Chapter 30
Griffin carried the two mugs of coffee out. Blaise was at the table, a map and notepad in front of her. “Expecting a trip?”
She tapped her phone and looked at it. “I like to see where places are if they’re mentioned,” she shrugged, “easier to volunteer for things if I know what’s involved.”
“Smart.” He set a cup in front of her and then sat in the other chair. “You seem more settled after a run.” It was the first time he knew something was being conveyed by his inner bear when he’d felt panic and anxiety, but knew it wasn’t his own. When she’d looked up at him, her eyes had been more cat than a woman.
Blaise blew on the liquid in her cup, “it helps. A run.” She took a small sip. “How are you doing with your bear?”
He gave her an exaggerated expression trying to relay his frustration. “I’m not sure. I know when he doesn’t want something, but we’re still not communicating.”
She smirked. “it takes time.”
Setting his cup down, he flipped his hands open toward her. “Good thing I have a lot of that right now.”
The phone rang, ending any further conversation.
“Blaise, it’s Illias, two secs and I’ll put you through to the others.”
“Sounds good, Illias.” She set the phone down and tapped the speaker button.
“Okay, that’s everyone for now.” The same man said.
“Blaise?”
She leaned forward. “I’m here, Kenzo.”
Griffin knew that was her boss.
“I’m sorry for the short notice, everyone, but time is not in our favor right now, so I needed to get all of you involved right from the start.”
Griffin gave her a curious look, she held her hand over her head and made a circle, telling him it was the King’s voice they were hearing.
“Who is everyone?” A woman with a deep voice asked.
“I was just about to tell everyone, Wynter.” The King told her.
“Sounds good, sir.”
He saw Blaise smirk. She glanced at him and then wrote something on the notepad and slid it over. She had written Incursion team leader. He nodded.
“Joining us is my son and his mate.”
Blaise wrote Devin and Rayne for him. Griffin was happy that Rayne had a life now. He’d always wondered how she ended up with Aiden, then again, her choices weren’t many when his father had shielded her after her parent’s mysterious death.
“Calum Dante and his mate, our best medical advisor currently.” The King continued.
She wrote down Shae, so he knew the mate’s name.
“Alpha Blair Elden and his mate, our best tracker, Kobie Sorum.”
Someone laughed quietly and he wondered why that was entertaining.
“Leader of our coordination team, Jesse Pruitt, and his talented mate.”
“Evanna is here with me.” A male informed them.
Griffin glanced at Blaise; she wrote quickly and leaned back. She has a split personality. Leah and Evanna. He gave her a surprised look, and she shrugged.
“Noah is also here; his insight on matters with the Tomas organization is always welcome.”
Griffin nodded. It was good that Noah had found his place in life and was included. He could only hope that he did in the future.
“Head of surveillance, Uri Welton, from our Tech team, Nate Howe,” the King continued, “as well as Raymond, head of security.” Griffin would never forget that huge man. “Konner Flores, who is bringing the offer of more help to the table today.”
Blaise glanced at the phone, and he wondered why that part interested her so much.
“We also have Blaise Morgan from Kenzo’s team with us and Griffin Ballard, who has brought us thirty years of knowledge from inside the Tomas organization.”
The line went quiet.
“Heard you had the misfortune of being related to Tomas, Mister Ballard.” He recognized the leader of the incursion’s team voice.“I say we let him stick the knife in that Aiden’s heart at the end of this—sir.”
Blaise smirked, and Griffin was shocked. This Wynter woman was very blunt.
“I’ll take that into consideration, Wynter.” Shepard said in a light tone. “I’ll try not to take up too much of your time today,” he continued. “Konner has some contacts in other countries that he’s been utilizing to transport our kind under the wire, so to speak.” No one commented.
Griffin glanced at Blaise; she had a hard look on her face making him wonder why it was personal for her. He wanted to know more of her story, but the few times she’d inadvertently told him something about herself, she’d gone cold afterward.
“Konner has asked these men, once they’re finished assisting on their side of borders, if they’d like to become part of the Alliance.”
“What was the outcome of that, Shep?”
Blaise wrote down Calum.
“They’ve agreed, Calum. Only a few of them will be left over there after the others’ families are safely moved to the appropriate clans here.”
“That’s good news, sir. That their families will be safe.” A voice he’d never forget said. It was the large man in charge of security. Raymond Hardy.
