Page 104 of Destiny

My dad speaks up then. “Porter, we don’t have the resources to take the Steels down. But I agree with my son.”

“Your son is in bed with a Steel, Sean!” Porter Holland, the grocer, yells.

“That’s enough.” I advance toward Porter in the back.

My father pulls me back. “Brendan, now is not the time.”

I gaze at my father, my fists clenched. “Did you just hear what he said?”

Dad lets go of me. “I did, and you’re out of line, Porter. My son trusts Donny Steel, and I trust my son. I don’t think the Steels know about this trust.”

“We were all idiots to purchase our property with the liens in place,” someone says.

“No, we weren’t idiots,” Dad says. “We were told by our realtors at the time that the liens were inconsequential. And for the last fifty-odd years, they have been.”

“The realtors were probably in bed with the Steels,” someone says.

I say nothing. I’ve thought of this myself. Ever since Donny told me that the Steel family doesn’t know what this trust is or does, I figured it had to start with a Steel somewhere—just not any of the Steels we know. The citizens of Snow Creek aren’t morons. They wouldn’t have purchased property subject to a lien unless a realtor or lawyer convinced them it was inconsequential.

“We can’t go back in time to question those realtors or any of the deceased Steels,” I say. “All we can do is deal with thenowof the situation. We have to be proactive. My father and I aren’t going to pay these liens.”

“You can just get your damned girlfriend to pay for you.” Porter sneers.

This time I don’t let Dad hold me back. I push through the crowd, and I grab Porter by the collar, throwing him against the wall. “You say one more word about my relationship with Ava, and I’m going to take you out.”

“Hey, Brendan, I didn’t mean nothing.”

“Son…” My father’s voice makes its way through the din.

I let go of Porter.

“What, no apology?” Porter says.

God, this man has a lot of nerve. I’m way bigger and way younger than he is, and I could push him into the next week with a flick of my fist. “No. No apology.” I turn, walk back to the front of the room, and join my father.

“We’re all in this together,” Dad says. “So we need to act as one.”

Porter scoffs from the back.

“And Porter,” Dad says, “if you’re not with the rest of us, I invite you to leave.”

Porter looks to Benji. “I’m not with them. Are you?”

“Yeah, I am,” Benji finally relents. “None of us has the resources to fight the Steels on his own. We need to stick together, Port.”

I’m hoping Porter will walk out, but he shoves his hands into the pockets of his work pants and finally nods. “All right.”

“That means,” I say, “no more talk about Ava, Donny, or any of them. The Steels of my generation are good, solid people. Remember, all of this started before any of them were born.”

Murmurs of general agreement, but Porter and Benji still don’t look convinced.

The two of them won’t go against the crowd, though. They’re not strong enough. They’re a couple of old geezers who are set in their ways, and they like to think they know everything. They may remember Brad Steel for all I know. But they’ll fall in line. My father will see to that. He commands a lot of respect in this town, and he’ll keep them from going off half-cocked.

“All right,” Dad says. “Now that we’re all in agreement, please enjoy the pastries that Rita brought over, and have another cup of coffee.”

“Wait a minute, Sean,” Cyrus says. “How are we supposed to respond to these letters?”

“I thought about that,” Dad says, “and I think we need to hire an attorney in the city to respond on our behalf. We’ll operate as a group from now on.”

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