Chapter 109 Need to Know
Violet
The room doesn’t explode into panic after Camille finishes.
Instead, it becomes something else entirely.
Quiet. Focused. Dangerous.
For a moment no one moves, the glow from Camille’s monitors painting all of us in pale blue light while the weight of what she just revealed settles over the room.
My brother. A confidential informant. Working with the police. Gathering evidence. And dead because of it.
Rowan is the first to break the silence. His hand slides to the back of my chair, steady and grounding, but his eyes never leave the screen.
“Send everything to Devin,” he says.
Camille nods immediately, fingers already moving again. “Uploading now.”
Devin’s voice comes through Rowan’s phone from the table. Even through the speaker, I can hear the shift in his tone, lawyer mode, sharp and alert.
“Send the raw files, not the compressed versions,” he says. “I want the metadata intact.”
Camille snorts. “Relax, Dad. I know what I’m doing.”
Theo drags one of the kitchen chairs closer and leans over the table, studying the shell company records. “I want to look at the financial transfers again,” he mutters. “If Hargrove’s laundering bribes through developers, there’s a chance some of those companies have overlapping projects with Ashcroft developments.”
Rowan glances at him. “Meaning?”
Theo looks up. “Meaning if one of those developers has business ties to us... even indirectly, it gives Hargrove a way to twist the narrative again.”
I can hear Devin exhale over the phone. “Theo’s right,” he says. “We need to isolate any potential overlap before this goes public.”
Theo taps the screen where Camille has the financial records open. “I’ll take the shell companies,” he says. “Track them back through their parent organizations.”
Rowan nods once. “Do it.”
Camille rolls her chair sideways to give him room, already opening another window as files begin uploading to Devin’s secure server. “You’re going to love the next folder,” she mutters. “It’s full of campaign donor records.”
“Send everything,” Devin repeats. “My team will comb through it.”
Rowan pulls out another chair and sits beside Camille’s workstation, leaning forward to study the screen himself. “I want access to the entire archive,” he says.
Camille gestures toward the monitor. “Already shared.”
They keep talking.
Shell companies. Campaign donors. Permits. Financial trails. Evidence. Strategies.
It all blurs together after a while. Because while they’re planning what comes next… My mind is somewhere else entirely.
I’m standing a few feet away from the table, arms wrapped around myself without realizing it.
My brother. Drew. He didn’t die randomly. He didn’t overdose. He didn’t disappear because of some stupid accident like they tried to make it sound. He was murdered. Because he tried to expose corruption. Because some power-hungry politician wanted to get richer. Because a detective decided it was easier to silence a witness than face consequences.
My throat tightens.
Across the table Rowan is still focused on the files, his voice steady as he questions Camille about timestamps and meeting locations.
Theo is scribbling something on a notepad while cross-referencing financial reports.
Devin is asking for specific file numbers through the speakerphone.
They all believe this. They believe me. They believe what happened.
And suddenly that realization hits me harder than anything else tonight.
Because outside this room? No one does.
Outside these walls, Calder is still just a decorated detective who “made a mistake.” Outside this house, Hargrove is still a powerful councilwoman. Outside this house, the police department still looks the other way.
But inside this room?
They’re actually doing something about it.
Rowan. Theo. Camille. Even Devin, halfway across the city through a phone speaker.
They’re the only ones fighting back.
My stomach twists again as another thought pushes through.
Calder is still out there. Still breathing. Still walking around like nothing happened. The man who followed me. Who grabbed me. Who murdered my brother. He knows where I live. He knows where I work. He knows my name.
My chest tightens as that realization sinks deeper.
And suddenly anger burns hotter than the fear. Drew didn’t deserve this. He didn’t deserve to die because some money-hungry bimbo decided to get rich selling city permits. He didn’t deserve to end up on some quiet witness list buried inside a corruption file. And I sure as hell don’t deserve this either. Not the assault. Not the lies. Not the freezing of my accounts. Not the way they tried to turn me into some weak little pawn in their political games.
Across the room Rowan glances up suddenly. His eyes find mine immediately. Like he can read every single thought running through my head. His expression tightens slightly. But he doesn’t say anything. He just watches me for a moment longer before turning back to the screen.
And I realize something else.
Hargrove thinks she’s in control. She thinks she’s the one holding all the cards. But she has no idea what Camille just found. And she definitely has no idea what Rowan Ashcroft is capable of when someone threatens the people under his roof.
“There’s something else,” Rowan suddenly says.
Theo looks up immediately.
Camille pauses mid-typing.
Even Devin goes quiet on the phone.
“What?” Theo asks.
Rowan glances at him. “The PI.”
Theo exhales slowly, running a hand down his face. “Right.”
My head turns toward them. “What PI?”
Rowan’s eyes flick toward me briefly before he answers. “A private investigator we hired.”
“When?” I ask.
“A few weeks ago,” Theo says.
“We needed someone outside the system,” he continues. “Someone who wouldn’t get blocked by department politics.”
Camille looks between them. “You never told me about this.”
Rowan shrugs slightly. “Need-to-know basis.”
Theo gestures toward the screen. “And tonight proved we were right.”
Devin’s voice cuts in through the phone. “What did the investigator find?”
Theo glances at Rowan before answering. “He went dark a few days ago.”
That word hits the room like a weight.
Camille frowns. “Define ‘went dark.’”
Rowan’s voice is calm. “He stopped responding.”
My stomach twists.
Theo nods slowly. “Phone off. Email dead. Last known contact was three days ago.”
“Which means?” Camille asks.
“Either he’s hiding,” Theo says, “or someone made him disappear.”
The room falls quiet again.
Rowan continues before the tension can settle too deeply. “But before he went dark,” he says, “he found something.”
Theo leans back in his chair. “Something big.”
Camille swivels toward them fully now. “Okay, you can’t just say that and stop there.”
Rowan reaches for the tablet on the table and pulls up a file. A still image appears. Grainy security footage. A man in a police uniform. Calder.
Theo nods toward the screen. “That’s from another police department,” he says. “Another state.”
Camille leans closer. “What am I looking at?”
Rowan zooms in slightly. The footage shows Calder standing over someone. A man. Handcuffed.
The timestamp flickers. Then the video freezes.
Rowan taps the screen. “He shoots him.”
My breath catches. “What?”
Theo’s expression is grim. “That man was a CI.”
Confidential Informant. Just like Drew.
Camille slowly leans back in her chair. “You’re telling me Calder murdered another informant before Drew?”
Rowan nods once. “And it was caught on camera.”