Never Cross the Back-Gate Guard

Chapter 003

Moving with lightning reflexes, Cole snatched the wastebasket from beside the sofa and tilted Lily’s chin down so she wouldn’t aspirate.

The blood hitting the bin was thick and tar-black, mixed with stomach acid and necrotic residue that filled the living room with a sharp, putrid stench.

Victoria turned pale, clutching her chest. “W-What’s happening to her now?!”

“That’s the purge,” Cole said evenly. “The dead hemophages and metabolic toxins were flushed through her gastric lining. Her bloodstream is clean now.”

He pulled a handful of tissues from the box on the coffee table and gently wiped the corners of his niece’s mouth.

Nathan stared at the wastebasket in disbelief. “That’s… that’s it? She’s cured?” For three months, they had flown in top specialists from across the country, only to be told to prepare for a funeral. Yet Cole had turned her around in less than fifteen minutes. Who the hell would believe it if they hadn’t seen it with their own eyes?

“The immediate crisis is over,” Cole said, carefully withdrawing the micro-needles and sliding them back into their leather slots. “I’ll need to run a follow-up check in a few days to make sure not a single spore survived.”

Reaching into his canvas bag, he pulled out a braided red paracord necklace strung with a polished, translucent wolf’s fang. He placed it gently into Lily’s small palm and smiled warmly. “Uncle Cole came in a hurry today and didn’t have time to buy you a proper present, Lily. Hold onto this for me—it’ll keep the bad dreams away.”

Lily curled her tiny fingers around the fang, two sweet dimples appearing on her pale cheeks as she smiled up at him. “Are you Uncle Cole? Daddy showed me your picture!”

The tension in Cole’s chest melted away completely. He ruffled her soft hair. “That’s me. You get lots of rest, okay? Uncle Cole will come see you all the time.”

Nathan puffed out his chest, turning a proud grin toward his wife. “See that, Victoria? Told you my brother knows what he’s doing!”

Victoria’s expression stiffened, her pride refusing to let her back down. She let out a cold huff. “So he picked up a few parlor tricks inside. That doesn’t change the fact that he’s a convicted felon. No felon is spending the night under a Sterling roof.”

“Victoria, you—” Nathan’s face darkened, anger flaring in his eyes before he bit the words back.

Cole tugged lightly on Nathan’s sleeve and gave an easy shrug. “Drop it, Nate. I actually need to look up an old buddy from my unit anyway. I’ll crash at his place for a few days.”

He slung his canvas duffel over his shoulder and turned toward the front door.

From the sofa, Victoria spoke up in a clipped, indifferent tone, staring straight ahead. “The renovations on the company staff dormitories wrapped up yesterday. Go sign off on the inspection this afternoon and tell accounting to release the final payment to the contractor.” She paused, lifting Lily into her arms. “And while you’re at it, tell HR to lower the hiring standards for the security department. A bunch of incompetents—taking two weeks just to fill a basic guard opening.”

Without waiting for a reply, she carried Lily upstairs.

Nathan’s eyes lit up immediately. “Got it, honey! I’ll head over right now!”

Cole couldn’t help a faint smile. Clearly, beneath the thorny exterior, his sister-in-law wasn’t entirely heartless—that was her way of giving him a roof over his head and a paycheck without admitting she owed him one.

Half an hour later, Nathan pulled the Audi up to the front gates of Sterling Textiles Inc. The complex covered several acres, anchored by a gleaming thirteen-story glass office tower—easily one of the largest manufacturing operations in Havenport.

Cole whistled softly, looking up at the facade. “Not a small operation. With a footprint this size, have they gone public yet?”

Nathan’s smile turned bitter as he shook his head. “We filed for our IPO last year, but the application’s been stalled in regulatory review for months. Every time I ask Victoria what’s holding it up, she shuts me out.” In truth, the board had been whispering that some old rival had it out for the company, and half the Sterling family blamed Nathan’s bad luck for the stall—something Nathan kept to himself so Cole wouldn’t do anything rash.

