She blew him a raspberry before ending the call and staring at her notes.Ray Dorland already received an email with the date and time of the meet-up, and he’d RSVPed as coming.Years ago, he’d been to the compound when her father was still alive, so he knew where it was but they wouldn’t give him the actual address now.Instead, they’d meet him and his crew at the airport.
And if it turned out he was as guilty as they all suspected, he’d never reach the compound.
Not alive, anyway.
Taking a deep breath, she used a burner to call the number she had on record for him via the secure app she preferred.
Like hell would she make an actual phone call to him that he could trace.
“Ray Dorland.”
Even his voice skeezed her out.“Hi, this is Dewi Bleacke, the Targhee Pack Head Enforcer.I’m calling to discuss logistics for the meetup.You RSVPed as coming.”
“Ahkay?”
“I need to get your travel information,” Dewi said.“Flight numbers and arrival times.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m Head Enforcer.It’s my job to make sure you’re safely escorted and kept safe while you’re here, especially considering the recent events.It’s SOP regardless of who the dignitary is, from any pack.Everyone is being met and transported.”
He hesitated, but not long enough she could grok if it meant more, like he wasn’t used to basic human kindness.
Probably didn’t hurt that she used the word “dignitary”, except she felt he was anything but.
See?I can schmooze.When I try.
“We’re arrivin’ the day before everythin’ starts.”
“Okay.Are you flying commercial, or traveling in a private plane?”
“Nah, commercial.You meetin’ me in person?”
She’d had more fulfilling conversations with dead stumps.“Unfortunately, no.My duties will keep me at the compound.But I need to make sure to position my personnel accordingly.How many people are you bringing with you?”
“With me?”
“Yes, such as your mate, or children, or people who work for you?”
“Oh, yeah.A couple of my guys will fly with me.Enforcers.”
“How many?”Dewi asked.She made a note to have Gillian search the DHS and ICE databases to find out who, exactly, that might be.So far, their intel told them there were zero Primes in his pack.
But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t try to pass off mafia-types as Enforcers.
“I don’t know yet,” he said.“I haven’t decided.Is that a problem?”
Annnd he was a shitty liar.“It’s not a problem, but I don’t want to make you stand there waiting at the airport while we scramble to arrange alternate transportation because we didn’t plan for enough people.And we want to make sure we have the proper accommodations ready.I’m not sticking you and your people in tents in the campground, you know.So I need to know how many to plan for, and what kind of sleeping arrangements, like rooming together, bed configurations and such.”
“Oh.Yeah, guess that is somethin’.I’ll have my people email ya.”
“All right.”
It galled Dewi to be nice to the asshole when all she wanted to do was squeeze him like one of those stretchy stress toys until his eyes popped out like ping-pong balls and his asshole turned inside out, but she understood the greater picture and kept her cool.
Somehow.
And it also struck her as utter bullshit that he wouldn’t already know the number of how many people were coming with him when it wasn’t exactly easy to arrange an overnight commercial flight from Australia to Washington State.
