Chapter 156: Chapter 156 The new discovery
_Author’s POV_
Rowena stared at the name on her phone screen for a long time.
She read it twice. Then a third time. Like reading it enough times would somehow change what it said or make it make more sense than it currently did.
It didn’t.
She set the phone down on the bed beside her and just sat there for a moment, staring at the wall in front of her. Her ribs ached when she breathed too deeply, so she kept her breathing shallow and steady as she tried to think clearly.
The name in the document was Malcolm Reid.
Reid. As in Alaric’s Reid. The same Reid who had been with Alaric from the beginning of all of this. The same Reid who had coordinated the advance team on the ground. The same Reid who was, at this very moment, already at the island with Alaric’s military unit waiting for the signal to move.
Rowena picked the phone back up. She needed to be sure before she did anything. She went back into the documents and traced the account again, slowly, following every connection Celeste had mapped out. The money from the shell company. The account it came from. The name attached to it.
Malcolm Reid.
She wasn’t misreading it.
Her first instinct was to call Alaric. She opened his contact and her thumb hovered over the call button for a second before she stopped herself.
If Reid was watching Alaric’s communications, and if he had been involved from the beginning, there was every chance he was, then calling Alaric directly would tip him off. Reid would know they were onto him before anyone could get close enough to do anything about it.
She needed to reach someone who wasn’t on the island yet. Someone Reid wouldn’t be watching.
She called Celeste.
It rang four times before going to voicemail.
Rowena hung up and tried again. Voicemail again.
She sat up straighter despite the pull in her left side and tried to think. Celeste was probably already in position and had her phone off. That was standard — Celeste went completely dark when she was operational. No calls, no messages, nothing that could make noise at the wrong moment.
She tried Kasper next.
He picked up on the second ring.
“Rowena.” His voice was low. She could hear wind on his end and the distant sound of vehicles. “Is everything alright?”
“I need you to listen to me carefully,” she said, keeping her voice even. “And I need you to not react out loud when I tell you what I found.”
A brief pause. “Go ahead.”
“Reid,” she said simply. “Check the financial records Celeste sent. Third shell account in the money trail. His name is there, Kasper. He’s connected to the facility.”
Silence on the other end. The kind of silence that meant Kasper was processing rather than doubting.
“How deep,” he said quietly.
“Deep enough that his account funded part of the operation,” Rowena said. “I don’t know what his role was exactly. But he knew about the facility. He probably knew about me.”
Another silence.
“Alaric doesn’t know,” Kasper said. It wasn’t a question.
“No. And we can’t call him directly. Not if Reid is close enough to monitor his communications.”
“Understood.” Kasper’s voice had gone completely flat and professional, the way it did when he shifted into a mode that had no room for anything except the task. “I’m twenty minutes behind the main convoy. I’ll handle it before I reach the island. Don’t call anyone else.”
“Be careful,” Rowena said.
“Always,” he said, and hung up.
She lowered the phone slowly.
The room felt even quieter now than it had before, which she hadn’t thought was possible. She got up from the bed carefully, one hand pressed to her left side, and walked to the terrace.
Just her and whatever was happening on an island she couldn’t get to.
She hated this feeling more than almost anything. Standing on the outside of something. She was not built for waiting and she never had been.
Her wolf would have been restless right now too. Kyra would have been pacing, pressing against the edges of her mind, wanting to move and act and do something. But there was no Kyra anymore and the silence where her wolf used to be was its own particular kind of lonely that Rowena tried not to think about too directly.
She leaned against the terrace railing and looked out at the city.
Reid.
She kept turning the name over. How long had he been involved. From the beginning, maybe. Before the abduction. Before any of this started. Had he been feeding information to Virella this whole time, from inside Alaric’s own circle. How much did he know? How much had he passed on?
It explained some things that hadn’t made sense before. How Virella always seemed to be one step ahead. How the facility had stayed hidden for as long as it did. Someone on the inside had been keeping it clean.
Her phone buzzed with a message from Kasper.
“Handled. He’s contained. Alaric knows.”
Three sentences. That was all. But she felt the tension in her shoulders release by about half.
She typed back. Is Alaric okay.
The reply came fast. He’s angry. But okay.
She could imagine that. Alaric angry was a controlled and quiet thing, which somehow made it worse than if he’d been loud about it. The kind of anger that didn’t go away quickly because it didn’t have anywhere obvious to go.
She went back inside and sat on the edge of the bed.
Her ribs reminded her firmly that she had been upright for too long. She shifted back against the pillows and closed her eyes, phone resting on her chest, waiting for the next update.
The operation was still running. Virella and Theo were still on that island.
But one more piece of the picture had just fallen into place.
And this time, it was a piece no one had seen coming.
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