The Severed Thread (7 page)

I threw myself back into the chair thinking that if Jason were not already dead, I would kill him myself.  Hot on the heels of that thought was another – I could be sitting across a desk from my brother’s killer on the very same day he had been killed.  I froze, my eyes darting to McCallister. 

“You killed him,” I whispered, feeling another fracture forming in my mental walls.

“No, but I was wondering when you would draw that conclusion,” he countered with a touch of amusement.  I doubted he would be so amused if he knew how close I was to the end of my tether.  “He was murdered during daylight hours which would mean I was sleeping when he was killed.  It gives me a rather nice alibi, don’t you think?” He smiled widely, showing off two pearly fangs.  A very toothy smile that never reached his eyes.   

“I suppose,” I replied somewhat doubtfully.  Not that that would have stopped him from having a non-vamp do his dirty work for him, but I refrained from pointing that out. 

“My first priority is to get my merchandise back,” he said.  “I would have tortured your brother until he told me how to get my property back first.  Once I got the information I wanted,
then
I would have killed him.  My understanding of the events of this morning made no reference to torture.”

I guess that depended on what you considered torture.  Personally I thought seeing the contents of one’s own abdominal cavity just before dying constituted torture.   I struggled to swallow back the bile rising up the back of my throat at the thought.  The last thing I needed to do was to throw up all over Liam McCallister’s very expensive looking rug. 

“Thank you for being so frank,” I said with a touch of sarcasm.  I was in no way convinced that he was not responsible.  “Just so I’m sure I understand, you did not kill him, but would have if you’d had the chance?”

“Abigail, I’m a business man and the Philadelphia Area Clan Master,” he said.  “I cannot allow an infraction of this magnitude pass without retribution.  Besides, killing your brother while my merchandise is still missing does nothing to solve my problem.” 

He had a point, if indeed his merchandise was still missing.  I really had no way of determining the validity of his accusations, although McCallister wasn’t known to fabricate grievances.  He would have no credibility with his people, or anybody, if that were the case.  It was very likely that Jason had stolen the Sapphire, or at least assisted with the theft, especially when you considered his track record for embracing foolish ideas.  I had to figure out who Jason might have had help him, but it would be tricky.  I didn’t want anyone to know what had happened at this point.  I decided to try a different tact.

“Why should I be responsible for your missing Sapphire?  I would imagine that there were quite a few people involved with the logistics in Panama.”

“Yes, you would think so wouldn’t you?” He seemed so calm that I knew there was more bad news coming.  “I imagine that is what your brother thought as well.”  He watched me carefully while he explained the next part. 

“Since this was the first shipment going through a new handler, and it was worth a considerable amount of money, I went to Panama and oversaw the loading of the container myself.” 
Of course he did
, I groaned to myself.  He was not the clan master of one of the most densely populated vampire regions because he was an idiot.  What had Jason been thinking to try to cheat him?

“Lok placed a special mark on the customs seal with ink you can only see under phosphorescent light.  So simplistic really, and it let us know immediately that the container had been tampered with after it left Cristobal.  When the container arrived at Tioga it had a brand new customs seal without Lok’s mark.  We did check the shipment for the Sapphire anyway, but it was nowhere to be found.”

I took a moment to mull that over, aware that McCallister was watching my facial expressions and monitoring my heart rate closely.  I did my best to keep my thoughts from showing plainly in my body language.  Even though I had already conceded, at least to myself, that Jason may have had something to do with the missing drugs, I did not understand why he would think he could steal from Liam McCallister.  It was their first endeavor, and he was obviously going to appear the guilty party!  That seemed incredibly foolish, even for Jason.

“How much was the missing Sapphire worth?”

“I have $1.2 million invested.  The street value is nearly three times that,” he told me.

 I could not stop myself from visibly cringing at the amount.  I was well paid, but that mostly amounted to cash flow.  The bulk of my money was tied up in trust until my thirty-fifth birthday, six years away.  There was no way I could come up with that kind of money without accessing my trust fund.  I had very little hope that the trustees would allow me early access to the money.  God knows Jason had tried unsuccessfully enough times.

