Chapter Twenty-Seven
Brady
The compound didn’t just appear. It revealed itself in slow, deliberate stages.
One moment we were coasting along an empty stretch of sunbaked Nevada asphalt, the car filled with a charged quiet that comes before something important.
Elise’s hands were steady on the wheel, but I caught the way her thumb tapped a small, rhythmic pattern against it.
I reached over and covered her hand briefly. “So, what’s our best-case scenario here? I charm him with my winning personality, he cracks a smile, and we all grab coffee like normal people?”
A small, reluctant smile tugged at her mouth. “Best case? He listens. Worst case . . .” She exhaled. “He sees Gabe Holliston when he looks at you and the gates lock behind us.”
“Hey,” I said lightly, squeezing her fingers. “I once convinced Roy I was worth minimum wage on day one. Your dad’s got to be easier than a skeptical mechanic, right?”
She glanced sideways, the smile deepening just a fraction. “You’re impossible.”
“Optimistic,” I corrected, and for a moment the tension eased. I wanted this for her—for us. A crack in the wall she’d grown up behind.
The landscape subtly warped. High-grade security fencing rose out of the jagged terrain as if it had grown there naturally, flanked by heavy steel reinforcement and cameras positioned with surgical precision.
Elise eased off the gas as a massive outer gate slid open without her touching a single control. There was no visible keypad. No intercom. No guard stepping out to check credentials. Just the silent, chilling efficiency of autonomous recognition software.
I craned my neck. “This is . . . a lot.”
“You’re only seeing the surface infrastructure,” she replied, voice calm but tight.
We passed through one automated checkpoint, then another, then a third, each barrier sealing shut behind us and tightening the air a little more.
By the time the main structure finally loomed into view, low and brutally angular, partially embedded into the earth, the message was unmistakable: this wasn’t just a high-tech facility.
This was the fortified sanctuary of a man who had decided the rest of the world no longer had clearance to access his life.
The second Elise’s car idled to a stop, two security guards flanked us. They offered no greeting. They simply fell into tight formation the moment she stepped out. I followed, keeping my posture relaxed but alert.
The interior air hit cool and regulated. Every heavy door sealed behind us with a pressurized click. Elise navigated the corridors with quiet confidence. The guards escorted us into a vast, minimalist study where Thomas Steele stood motionless behind a massive monolithic desk.
He didn’t speak. He simply watched us, eyes sharp and unreadable, the silence stretching like a held breath.
I felt Elise tense beside me. I reached for her hand, threading our fingers together openly. She squeezed back, grounding me as much as I hoped I grounded her. I met Thomas’s gaze steadily, heart open the way it always was.
“Mr. Steele,” I started, voice calm and respectful, “I’m honored you’re letting me stand in your home.
I know this isn’t easy. I came to Basin Ridge looking for answers about something that happened a long time ago and hurt a lot of people, including you.
I never expected . . .” I glanced at Elise, letting the look linger, letting him see everything I felt.
“I never expected to meet someone like your daughter. She matters more to me now than the reason I came here. Whatever happened between you and my father, I’m hoping when we talk, we’ll find we have more in common than we think.
We both care about Elise. We both want her to be happy.
I’m not asking you to forget the past. I’m only asking for a chance to show you I’m not here to cause more pain. ”
Elise’s fingers tightened in mine. For a heartbeat the room felt suspended. Thomas’s expression froze. He looked from our joined hands to his daughter’s face. The air thickened with the fragile possibility that this might actually work.
Then his eyes hardened into flint. “You look exactly like him. Same tilt to the chin.” His voice carried a lethal edge. “Same unmistakable Holliston arrogance.”
“Not arrogance,” I said evenly, meeting his stare.
“Optimism. I didn’t come here to fight old battles.
My brother Evan is getting married. His fiancée wants everyone who ever mattered to my dad there.
I know something bad happened between you and him.
I’m not asking you to forgive him. I’m asking if you know anything that might help us move past it. ”
Thomas’s jaw tightened. For a heartbeat something raw flickered behind his eyes then it vanished. “As soon as I saw you on the cameras, I knew who you were.” Then, to his daughter, he said, “Whatever he told you, it was all lies. The Hollistons are not acquainted with the truth.”
“Dad, I brought Brady to meet you because—” Elise started.
“Get out,” Thomas said, eyes locking back on mine, flat and final. “Be exceptionally grateful I’m choosing to let you leave in one piece.”
His tone said he meant it.
The guards moved in. I held up a hand, calm but firm, my gaze steady on them rather than Thomas.
“Easy. I’m leaving on my own.” The command in my voice wasn’t loud, but it carried the same quiet authority I used when de-escalating tense situations at the garage.
They hesitated long enough for the moment to register as human choice, not forced submission.
Elise stepped into my space, her hand finding my arm with a grounding grip. “I’d like to speak with my father alone for a minute.”
She turned her full attention to the guards, voice dropping to that precise register that commanded obedience. “Nothing happens to this man. When I walk out of this room, Brady needs to look exactly the way he does right now.”
The grip that had started to form eased. I gave her one final assessing look. She returned it with a micro-nod. That was all I needed.
The guards escorted me out. The corridors felt longer this time, each door sealing like a tomb. It was hard to reconcile this cold place with the woman who had curled against me that morning.
They stopped me right inside the final barrier. “Stay right here,” the taller one ordered. “Don’t move.”
I leaned my shoulder against the framing, arms crossed loosely.
“Wouldn’t dream of it.” My gaze caught on a beaded pink bracelet dangling from the rearview mirror of the black pickup parked nearby.
I nodded toward it with an easy smile. “I think I worked on your truck at Roy’s garage the other day.
I changed the oil. The filter was on its last legs. Cute bracelet, by the way. Yours?”
The taller guard followed my look. For a second I thought he might shut it down, but then the corner of his mouth twitched. “My daughter’s. She made it for me. I have to keep it there so I remember to slip it on before I get home. She’d like me to wear it all the time.”
His partner chuckled. “Better than the time she painted his fingernails neon orange and told everyone they were Halloween pumpkins.”
I laughed, perfectly imagining that. “That’s fantastic. My older sister got married this past year. I can’t wait to see what kind of hairstyles her kid is going to give me when they’re old enough to demand it.”
One of the guards raised an eyebrow. “She pregnant?”
“Not yet,” I said, grinning. “But it’s what I’ll be requesting from Santa this year. I’m an okay brother, but I feel like I could really rock the role of uncle.”
Both guards cracked smiles, real ones. The taller one shook his head, shoulders dropping a fraction more. “Kids, man. They’ll get you every time.”
The tension in the air eased another notch. They were still on duty, but the hyper-vigilance had softened into something almost companionable. I settled in to wait, heart a little lighter even as the heavier thoughts about Elise’s conversation inside lingered.
I’d left her to handle her father.
That didn’t sit right with me, but I also respected her relationship with him.
Was that a mistake?