Page 79 of Callous Shot

“Check your messages. Now. Neil’s been injured, and shit’s going down.”

Oh, fuck.

“I’m fine. It’s nothing.” Neil grimaced at his right-hand man, who was being all domestic and pouring water into a glass for him after tucking his blankets around him. I smirked.

“Wow, Sid. You do have a sweet side.”

“Lies and slander, little lordling.”

“How dare you!” I gasped, placing my hand on my heart. “Neil, are you listening to this?”

“Dan,” he said wearily, and I instantly deflated. Stop using humour as a coping mechanism, idiot.

“Yeah.” I bit down on my lip, eyeing the IV line coming out of his arm with concern before my gaze flicked up to his pale face and the bruising mottling his skin. “Are you really okay? You don’t look so good.”

From the corner of the room, Dr. Attwood cleared his throat. He’d been conferring with my mum, but now he was glancing between me, Sid, and my uncle. “Neil will be fine now I’ve patched him up. What he needs is rest. At least forty-eight hours, preferably more. If I had my way, he’d be in bed for a week, but we all know that he would never agree to that.”

“Bryan—” Neil began, but Dr. Attwood shot him a severe look.

“Bed rest. You’ve just had a blood transfusion, and you’re concussed.”

“You’re not going anywhere,” my mum added. “I’m going to be right here to make sure you don’t go against Bryan’s orders.”

“Rachel—”

“No,” my mum, Bryan, and Sid all said at the same time, and I smirked.

“We’ve got this,” Sid assured Neil, shooting me a sideways look. I nodded immediately. Whatever it was, I was in. Whoever had gone up against the Hoyton Firm was going to pay in blood. Especially after roughing up my uncle. “Get a snack, maybe take a nap. You’ll need all your strength for tonight. Meet me in the cellar in two hours.”

“Got it.”

When the two of us were encased in the cellar that doubled as an armoury, I finally spoke. “Want to tell me what’s going on? I wanted to talk to you, Neil, and Mum anyway. One of the detectives showed up at my game last night. Again. Do you think this is all connected?”

Sid swore under his breath. “This isn’t good. Did you get a decent visual? Anything we can use to identify them? I’m gonna suggest to Neil that we have one of our team in attendance at your future games. Maybe Paula—she’s discreet, and she actually enjoys watching ice hockey.”

“Hey! You’d better not be suggesting you’re not into my chosen sport.”

“Daniel. Stay focused. The detective?”

“Right, yeah. Uh…I didn’t see him myself, but my—uh, a friend who was watching did. They gave me a description. Possible Lancashire accent, dark beard, around six foot in height? They said it looked like he might have some scarring on his arm, maybe.”

Sid rubbed his hand across his mouth. “Hmm. I’ll have to go through our intel with Neil when he’s back to normal, but off the top of my head, a couple of detectives come to mind. Be careful, okay? Keep Ryker and Jay in the loop, and look out for each other.”

“Already done. Do you think this is connected, then? And how does the attack on Neil factor into it all?”

“It’s complicated. Part of it is due to the Operation Foxglove investigation…”

My stomach churned. A premonition. The knowledge that this went deeper than the police investigation. “The other part?” I said slowly.

“Based on our intel, we believe that the Culverhouse Network is back in operation. Stephen’s flying back from Thailand to help out.”

I ignored the mention of my older cousin for now, my mind stuck on three words. The Culverhouse Network. The crime group that had double-crossed us and, in the process, had started the whole rivalry with the Bellinghams.

The group responsible for my dad’s death.

“The fuck?” I breathed.

“We… Neil’s been investigating for a while.” Sid shot me an apologetic look. “He didn’t want to say anything to you until he was sure, but we think they’ve been quietly carving out a space for themselves in Wiltshire under a new name. Now they have a solid foothold, they’ve turned their sights on us. Back for revenge, most likely.”