“Ah, I see you are beginning to understand my problem,” McCallister replied at my cringe.  Unfortunately I was also beginning to better understand
my
problem.  I was going to wind up just as dead as Jason if I did not play my cards carefully.

Chapter 6

“You said you were willing to offer me a chance to fix things.  What might that entail exactly?”  I tried to be as noncommittal as possible with the question.

“I will give you three days to find my missing cargo,” he explained as he got up and walked over to a decanter and glasses that were laid out on a nearby table.

“And if I can’t locate it?”

“Then you will be my new contact at Lassiter Shipping.” He turned back to me after filling his glass with amber colored liquor.  “You will work off Jason’s debt by running shipments for me for the duration of one year.”

“And if I don’t agree?” I was pretty sure I didn’t want to hear his answer, but I felt compelled to ask anyway.  It was always important to understand the implications of not cooperating.

“Then bad things will start happening to some of your friends and associates.  I believe you are particularly fond of a Ms. Goldwater, yes?”  Yeah, I was right; I didn’t really want to know the answer.  I had to give it to him though; the asshole definitely knew how to motivate a person.

“I can’t agree to a year term if you are going to be shipping things in daily or even weekly,” I said, slipping into business mode.  I negotiated contracts regularly, this was no different.  Well, almost no different.  “The risk of getting caught and losing another shipment would be too high.  I need to understand how many shipments we are talking about.”  I felt a bizarre sense of detachment as I calmly negotiated with the man who very likely killed my brother.  Not to mention that these things could send me to prison for decades.  Tomorrow, this was all going to hit me like a freight train, but tonight was about surviving this meeting. 

Now would be a great time to have Naris swoop in and do some of his Guardian duties.  Since he was nowhere to be found, I could only assume that this hellacious encounter was part of The Plan.  Again,
lucky me
.

“I can agree to keep the shipments limited to one per month.  I too would not like to see any other shipments get
lost
.”  He had obviously noticed that I was unwilling to admit that Jason had stolen anything.

“Alright,” I sighed. “So, we have a deal?”  I could already feel little flecks of black settling into the crevices of my soul for agreeing to go into business with this monster.

“It would seem so,” he replied before glancing quickly over at Lok and then back at me again.  “I expect to hear from you in three days or less about the missing shipment.  We can go from there depending on the outcome.”

I nodded my head in agreement.  I had run out of energy for much else.

“Lok will show you out,” I had apparently been dismissed.  Finally.

I rose, and started to follow Lok back out the door.  I stopped short, realizing I needed an answer to an important question.  I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t thought of it sooner.  I turned around to find McCallister’s penetrating gaze settled on me.  To my annoyance, I flushed under his scrutiny.

“Was there something else you wished to discuss, Abigail?” he asked sardonically.  “You seemed rather relived to be leaving just a second ago.”

“I need the container tracking number for the lost shipment.”  I might be able to locate the missing Sapphire if I could just get inside that container.  If it had been reloaded and shipped out, my chances of tracking it down diminished considerably.  It looked like I was going to have to dust off my Location talent to get this mess sorted out.

My Location skills worked differently depending on who or what I was trying to find.  Anything associated with a strong emotion I could usually find without much difficulty, since the emotion acted like a beacon.  If I focused on the beacon, I could pinpoint the position of whatever or whoever was missing.  Anything not associated with a strong emotion did not have a beacon.  In those cases I was forced to rely on residue.  Residue could either be a small sample of the item itself, or its residual energy found in a spot that it once occupied.  I hoped to track down the Sapphire using residual energy.  But to do that, I had to get to the correct shipping container.

“I will have someone text you the number,” he replied.

“Okay, I will give Lok my mobile number.”

“That isn’t necessary,” he smirked at me before resuming his perusal of the paperwork on his desk. 

I was puzzled for a moment, before realizing that he probably already had it.  I was not sure how he had gotten my cell number, but at this point nothing about Liam McCallister would surprise me.  I turned once again to follow Lok out of the office.  We collected Jacqueline from her post outside the door, and Seamus from his position at the bottom of the stairs.  Then, instead of taking me out back to where the SUV was parked as I expected, they escorted me into the main club, which was now in full swing. 

