The paramedics loaded the children.
Nathan climbed into the ambulance beside Lily.
As the doors were about to close, Sheriff Reeves’s radio crackled.
Static filled the driveway.
Then a deputy’s voice.
“Sheriff, we’ve reached the Kane residence.”
Daniel grabbed his radio.
“Status?”
“Front door is open.”
Nathan leaned forward.
The deputy continued.
“Significant blood in the kitchen.”
Nathan’s hand closed around the ambulance rail.
“Any victim?”
A pause.
“No.”
Nathan’s heartbeat stopped.
Then came the words that changed everything again.
“Sarah Kane is not here.”
Daniel looked at Nathan.
“Search the property.”
“We are.”
Another pause.
Then the deputy’s voice returned.
“We found tire tracks behind the house.”
“Marcus’s truck?”
“Possibly.”
“How many vehicles?”
“At least two.”
Nathan frowned.
Two?
The deputy continued.
“And Sheriff?”
“Go ahead.”
“There’s a burned trash barrel behind the garage.”
Daniel’s eyes narrowed.
“What’s in it?”
“Documents.”
Nathan felt cold despite the heated ambulance.
The deputy coughed.
“And what looks like several photographs.”
“Can you identify anything?”
There was another burst of static.
Then:
“One photo survived.”
Nathan waited.
The deputy spoke slowly.
“It’s Dr. Pierce.”
Nathan stared at Daniel.
“What?”
“An old photograph of Nathan Pierce.”
The deputy continued.
“There’s writing across his face.”
Nathan’s skin prickled.
“What does it say?”
The radio hissed.
Then the answer came.
HE NEVER CAME FOR YOU.
Lily began crying.
And Nathan finally understood.
May you like
Someone had not merely kept Sarah away from him.
Someone had spent seven years making sure she believed he had chosen to stay away.
