Chapter 1
At dinner, Victor slid a stack of papers across the table toward me, a fountain pen resting on top.
“Rose, you turn eighteen this Saturday. After cake, we’re heading into Reno to sign these at the law office.”
I looked down.
AUTHORIZATION FOR REAL ESTATE SALE
The price section was blank.
“Sell what?”
“That busted garage your daddy left behind.” He kept cutting into his steak without looking up. “And this house too. State’s expanding Highway 12. Ridgeline Development made an offer.”
Mom spooned green beans onto my plate, her voice dripping honey.
“Baby, once we sell the land, college is completely covered.”
Liar.
I already had a full scholarship to State. She’d opened the acceptance letter herself.
“Why does it have to wait until my birthday?”
Victor’s knife stopped for half a second.
“Because only an adult can sign. That’s the law.”
Tyler sat beside him scrolling on his phone, barely glancing up.
“Just sign it, sis. Maybe then I can finally get a new set of clubs.”
Mom smacked the back of his head playfully and laughed.
I stared at the pen.
For eighteen years, nobody in that house had remembered my birthday.
This year, somehow, they’d planned it out a week early.
Planned for me to sign.
“I’ll think about it.”
Victor set his fork against the plate with a sharp clink.
“Think about it?” Mom still wore that smile. “Rose, this family’s taken care of you for eighteen years—”
“I said I’ll think about it.”
I got up and headed upstairs.
Behind me, Victor lowered his voice, but not enough.
“You think the girl knows something?”
Mom answered immediately.
“What could she possibly know?”
At midnight, barefoot, I climbed into the attic.
The cardboard box in the corner had ten years of dust on it.
The year I turned eight, Mom threw all of Dad’s stuff onto a garbage truck. I’d managed to save one box and sat outside the attic door holding it all night. She tried prying my fingers loose.
I bit her.
Eventually she cursed, said, “Let it rot up there then,” and slammed the door.
I opened the box.
An old watch with a cracked face.
A photo of Dad sitting four-year-old me on a gas tank.
And at the bottom—
The black leather vest.
Three patches across the back:
Top rocker: IRON RAVENS
Center patch: a crow with its wings spread wide
Bottom rocker: NEVADA
Over the left chest:
Compass
Road Captain
Original Seven
I pressed the leather against my face.
It still smelled like motor oil.
Then my fingers brushed the lining.
I froze.
The stitching.
Fresh. Thick. Sloppy.
A man’s sewing.
I grabbed scissors and cut the seam open.
A waterproof pouch slipped out.
Inside was a deed — the house, the repair shop, twelve roadside acres.
Owner: Rose Mason
Sole owner.
There was also a folded note, creased four times. Dad’s handwriting dug hard into the paper.
“Little Rosie, find the Iron Ravens. Tell Preacher: Compass never betrayed his brothers.”
My hands shook.
Downstairs, Victor’s snoring rumbled through the floorboards.
The land they’re trying to sell—
belongs to me.
