“I think we should divide and conquer,” Moore offered.“The enforcers can take care of the hunters, and we’ll focus on the labs.”
“That’s not how this works,” Dante interjected.
“I don’t care how it works.You can tell your bosses to stick their rules where the sun doesn’t shine.”
“I like you,” Nysys declared, causing the bickering to come to a halt.
Moore stared at him as if he didn’t understand what Nysys had just said.Alan didn’t blame him.Considering the way Moore had been talking to Nysys, he would have expected Nysys to hate the guy.
Hate didn’t seem to be something Nysys did, though.Alan had no idea how Nysys always managed to be happy and upbeat, but he wanted to ask because he needed more of that in his life.
Alotmore of it.
“Thank you,” Moore said, still staring at Nysys as if he was about to grow a second head.“I wasn’t joking, though.My mutants and I know what we’re doing when it comes to raiding the labs.We’ve been doing it for years.”
Dante crossed his arms over his chest.“So have we.”
“I’m pretty sure we had better results than you had.”
“Only because you usually get there before we can.”
“Again, that points to us being better than you.”
Rikar pinched the bridge of his nose.He looked like he was about to reach the end of his patience, which was surprising considering the man seemed to have an infinite amount of it.“I don’t think that dividing our forces is going to help anyone,” he said.“But we want to stop everyone, from whoever is responsible for the labs to the hunters and Victor.It’s clear now that this is one big operation.”
“That’s not how the hunters usually work,” Matthew pointed out.
Alan was glad for his presence.He was pretty sure he’d have already run out of the room screaming if it wasn’t for his mate’s steadiness.
“They might not like working with the labs, but they want supernatural beings to be eliminated, and I’m sure that the money they’re paid to kidnap people and drag them to the labs is enough for most of them to close an eye.”
“I just think that Moore might not have been wrong when he separated the two.There’s no way we can get to all of the hunters through the labs.There are too many different groups and families, and I don’t think every single one of them is working for the labs.”
“I agree,” Dante said.“The hunters are going to be difficult to eliminate.That’s why I believe we should focus on the labs, at least initially.Once we’ve closed all of them, we can move on to the hunters.Hopefully, we’ll capture some of them through the labs first, but considering how they work, I doubt any of them would give us the names of other families or tell us where to find them.”
“What about Victor?”Alan asked.
Dante’s expression was serious.“Victor is another problem entirely, a much more complicated one.”
That wasn’t what Alan had wanted to hear, dammit.
* * * *
MATTHEW COULD SEE FROMhis mate’s expression that Alan wasn’t happy.He wasn’t surprised.Alan was angry at Victor and wanted the man to pay.They all did, but for Alan, it was personal.
“It doesn’t mean that we’re not going to do everything we can to stop him,” Dante continued.“In fact, it’s a good thing that the council got involved.We can prosecute him for crimes against shifters, maybe even work with the human justice system.The labs haven’t only been experimenting on shifters and other supernatural beings.The hunters have also kidnapped humans, and we know of several of them who ended up in the labs.”
Matthew nodded.“One of our friends has.”
Dante frowned.“One of the mutants?”
“Hayes was human before he ended up in a cage.”
“So the human government will definitely want to get involved.The council can deal with them and the paperwork.They’re used to it.”
“How are you going to stop Victor, though?”Alan asked.
“The problem in this situation is that we don’t have proof of what he’s doing.We’ve already started poking into his personal accounts and business, but so far, we don’t see anything odd.As far as everyone’s concerned, he’s exactly who he says he is.”
