Inside Hull''s country house.
Susanna Tucker had been running a high fever, and it had left Hull absolutely
exhausted. It wasn''t until around six in the evening that she finally drifted awake,
groggy and disoriented.
Hull was standing by the window, speaking on the phone, his voice low and tense.
Susanna couldn''t make out what was being said on the other end.
He nced at the watch on his wrist, then spoke coldly into the phone,
"Everything''s set."
"Tell Mrs. Tucker I need to see her. No excuses."
With that, he ended the call without waiting for a reply.
He turned and caught Susanna''s gaze-her eyes were ssy and dazed, like she
was still only half-awake.
"You''re up?"
Susanna gave a weak nod, still feeling like she''d been run over by a truck.
Hull walked over to the bed and pressed a hand to her forehead. "Fever''s mostly
gone."
A woman with a fever, he thought, could really be a handful.
Susanna looked up at him, wide-eyed and anxious. "That call just now... When
you said Mrs. Tucker, did you mean my mom?"
Just mentioning her mother made worry flicker in Susanna''s eyes.
Everything she thought she knew about her life had been turned upside down in
the past few days. And there was no one who could really help her now.
ck Gate what even was that ce? Some kind of shadowy organization?
Hull nodded. "Yeah."
Susanna pressed, "What did you talk about?"
Hull hesitated, his lips pressed in a thin line.
Susanna''s heart started pounding, the silence making her more anxious.
Hull finally said, "Don''t stress out too much. The conflict between your mom and
ck Gate isn''t life or death. They''re not out to kill her."
"What''s that supposed to mean?"
Hull sighed. "It''s just...plicated."
"Complicated how?"
"Yeah." Hull nodded, looking tired. "Some of ck Gate''s old secrets are tough to
dig up. But I managed."
Susanna frowned. "What kind ofplicated?"
Hull looked her in the eye. "Your dad... He''s the father of the current head of
ck Gate."
Susanna blinked. "Wait-what?"
Her dad... was the father of ck Gate''s current boss?
"No way. Are you serious?"
She''d grown up believing her dad was dead. Now he''d just what, crawled out of
the ground?
Hull''s face was serious. "I''m serious."
Susanna gaped at him. "So then, me and the boss of ck Gate are...?"
"Half-siblings," Hull said quietly.
Susanna''s mouth dropped open.
"Hold up, you''re telling me I suddenly have not just a dad, but a brother, too?"
She''d been an only child her whole life, and now this? Just like that, she had
family popping out of the woodwork?
Hull shrugged. "Not just a brother. You''ve got two sisters, too."
Susanna just stared at him.
"So... it''s a whole crowd, huh?"
She tried to process it. "Then why did he take my mom? And at the airport, he
looked ready to murder me!"
No wonder Hull had said it wasplicated.
Hull exined, "When your mom left years ago, she took half of ck Gate''s map
"with her."
Susanna frowned. "Half a map?"
Hull nodded.
"And... what about that man?" she
asked quietly. Her father, apparently.
"You really think he''s even alive? And
if your research is right... why do I
get this feeling he never cared about
my mom?"
Hull looked at her for a long
moment. He decided she deserved
the whole truth. Things inside ck
Gate were a mess, and Susanna''s
situation was even more tangled
than he''d thought.
"When your mom took over ck
Gate, the organization was falling
apart, inside and out. Your dad
decided to step back... but there was
more to it."
"Why?" Susanna asked.
"He had someone else he wanted to protect. More than anything."
Susanna''s heart squeezed painfully. "You mean the mother of those other
three?"
Hull nodded solemnly.
Susanna just stared, stunned, her world shifting under her feet, again.