Chapter 5 - The Daughter Who Refused to Be UsedBy Friday morning, Petra knew somebody was watching the house.
Nobody told her.
That was exactly why she knew.
Her father’s security became quieter when something was wrong.
The same men remained at the gates, but they stopped talking.
Marcus appeared twice before breakfast.
Her father checked the windows whenever a vehicle slowed outside.
And Nora, who was supposedly staying for two nights, had reached night three.
Petra wasn’t complaining.
The house had changed with Nora in it.
Nora left mugs in the sink.
She kicked her shoes off under furniture.
She argued with Elias about whether cereal counted as dinner.
She watched terrible reality television with Petra and shouted at contestants.
Most importantly, Nora did not behave as though the Crane mansion was sacred ground.
On Thursday she had put her feet on a table that cost more than Petra’s first car.
Her father had looked at the shoes.
Then at Nora.
Then apparently decided he enjoyed being alive.
Petra liked her.
That frightened Petra more than she expected.
People disappeared from her father’s life.
Sometimes because they betrayed him.
Sometimes because he pushed them away.
Sometimes because they died.
Attachment had become a form of pre-grief.
She was sitting on the back steps Friday afternoon when Nora joined her.
“You’re doing the brooding-rich-girl thing.”
Petra looked over.
“Is that a thing?”
“You have an ocean view and unresolved feelings. Absolutely.”
Petra smiled faintly.
Nora sat.
For a minute they watched waves hit the rocks below the property.
“Somebody threatened you,” Petra said.
Nora’s head turned.
“Who told you?”
“Nobody.”
“Your dad?”
“He thinks I know nothing.”
“He’s trying to protect you.”
“He’s bad at it.”
“He’s improving.”
Petra picked at a thread on her sleeve.
“Is it because of me?”
“What?”
“The trouble.”
“No.”
“If I hadn’t overdosed, Dad wouldn’t have shut down the supply. Whoever’s angry wouldn’t—”
“Stop.”
Nora’s voice sharpened.
Petra looked up.
“You made a dangerous choice,” Nora said. “That doesn’t make you responsible for what adults decide to do afterward.”
“But—”
“No.”
Nora leaned forward.
“This is a trap people fall into after something terrible happens. They start tracing every consequence backward until they can make themselves the cause of everything.”
Petra stared at the water.
“My dad does that.”
“Yes.”
“About Mom.”
“Yes.”
Petra was silent.
“So maybe you both stop.”
Petra laughed weakly.
“You make everything sound easy.”
“I make it sound simple. Simple and easy are not the same.”
The patio door opened.
Elias stepped outside.
“Nora.”
Something in his voice made both women stand.
“What happened?” Nora asked.
“Marcus found the leak.”
Elias looked at Petra.
“Inside.”
“No.”
“Petra.”
“If this concerns me, I’m staying.”
“It concerns security.”
“Which means me.”
Elias’s jaw tightened.
Nora said nothing.
That was deliberate.
This one belonged to them.
Elias looked at his daughter.
Then he nodded.
“Fine.”
They went into the study.
Marcus was waiting.
On Elias’s desk were photographs.
Rourke.
Meeting Adrian Vale.
Petra watched her father become someone else.
Not visibly.
That was the disturbing part.
His face emptied.
“Rourke,” Elias said.
Marcus nodded.
“Six meetings in three weeks.”
“Why?”
“We intercepted a call this morning.”
Marcus put a phone on the desk.
A recording played.
Rourke’s voice.
Then another man.
Vale.
Petra heard her own name.
Her stomach dropped.
The daughter is the pressure point.
Elias reached for the phone.
Nora touched his arm.
Not stopping him.
Reminding him.
The recording continued.
Vale wanted Elias destabilized.
Distribution disrupted.
Loyalty fractured.
And if necessary—
Petra.
The recording ended.
Nobody spoke.
Finally Petra said, “He wants to kidnap me.”
Elias’s voice was terrifyingly calm.
“He won’t.”
“How do you know?”
“Because starting now you don’t leave this property.”
Petra laughed once.
There it was.
The perimeter.
The cage.
“Dad.”
“Not negotiable.”
“You just learned nothing.”
“This is different.”
“It’s always different!”
