The incident caused by Donovan Adler had left Elias Vance displeased, and Ignatius Montgomery knew it. The fear gnawed at him like acid eating through steel. He understood, perhaps better than anyone in Cresthaven, what it meant to be on the wrong side of Marshal Vance's mood.
After personally executing Damien Cross, the colonel he had groomed with his own hands, Ignatius Montgomery returned to the hospital. He collected his younger brother, Thaddeus Montgomery, the current family patriarch of the Montgomery family, and together they made their way to the door of the private ward. Thaddeus was visibly trembling, his expensive shoes clicking unevenly against the polished floor as they came to a halt outside the room.
They stood there for roughly ten minutes, neither daring to knock nor da
