Chapter 547 Chapter 547
He stood there looking at the portrait behind his desk. It was of his father and he felt like he watched over him. Most days, Aiden wished he was still alive, but lately, he was glad he wasn’t. Things were out of control, and it pissed him off. Someone was sharing information and he wasn’t sure who. The past several months had been one shit show after another. How were they finding the locations that had been operating for decades? They weren’t linked to the family at all, so he knew the authorities weren’t involved. There were many left, but now he was going to have to move them. Moving them was going to be a hassle, but it was going to have to happen. Of course, until the roads were open, that wasn’t happening.
Stabbing the intercom button, he stared at the window.
“Boss?”
“I need a complete catalog of the sites that have been raided and all those remaining here in the US.”
“I have them working on it, Boss.”
“Good. Tell them I need it by the end of today.” He hit the button again to end the conversation.
He needed to get the few that he trusted here for a little sit down to start planning this. Where the hell was Lindon? The house they’d been staying at was empty, with no trace of them at all. Of all those working for him, he never imagined that he would bail on him and disappear. He didn’t know what rock he was hiding underneath, but they’d find it eventually. It was his own fault for letting him control where his clan was and never pushing to know the location. Not that it mattered in this instance. Lindon didn’t seem to be attached to anyone, so holding clan safety over his head likely wouldn’t have worked. The only thing Lindon cared about was planting his seed in every young female tiger they came across. Aiden didn’t know how many offspring he had, but when he found them, they would find out if Lindon cared about any of them.
Unlocking his phone, he checked for messages. There was nothing new. His spy inside the Shifter Alliance was late reporting in. Scrolling through his contact list, he tapped on the one insider who had never let him down or let his father down. He would tell him what was going on. His father had been a genius, placing so many inside the Alliance before they stepped up the game and took this international. This shifter’s stupidity had earned him a lifetime of serving the Tomas family. The one carnal sin that was never forgiven by these abominations was never kill your own kind—unless it’s an Alpha challenge, or some kind of bull like that. This very reliable shifter had killed one of his own and actually believed Aiden’s father would turn him in. To do that, he would have had to give a damn, and he didn’t.
He glanced at the phone when the reply came, New security system is taking me longer than I thought to get through. I’ll let you know when I’m in.
Aiden text back quickly, before the idiot did something obvious. Don’t wear out your welcome there. You’ll be needed next week in Cancun.
Got it, came back immediately.
Tossing the phone on the desk, he dropped into his chair , opened the center drawer, and pulled out the folder he’d looked through more times than he should have.
Flipping through a folder, he picked up one of the photos and studied it. His men had said she wasn’t where they tracked the car, yet here he was looking at her in this picture. She looked incredible, but then again, she always did. There was something different about her now that he couldn’t quite identify.
It had taken five investigators to locate her, but now that he knew where she was, he had a way to keep track of her. Dropping the photo, he glared at the next one. She was with a fleabag shifter that he was told was the prince of their Alliance. He could only assume that she was able to shift after all. It was too bad, really; he’d hoped she couldn’t. If she hadn’t, then he could have kept her forever. Of course, his heirs would have been procured by a human mother. None of that half-breed shit was happening again. His father’s lapse in sanity with Griffin was bad enough.
The intercom buzzed, “Boss. They found Griffin. The signal was brief, but they have a starting point now.”
“Good, go retrieve him.” He planned to teach him a lesson he’d never forget. No one ran from him. It was even worse than the fate he had in store for Lindon when he was located.
“Boss, it’s mountain terrain. It’s going to be impossible to get there in this storm.”
Turning, he glared out the window, the snow still hadn’t let up. “Send those new one who are eager to prove themselves. The,” he scowled at the floor, trying to remember what atrocity they turned into, “the ones that Harley sent us from Europe.”
“Okay, Boss, what are the orders?”
“Bring him back breathing, but I don’t care if it’s only just barely.”
“Got it.”
Slapping the folder shut, he brushed it back into the drawer and sat back. Folding his hands over the desk. They needed to stop grabbing women and children and weaker males. Turning the ring on his finger that his father and grandfather had once worn, he studied it. It was time to start going after their Alpha’s and anyone else in a position of power. He was going to control the shifter world, one way or another. Taking females and children was not going to accomplish that.
Once he had control, he would have enough power behind him to take his family’s ‘business’ and turn it into an empire. Adjusting the ring, he tapped his hand on the desk. It was time to start thinking about family. He would have married Rayne, not in a real ceremony, but could have kept her happy to play house with for many years to come. There was no time to dwell over a lost puppy, he needed a red-blooded human wife and children to teach them how the world really worked.
He stood up and stared at the painting. The idea of finding Griffin improved his mood greatly, it gave him something to look forward to, teaching his brother who was in charge.