Vice and Void (The Savage Wolves Brotherhood #1)

33. Chapter 33

Chapter 33

Callum

“Hand me that wrench,” Callum said to Rocco, pointing at the tool cart near the front of the car. Rocco pulled his head from under the hood to give it to Callum, who secured the bolt he had been balancing between his fingers.

“Any word on Lyra?” Rocco asked as he swiped away sweat with the back of his hand, smearing oil across his brow.

Callum sighed, removing the stained towel from his shoulder to wipe the grease from his hands. The day was unseasonably hot for the beginning of autumn, the breeze doing little to quell the swelter. “Maybe. Vanguard said something real fucking interesting to Dakota when we went to Blackdon to drop off the distills. Alexei either slipped up, or he’s fucking with us.”

Rocco clenched his fists around the towel he had pulled from his back pocket. Logan walked behind them, whistling a song that had been stuck in his head all fucking day. Between the heat, the thought of Dakota’s distillation experiment later that week, and Logan’s stupid fucking song, Callum was nearing his wit’s end.

“What are we gonna do about it?” Rocco asked when Logan began to wave another car into the bay. “It’s been months now, Callum.”

“I’ve got Red on it. Called him early this morning.” Callum balled up the towel and tossed it into the corner of the bay. “He’s going to scout this weekend.”

“You’re sending him to scout Vanguard?” Rocco’s incredulous tone rose over the speakers’ bass, loud enough that Ace lifted his head from the engine two bays over.

Callum shot Rocco a look of warning. “And they’ll know we’re doing it if you fucking say it any louder.”

“Sorry,” Rocco retorted, though his voice was notably softer. “Why Red? He’s old as fuck, man.”

Callum couldn’t help his snort of laughter. “Because I can’t send Ace, he’ll blow the whole fucking thing looking for Euphoric. I can’t send Maverick—he’ll squeal to Duke the second I turn my back.”

“And me?”

“I can’t send you because I need you here to help with the distillation shit for Dakota and Kane. If anyone comes to the club and doesn’t see you there, they’ll get suspicious. And Alexei knows your face. Red? Not so much.”

Rocco shook his head as a rumble of motorcycles pulled into the parking lot. “I hope you know what you’re doing, man. Tailing Alexei is a fucking death sentence.”

“It’d be a quicker death than the one you and Dakota would give me if I don’t find Lyra.”

Rocco tilted his head in thought before nodding. “You and Dakota a thing again, then? Heard your mom raging about it in the club this morning.”

Callum sighed as Duke stepped into the bay, removing his sunglasses from his face as his eyes landed on Callum. “Dakota’s always been it. But we’ve got some complicated shit to work through before that is even a question.” He lifted his chin toward Duke in greeting as the Lead suddenly turned toward Ace.

Rocco and Callum exchanged dark looks as Duke clapped a hand on Ace’s shoulder.

“Heard congratulations are in order,” Duke said as Maverick stood back to watch the interaction with a smug smirk. “Took us some time, but we got him in the end. What does your old man think?”

Ace’s grin was feral, the same one that split his face ear-to-ear when Dominic Sinclair finally died. When Dakota finished the job. Callum spent the last two days trying to distract Dakota from the pain he knew she was in, though the haunted look in her eyes still lingered in the nightly silence before she fell asleep. From the fits and grimaces, he could only assume her nightmares had returned. If they had left at all.

He had years and dozens of kills under his belt to compartmentalize. Dakota? He couldn’t imagine her last twelve years were spent covering up murders. And now he had gotten her tied up in two of them .

“Not yet,” Ace responded as he tossed a tool into the nearest cart. A sharp clink of metal against metal echoed through the buzz of drills. “Haven’t found the right time to break it to him.”

“But you’re feeling good about? No regrets?” Duke asked, tilting his head to nail his stare further into Ace. Callum knew that stare was more assessing and scrutinizing than anything close to supportive. An attempt to make out how close he was to breaking.

Ace shook his head. “Not even a fucking bit.”

“Good,” Duke said. He nodded as he turned to look at Logan. “The Brotherhood is here to protect Norwich. We should be doing anything we can to get these predators and murderers off the fucking streets.”

Rocco’s elbow dug into Callum’s ribs, pulling him away from seeing the look of satisfaction and pride that he knew radiated from Ace at that moment. He glanced over his shoulder, spotting Dylan peering through the small window in the back office.

“What is he here for?” Callum asked Rocco, who merely shrugged. “Keep an eye on them.” He jutted his chin toward Ace and Duke before turning toward the door. Rocco nodded as he grabbed a tool from the cart and stuck his head under the hood.

Callum slipped through the door and wove through the maze of inventory boxes he had yet to unpack. Dylan watched Ace and Duke’s interaction through the office window as Callum crossed the threshold.

“What’s going on?” Callum asked, letting the door swing closed behind him. The blinds clacked against the window inset. Whatever it was couldn't be good.

Dylan finally turned, putting his back to Ace and Duke. From the corner of his eye, Callum saw Duke curiously eyeing them. “I’ve got some information for you. From what you put me on over the summer.”

Callum settled behind his desk. “Should I get—“ He began to gesture toward Duke, but Dylan quickly shook his head.

“No. This is for you and you alone.”

