22. Blake
Blake
The settlement demand arrives forty-eight hours after the Omega Welfare Board complaint.
Maceo has the document open across two monitors when I enter the pack-house office.
A third screen holds the billing records he pulled overnight, while the printed demand rests beside my chair with three sections already marked.
The law firm named on the letter has no visible connection to Alastair’s foundation, but the terms make that separation difficult to believe.
I lower myself into the chair and settle my cane against my knee. “Walk me through it.”
Maceo turns the first monitor toward me. He’s changed clothes since last night, though the faint shadows beneath his eyes suggest he didn’t spend much time sleeping.
“They’re offering two acceptable outcomes,” he says. “You resign as chief executive of Keller Industries, or you approve the revised merger structure Victor tried to force through the board.”
I scan the marked paragraphs even though I already read the demand once in bed. Repetition doesn’t make the language less calculated.
“And in return,” I say, “they arrange the complaint’s resolution through channels they refuse to name.”
“Through unspecified independent channels,” Maceo confirms. “They don’t name the channels, the decision-maker, or the legal mechanism they intend to use.”
The final section irritates me more than the rest. Alastair’s foundation would receive an advisory position in Ember House governance, supposedly to restore confidence in the sanctuary’s regulatory compliance.
The language limits the position on paper while giving the foundation access to meetings, policy changes, and institutional planning.
It doesn’t explain how the same foundation offering corporate concessions can influence an independent Welfare Board complaint. It assumes we’ll be frightened enough not to ask.
Maceo reaches for the printed demand and taps the firm’s name with one finger. “The settlement firm has no shared partners, filings, or registered officers connecting it to Alastair’s foundation. The separation holds until the invoices.”
He turns the third screen toward me. The display shows several payment records linked through the same private billing processor.
“The settlement firm and two entities controlled by Alastair’s foundation use the same processor,” he says. “Different counsel, different registrations, and the same entity paying the invoices.”
“Enough to prove Alastair sent it?”
“Enough to prove the separation is cosmetic.” Maceo removes his glasses and rubs the bridge of his nose before putting them back on. “We still need the communications behind it.”
The office door opens before I can answer. Luca enters first with Luther behind him, followed by Grayson carrying a tray of coffee and food nobody requested but everyone will eat. Luca comes directly to me, curls his fingers around the silver head of my cane, and leans down to kiss my mouth.
His scent is steadier than it was yesterday.
“The judge approved the limited release,” Luca says as he straightens.
“Early this morning,” Luther adds. He takes the chair across from me rather than the one at the head of the table.
Grayson puts a plate beside Maceo’s hand and taps the edge of the keyboard until he looks away from the monitor. “Eat while it’s still warm.”
Maceo glances at the toast, takes a bite, and returns to the billing records while Grayson moves around the table to sit beside Luca.
Thane arrives a few minutes later with an encrypted tablet tucked beneath his arm. He closes the office door, waits for Maceo to secure the room, and places the tablet in the center of the table.
“The court authorized release of the sections named in Luca’s affidavit,” he says. “The rest of the file remains sealed. My team has already matched the sponsor prefix and routing codes to the current shell accounts.”
Luca’s hand finds mine beneath the table. I turn my palm upward and let his fingers slide between mine.
“How many locations?” Luther asks.
“Three physical sites tied to active transfers within the last six months.” Thane opens a financial map showing lines between shell companies, property managers, and payment accounts.
“The sponsor code in Luca’s file gave us the meaning of the prefix moving through the accounts.
We can connect those payments to the entities operating each location. ”
Maceo closes the settlement letter. “Do you have enough for warrants?”
“For the locations and the operators directly attached to them, yes. We’re preparing the applications now.”
“And Alastair?” I ask.
Thane’s attention shifts to the printed demand beside my hand.
“We can arrest him for conspiracy and extortion now. The financial trail, the settlement timing, and Victor’s communications support that.
The problem is proving how much of the placement operation he personally understood and directed. ”
He opens a second file containing the foundation’s governance records. Alastair’s name appears repeatedly, but always at the top of carefully layered structures. Committees, delegated officers, outside administrators, and subsidiaries stand between him and every operational decision.
