Splintered (9 page)

Rachel had grown silent. She knew what was
coming, maybe not in so many words, but it was something she'd
probably absorbed with her baby formula.

"Alec having done that makes him vulnerable. It
means that those of you he's protecting can be used to drag him
into a fight at an inopportune time. Mostly it's not an issue
because Isaac backs him up, but you have to be careful not to
undercut his authority."

"I haven't done anything."

Jasmin cut me off. "Maybe you don't
mean to, but you're doing it. Sam, Jack, Alison, they're all bad
news right now. It won't always be that way, but until they settle
into their place in the pack that's how it is. Disagreeing with how
they are being treated sets you at odds with what Alec wants and
weakens him and the pack as a whole."

I felt my face go hard. It was like being told
Santa Claus ate a few children each year along with the milk and
cookies.

"I don't believe that's right."

Jasmin's eyes bled to the same pale blue Alec's
took on before a transformation. "You can choose to ignore the
truth but that won't make it go away."

I didn't need Rachel's tightening grip on my
arm to tell me I'd pushed Jasmin further than intended. The slight
tremor to her clenched fists would've been clue enough.

"I'm sorry, Jasmin. I wasn't trying
to call you a liar, I just want… need to believe that there's more
goodness in the world than that."

A couple of deep breaths banished the tremble,
but it was still the hot eyes of a predator that looked up at
me.

"Again, it makes no difference to me, but it will impact
Alec. You need to be careful or you'll put him in a position where
he's faced with dying to defend you or repudiating you and letting
Jack do whatever he wants to you."

Chapter 12

Alec - Graves Manor,
Sanctuary

Jasmin and Donovan found me strapped
into the Machine. I hadn't had much time lately to work out and it
was making me jittery. Eventually we were going to see some kind of
serious opposition and that tiniest extra edge of speed and
strength might make the difference. The rest of the pack was
convinced my power would save us from anything, but nothing was
unbeatable and if Puppeteer got involved we were going to need
every advantage to have even a prayer of surviving.

"Master Alec. Is it completely wise
for you to be exerting yourself so? There were an alarming number
of bullets that Dominic and I spent the better part of last night
fishing out of you."

"I'm fine, Donovan. For the most
part they're healing up nicely; the bandages just make it look
worse than it is."

We both knew he didn't believe me, which was
fine as long as he didn't continue to push the issue. I'd never
been in much danger. Once I changed to my hybrid form bullets
weren't all that great of a threat. Hybrid bodies were just too
big, the organs buried under too much muscle for there to be much
likelihood of a bullet making it through to something
vital.

Of course a headshot could still bring us down,
but most people went for center of mass, so their training actually
worked in my favor.

Jasmin finally decided to break the silence.
"So, are you going to tell me the big secret? As a rule I don't
really like lying to my friends."

"Adri liked the chain?"

"Yes. Where have you been all week?
Donovan obviously knows, let me in on the story
already."

"You know we've been sweeping up all
of Brandon's old holdings? Well, Sam's been holding out on us. They
had a hugely profitable operation down in Charleston."

Jasmin's eyes got really big. "You do remember
that the Coun'hij has declared the east off limits?"

"Under other circumstances I would have honored
the restriction, but the 'operation' was a veritable criminal
empire. Drugs, extortion, underage prostitution, you name it. It
needed stopped."

"So you went and stopped it. Then you and
Donovan split up the loot, or not. Why am I here?"

"Sam claims he didn't know the full extent of
what Sergen was up to, but I don't believe him."

Jasmin was pacing now. She'd always done her
best thinking on her feet.

"So kill him, or at least boot him. We don't
want that kind of trash around."

Donovan shook his head. "If you go
after him Alison and Jack will jump in. That is the tightest group
of submissives I've ever seen. You can't kill one without at the
very least injuring the others very severely."

I'd already played that scenario out in my
head. Killing Sam was easy. He wasn't even half the fighter Jack
was. Dom could probably do it if she were so inclined.

"The problem is that we need some submissives
around here. I can do without Sam, but I need the other two as a
buffer to keep the rest of us from always being two seconds from
throwing down."

Jasmin shook her head. "You need
Alison, but you don't need Jack. Jack's more trouble than he's
worth."

I looked to Donovan, waiting for his opinion.
"I'm not entirely convinced myself of Jack's instability. I've
wondered from time to time how much of his aggression is organic
and how much of it is Sam prompting him from behind the
scenes."

"Okay, you boys may have a point;
Sam does do all the thinking for that little trio. Still, it sounds
like it's time to take some kind of harsher action where Sam is
concerned. He practically has Adri eating out of his hand these
days."

I shook my head. "No, we can't do
anything overt. For now I just wanted the two of you to know what's
going on. I can't tell Isaac or James, they're too close to the
issue, and I need some time to come up with a solution that won't
turn Adri against me."

"You really think she'd leave you over that
piece of crap?" Jasmin shushed Donovan before he could reprimand
her for her language.

"I wish I could say no, but the longer I watch
Sam in action the more convinced I am that he's smarter than any of
the rest of us give him credit for. It looks like he's playing a
losing hand, which should be evident to him. The fact he's still
playing the game despite that makes me nervous."

Jasmin shrugged. "Okay, I'll leave
the intrigue to you two. I've actually got me a date
tonight."

"Anyone I know?"

"Please, like I'd tell you."

I waited until Jasmin was safely gone before
standing and turning back to Donovan. "You're no doubt curious
where the million dollars went."

