Underwater: The Silent Luna novel Chapter 163

Chapter 163

Joseph was just about to leave his office to deal with Ashley when Ethan’s call came in. The timing alone made him stop. He looked down at the screen and frowned. Ethan did not usually call him at night unless something mattered, and after everything Malcolm had just told him, Joseph no longer believed in harmless interruptions. Trouble had started taking shape in his mind already, ugly and real, and the last thing he needed was another emergency breaking open on top of it. Still, it was Ethan. No matter what else

was going on, Joseph would answer.

He lifted a hand toward Adam and Brian, signalling for them to remain where they were. The two men stopped. Neither asked questions. They had been with him long enough to read the change in his face and understand that whatever can was coming in was not one to brush aside. Joseph had already learned too much that night to take chances. If this was another problem, he needed to

be ready for it the second he heard the first word.

“Hello,” Joseph said after he answered and lifted the phone to his ear.

He barely got the greeting out before Ethan’s voice came through, urgent enough to make Joseph’s body tighten at once.

“Joseph, I need you to send Adam with your trusted warriors to Camila Richardson’s house. Her husband is under attack. I need you to hurry there quickly and make sure they do not get him,” Ethan said.

There was no greeting. No slow explanation. Just need. Immediate and hard. Joseph straightened fully. Everything in him sharpened

at once.

“Hold on,” Joseph said.

That was all he said into the phone before looking at Adam and Brian.

“Prep a van; we have a mission,” Joseph ordered.

He was already moving while he said it. Adam did not waste a second. Brian followed. The office, which had felt heavy a moment earlier with strategy and fear and all the bad news Malcolm had dropped on them, changed shape instantly. There was no room now

for sitting and thinking. Only action.

“Text me the address,” Joseph said, moving with the phone still against his ear.

“I also want you to get Dr James Pitsberg and bring him to the cabin tonight. Do not take chances,” Ethan said.

That made Joseph’s frown deepen. There was too much in that instruction. Too much urgency. Too much that did not fit neatly

together yet. Camila’s husband under attack. A doctor needing to be moved immediately. Ethan sounding like the walls had already

started closing in around him.

“Keith has texted both addresses to Adam now,” Ethan added.

By then Joseph had reached the van. He got into the passenger seat without breaking stride. Brian climbed into the back. Adam got behind the wheel and started the engine immediately.

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Chapter 163

“Adam, Keith sent you the address,” Joseph said.

Adam nodded once.

“He has it,” Joseph said into the phone.

On the other end, Ethan exhaled. It was a quiet sound, but Joseph heard the strain in it. Only then did Joseph ask the question

pressing hardest in his chest.

“What is going on?” Joseph asked.

For a second he thought Ethan might refuse to answer entirely. The pause held too much weight.

“A lot, Joseph. So much that I do not want to discuss it on the phone, but there is trouble,” Ethan replied.

That did not satisfy him. Not even close. Joseph wanted detail. Wanted something solid enough to build around. Wanted to know

what he was driving into. But before he could press, Ethan continued.

“I had a session with Camila, and she discovered some things, so she had Dr James Pitsberg go through my document, and it seems

Dr Rosenberg and Mark Louis created my condition,” Ethan said.

Joseph went still in the seat. For a second he thought he had heard wrong. Not because Ethan’s words were unclear. They were too

clear. That was the problem. They landed with the force of something so wrong it took the mind a moment to accept the sentence at

all.

“Our family doctor?” Joseph asked.

Shock came out plain in Joseph’s voice. He could not hide it. That name did not belong in that kind of sentence. Dr Rosenberg was

not some stranger. Not some random bastard from another pack. He was their family doctor. A man woven into too many years of

routine, too many memories, too much trust.

“They may have placed the silver in my lower spine to keep me crippled,” Ethan said.

Joseph stared ahead into the dark road while Adam drove harder. The words made no sense and too much sense at the same time.

He had known Ethan’s condition was cruel, Unfair. Devastating. But deliberate? Designed? Maintained? The thought made his

stomach knot.

“So what happened with Camila’s husband?” Joseph asked.

If he kept letting Ethan talk in pieces, he would lose his mind before they even reached the house. Ethan answered quickly, and this

time there was more steel in his voice.

“The roles of the doctors were still a guess until Camila’s husband called her this night under duress. He put her on speaker and

wanted to know if she was helping me and what she went to do in the hospital today. Whoever is pulling the strings wants to

ensure we are not on to them. That is why I need you to help Mr Richardson as covertly as possible,” Ethan explained.

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Joseph’s jaw tightened. That changed everything. This was no longer suspicion floating around medical records and bad possibilities. Somebody was already moving. Already frightening people. Already reacting to what Camila had done. Which meant Ethan was right. They were on to something real. Then Ethan said the part that settled coldly into Joseph’s bones.

“Kill all at sight and bring him to the cabin,” Ethan ordered.

Joseph did not hesitate. Not because he enjoyed bloodshed. But because the urgency in Ethan’s tone told him enough. If the people at Camila’s house were willing to torture a man för information, there was no room for softness. No room for dragging this inte some neat moral shape.

“I will do it myself and bring the doctor to the cabin. I do not trust anyone other than Adam and Brian,” Joseph said.

That part mattered. Joseph had already been thinking about cracks in Whitewood. About betrayal. About compromised loyalties. Malcolm’s warning had not left him yet. He was not about to send half-trusted men into something like this and hope for the bes

Ethan understood him. They ended the call, and Adam stepped harder on the accelerator. The drive to the address Keith had sent

took fifteen minutes, though it felt shorter because every second in the van had purpose stretched tightly through it. No one spoke much. Brian checked what they had in the back. Adam kept his eyes on the road. Joseph sat forward a little, mind moving fast,

putting fragments together badly and angrily.

Rosenberg. Mark Louis. Silver in Ethan’s spine. Camila questioned. Now her husband under attack. The whole thing felt too

coordinated to be random, and the worst part was Joseph could already feel how big it might be without seeing the full edges of it

yet.

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