“His attorneys will argue that the foundation attached his name to charitable programs managed by other people,” Thane says. “They’ll say Victor, Dorian, and the site operators kept the details away from him.”
“Even with his signatures?” I ask.
“Signatures prove authorization. They don’t necessarily prove he understood the internal terminology or knew what the placement codes meant. We need evidence that he understood the system and continued defending it after being confronted with what it did.”
Luca’s fingers tighten around mine, but his expression doesn’t change.
Maceo reaches across the table and turns Luca’s notes facedown before the pages can become another thing for him to stare at. His fingers remain over Luca’s wrist for a moment.
“You don’t need to memorize anything,” he says. “I’ll have every document ready when you ask for it.”
Luca turns his hand beneath Maceo’s and links their fingers briefly. “I know.”
I look back at the settlement demand. Alastair has created the opening himself. He expects us to answer through attorneys, negotiate through layers, and treat his distance from the demand as protection.
“We agree to discuss the terms,” I say. “I’ll tell their attorneys I won’t consider any arrangement involving Luca or Ember House unless Alastair explains the foundation’s role himself.”
Thane watches me for several seconds. “He may bring counsel.”
“He should.” I slide the demand toward the center of the table. “I want every explanation given with his attorney sitting beside him.”
Maceo studies the demand, already testing the structure of the plan. “We control the room, the documents, and the order of disclosure. Thane’s team records from outside, and nobody touches the settlement papers until counsel confirms they’re being discussed rather than executed.”
“That’s workable,” Thane says. “But Alastair may leave as soon as he sees the direction of the questioning.”
“Then we don’t show him the direction too early.” I tap the section demanding my resignation. “He believes this is a corporate surrender. We let him explain why my position, Luca’s complaint, and Ember House governance belong in the same agreement.”
Luther’s jaw remains tight as he looks at Luca, but when he speaks, he limits himself to the boundaries of the meeting.
“If he addresses me, I send him back to Blake. If he tries to use scent or designation pressure, the meeting ends.”
Luca reaches across the table and briefly covers Luther’s hand. “Agreed.”
Luther turns his palm beneath Luca’s and squeezes once before letting him go.
We assign the rest of the roles before Thane leaves.
I will lead the corporate questions. Luca will question Alastair about consent, placement classifications, and the language used inside Hearthstone.
Maceo will control the documentary evidence and decide when each record appears.
Grayson will stay with Luca through preparation, helping him organize dates and facts without writing his responses for him.
Luther will remain visible and silent, refusing every attempt to redirect authority toward an Alpha.
When the meeting ends, Grayson takes Luca to the dining room with the Hearthstone timeline. I remain in the office with Maceo and Luther while Thane coordinates the warrant applications, but their voices carry softly through the open doorway.
Grayson asks the questions in the order Alastair’s attorney is likely to ask them. Luca answers twice before Grayson stops him.
“You’re giving me the version you think a court wants,” Grayson says.
Luca is quiet for a moment. “It’s accurate.”
“I know. It also sounds memorized.” A chair shifts against the floor. “Give him the exact process. Don’t make it cleaner for him.”
“The waiting rooms,” Luca says. “The scent cards. The classifications.”
“And what happened when someone said no.”
Another pause follows before Luca begins again. This time, his voice loses the measured rhythm he uses when he’s trying to make difficult facts easier for everyone else to hear.
Maceo glances toward the doorway, then returns to the evidence schedule. Luther pauses beside my chair long enough to read the next page over my shoulder before moving on.
By the time Thane leaves, the warrant applications are moving, the meeting request has been sent, and the settlement firm has confirmed that Alastair will attend in person the following morning.
I find Luca in the kitchen after Grayson finishes with him. The closed timeline rests near the sink while Luca pours water into two glasses. He passes one to me and leans his hip against the counter beside mine.
“Still want to do it?” I ask.
“Yes.” He brings our joined hands against his thigh. “I don’t need him to understand what he did. I need him to explain it.”
I kiss his temple. “Then that’s what we make him do.”