"The money is yours, Master Alec. It isn't my
place to question what you do with your inheritance."

"I'm not going to have that discussion again.
Regardless of who the money really belongs to, you're the one who's
doing most of the heavy lifting where our finances are involved.
You were depending on that money to meet obligations and execute
our plans."

"Things will indeed be difficult for a time
given the depleted state of our reserves."

"The meeting place I tracked Sergen
down to was a brothel. There were nearly thirty girls there, half
of them underage. The madam seemed like a half decent person
though. He used her daughter to control her. Once he was gone and
I'd killed most of his organization, she didn't have any reason to
continue to sell the girls."

"The money would be incentive enough for some,
Master, Alec."

"She's not that good of a liar. I set up a
trust that will make monthly payments to support the girls. They'll
be getting regular psychiatric visits too. The two guys you went
ahead and had Alexi send arrived just in time to help gather up a
chunk of Sergen's assets. It's in a warehouse near Pier 15. Half of
it is drugs that will just have to be destroyed, but we can
probably recover most of our money out of the cars and the
yacht."

Donovan nodded. He might not have felt leaving
the girls in Jenny's care was the best option but he knew I trusted
him to make it work. He'd set up the appropriate safeguards to help
ensure the girls had a chance at a normal life going
forward.

"Very good, Master Alec. I'll talk to our factor in Atlanta.
He can make arrangements to liquidate the assets."

Chapter 13

"I'm glad you're still coming,
Adri."

"You mean despite Jasmin having nearly ripped
my head off when I disagreed with her?"

I deserved Rachel's crestfallen look. I really
was trying not to overreact to my fight with Jasmin, but it was
hard. Funny how the threat of imminent violence could turn the
normal spats into something you couldn't just blow off an hour
later.

"She's just concerned. She's much closer to the
infighting that Alec protects you and me from."

I thought about challenging Rachel's
belief in Jasmin's rationality, but it wouldn't change her mind and
I didn't want to hurt her feelings. She was too kind-hearted to
deserve that kind of venom.

"So Jasmin and I don't see eye to eye. That
doesn't mean I'm going to leave her high and dry. Ben was pretty
adamant about wanting the two of us there tonight to help defuse
any awkwardness. It's not like she tortures kitties or anything, so
if I can be there for her I will be."

"Problems, honey?"

Of course Mom came downstairs to catch the very
last of the conversation. Thankfully I was getting good at avoiding
references to anything out of the ordinary.

"No, Mom. Just the usual teenage girl drama.
Jasmin and I had a spat the other day, but she's hoping to catch
the eye of one of the boys in school so we're going to meet him at
the Funcade."

I'd satisfied her with the first few words. By
the time I finished up my explanation she was already thinking
about some new location.

"Okay, sweetie. Have fun, but don't
stay out too late. It's a school night after all."

"Sure thing, Mom."

The Funcade was the only non-boozing hangout in
Sanctuary. It consisted of a collection of arcade games, air hockey
and foosball tables. There were a few other games and a limited
menu, but it wasn't much to brag about. On the plus side, the fact
that there wasn't any alcohol served there meant that my mom hadn't
freaked out when I'd told her we wanted to go there. It was truly
amazing how Mom could be completely disconnected from the world at
large and still know which places were least likely to get me in
trouble.

Jasmin was waiting for us in one corner of the
parking lot, car door open and music blaring. She nodded at me as I
climbed out of Rachel's yellow VW Bug.

"Thanks for coming."

"Just because we had a fight doesn't mean I'm
going to smash your dreams."

"Thanks all the same."

She stretched, allowing the white tank top to
reveal a dark expanse of taut stomach. Honestly, I still didn't
understand why that wasn't all it took to have Ben following her
around like a homing pigeon.

"Feels good to be able to just hang around in
town without worrying about getting jumped by the other
pack."

Rachel laughed. "Right, like you
ever let that stop you before."

"Sure, but there's a difference
between doing something and doing it while not having to worry
about when it's going to bite you on the butt."

We turned and started walking. The steps up to
the front door had yellow tape on one side. As we got closer it
became evident why. There was bare metal rebar where they'd carted
away some of the concrete. It seemed kind of dangerous to me. Tape
or no tape.

Jasmin led us up to the door and then paused as
if unsure how to proceed. Rachel smiled and stepped around her to
get the door. Once we were inside it was easy to spot Ben. He was
off at one of the tables, an order of deep fried mushrooms in front
of him while he played on the game system he'd been fixing the last
time I'd talked to him.

"Hey, Ben."

"Rach, Adri…Jasmin."

Rachel and I made sure Jasmin was directly
across from him so they'd get plenty of eye contact, and then we
sat down.

"So you got it working?"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah. Later that day. Just
took figuring out what exactly was wrong with it. Once you know
enough about something it's usually pretty easy to fix it. Help
yourself to some mushrooms if you want, guys. They're still warm
and this is the only place you can get them in like a hundred
miles."

Rachel made some comment about the
weather. I took the opportunity while Ben was answering it to
unobtrusively size him up. He didn't look particularly good. His
sleeves were just short enough that occasionally when he moved you
could see the needle tracks. The skin around his eyes was dark and
puffy. For all I knew he was high right then but I didn't think so.
He was acting too normal. So not high right then, but his last hit
hadn't been more than a few days before.

Everything I'd ever been taught told me that
Ben was a loser who was going to end up dead before he turned
twenty; but the more time I spent with him, the more I could see
what Rachel meant.