Chapter 3 - THE GATE
Grant read the access report twice.
The west service gate was used for deliveries. Victor’s code had opened it at 11:42 p.m. on Tuesday, 2:15 a.m. on Thursday, and just before dawn on Saturday.
Victor claimed the log was wrong.
“Someone cloned my card,” he said. “I’ll have the system replaced.”
“Do that,” Grant answered.
He did not tell Victor that the log recorded a code entered by hand.
Grant had reasons to be careful. Years ago, he had built his business alongside men whose contracts came with threats hidden between the lines. He had spent the past decade cutting those ties. Most had let him walk away. One man, Dominic Rourke, had not.
Rourke knew Atlas.
He had seen what the dog meant to Grant. And now, if Grant’s instincts were right, Rourke had seen Lily too.
Claire found Grant waiting outside her apartment that evening.
“Lily can’t keep coming into the main house,” she said before he could speak. “I know what everyone’s saying.”
“I didn’t come to complain.”
“Then why are you here?”
“I need you both to stay inside tomorrow morning. I’m reviewing a security concern.”
Claire’s face tightened. “Does it involve my daughter?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“That’s not an answer I can work with.”
Grant glanced at Atlas, asleep beside her door. “It’s the only honest one I have.”
The next morning, Claire kept Lily inside. By noon the girl was restless. Grant had not explained how long they would have to wait, and Claire still had a job to do. She took Lily to the small garden behind the service wing, where she could see both gates from the path.
Atlas followed.
Lily was building a crooked tower of fallen twigs when the explosion hit the main gate.
The ground jumped. Claire grabbed Lily and dropped to her knees. An alarm began to wail. Guards ran from every corner of the property toward the smoke.
Atlas did not follow them.
His head turned sharply toward the west service gate.
There was a soft electronic beep. The gate swung inward.
Three men in maintenance uniforms stepped through. The first carried a toolbox. The second wore a cap pulled low over his face. The third stopped when he saw Claire and Lily.
“Back to the house,” Claire whispered.
Atlas’s growl rose from deep in his chest.
The first stranger reached inside his toolbox.
Claire heard metal strike metal. Then she heard Lily cry out, “Mommy!”
May you like
Atlas lunged.
And from the security radio on the stranger’s belt came Victor Hale’s voice: “The dog is with the child. Take them both.”
