Chapter 104: DINNER FOR TWO
CALLUM’S POV
I looked at Rhett.
"Say that again." I ordered.
"Another person." He said. "That’s the only thing I heard. She only said it once and then she stopped like she hadn’t meant to and changed what she was saying." He looked at me. "I don’t know who it is. I only know it’s a woman."
The cell was very quiet.
Dane was looking at me from the side and I could feel him looking at me but I kept my eyes on Rhett.
Was this person in this pack? Could Rhett have been wrong in his judgement of what he heard?
"Thank you." I said to Rhett. "For telling me."
I stood up.
Outside the cell, in the corridor, Dane fell into step beside me and we walked in silence until we were far enough from the guard and the cells that nobody could hear us.
"Callum." He started.
"I heard what he said, and I understand very clearly." I said.
"Who is she?" He asked. "I’m drawing blanks."
"I need to look into it." I said. "Don’t say anything yet to anyone."
He looked at me. "How bad is it? On your end."
"I don’t know yet." I said. "Don’t say anything."
He was quiet for a long moment. "Okay." He said.
I released Rhett the next morning and made him an enforcer, which Dane thought was odd and told me so directly.
"You’re giving a man we just had in a cell a badge." He said, over dinner in my sitting room that evening.
The table was set for two because Nadia was at Keisha’s and Becca had made something good and it seemed wasteful to eat alone.
"I’m giving a man who knows their operations from the inside a reason to help us from the inside." I told him.
"He could be playing you." Dane said.
"He could." I said. "He’s also the only person we have with direct knowledge of how they move." I poured water into both glasses. "We keep watching him. But we use what he knows."
Dane looked at his plate. "And his family?"
"I’ll find them somewhere safe." I said. "A permanent arrangement. Something that isn’t contingent on his cooperation." I sat back. "If he knows his family is safe regardless, I have less leverage over him. But I have more trust."
"You trust him?" Dane asked.
"Not yet." I said. "But I want to."
Dane shook his head slightly in the way he did when he thought I was doing something that was either very right or very wrong and hadn’t decided which.
We ate silently.
The sitting room was quiet and it was the first meal I had sat down to properly in days and I felt a kind of fatigue in my back and my eyes and the way the chair felt.
"She’s been there almost two weeks now." Dane said after a while.
"Who?" I asked.
He gave me a look.
"Nadia." I muttered, understanding finally.
"She’s coming to work every day." He said. "Doing well apparently. Mr Hale hasn’t complained which from him is practically a commendation." He paused. "She’s settled in."
"She has." I nodded.
"You could go and see her." He said. "Nadia. Officially."
"Nadia isn’t speaking to me." I reminded him.
"Nadia is always speaking to you." He said. "She just makes you work for it." He drank his water. "She misses you. You know she does."
I said nothing.
"And Keisha’s house is three minutes from here." He said.
I looked at him.
"I’m just noting the geography and how easy it is." He shrugged.
"Thank you." I said. "For the geography."
He almost smiled.
We finished dinner and he left and I sat alone in the sitting room and looked at my phone on the table and thought about what Rhett had said.
Then I picked up my phone,looking at the message that my sister, Vera had sent days ago which I had left unanswered.
How are you, brother? It’s been too long.
I looked at it for a long time. Then I called her.
She answered on the third ring, her voice warm, familiar and exactly the way it always was. "Finally." She said. "I was starting to think you’d forgotten I existed."
"Never." I said. "How are the border negotiations?"
"Exhausting." She sighed. "Duskfen is being difficult but that’s nothing new. How are you? How’s Nadia?"
"Nadia is working." I said. "At the communications office. She applied independently."
A pause followed. "Did she?" Vera said,with something cheery in her voice. "That’s — that’s wonderful. I’m glad she’s finding her feet."
"She is." I said. "She’s living off estate at the moment. With Keisha."
"Keisha." Vera paused for a full second. "How is she? I’ve been thinking about her actually. She must be settling in well by now."
"She is." I nodded.
"Good." Vera said. "Has she been — healthy? She seemed like a delicate thing when I last saw her."
I looked at the wall.
"Callum?" She said. "You went quiet."
"Long day." I frowned. "I should let you rest."
"Don’t be silly." She said. "Tell me what’s happening there. I want to know everything."
I looked at the phone in my hand.
There was a whole lot going on at the moment.
"Actually." I said. "I think I’ll come to the borders soon. See the negotiations for myself."
"Oh." The warmth in her voice shifted just slightly. "You don’t need to do that. I have everything under control here."
"I’m sure you do." I said. "I’d like to see it anyway."
A pause followed and she said nothing.
"Of course." She said. "Whenever you’re ready."
We said goodbye and I put the phone down and sat in the quiet of my sitting room and looked at the wall.
A question gnawed heavily at me. If I went to Vanessa now, she wouldn’t answer me. I was sure of that. And Rhett didn’t know anything more to tell me. He could be lying, Dane was right about that, but he had no reason to now. And I could feel strongly that he wasn’t lying.
Who was this person?