Free Web NovelChapter 259: Chapter 259: How Long?
He found his brothers first.
Not because Eve didn’t have the right to be there. Because this was pack. And pack came to the alpha first.
Damon read Vessa’s note.
Handed it to Silas.
Silas read it.
Set it on the table.
The three of them stood in the study and nobody said anything for a moment.
"Within the hour," Damon said.
"Yes," Damian said.
"He walked out of your study and...." Damon stopped. His jaw was tight. "He sat across from Silas every morning for three weeks. He had access to the border rotation. The east wing schedule. The names of...." He stopped again.
"Damon," Silas said.
"I know," Damon said. "I know."
He turned to the window.
Stood there with his back to the room.
Shoulders tight. The specific tension of someone keeping something inside through will alone.
Silas looked at Damian.
Damian looked at the note.
"How do we want to do this," Silas said.
"Quietly," Damian said. "No spectacle. No public confrontation." He paused. "I’ll do it myself." ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom
"I’ll come," Silas said.
"So will I," Damon said. Still at the window. Didn’t turn around.
Damian looked at his brothers.
Both of them.
"Alright," he said.
***
They found Callum in the east wing.
He was checking inventory. Clipboard in hand. Reading numbers off shelves the way he’d been reading numbers off shelves for twenty years.
He looked up when they came in.
All three of them.
Something crossed in his face.
Small and brief, there and gone.
But Damian saw it.
That was the tell. Not in the study. Not over coffee. Here....the three of them in a doorway when it should have been a routine check....that was when Callum’s composure did the one thing it hadn’t done all week.
Slipped.
Just for a second.
Then it was back.
"Alpha," he said. Looked at Silas. At Damon. "What’s....."
"Put the clipboard down," Damian said.
Callum put it down.
Looked at Damian.
And this time he didn’t look away.
This time something in him....some decision, some calculation....landed visibly. His shoulders dropped. Just slightly. Just enough.
He knew.
He’d known the moment they walked in together.
"How long," Damian said.
Callum was quiet.
"How long Callum," Damian said again.
"Four months," Callum said.
The east wing was very quiet.
Shelves of inventory. Afternoon light through a high window. Twenty years of a man’s presence in a place that had been home to both of them.
"Why," Damon said.
He said it from the doorway. Hadn’t moved further into the room. His voice was controlled and flat and entirely without the warmth that usually lived there.
Callum looked at him.
Something moved through his face.
Not guilt exactly. Something more complicated than guilt.
"Because I have a daughter," he said. "She’s eight. Her mother left two years ago and it’s just us." He paused. "He came to me through someone I trusted. Said he wasn’t asking me to hurt anyone. Just....report. Just tell him what was happening." Another pause. "He said if I didn’t he’d make sure my daughter’s school found out her father worked for a pack bonded to a succubus. That she’d be pulled. That the other families...."
He stopped.
His jaw moved.
"He had her name," Callum said. "Her teacher’s name, He knew everything."
The room was still.
Damon had turned away.
Looking at the wall.
Silas was looking at the floor.
Damian looked at Callum.
At the man who had been twenty years of reliability and had been frightened into four months of betrayal by a man who used children’s names like weapons.
He felt the anger.
"You should have come to me," he said.
"I know," Callum said. Quiet.
"The moment he approached you. You should have come straight to me."
"I know," Callum said again. "I was...." He stopped. "I was afraid. I didn’t know if you’d believe me. I didn’t know what he had on the estate already. I didn’t know who else...." He exhaled. "I made the wrong call. I know that."
Damian looked at him for a long moment.
At the face he’d known for twenty years.
"Your daughter," Damian said. "She’s safe?"
Callum blinked.
Like he hadn’t expected that to be the next sentence.
"Yes," he said. "She’s....yes."
"She’ll stay safe," Damian said. "Whatever happens next she’s not touched. You have my word."
Callum looked at him.
His composure did something it clearly hadn’t been planning to do.
Held. Just barely.
"Thank you," he said. Barely audible.
Damian nodded.
"You’re off active duty," he said. "Full access suspended. You stay on estate grounds until I decide what comes next." He paused. "You don’t contact anyone outside this estate. Not anyone. If Malachai’s people reach out you tell me immediately."
"Yes," Callum said.
"And Callum."
Callum looked at him.
"Everything," Damian said. "Every contact. Every piece of information you passed. Every name he gave you and every name you gave him." A pause. "All of it. Starting tonight."
"Yes," Callum said.
"All of it," Damian said again. Not a threat. Just....certain.
Callum nodded.
***
They walked back through the east wing corridor in silence.
Damon was still tight. Still holding the thing that had wanted out since Aldenmere. But underneath it something had shifted.....Damian could feel it. The specific shift of someone who had heard something that complicated the anger without erasing it.
Silas walked quietly.
Processing. Always processing.
They reached the main corridor.
Stopped.
"His daughter’s name," Damon said.
"What," Damian said.
"What’s her name," Damon said.
Damian looked at him.
"I don’t know," he said. "But I’ll find out."
Damon nodded.
Didn’t say what he was thinking.
He didn’t need to.
Eve was in the sitting room.
She looked up when they came in.
Read their faces.
Didn’t ask if it was done.
She already knew.
"Malachai pulled the filing," Damian said. "He won’t risk Vessa going public." He sat down. "And Callum...." He paused. "It’s contained."
Eve looked at him.
"He has a daughter," Damian said. "Eight years old. Malachai used her."
Eve was quiet.
Her hand went to the pendant at her chest.
Held it there for a moment.
"Is she safe," Eve said.
"Yes," Damian said.
She nodded.
Looked at the window.
"So Malachai pulled back," she said.
"Yes."
"He lost the clause. He lost Callum as an asset now that we know." She paused. "He’s going to need a new angle."
"Yes," Damian said.
"Which means we have a window," she said. "Small. Before he finds one."
"Yes," Damian said.
She looked at him.
"Then we use it," she said.
