Chapter 16 #2
“Fuck yeah! No offense, mate, but I didn’t want to shit where I ate, you know what I mean? None of that was ever supposed to cross over and cause us trouble.”
“Hmm.” The man heavily sighed. “But it has now ‘crossed over,’ as you said. Hasn’t it?”
“I swear! I had no idea! I don’t know how that nosy Mexican got in the middle of all of this!”
“You weren’t trying to strike a deal with his nephew, or later with his daughter, or him?”
“Nah! Like I said, I never even heard of him before you all told me. I dunno how he figured out who I was to get hold of me.”
“You do realize people with even the slightest bit of intelligence can research birth certificates, correct?”
“But I don’t know how that relates to me!”
“Your nephew has dual citizenship. He was in the military. They had records of his mother, you see. And she was born in Australia, as you of course know, since she was YOUR FUCKING SISTER!”
He screamed the last three words, making Badger and Trent flinch.
“Fuck,” Trent muttered.
Ray Dorland outright cowered. “I swear I don’t know why that bugger wants to find Carl! It’s just a coincidence!”
“Well, it’s a coincidence your sister and your brother-in-law both ‘disappeared’ under circumstances you were directly responsible for, correct?”
“Well, I mean—”
“And this Segura man’s search for your nephew, Carl, led him to learning the names of his parents and thus contacting you, correct?”
“I don’t know how to tell you any clearer that I never talked to the man or had contact with him or even shared a bloody continent with him before!”
“See, why don’t I believe you?” There was a noise and another shadow moved as the speaker apparently stood. When he spoke again, he sounded farther back from the camera. “Let’s see if you are telling the truth.”
A man dressed in all black, with a black balaclava over his face, partly entered the scene with his back to the camera. Ray started begging, pleading—screaming as Badger and Trent both heard a sickening sound.
“No! No no no please—AAAGGHHH!”
When the man stepped out of the shot, Ray Dorland was still sobbing and crying and what looked like his left thumb now lay in his lap as his chest heaved.
“Now then,” the Russian said, once again closer to the camera. “Would you like to try again?”
“I swear!” Ray sobbed. “I didn’t talk to him before he called me! I promise I wasn’t trying to make any deal with him! And I blocked his fuckin’ number!”
“But you sold out your own family,” he said. “Your brother-in-law, perhaps I can understand that if he truly was a threat to your business interests. But your own little sister? Tsk. Family is very important. And what is this lab Faegan works with?”
Trent spotted that, despite his pain, Ray was still trying to hold stuff back. He shook his head. “I don’t know what they do there, man, I swear. They do human experiments. Black book stuff. All I know is that Faegan cunt deals with them and asked me for help in exchange for a huge windfall.”
“And how do you know this Faegan man?”
“We had business dealings together in the past.”
“Fuck,” Badger muttered. “We takin’ bets he breaks?”
“No,” Trent said. “Because I know he will.”
“Does he run drugs?” the Russian asked.
“I don’t think so, but it had nothin’ to do with that anyway.
Besides, right now he’s on the run from pissin’ off another family because his daughter married their daughter and he didn’t want that to happen because he’d already taken and spent a dowry from another man he sold her to, so his men killed the other family’s daughter, and—”
“Enough,” the Russian said. “So you are in business with a man who enjoys killing women, hmm?”
“It’s not like that! It’s—”
“It sounds very much like that. Let me tell you something, Ray.
I am no angel, but my father made me promise never to traffick women or children.
To sell drugs, and commit extortion, and run betting schemes, and other activities—but to never harm women or children.
To threaten to harm them for leverage? Even kidnapping?
Certainly. But never rape or harm or kill them, unless in absolute self-defense, and only as a last resort.
And to avoid making them collateral damage.
“He was quite different and ahead of his time.
Unfortunately, because his family members were tortured and murdered by the Nazis during World War II.
They raided the village my family lived in, and the trauma was multi-generational.
Not only did my father not wish to be that kind of evil man, he also recognized that people whose families are harmed, they are far more dangerous because they have nothing left to lose.
Better to use the threat of harm to their family to… encourage compliance, no?
“Now, his contemporaries, they made fun of him. But as his wealth grew and people sided with my father because he had an inviolate code of ethics, which he never, not once, broke, he built an empire. I have continued on that route to much success, as you well know. I do not let my people be pimps, or sell women and children to perverts who want to harm them. So, can you see why I am also not happy with you in this regard?”
“Listen, I can give you money! I’ll let you take back more of a share! I swear I—”
“Enough,” the Russian snapped, cutting him off. “You are a coward and without honor. And did I not, in the beginning, tell you of my policy?”
“You did, and—”
“And did you not lie to me? Because your sister was taken before we began dealing together, correct?”
“Well, yes, but I never thought—”
“You never thought I’d find out about this. Correct? You thought you’d lie to me and laugh behind my back about it, no?”
