Page 89 of Darkness Falls

"Joe Pots had Brian's brother killed because he wanted to marry his wife, and they had been sleeping together for months. The son that they had together, yeah, it’s not really his son."

The men in the crowd grow a bit more rowdy, unable to keep their whispers at bay. We are right on the precipice of where we want them.

"Is it true? Are you fucking my wife?" I hear Jeremy yell at Michael again. The two of them are now mere feet away from one another.

Brianstands up and runs across the room toward who I assume to be Joe and tackles him to the ground. Nobody tries to intervene between the men, though. They whisper amongst themselves, trying to figure out if they can believe what Callie is telling them.

"David Bubble has been stealing money from Rogue for years to fund his drug habit. Bobby Rit lost the campaign he was running for on purpose, even though he was supposed to win." She continues digging into them one at a time while Austin tries to regain control of the room. It's useless at this point.

"Settle down!" Austin tries.

"Austin Roberts has been in a secret relationship with Steve Johnson for nearly twenty years. It’s why neither of them ever had children. He had a vasectomy as a cover story," Callie says, turning to face Austin with a sly smile across her face. "If you want your proof, here you go."

She pulls out a photo of the two council members held in one another's embrace, and Austin runs over to grab it from her before anyone can see. He doesn't get it quick enough. She tosses the photo out to the crowd, and someone runs up to grab it. They pass it along, chaos now ensuing. We're not quite done yet. One final nail should be enough.

"Oh, and my perfect husband, Damien, has been planning to dissolve the council. He and my father planned to change the way Rogue is ruled. No more group decisions. My father wanted to be the sole decision maker. You want to know why Damien had him killed?" She pauses while the few memberswho are still paying attention wait for the juicy tea. "Damien killed him because he wanted the sole power for himself."

She slips the flash drive into the device that controls the screen behind her, and the video of Damien and Gabriel in his office begins to play. Chaos erupts, exactly like we thought it would, and she tosses the yellow folders into the crowd.

"Where did you get that?" Damien asks, standing and focusing on my girl.

"Want to know the biggest secret of them all?" she asks, knowing full well that this will cause nothing but pure panic amongst all the members. "My birth parents are Elizabeth and Martin Stone. Gabriel stole me and burned down their house, killing them because his leadership role was being threatened. He raised me as his own, and you were all none the wiser. The future of this society never belonged to Gabriel. This trial is to find the murderer of a man who murdered a founding family and stole their legacy."

People stand from their chairs in complete disarray. They look toward one another, unsure of what to do, and it’s the exact reaction we were hoping for. Damien grabs her by the arm, and I see red.

Everyone else is too distracted fighting amongst themselves to notice what's happening on stage. Austin ran over to Steve, and they have a whole group of people around them now, screaming and asking questions. The video we put together of some of the other photo evidence of random members starts playing on the screen, and more and more people begin fighting.

Damien pulls Callie off the stage and toward the door. She lets him because she’s thinking exactly what I am. If Damien takes her outside, it'll be the perfect opportunity for us to drug him. We can get away with him while everyone else will be in the building fighting amongst themselves. I smile as I leave the backpack strategically in place next to the stage, knowing it’s packed full of explosives.

Damien disappears out of the front of the building with Callie, and I quickly follow. She will have to hold her own for a moment while I secure the lock and chain Barrett left on the door to keep people in.

We have a very limited amount of time before the people inside realize we’re gone, and the chains need to be there to prevent them from leaving. Barrett made sure to secure all the doors of the building before placing the bombs around the compound. Our main focus was to get this building covered before any others since this is where everyone is.

As soon as I click the lock in place, I reach into my pocket to grab the vial of the drug needed to inject it into the piece of shit. I turn to find Callie in an all-out fight with Damien. She’s using the kickboxing Barrett taught her to slide from his grasp and kick him in the chest. It's hot as fuck to witness.

I want to give her the time she deserves to handle him, but we can do all of that once we get off this compound. I stroll toward them and stab Damien in the neck with the drug, not hesitating to give him the full dose. It's double what we gave Callie and should keep him out for quite some time.

"Hey!"she protests, but I ignore her.

"Do you have something we can use to get him out of here?"

Barrett runs over, and I immediately shake my head. He was supposed to wait for us outside of the blast range. For once, I'm kind of thankful he didn't listen. He can help me get Damien out of here faster.

"You’re not supposed to be here. Grab an arm, let's go," I instruct, and he comes over to wrap one of Damien's arms around his shoulders. The two of us carry him, his feet dragging behind while Callie follows closely. We should have prepared for this a little better with a wagon or something, but the sooner we can clear the blast range, the sooner this can all be over.

Chapter 42

Barrett

Sebastian and Callie disappeared from my sight, and Kyler went his own way, leaving me alone to manage the bags of bombs. I grabbed the last few things I needed from the car, shoveled them into a backpack, and grabbed the bags before making my way through the woods. As much as I wanted to go in the direction Callie and Seb went, I had to play my part first.

My role was to place the bombs around the compound while they were in the trial and secure the doors of the main building. I honestly think I had the easiest task out of everyone because they needed me to be available to run interference if it came down to it.

Once I’m sure everyone is inside the building, I secure all the doors except the front. Then, I made quick work of placing bombs on each one of the main buildings. I drop a few extras in miscellaneous places around the compound as well. They’re all already programmed to blow with the button on my phone.

I finally came back to the main building to set the bombs around each side of it and set them to explode with the others. I hate the idea of setting these up with my girl and my brother still inside, but everything needs to be ready. My eyes drift tothe front door, and I wonder how Callie is holding up. She's probably telling them off and putting each one of those smug bastards in their place.

I pull out my phone and shoot Sebastian the coded message, so he knows everything is in place. They are free to cause complete chaos. I bet it will be a sight to see. All those dumb fuckers thought they were untouchable. So many of them worked their way into our justice system and high-ranking positions all over the country. That doesn’t matter, though; thanks to Callie, we have a cover story prepared and ready.

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