Shaking off the thought, Nathan clapped Cole’s arm. “Come on, let’s hit HR. With your military record, getting you on the security detail is a walk in the park. Between me and Victoria, we’ll have you running the whole security department before long.”

Cole nodded and followed him inside. Right now, he didn’t have a dime to his name. Sorting out a bed and three meals a day came first.

The HR department occupied a sprawling open floor filled with the clatter of keyboards. Nathan walked up to the recruitment desk, explained why they were there, and waited while the recruiter—a heavily made-up woman in her late twenties—lazily pulled out an employment contract and an intake form.

She tossed them onto the counter without looking up. “Sign at the bottom. You’re on the back-gate dump shift.”

Nathan blinked, caught off guard. “Wait a second, Tanya. Doesn’t the back-gate scrap yard already have someone covering it?”

Tanya Brooks gave a mocking laugh. “Take it or leave it. I’ve got a stack of applicants waiting for a callback.”

Nathan glanced around the office, then leaned in and lowered his voice. “Come on, Tanya, he’s my kid brother. Do me a favor and put him on the main lobby rotation.”

Tanya’s painted eyebrows shot up, and she deliberately raised her voice so the whole floor could hear. “Do you a favor? Since when does a kept husband living off the boss’s charity have any pull around here? If the CEO weren’t covering for you, do you really think you’d even be a production manager? Look at your brother—dressed like he just crawled out of a thrift-store bin. Guarding the dump is a step up for him! Whole damn family of freeloaders.”

A razor-sharp glint flashed in the depths of Cole’s eyes. Taking flak from his sister-in-law in her own house was one thing; listening to some petty desk clerk humiliate his brother in public was another. A few years ago, this woman would already be on her knees begging for her teeth.

Around the office, dozens of heads turned toward them, their expressions a mix of amusement and pity. Nathan’s fists clenched at his sides, his face burning crimson.

Cole laid a calm hand on Nathan’s shoulder and offered a quiet smile. “It’s fine, Nate. Back gate works for me.”

He picked up the pen and filled out the contract in clean, steady strokes. As he signed his name, he made himself a silent promise: before he was done here, not a single person in this building would ever dare look down on Nathan Mercer again.

Watching his brother bend over the counter to sign for a trash-yard post, Nathan felt a sharp ache in his chest. If it weren’t for Lily—if he didn’t want his little girl growing up without a father in the house—he would have walked out of this gilded cage years ago.

Once the paperwork was stamped, Nathan took Cole over to the housing office. Thankfully, the facilities manager was an old friend of Nathan’s and arranged a private single room for Cole on the ground floor. After dropping off his bag, Cole said goodbye to his brother and headed out to deliver General Hale’s letter.

Meanwhile, back on the third floor, HR Director Julian Hayes called Tanya Brooks into his private office.

Tanya swayed across the carpet and perched on the edge of his desk, crossing her legs with a coquettish smile. “You wanted to see me, Mr. Hayes?”

Julian leaned back in his leather chair, his eyes narrowing. “Who was that guy who just signed on for security?”

Tanya curled her lip in disdain. “That’s Nathan Mercer’s little brother. Just walked in off the street looking for a handout, so I stuck him out back by the scrap dump.” She hesitated, glancing at Julian nervously. “Mr. Hayes, about that… I actually swapped him in because my cousin Travis has been stuck at the dump for three months, and he’s been bugging me to move him to the front gate.”

Julian let out a cold, satisfied laugh. “So he belongs to that spineless bastard. You did good, Tanya. I’m tacking an extra three hundred onto your bonus this month.”

Tanya blinked in surprise, then beamed, standing up and swaying around the desk to rest her hands on Julian’s shoulders. “You’re always so good to me, Julian. Let me help you unwind a little…”

Everyone knew Julian’s father owned one of the largest luxury hotel chains in the city; the only reason a rich heir like him was slumming it as an HR director at Sterling Textiles was to pursue Victoria Sterling. If Tanya could get him into bed first, she might just land herself a ticket into high society—or at the very least, become untouchable in the company.

Julian brushed her hand off with a smirk, checking his Rolex. “I’ve got an appointment across town right now. Come by my suite in the executive dorms tonight.”