“It is, Raymond. To facilitate things on this end, we have one working with Konner to set up safe routes and assist our teams with transport. Is Mister Steele with us, Illias?”
“He will be in a few secs, sir.”
There was a soft click on the line.
“Taggart Steele here, sir.” Griffin looked at the phone, he understood his name was Taggart, but it sounded more like Tegarrt with the man’s accent.
“Taggart, I was just explaining to our team leaders that you are going to be heading up our new team that will be handling ambassadors gone astray.”
“Ja, it will be my pleasure, sir. To toss out the rotten apples.”
With the way he enunciated his o’s and r’s, Griffin thought he must be from the Northern European region. He’d watched a lot of documentaries to kill time and his accent was either Dutch or German, or somewhere close to those.
Blaise was grinning at him, and he couldn’t be sure if it was the man’s words or that he was going to be tossing out rotten apples.
“The records with the sales listed has not been very useful for us to locate which ports the most bodies flowing through.” Griffin noticed him speaking carefully and wondered how long he had been working on his English. Most of the words he was doing good using the American dialect.
“We have new information to sort through as well, so there may be even more opportunities for your people to help.”
“I brought four of my men with me, sir. We are happy to jump in the action if we are needed.”
“We’re going to need a few more working on surveillance right now, watching the addresses and people that have been given to us.”
Blaise lurched forward and wrote Uri on the notepad. At least Griffin knew that one.
“We can do that. We are very good at not being seen.”
Blaise raised an eyebrow and then wrote mercenaries? on the paper. Griffin lifted a shoulder in reply, he couldn’t be sure.
“With this new information, we may be able to close down the main connection here.” The King said.
“That would be a great thing, sir.”
“I’m unable to contact Cecil about your sister and you joining their clan right now, Taggart. We’re still filtering through associates of each clan for possible information leaks, but as soon as we can, it will be done. Until that time, you and your sister are under my protection.
“Ja, I understand. My sister is happy to be help at the campground. Arcadia, I believe it is called.”
“She’s been a great help.” A woman told him.
“Thank you, princess. I am just happy she is out of there.”
Griffin glanced at Blaise and then mouthed, ‘Rayne’. She nodded. He used to love her gentle voice; it was a nice break from all the brainless goons his brother kept himself surrounded with.
“I am going to half to go, sir, one of my men just arrived, and I need to go over his trip with him.”
“I understand, Taggart. Thank you again for joining us.”
“I am just happy to be doing something about it on the bigger scale. I will be in touch with all of your team leaders in the next week to see how I can help with their transports inside the border.”
“Thank you, Taggart.” There was a short pause and then a click.
“That’s some great news,” Wynter said.
“It is, Wynter. I’d like to discuss some of the information Griffin has given us now.”
Griffin sat straighter and watched the phone like something would come out of it for him.
“We have a few more spies weeded out with his help. They’ve been dealt with. There are more files we’ll have him go through, so we can finally go about things more normally.”
“Were there a lot? On the inside?” Uri asked.
“Even one is too many, there should never have been any.”
“I agree, Nate. We’re going to ask Griffin to go through the sales records recovered from Lindon Eldon as well, see if he can’t fit a few more pieces together for us.”
Griffin frowned. “I’m sorry, Lindon kept records of his transactions?” He shook his head.
“Dates, how many, sometimes the clan and the amount are the only part that’s been translated.” He recognized Blair’s voice.
“One of mine, with the help of Nate’s team, figured out that so far, we’re just not sure about the rest.”
He glanced at Blaise, not recognizing the voice. She wrote Konner on the paper. “Would I be able to look at these records? I know places, ports, companies, and names for many areas that were used, maybe I can figure out more.” He wanted to try. At this point, he’d do anything to stop Aiden—before Aiden found him.
“I was going to speak with you about that, Griffin.” The King said quietly, “I’m sure you understand we can’t just let you roam around…”
Griffin snorted. “I have nowhere to roam, sir, no way to roam,” he looked down at the jeans he wore, “I don’t even have clothes of my own.”
“The clothes we can remedy; however, until things are resolved with the Tomas organization, you will be required to stay with one of our team members or a secure location.”
He knew a secure location was a polite way of saying locked up. “I understand.” He glanced at Blaise, who, for whatever reason, looked offended.