Ray’s mouth gaped as he struggled through his fear and pain to come up with an answer. “It was a family thing, and I swear—”
“Enough swearing. I took a risk on you. You did the one thing I cannot overlook. In addition to lying about it. Layer upon layer. And now you have caused outsiders to question my affairs by proxy, because they contacted my people in Mexico. This is not acceptable. That’s why I brought you over here, you see.
This trip provided me with the perfect alibi and excuse.
The authorities will think you checked into a hotel in Brisbane and disappeared.
You were never leaving here alive, but I wanted answers first.”
Badger and Trent both jumped at the sound of a chainsaw starting on the video. Ray started screaming and thrashed against his bonds, begging, pleading.
The man in black stepped into view and, with what looked like an electric chainsaw, quickly dispatched him, with Ray’s screams almost immediately transforming into strangled, pained noises, and then nothing as the saw bogged down a little while slicing through his vertebrae.
Ray’s head hit the floor—behind him, thankfully, and out of view—with a grotesque thump.
Badger and Trent stared, horrified, at the scene of his headless body sitting there twitching while spurts of blood initially pumped from his neck, quickly slowing and stopping.
“Bloody hell!” Badger gasped.
The man with the chainsaw stepped out of view, leaving the shot of Ray’s body there. But before Trent could hit stop, the Russian spoke again.
“I do not know who you are, or what your relationship to him is. Frankly, I do not care. My organization has nothing to do with this other business he was talking about. We didn’t even learn about it until recently.
“However, it’s obvious this man has harmed or caused the harm of many innocent people. I know it sounds incongruous that I, someone obviously used to violence, should care about that. But as I said, I swore to my father, and I will never disrespect my oath to him or sully his honor.
“This is our gift to you. It is also a warning, as you have now discovered.
We have no quarrel with you and yours. We have no desire to get involved in whatever happened between him and your people.
Frankly, he was a pompous asshole, but through him we made valuable contacts in Australia and set up a lucrative distribution network there.
Here is my bottom line: Do not think that you will make any efforts to intrude upon our organization or interfere with our operations.
“I will ruthlessly defend us and ours against any threats. So take this as a friendly warning. We send you this token of peace, and hope that it settles whatever debt has been incurred by him. He told me that he was coming to do business with you, a meeting, although he didn’t specify regarding exactly what.
The address we’ve sent this to came from a piece of paper hidden in his carry-on.
He apparently believed this was an opportunity to challenge someone for leadership of your organization.
It is my understanding he was supposed to arrive later, but he opted to try to surprise your people, which is also why he asked to ‘borrow muscle’ from me.
He spun up a tale of being able to take over your organization and use that leverage to also take over the others who were expected for your meeting.
And that is how my involvement in this… situation came to pass.
“Anyway. By the time you watch this, we will already be heading home over the Pacific. We consider our business satisfactorily concluded with you and wish you well.”
The video ended, the last frame frozen with Ray Dorland’s headless body sitting there.
Trent and Badger both finished their glasses of liquor.
“Just when I thought things had hit a new level of crazy,” Trent said.
“Motherfucker had a set of balls on him. Dorland, I mean. To think he was going to bring a bunch of thugs into the middle of a bunch of shifter Pack Alphas and start shit. I wonder how he had the address?”
“Dorland likely had it from dealin’ wi’ Charlie back in the day,” Badger said. “Explains why he was so feckin’ cagey about givin’ Dewi his arrival details.”
Trent slumped in his chair. “Do you think the Russian means it? That he’s done with all of this?”
Badger shrugged. “Dunno. I mean, ye ask me, that’s an unusual business model.
Why brag about it if it’s not true? Sounds like he was more fashed about Ray lyin’ to him an’ disrespectin’ his father’s ‘code’ than interested in us.
An’ if he knew we were shifters, he woulda’ likely threatened to expose us if we don’t drop it. ”
“But we’re not the ones who were doing anything!” Trent said. “The Seguras did!”
“Aye.” Badger looked grim. “Let’s just hope that bawbag doesn’t keep pokin’ his clueless snoot into other people’s affairs where he’s got no business bein’ an’ bringin’ us more trouble.”
“Do you think Dorland was telling the truth about not knowing where Faegan is?”
“Aye. He woulda’ been offerin’ him up as an escape hatch had he known. Blamin’ stuff on him. Twistin’ it to look like it was all Faegan and nothin’ to do wi’ him.”
“And then siccing them on Faegan,” Trent said.
“Aye.”
Trent stood. “More booze?”
“Aye,” Badger wearily said. “Unfortunately, we don’t have enough around here to get me blind an’ stinkin’ drunk.”
“Nope, we sure don’t,” Trent said. “Because I’d be fighting you for it.”
Dewi
Twenty minutes later, Dewi was on a conference call with Peyton, Trent, and Badger, with Ken sitting next to her.
“What do you mean you have Ray Dorland’s head in a box?” Peyton asked.
“See?” Dewi chimed in. “That’s what I asked! Weirdest baby shower gift ever.”
“Well, we had it,” 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.