Darkness Falls (The Darkness Duet #2)

Chapter 41

Sebastian

" C allie," Damien says, and she snaps her head in his direction. It's obvious she hasn't been paying attention and isn't doing much to hide the fact.

"Huh?" She raises a brow.

"Pay attention," Damien says.

Yeah, he can fuck right off. He doesn’t need to talk to her like that, and if we were anywhere else, I’d make him apologize. She clearly has no intention of listening to anything he says, and that fills me with pride. I love seeing her so strong and resilient toward someone who put her through so much.

"Callie, do you have anything to say for yourself?" Austin asks her.

"Does it even matter what I have to say? I could sit here for hours going on and on with a whole list of things, but none of it will matter."

"You're wrong. The council would like to know the details of where you were at the time of your father's murder."

This is the moment we've been waiting for with this stupid trial. It’s perfect timing, too, because I feel my phone vibrate, and when I pull it out, I see a text from Barrett with the go-ahead. He’s got the bombs in place, and everything is working out exactly as it should.

Callie looks over at me, and I nod slightly and tap my finger to my nose so she knows we are good to go. Her eyes widen a bit, but she nods back before looking over at Austin. Here we go.

"If you want to know where I was when my father died, it was in the same place he always kept me when he didn't have direct eyes on me."

"And where exactly is that?" Damien asks, even though the dumb fucker already knows. He doesn't think she has the balls to be honest with them about the kind of person her father was.

Callie glares at Damien. "I was locked in my room, but you already know that, considering you were one of the ones that made sure I stayed there."

Austin clears his throat, bringing everyone's attention to him. "Let me get this straight. You expect us to believe that your father and husband kept you, the legacy of Rogue, locked in your bedroom?”

"Believe what you want to believe. That's your choice, and that's where I was."

"We can't go off of your word, Mrs. Michaels," Austin says, shaking his head. "Do you have any proof to back up these claims?"

"You know, it's funny that you bring that up. I do, in fact, have proof of quite a few things." A smile spreads across her face when she turns to look at me. I step over to the backpack that she perched up against the stage to grab it before handing it to her.

She pulls out a stack of things and holds them to her chest before grabbing the flash drive and looking over at me. "Can you take the bag back?"

I nod and grab it, allowing her space to place the stack of yellow folders and her father’s notebook on her lap. My eyes scan the room. Everyone seems to have a weary look on their faces. They aren't keen on surprises, and I would guess Callie’s confidence is throwing them off even more.

"I hardly think this is a time for you to be smiling, Mrs. Michaels," Austin chides.

He's being so condescending, and I want to jump up on the stage and slap that smug look off of his face, but she's done a good enough job of holding her own thus far. I'm not going to take this moment from her. I can't wait to tie her up and have her scream my name as I make her come over and over again for payment of my patience.

"Austin, I've given you a pretty decent amount of respect thus far, considering the circumstances, but if you call me Mrs. Michaels again, we're going to have a problem." She looks him dead in the eyes as she stands from her seat. "My name is Callie, and that is how you will address me moving forward."

He seems a bit taken aback as he brings his hand up to rub the back of his neck. "Please proceed with your evidence," he pauses, "Callie."

She moves to the podium and holds up the notebook first. "This is my father’s notebook. It contains a list of every person my father had blackmail on, including every single one of you."

Chatter fills the crowd as they whisper amongst themselves. Callie opens the notebook and starts reading off names, one by one. She gets through two pages of names before she turns to the last page and holds up the set of coordinates that led us to the cabin.

"This is a set of coordinates to a cabin not far from here. My father had a special team protecting it. There’s an entire room filled with filing cabinets and these folders. Each folder is for a specific person and filled with, well, I’m sure you can guess, blackmail," she says while holding them up.

"I'm failing to see how this has any relevance to your father's death," Austin cuts her off. "We are not on trial here, you are."

"Austin Roberts. Would you like to see your file? It's pretty detailed. In fact, I brought the files of each of the council members. Yours are the thickest of the bunch. Did you know my father has had Damien killing for him for the last ten years? Did you believe the lie about him being at an international chapter of Rogue? Spoiler alert, Rogue doesn't have an international chapter. It's all been a farce."

"LIES!" Damien shouts, and she laughs.

"Don't worry, husband, I'll save the best for last. It’s not your turn yet," she says before focusing back on the crowd.

Fuck, I'm so proud of the way she is standing up for herself and controlling the narrative of the room. I knew she would be amazing, but this is far beyond what I expected she was capable of. Callie is a natural-born leader. It's sexy as hell.

"Michael Reuben. Please stand up," she calls out, waiting for him to make his presence known. When a body in the back of the room stands, I prepare myself for all hell to break loose. "Michael Reuben has been sleeping with Jeremy Finch's wife for three years."

"You've been fucking my wife?" Jeremy stands, fists clenched at his sides.

"No, man, it's not true. She's lying. I have no clue why she would say something like that," Michael calls out.

After a moment, Jeremy turns to face the stage, looking at Callie again. He clearly doesn't like that Callie made him look weak. The fact that his wife is sleeping with someone else suggests he doesn't have everything in check at home.

"Do you have proof of this?" Jeremy says to Callie, but she ignores him and continues creating chaos.

"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.

Brian stands 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 members who 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.