“Book a ticket on literally the first flight you can get a seat on out of there to anywhere in the continental United States,” Peyton said.“Then make your way to Tampa from there.Come to Dewi’s.Have the container shipped and dropped at Dewi’s house.Pack’s dime, obviously.Coordinate it with Badger.We’ll decide where to go from there.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Call me on my cell immediately when you’re back on US soil, no matter what time it is.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And Alvarez?You donotdiscuss this withanyonebesides me and Dewi.Understood?”
“Understood, sir.”
“Safe travels.”
“Thank you, sir.”
She felt Peyton reach over and end the call.He didn’t speak for several minutes.
Finally, “Look at me, Dewster.”
She forced herself to meet his gaze.
“Normally, I would chew you a new asshole for this.”
“I wasn’t going to send someone else to do it,” she quietly said.“Icouldn’t.Even if, logistically, I could’ve sent someone else.I refuse to drop that weight on someone else’s head.”
He sighed.“You didn’t tell me first because you knew I’d order you not to.”
“Fuckin’ A,” she muttered.
“This was extreme.”
“Yuuup.”
He slowly shook his head.“I can’t and won’t dictate things between you and Ken.Butno oneelse gets told about this.Not Badger, not Duncan, not Trent, anddamnedsure not Gillian.If you tell Ken, you have to Prime him to stay silent.If he needs to talk to someone about it, he can talk tome.Period.Do you understand me?”
She nodded.“Yeah.”
“Whatwas that?”he growled.
Oops.Pack Alpha time.“Yes, sir.”
“And youneverdo something like this again without consulting me first, unless you or someone besides me is the Pack Alpha, or there’s an immediate threat to one of our packmates’ lives.”
“Hopefully, we never have to.But what about blood edicts?I am the head of the expanded pack council?—”
“You fucking know what I mean, Dewi.Swearto me.”
“Fine.Yes, sir.I swear.I didn’t enjoy this, you know.But I couldn’t risk her digging deeper or revealing information.We still might have to kill Abundio.Miranda is MIA, and Jacinta believed Abundio killed her or had her killed.Miranda obviously knew something.”
“Unless they bring a threat to us in the future, we aredonewith the Segura cartel andanypeople related to it inanycapacity,” he said.“Thatisa Pack Alpha order.Do you understand me?”
She clenched her jaw.“Yes,sir, but how are we going to know if they’re doing something unless or until they show up at our front door?And by then it’s too late.”
“What you don’t know—and would have known had you looped me in—was that I had a plan if they were still gathering digital intel.Finding out what they’re up to, as well as salting false info.Scattering virtual chaff.Flooding them with junk data that they would have needed years to unravel, and with just enough truth in there, harmless truths, that they would have chased their own tails trying to figure out what was true and what wasn’t until they gave up.And with fake data that, if it got back to others and started showing up elsewhere, we’d be able to track the network.”
“We know for sure Abundio contacted the Russians,” she said.“And, somehow, that put Abundio into contact with Ray Dorland.What else could we have done?This derailseverything.”
“We could’ve abducted the woman, set it up to look like a rival drug cartel was involved, then Primed her to kill Abundio before we ‘ransomed’ her back to him.Make it look like she orchestrated it all as a way to get his fortune and bypass her prenup.Cops would have arrested her, she’d confess to doing it, and then she’d have her baby while in prison.”
