Burned Read Free

yours, I'll see you dead. Samantha serves a
necessary purpose inside of my pack—a purpose that is all the
more vital now that Alec isn't serving as a counter balance to
Brandon. Samantha is a lightning rod for all of the discontent inside
of the pack—if she were dead it wouldn't make the whispers go
away, they would just go underground where I couldn't monitor them
anymore."
    "So you
say. I'm beginning to doubt our little arrangement, Graves. So far I
haven't said anything to our…employer to indicate that things
with your son are as serious as they actually are, but being the one
to come clean about that little problem would go a long way toward
cleaning the ledger where my past transgressions are concerned."
    Kaleb felt
himself go completely still. It was a lack of reaction that in its
own way was nearly as bad as jumping up and down on the table in
front of them, but he couldn't help it. Everyone had fears—everyone.
Kaleb was no exception to that rule. He was fortunate in that most of
his fears revolved around things rather than people ,
but there was one person he didn't even begin to pretend—at
least not to himself—that he wasn't scared of. Puppeteer had
just referenced that person, a person Kaleb was working very hard to
keep in the dark regarding a large number of things.
    "I think
that you're overestimating just how much leeway a revelation like
that would buy you. Your past indiscretion is a very serious matter,
a matter that I've faithfully kept secret for more than a decade
now."
    "You're
not leaving me much of a choice, Kaleb. I know how hard it is to sign
the death warrant of someone you helped bring into this world."
    "This
isn't about that—this is solely about the fact that I can't
afford to lose anyone else right now. Participation by the unaligned
packs is at an all-time low. It's obvious to me that Alec found out
about some of the measures we've been taking to keep a steady flow of
new recruits headed down to the border."
    "You think
that he told someone before he left?"
    "I'm
nearly certain of it. My money would have been on Juan, but he died
within hours of the operation that I think Alec stumbled onto. I
don't think there was time for Juan to have communicated anything to
his contacts—Juan wasn't the kind to act on something until
he'd had a chance to confirm it for himself."
    "If not
Juan, then who? I thought we had a good line on all of the
communications flowing back and forth between the independent packs."
    "We do, but nothing in our business is ever
guaranteed. Either Alec has gotten the word
out since he left home, or Juan had some kind of failsafe in place
that was activated by his death."
    "This
could be a very big deal, Kaleb."
    "I know,
but there isn't anything more I can do about it until accusations
start to surface. I've already taken all of the precautions I
can—it's just a matter of waiting now, but that's all the more
reason to conserve what people I have left."
    "I've been
unwilling to do this up until now because I didn't want to let myself
get into range of one of those trackers, but if you have a
particularly difficult mission that needs to be carried out, I might
be willing to go down and use my…assets…to make sure
it's taken care of."
    Kaleb pursed
his lips. That was a definite departure from Puppeteer's past stance,
and they both knew what that signified.
    "That's a
very generous offer—one that I might very well take you up on
if the circumstances warrant it—but if we're wrong about the
reason that the independents have stopped coming south, that will
destroy all possibility of getting the flow started back up. The
independents view this as something separate from the Coun'hij in
many ways. You joining in will just make them feel like there isn't
any need for them to help out."
    "That
would make our…sponsor…very unhappy."
    "Indeed.
That little war has been the wedge I've used to get through a number
of my initiatives that he would otherwise never have