That definitely wasn’t good. Callum rubbed his temple and leaned back in the office seat. He had forgotten to turn the warmer off the pot, and the smell of burnt coffee was an overwhelming scent that put him even more on edge. “Okay. Lay it on me then.”

“John Montgomery has nothing to do with the people in that prison basement Dakota mentioned. I’ve dug through files and talked with people on the side at the Fieldhouse. It seems like whatever experimentation is happening there is without his knowledge. And he’s fucking enraged over it. ”

Callum knew more about the Head Ranger than he ever wanted to. Which meant that he knew John hated being left out more than anything. “What does the experimentation have to do with him anyway?”

Dylan shrugged. “Seems like the governor is going rogue. There have been reports of the distillations not having the same effect. I don’t know the science behind it, but John is trying to get more information.” His eyes shadowed over, a darkness drawing over his gaze. “He’s started asking around about Dakota. He knows that she's James Ashborne’s star associate. He also knows that she’s gone to meetings with him.”

Callum swore under his breath, bracing the back of his head as he leaned further in the chair. The hinges squeaked in protest. “Next steps?”

Dylan shook his head. “Haven’t heard that far yet. He’s been too busy with the two missing deputies. Once he figures that out, I’ll let you know if he puts a tail on her.” He planted his knuckles on the desk. “We both know what he’ll find if he puts a tail on her.”

Her at the clubhouse. Her at Callum's house. Her in his bed.

“John Montgomery won’t hesitate to lock me up when he finds a good enough reason to. Add Dakota into that, and he’ll do it even faster.”

“Would fuck up the entire operation. And there’s only so much I can do to help you. Luckily, his attention has been fixed on Dominic Sinclair lately.” Callum shifted in his seat, and Dylan’s eyes narrowed. “What was that?”

Callum lowered his hand from where he had traced his lip with his finger. “What was what?”

Dylan pointed at him. “That. Fucking that. You know something.”

Callum sighed. “Do you want to know?”

“Is it about Dominic Sinclair?” When Callum remained silent, Dylan dropped his chin to his chest. “Just tell me, man. Don’t keep me in the dark with this shit.”

Callum slid his gaze toward the bay window, where Duke and Maverick had disappeared from Ace’s side. Though he couldn’t hear over the speakers’ bass, he could no longer see the front of Duke’s motorcycle tire. Rocco’s stare hadn’t yet left Ace, who was flitting around the car he was working on like he was walking on sunshine.

“Ace received some information that Dominic Sinclair was the one who killed Raven.”

“Gods fucking damnit,” Dylan said as he sank into the seat opposite Callum, adjusting his gun belt to the side. “Dominic would never. He had nothing to do with Raven’s murder. He…what the fuck happened?”

Callum shook his head. “I tried to stop it, but Ace was on a rampage. He was convinced Dominic did it. Wouldn’t listen to anything else. I tracked him to the outskirts of town, but he had already shot Dominic in the chest.” He recounted the rest of the events, from wrestling the gun from Ace to calling Dakota to depositing the body in the quarry.

Dylan’s stare darted up from the stack of papers on the desk. “You got Dakota involved in it?”

“I didn’t have a fucking choice. I had her bring distills to save him, but…” Callum trailed off.

“It was too late?”

Again, Callum remained silent.

“You let him die. Fucking shit, Callum.”

“We didn’t have a choice. Dakota, she—“ He sighed, scrubbing a hand down his face and clenching his jaw. “If we let him live, he would have needed to go to the Guildhall to get the bullet removed. He would have been able to point right at Ace. He could have said I was there, that Dakota was there. It would have brought the entire fucking Iron Guard down onto the Brotherhood, onto her.”

Dylan braced his forearms on his thighs, shaking his head. “Dominic’s brother is in town looking into his disappearance. You know, the older one. That rich fucking businessman from just outside of Blackdon. He’s had a few meetings with John Montgomery already.”

“Fuck.”

“You gotta get Dakota out of this shit. You gotta get her as far away from the Brotherhood as you can.”

“I know, I will. The distillation process is almost done. We—“

“No. Now. You need to get her out now. If you love her, if you ever fucking loved her, you need to let her go.”

The flare of irritation barely had time to spark before an inferno of anger threatened to boil Callum’s blood alive. “Don’t fucking talk to me like this is a choice—“

“Involving Dakota was a fucking choice. She’s been back, what, two months, and she’s already been—“ He must have realized he had started to shout because Dylan swallowed hard and took a deep breath. “Two deputies are dead. Two deputies are dead that she had direct involvement in. Her father is the Lead Ranger. How quickly do you think they’ll come to her door?”

“They’ll come to mine first.”

Dylan shook his head as he stood up, adjusting his gun belt back into place. “And the breadcrumb trail will lead right to her. It won’t take them a few days at most to put the pieces together.” He sighed. “Just think about what I said. She’s a good fucking person with a bright future ahead of her. She’s not like us. We deserve this. She doesn’t.”

Callum wanted to yell out in frustration as soon as the door clanged shut behind Dylan. Wanted to flip the desk and trash the office and punch a hole through the fucking wall. He hadn’t lied when he told Dakota that he never expected to have these experiences with her again. That included being thrust into the middle of Dakota and the Brotherhood.

One way or the other, he was going to lose. And one way or the other, it seemed he was fated to spend another ten to fifty years behind the bars of a cell.