Lok left me standing with Seamus and Jacqueline while he walked over to the bar and flagged down the bartender, a vamp that appeared to have been turned in his mid-twenties.   He leaned forward and said something to the bartender.  I looked around, wondering why I was down here waiting, while Lok talked to a bartender.

“Abigail!” I turned at the sound of my name to see my two closest friends, Corbin and Samantha standing right behind me.  What the hell were they doing here?

“Uh, hi guys,” I said pasting a smile on my face.  “What are you doing here?”

“What do you mean, what are we doing here?” Samantha said in confusion, her long dark curls swaying as she turned to Corbin who appeared equally perplexed.   “We got your text saying you were here and needed a ride home.  It seemed weird that you would be here after what happened earlier, but we came anyway.”

“Ms. Lassiter?”  Lok appeared at my elbow before I could come up with an explanation for what surely must seem like very bizarre behavior.  “Mr. McCallister said to tell you that the first round of drinks for you and your friends is on the house,” he paused for effect, “in memory of your brother.” 

I noticed a waitress standing next to him holding a tray.  An icy chill ran down my spine at the sight.  On the tray sat three shot glasses filled with slightly cloudy liquor, a flame dancing merrily on top.  Next to the glasses were three sugared lemons on napkins.  McCallister had sent us three Fire-Lemon Drops.   It was what Corbin, Samantha and I always drank when we went out.  Now that we were getting well past our partying days, we might only have one on any given evening out, but we always had at least one when all three of us were together.

As Corbin and Samantha were commenting on how nice McCallister was to send drinks in Jason’s honor, even going so far as to solicit a promise from Lok to pass on their thanks, I looked up at the balcony.  There, holding a glass of his own was Liam McCallister.  He saluted me with his drink, raising the glass to his lips before finally walking out of view.  I shivered as he was engulfed in the darkness at the back of the balcony.  He was sending me a message.  One I received loud and clear.  He knew my friends, he knew our habits and he could get us exactly where he wanted us whenever he chose.

I could barely bring myself to reach out and take the drink and lemon from the tray, but I did.  I gave Lok a tight smile, blew out the flame, downed the liquid, and sucked hard on the lemon.  The combination of sweet sugar and tart lemon always reminded me of those pixie stick candies I had eaten as a child.  Usually something to be savored, but this evening it was all I could do not to vomit the whole mess onto the club’s floor.

After downing my drink I hustled my two bemused friends out the door as quickly as possible.  I was hoping we didn’t run into anyone who recognized me.  The last thing I needed was to been seen out having what would look to all the world like a celebratory drink with friends on the same day my brother was murdered.  Damn Liam McCallister for the walking corpse he was.  The inevitable questions started as we made our way to Samantha’s car.

“What the hell was that all about?” asked Corbin, pinning me with his golden eyes.  “And don’t try to do the brush off, my friend, because I can’t imagine what would have possessed you to go to River Walk for a drink after what happened this morning.”

 I knew I owed them both an explanation.  We’d been friends too long for them to believe nothing was wrong.  I was confident Samantha would be completely fine with whatever I told her.  We had been friends since elementary school, and I trusted her completely.  Her Black Irish coloring and freckled face belied an absolutely unflappable and highly practical personality.  If I had to bring someone in to help sort out this mess, and I had a feeling I would, it needed to be her. 

Corbin and I met when we were college freshmen.  We both lived on the same floor of a coed dorm and immediately clicked.  He was a phenomenal defense attorney as well as a fitness nut.  I think he was at the gym or on a run nearly every day.  He was also a homosexual werewolf, and you did not run across many of those.   Werewolves were known for their intense social hierarchy and over-the-top dominance displays.  Neither of those qualities boded well for anyone not conforming to the traditional social structure of the pack.  Corbin was fortunate that the local pack, led by Jonathan Wilder, was more modern in its attitude towards alternate lifestyles and non-traditional roles than most.