The Bucklin Wolves Next Generation: Return Read Free Page A

percent.”
    “Well, without you I guess Mr. Sokolov would just piss all his money away, wouldn’t he?” Jacko said, walking around the front of the car to stand by them. “You’re the real brains behind this operation, aren’t you?”
    “Brains aren’t anything without muscle,” Ms. Wilson said, winking at Jacko. “We never would have been able to do it in Sojourn without you clearing out that wild den of wolves who were eating and raping the town’s residents.”
    “Just doing my job, Ms. W,” he said with a leering smile.
    Maribel wanted to gag. This was how Ms. Wilson generally got her way with men; it was why she was sent to close any deal with a man. If the job called for a man, Mr. Sokolov had plenty who made Brad Pitt look like a hobo, but Ms. Wilson was top amongst his female executives. Still, she wasn’t so sure Ms. Wilson’s feminine charm would work on Jacko. There was something about him, something that told her sex wasn’t a big motivator for a man like him.
    “Alright, numbers girl,” Ms. Wilson said, turning to Maribel. “Give me the numbers on this shithole one more time.”
    “Yes, okay, then.” Maribel was having trouble opening her bag and pulling out the dossier she had on this town. She could feel her hands begin to sweat as their eyes burned into her, raising her internal temperature to a number on the dial she thought would cause her to spontaneously combust right there on the spot. Of course the chances of that actually happening were .0004 percent. “Here we go. This town was just a small, nothing town until the 1980s. Then a band of five werewolf packs descended out of the national park surrounding the town and bloodily conquered it. They left no humans alive. After that they established a government and a booming tourism sector. The town has only ever had two mayors: a man named Luke and another man named Aster. Luke died under mysterious circumstances and it appears Aster vanished two years ago. As a matter of fact, fifty-two percent of the town’s population vanished around the same time. The tourism sector was devastated and the town’s population never recovered.”
    “That’s because the wolves won’t allow humans to move into the town,” Ms. Wilson said. “You’ve seen the reports. Plenty of humans have tried to snap up real estate out here, but they were turned down every time.”
    “The town has a new mayor named Seth,” Maribel continued. “He hasn’t done a whole lot in his first two years. Quick research shows no new social programs, housing initiatives or urban renewal enacted under his administration.”
    “Until now,” Ms. Wilson said with a sadistic smile. “He’s made the best decision of his career.”
    “Why do you move into small places like this?” Jacko asked. When Maribel gave him a questioning look he just smiled. “Oh, come on, honey. I’m just the trigger man in all of this. The hired muscle, right? But this place is going to take a more… how do I say? Special touch. I might as well know what I’m getting into.”
    “Research, and our own experience, shows towns like this are prime real estate for a casino and hotel. Most people in bigger cities don’t like a place like this so close and there are too many other things to compete for the entertainment dollar, anyway. But we’ve found citizens, especially in the Bible belt, love a weekend trip to the casino. The farther out from anything it is, the more hotel rooms we sell. Plus there’s a decent-sized city, Cedarville, that’s not far away. Those people would be willing to make weekday trips too. Sojourn isn’t the only town we’ve resurrected. There are countless other examples that have helped Mr. Sokolov build his fortune.”
    “And it’s a sizeable fortune,” Ms. Wilson added.
    “Of course I can give you the numbers,” Maribel said, feeling her excitement level rise as she dove into them. “The income of rural casinos like this is twenty-three percent higher than