Chapter 89: THE PHOTOGRAPH
DANE’S POV
Vanessa had led me to Rhett.
That was the short version of it. The longer version was three hours of following her through the pack grounds at enough distance that she didn’t clock me, watching her stop at the east boundary twice, watching her stand at the fence line and look out like she was waiting for something.
The third time she stopped, someone appeared on the other side.
Rhett.
They spoke through the fence for about twelve minutes. I was close enough to see faces, not close enough to hear content, but I didn’t need the content. I had the connection. Vanessa to Rhett to Osric to Declan, the whole chain of it, and now I had a face and a name and a pattern of contact that I could document.
I went to Callum’s quarters.
The door was open slightly, which was unusual. I knocked anyway.
"Come in." His voice from inside.
I pushed the door open.
He was at the far end of the room, not at his desk, standing in front of the shelf where he kept the photographs. Not all of them — just a few. His parents. Nadia as a baby. And the one in the simple dark frame that he never moved and never talked about.
His wife.
I had seen him look at it before. Not often. He was private about it in the way he was private about most things that actually mattered to him. But there was something in the quality of his looking tonight that was different from the other times.
I said nothing for a moment.
Then— "You missing her?"
He didn’t answer immediately. Just kept looking at the photograph. "I was thinking about her." He said finally. "About what she would say." He paused. "About all of this."
I waited.
"She used to call Keisha her daughter." He said. "When she was small. When Keisha and Nadia were together which was always." He looked at the photograph. "She would come home from school with Nadia and my wife would make them both sit at the kitchen table and she’d ask about their days and she called them both— my girls." He stopped. "Both of them."
The room was quiet.
"And now." He trailed off and didn’t finish the sentence.
"And now." I tucked my hand in my pockets.
He turned from the photograph. "I keep trying to determine whether what I’m doing is wrong." He said. "And I can’t get there. I keep looking for the line and I can’t find it and I don’t know if that means there isn’t one or if it means I’ve already crossed it so far that I can’t see it anymore."
I looked at him.
"She was a child in this house." He said, his voice low. "Keisha. She sat at my kitchen table." He looked at his hands. "I know what that sounds like."
"It sounds like you’re describing someone who grew up." I said. "Someone who is twenty one years old and made choices with full awareness." I paused. "That’s different from what you’re making it sound like."
"Is it?" He asked.
"Yes." I said.
He was quiet.
"The bond didn’t ask either of you about your history." I said. "It doesn’t care about any of it. It just—" I stopped. "It just is. And you can spend the rest of your life interrogating whether you’re allowed to feel what you feel or you can accept that it happened and figure out what to do from here."
He looked at me for a long moment.
Then he sat down at his desk. "What did you come to tell me?" He asked.
Back to business. I knew that shift and let it happen.
"I found Rhett." I said. "Properly found him. Vanessa led me to him tonight at the east boundary fence." I sat across from him. "They spoke for about twelve minutes. I couldn’t hear the content but I have the connection documented now. Vanessa to Rhett to Osric. The chain is complete."
Callum leaned forward slightly. "What do you know about Rhett?"
"Not enough yet." I said. "He comes from outside the pack. Not Coldridge, not Duskfen. Somewhere else. He knows the boundary gaps which means he’s been coached by someone who knows this estate well." I paused. "And he’s connected to whoever supplied the heat accelerant."
Callum’s jaw tightened. "You’re sure?"
"Not yet." I said. "But the timeline fits. He was moving around this estate before the cabin. Before Keisha arrived." I looked at him. "This was planned before she even got here."
Callum was quiet for a long moment.
"Don’t move on him yet." He said. "Keep watching. I want the full picture before we act. If we move too early, Osric and Vanessa disappear the evidence and we have nothing."
"Understood." I said.
"Discreet." He reminded me. "Everything discreet."
"Always." I said.
I stood to leave.
"Dane." He said.
I stopped.
He was looking at the photograph again from across the room. "What I said earlier." He said. "About whether it’s wrong."
"I know." I said.
"I’m not asking for absolution." He said. "I’m just—" He stopped. "I’m just noting that I think about it."
"I know you do." I said. "So do I."
He nodded once and I left.
The night was cold and clear and I found a bench near the east garden wall and sat on it and thought about Callum standing in front of that photograph.
I thought about Lyra.
About the reason I had left her that I still hadn’t told anyone.
Before any of us understood what was coming.
Keisha had asked me about it before. Wanted to know why I had hurt her sister. But I hadn’t actually known what to tell her. Because if Lyra didn’t want to tell anyone about the truth, I also didn’t want to.
I pulled out a cigarette, lit it and sat in the cold and let the smoke go quietly.
This was therapeutic. Quiet. Felt great. It felt freeing to just—
A quiet voice sounded behind me, startling me. "I didn’t know you smoked."