“Someone is planning to take you!”
“And locking me upstairs makes that okay?”
“It makes you alive.”
Nora closed her eyes.
Elias heard himself.
The words.
The same words.
Alive for what?
Petra’s face had gone pale.
He stopped.
He looked at Marcus.
“Give us the room.”
Marcus left.
Elias closed the study door.
He faced Petra.
“I’m scared.”
She blinked.
He had never said those words to her.
Not after Catherine.
Not in the hospital.
Not ever.
“I’m scared enough that every instinct I have is telling me to lock every gate and put ten men outside your bedroom.”
Petra said nothing.
“But you’re right.”
Elias forced himself to continue.
“If I do that without giving you any choice, I’m repeating the same mistake.”
Nora watched silently.
“So what happens?” Petra asked.
“We decide together.”
The word we felt foreign.
Elias used it anyway.
“You stay home temporarily. Not indefinitely. You choose which security people accompany you when you go back out. You keep your therapy appointments. Your therapist gets no reports from me.”
Petra’s eyes narrowed.
“And school?”
“We discuss remote classes for one week. Then reassess.”
“One week.”
“One.”
“And Nora?”
Elias glanced at her.
Nora folded her arms.
“I have a job.”
“No,” Elias said.
Nora’s eyebrows rose.
He corrected himself.
“I would prefer you remain somewhere protected until Vale is dealt with.”
“Better.”
Petra looked between them.
“You two are exhausting.”
“Petra.”
“What? You are.”
—
Rourke arrived at the warehouse at seven that evening expecting a promotion.
Instead he found Elias waiting alone.
Or apparently alone.
Rourke stopped.
“Boss.”
“Sit.”
Rourke sat.
Elias placed the photographs on the table.
The man’s face collapsed.
“Elias—”
“Don’t.”
Rourke swallowed.
“I can explain.”
“I’m sure.”
“Vale said he wanted territory. That’s all. I never agreed to Petra.”
“You gave him information.”
“I gave him business.”
“You told him about Nora.”
Rourke looked down.
That answered it.
For ten years, Elias would have ended the conversation there.
A gun.
A body.
A lesson.
Instead he sat across from the man.
“You have children?”
Rourke blinked.
“What?”
“Two boys. Eight and eleven.”
Rourke’s face changed.
“Leave them out of this.”
“I intend to.”
Elias leaned forward.
“That is the difference between us.”
Rourke swallowed.
“You betrayed me. You helped a man plan an attack against my daughter. Every rule I have lived by says you don’t leave this room.”
Rourke’s breathing accelerated.
“But my daughter is trying to learn that people can become something other than the worst thing they’ve done.”
Elias pushed a phone across the table.
“You’re going to call Vale.”
Rourke stared.
“You’re going to tell him I’m panicking. Tell him Petra and Nora are being moved tomorrow night.”
Understanding appeared.
“You’re using me.”
“Yes.”
“And after?”
“You leave Eastport.”
“That’s it?”
“No.”
Elias’s eyes hardened.
“You lose everything you built here. Every account. Every property tied to my organization. You walk away with enough money to feed your sons and nothing more.”
Rourke stared at him.
“You’re letting me live?”
“I’m letting your sons keep their father.”
Rourke’s eyes filled.
Elias felt no satisfaction.
That surprised him.
“Make the call.”
Rourke did.
—
At home, Petra waited at the top of the stairs.
Elias entered at eleven.
She studied him.
“Is Rourke dead?”
Elias removed his coat.
“No.”
Petra’s shoulders loosened.
“Why?”
“Because I decided killing him wouldn’t undo what he did.”
She came downstairs.
“Are you okay?”
The question startled him.
“I don’t know.”
Petra nodded.
“Therapist says that’s an acceptable answer.”
He almost smiled.
“Your therapist sounds expensive.”
“She is.”
“You chose her.”
“I have excellent taste.”
Elias looked at his daughter.
“I’m trying, Petra.”
“I know.”
She hesitated.
Then hugged him.
He closed his eyes.
For once, nobody was dying.
Nobody was leaving.
Nobody needed saving.
May you like
His daughter simply wanted him there.
And for the first time, Elias understood how much harder staying could be than fighting.
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