Page 25 of Dark Sold Mate

***

Silas sat at the head of the dining table in the company of his brothers and August. Road maps of the neighboring lands marked with red circles were on the table.

“Tell me you have something,” Silas said, looking at Rael.

His brother shook his head. “I have been following all the financial transactions I could find from the auctions. They are making use of shell companies, cryptocurrency, and offshore accounts. The person behind this knows how to cover their tracks.”

“What about the buyers?” Silas turned to Javi. “Heard word from your contacts?”

“Blind streets,” Javi replied, his voice tinged with frustration. “The few I was able to locate said that they were only there to watch. One of them threatened to send me to the Council for harassment.”

The ruling council was the body that ruled all the shifter packs in North America. And if they were brought in before Silas had evidence that his pack was innocent, the situation would become unpleasant.

“August?” Silas glanced at his closest friend.

“Well, you know Sally and I spent some time at the Clearwater pack. I asked their Alpha whether anything suspicious had taken place in their pack. He has heard rumors of the trafficking ring, but nothing specific. No sign whatsoever as to who’s running it.”

Silas slammed his fist on the table, making the map roll down. “Six months and we’re no closer to answers than when we started.”

“We were close,” Javi said pointedly. “At the auction. The mission you left.”

Silas’s eyes flashed. “We’ve been over this.”

“Have we? Because I do not think you realized everything you were giving up.” Javi leaned forward. “You were inside, following the tracks. You had access to the members. Had you not been so careless, you could have followed the handlers and traced them to their destinations. We could have had sufficient evidence by now.”

“I couldn’t leave Elle there.”

“But you had no problem leaving the mission.” Javi’s tone got higher and sharper. “And now the auction’s gone. It’s a moving operation, Silas. They never use the same place twice. We’ve lost our best lead.”

“I made a choice.”

“You made the wrong choice.”

“Enough.” Rael grabbed the map. “It is of no use fighting now about what Silas should have done. We must move on.”

Silence fell over the table. Silas looked at the map; the burden of being a failure gripped his throat like a vice.

He had let them down. He turned his back.

For Elle.

He’d do it again, though. He would make the same choice despite knowing the cost. But that did not make the guilt any lighter.

“What if we use Elle?” Javi asked suddenly.

Silas’s head snapped up. “What?”

“Elle. She was there. She was in the thick of it. She may recollect details, faces, things, which may assist us to figure out the next auction.”

“Fuck no.”

“Are you insane?”

Silas and August said at the same time.

“Think about it,” Javi continued. “She was held captive for days. She saw the handlers, the location where they detained the women, the path they used. That is more than the last six months of research have given us.”

“She’s fucking traumatized,” Silas recoiled. “I am not going to make her experience that nightmare again in order to collect some intelligence.”