“Bring him here.” Blair said. “Well, not here-here. We have too many children to risk that, but he could go to Ed’s. It’s probably one of the safest areas to be in with my place and Noah’s close by.”
“I wouldn’t mind doing blood tests and seeing how the data measures after taking the medication for as long as he did.”
Eyebrows raised; he watched Blaise circle Shae’s name on the paper.
Someone spoke quietly away from their phone for a moment.
“I guess we’re going to Ed’s too.” Blaise tapped the pen the paper over the name Calum. “Blair isn’t wrong, Shep; there will be more than enough to keep him out of Tomas’ reach.”
As much as Griffin wanted to help, he didn’t feel there would be any safe place out of reach of Aiden.
“I trust you to keep an eye on things, Calum.” The King agreed.
Blaise leaned over the map and looked at it for a moment. “I’m looking at two days, maybe longer to get there, depending on how well the roads have been cleared.”
“Do you need anyone to accompany you, Blaise?” Shepard Addison asked.
Blaise glanced at the phone. “No, I’ll be fine on my own.”
“You keep me on speed dial, Blaise.”
She smirked. “Yes, boss.”
“I’d just like to say if Griffin can help us shut this down, I am all for whatever he needs to get it done.”
“I agree with Kaid.” Wynter stated. “You need any backup, Blaise, you call, and I’ll have the team there in no time.”
“Thanks, Wynter.” Blaise grinned.
“Any idea when we’re setting up some more ops?” Kenzo said in a quiet tone.
“We’re watching the locations Griffin gave us right now, but don’t get too comfortable at home when we confirm we’ll be moving fast,” Devin informed all listening.
Blaise gave the phone a thumbs up.
“If that’s everything, I’ll end the call here.” Shepard paused for a moment, “you’ve all been doing excellent work under trying circumstances. I know in the near future, all of our kind will be freed.”
The line was quiet.
“Thanks, Dad.” It seemed odd to hear Devin call the King dad. “I need Blair, Calum, Kenzo, and Blaise to stay on the line.”
“That’s our cue to hang up.” Wynter said. “Call if we’re needed.”
There were a few other goodbye remarks, and Illias said, “Everyone else is gone.”
“Thanks, Illias.” He wondered why Devin needed just these people on the call. “Blair, you need to read Ed in, and Coop, make sure patrols are diligent.”
“I will, I’m not worried. We have so many tigers around here, we can patrol in five directions at the same time.”
“Okay, good. Get Gage in on the patrol at Ed’s, just to be sure.”
“Will do.”
“How soon can you get to Ed’s, Cal?”
“We’re heading to Konner’s to check on the twins, I’m sure he can fly us there now that the storm is over. We’ll be there before Blaise.” This Calum sounded too calm and easygoing. Griffin wondered if he really was.
“Good. Kenzo, I need more of yours on a few sights that we’re watching. There’s been no movement and the guys posted there can’t stay awake forever.”
“Text me the details, I can get someone there. I’ll go myself if I have to. Do we expect movement?” Blaise was the most interested in her boss speaking, Griffin could see she had an immense amount of respect for the man with the expression on her face.
“We’re hoping. They’re locations Griffin gave us, and important ones. We just need them to emerge so we can get counts and intel.”
“All right, I’ll get more eyes on it.”
“Blaise, take what you need and bring extra in case that weather circles back, don’t kill yourself trying to get there fast. Just get there in one piece.”
Blaise smirked, “bad weather isn’t a problem for me.”
“Keep your phone in sight at all times, and if anything feels off, you let us know. Illias, I want her movement tracked until she’s surrounded by Blair’s tigers.”
Someone chuckled. “Got it.”
“Okay. We’ll see you all soon.”
“What do you mean we?” Calum didn’t sound so relaxed now.
“We don’t trust sending everything over lines, so I’m bringing a laptop of all of it that has no online capability and can’t be traced.” Devin chuckled. “I’m not staying, so don’t worry. Rayne and I are heading back to Arcadia to check on everything since the storm.”
“Okay, good. We have enough to worry about with Griffin being there. We don’t need to be watching your back the whole time too.”
“I miss you too, Cal.” Devin sounded amused. “If that’s all…”
“Can I make one stop to get Griffin some clothes that fit his new size?” Blaise asked abruptly.
“Yes. Make it fast though.”
“No worries, sir, I’m not big on shopping.” Blaise glanced at him for a second and smirked.