“What do you mean you have Ray Dorland’s head in a box?”Peyton asked.
“See?”Dewi chimed in.“That’swhatIasked!Weirdest baby shower gift ever.”
“Well, wehadit,” Trent continued, ignoring her.“We’ve already taken care of it.”
“I watched the video,” Dewi said.“It was oddly satisfying.I promise I’m not a psycho but seeing that fucker die was almost as good as being the one to take him out.”
“Speak for yourself,” Ken muttered.He hadn’t watched the video with her, but he had listened to it, and that was more than enough for him.
“In related news,” she added, “I’ll be expensing a chainsaw to the pack for future possible use.”
Peyton groaned.“Not now, kiddo.Please?I’m already having difficulty processing this.”
“Sorry,” she said.“I can’t help it.It’s reflexive.”
“I know, hon,” Peyton wearily said, and she hated the exhaustion she heard there.“Do I even need to watch it?”he asked.
“Not if you don’t want to,” Trent said.“It’s… graphic.And I can tell you how it ends.”
“Spoilers,” Dewi snarked.
Trent grumbled.“Dewi?—”
“Sorry!”she said.“I’m wired this way.You’re right.If Ray Dorland was telling the truth, he didn’t know where Faegan was.That’s what sucks about this.And we don’t have more details about Maya.”She thought about it.“I volunteer to draw the short straw to talk to Carl and Jake about this.”
“I’m not sure if we should talk to them about it right now,” Trent said.“We don’t know what’ll happen with the lab when we raid it.I’d hate to get their hopes up.”
“Well, Jake already has a hint that it’s possible Maya is or was there,” Peyton said.“That was established back when we were in the UK, and Ken and Hamish joined us there in the house to look through stuff for evidence.”
“I’m sorry I said anything about it in front of him,” Ken said.“I should have waited to talk to you and Trevor privately.”
“No,” Peyton said.“We would’ve needed to tell him anyway.We owed it to him.But the question now is what will we find in that lab?”
“I’m still sorting through the latest tranche of sat photos and intel,” Ken said.“I think we have all the personnel housing mapped out, so we can start tracking vehicles back and forth.”
Dewi stood and paced the living room, the sleeping baby on her shoulder.“How do you want to handle this, Peyton?”
“I’ll have Trevor contact the Pack Alphas we’ve already cleared and update them about Ray Dorland’s untimely demise and ask them to keep it quiet, for now.I have a feeling there will be more than a few celebrations of the news of his demise.”
Dewi snorted.“Probably a bunch among his own people, too.”
Trevor spoke up.“I’ll get busy connecting with Dorland’s people and coordinate with our allies to send in a group to take over leadership of the pack, including a Prime, and question people.Time to bring it to heel and find out where their loyalties lie.”
“Good idea,” Dewi said.“Glad we don’t have to deal with that crazy fucker anymore.”
“Probably most of his pack will be glad about that, too,” Peyton snarked.
ChapterSeventeen
Abundio
Over the weeksimmediately following Miranda’s “departure”, Abundio worked in the office, taking over daily operations, while Armando kept him apprised of the search for a suitable candidate.Once he had several appropriate finalists, he set up appointments for Abundio to meet with each one.
The appointments were then scheduled so that Abundio could spend an hour with each applicant, as he referred to them, and then have enough time between them to make notes.Also, to ensure they would not meet each other in passing.
The first three women were attractive.While not having the brains of a yucca plant, their physical attributes far outweighed their intellectual ones.
The fourth and final candidate was twenty-eight and a manager at a local hotel.Jacinta had graduated from university with a business degree but found the glass ceiling so far unshatterable.
