140
Matt
“I’ve been fighting a headache… And I was… thinking about Lucy.”
I waited for him to call me out, but there was nothing but silence and as soft sigh.
“Sounds like we should do to a healer,” Tony said. “When did your headache start?”
“Off and on,” I lied. “Did you… notice?”
“Notice what?”
“…how happy she looked.”
“What?” Tony growled. “Don’t start talking nonsense. She’s not happy. She’s not where she’s meant to be, where she’s destined to me: with us. With our pack, building a family with us.”
I swallowed. Images of Lucy's radiant smile and the sparkle in her eyes plagued my mind, tugging at my heart. Guilt tumbled through me. I should keep my mouth shut, but I couldn’t. I might be a coward, but I’m not that much of a coward.
“She… never laughed when she was with us.”
He growled again. “Don’t even go there. There was too much going on, too many things to teach her.”
“But did we teach her?”
“What?”
I searched for the words. “We didn’t… reach her anything.”
“She didn’t have the instinct to learn,” Tony growled. “Those humans did something to her, and we didn’t even have the chance to fix it before they stole her from us.”
Frustration coursed through me, but when I glanced at Tony, I saw the maddened look on his face. he was slipping quickly and my lack of conviction wasn’t going to get us anywhere.
Maybe he was right and this curse was just affecting me differently than it affected Tony. I heard her laughing in the back of my mind. Silence hung heavy in the air as I watched the world go by. I pulled out my phone and sent a message. I needed to get out of the house as soon as possible.
"What about our father? When is he scheduled to be released?"
Tony's expression darkened, anger and resentment flickering in his eyes. "They changed his release date again. I managed to push it back a bit."
“I guess there really is a silver lining in every cloud.” I cleared my throat. “So, what’s your plan? We know she’s in Hecate City, but not exactly where. It’s not like we know the city that well.”
“I’m going to call a few people I know inside the SCF; they have to be watching her if she’s in a mixed city like Hecate. I’ll find out who her handler is and work from there.” He growled. “I wish I had managed to snag that business in Hecate, but we don’t have any properties there, no in.”
“Nature’s Boon?”
“No,” he said. “Harkening Investments. They were looking to sell, but they weren’t willing to negotiate with me.”
I looked at him as he frowned and his eyes narrowed. Some of the madness seemed to clear as he reached for his phone. He held it gingerly, still hissing at the pain as he navigated through his phone. His eyes narrowed and he moved quickly.
“Pull out your laptop,” Tony said. I reached into the back, feeling a little relieved that his voice seemed so normal again. I opened and logged in.
Then, he started rattling off stock codes or something. I didn’t understand half of it, but I followed his instructions and opened up the documents then showed them to him. He clenched his jaw and growled.
“That son of a bitch!”
“What?”
He growled and started typing, getting blood all over the keyboard. I took it from him.
“Stop or it won’t work anymore. What is it?”
“That son of a bitch knew why Nature’s Boon was tanking,” Tony growled. “He fucking baited me.”
His eye twitched. “And to think I warned that son of bitch about Blue Haven and Horizon.”
I shook my head. “You’re talking Russian. What?”
“David,” he growled. “We were in the running for Nature’s Boon. I know it, and he pulled out at the last minute. “
He pointed to the screen where one of the articles was pulled up. “That son of a bitch already knew that Nature’s Boon had already sold most of its most lucrative property. The land they farm on. He probably dragged it out just to make sure he could close the deals before the merger documents were signed.”
“Farmland?”
“Used for supernatural and normal ingredients,” he said. “Medical stuff, supplies for witches and natural human cosmetic companies. We haven’t closed the fucking merger, but all we’d be getting is a name and a bunch of employees.’
I frowned. “So… don’t buy it?”
“Then he’ll buy it for cheap,” Tony growled. “He bought the land to ease their cashflow problem…”
I frowned looked at the documents and reading. I wasn’t the best at contracts or business documents, but I could sort of follow the value report.
“He goaded you into overbidding while taking everything that was worth it?”
“He called the debts due through Harkening, all of them were secured with land deeds, then bought them for cheap from Harkening.”
“Isn’t that illegal?” I asked. “Inside trading or something like that?”
“Land, not stocks,” Tony said. “It’s a technicality. Harkening Investments is based in Hecate. Half of the deal was done under supernatural law, so there’s really nothing to be done.”
He sat back. “For fuck’s sake…”
“What about Blue Haven?” I asked. “I thought you were going after Blue Haven, too?”
He laughed wryly and wiped his face, smearing blood all over it. My stomach churned.
“Blue Haven was in talks with Horizon, Peter’s company. They close this week.” His lips twitched and he flicked over to another article.
“And apparently, isn’t much of a threat since Peter took it over so easily.” He growled and rubbed his head. “How the fuck could he have tricked me like that?”
I looked at the article and frowned. Peter didn’t look happy either. I went looked for more information about Blue Haven.
“It’s a weapon’s company specializing in armored tanks for the human military. Why would Peter want this company?”
“Probably for his not-so secret quest for supernatural supremacy, but keep looking.”
I kept scrolling when the C.E.O. started talking about what they hoped the merger would accomplish.
“Re-establish supply chains in Asia?” I frowned and looked at Tony.
“Blue Haven’s Ore supplier is a sister company to Nature’s Boon, literally. The sister owns the company, the brother owns Nature’s Boon. I had originally planned to use the connection to cut the legs from under Blue Haven.”
“What’s this got to do with us and David? I thought you said he bought a finance company? Then, you said the land thing…” My head hurt for real now.
“If you weren’t so busy fucking around, you’d know that since David took over, the Blood Moon portfolio has spread wide, practically overnight and sneakily as fuck. Peter said we collectively would have a hold of most of the human industries, what he should have said was that David had a solid foothold in every industry.”
“That can’t be possible,” I said. “What about our companies?”
“Traditionally, Blue Moon has only had a hand in arms and domestic energy: companies with huge military contracts and oil companies. I’ve been trying to broaden our reach, but it’s been damned difficult.” He grit his teeth. “It wasn’t like dad was very forthcoming about how best to run the fucking pack’s business. I just got us to stop bleeding money when I pulled out of a few tanking investments.”
He shook his head. “He’s only fucking nineteen, and that little bastard has outmaneuvered me.”
I looked back at the screen and started looking for David’s pack’s company. Bloodborne Industries didn’t publicize a lot about the company on their website, but I saw David standing with a bunch of teenagers in front of a large field that looked like it had just been overturned. I kept swiping through the photos until I saw him starting to get younger. Then, his father appeared taking a lot of similar photos with a bunch of people.
“I thought he was at the orphanage with Lucy.”
Tony went still. “And?”
“So, how’d he get from the orphanage to Blood Moon?” I swiped back. “Or better yet, how did he get from Blood Moon to the orphanage? Where Lucy just happened to be?”
Tony’s eyes narrowed. “No one… knows what happened to White Moon exactly.”
I looked at Tony. “Someone has to know. Lucy can’t be the only one to survive, she would have been… a toddler at the time.”
Tony nodded and turned to our beta. “Get us to someone who will fix my hands. Then, call Dagon. I need information on White Moon.”
He smirked. “You’re right, Matt. Someone else had to have escaped. They know something and if there’s even a small chance that Blood Moon was involved in their fall, there’s no way that the Council could justify placing a refugee with the pack that cause her to be without a family.”
I sat back with relief and guilt warring in me.
At the least, he was focused on something and calm.
It would have to be enough for now.
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