Free Splintered by Dean Murray Page A

Sam's been holding out on us. They
had a hugely profitable operation down in Charleston."
    Jasmin's eyes got really big. "You do remember
that the Coun'hij has declared the east off limits?"
    "Under other circumstances I would have honored
the restriction, but the 'operation' was a veritable criminal
empire. Drugs, extortion, underage prostitution, you name it. It
needed stopped."
    "So you went and stopped it. Then you and
Donovan split up the loot, or not. Why am I here?"
    "Sam claims he didn't know the full extent of
what Sergen was up to, but I don't believe him."
    Jasmin was pacing now. She'd always done her
best thinking on her feet.
    "So kill him, or at least boot him. We don't
want that kind of trash around."
    Donovan shook his head. "If you go
after him Alison and Jack will jump in. That is the tightest group
of submissives I've ever seen. You can't kill one without at the
very least injuring the others very severely."
    I'd already played that scenario out in my
head. Killing Sam was easy. He wasn't even half the fighter Jack
was. Dom could probably do it if she were so inclined.
    "The problem is that we need some submissives
around here. I can do without Sam, but I need the other two as a
buffer to keep the rest of us from always being two seconds from
throwing down."
    Jasmin shook her head. "You need
Alison, but you don't need Jack. Jack's more trouble than he's
worth."
    I looked to Donovan, waiting for his opinion.
"I'm not entirely convinced myself of Jack's instability. I've
wondered from time to time how much of his aggression is organic
and how much of it is Sam prompting him from behind the
scenes."
    "Okay, you boys may have a point;
Sam does do all the thinking for that little trio. Still, it sounds
like it's time to take some kind of harsher action where Sam is
concerned. He practically has Adri eating out of his hand these
days."
    I shook my head. "No, we can't do
anything overt. For now I just wanted the two of you to know what's
going on. I can't tell Isaac or James, they're too close to the
issue, and I need some time to come up with a solution that won't
turn Adri against me."
    "You really think she'd leave you over that
piece of crap?" Jasmin shushed Donovan before he could reprimand
her for her language.
    "I wish I could say no, but the longer I watch
Sam in action the more convinced I am that he's smarter than any of
the rest of us give him credit for. It looks like he's playing a
losing hand, which should be evident to him. The fact he's still
playing the game despite that makes me nervous."
    Jasmin shrugged. "Okay, I'll leave
the intrigue to you two. I've actually got me a date
tonight."
    "Anyone I know?"
    "Please, like I'd tell you."
    I waited until Jasmin was safely gone before
standing and turning back to Donovan. "You're no doubt curious
where the million dollars went."
    "The money is yours, Master Alec. It isn't my
place to question what you do with your inheritance."
    "I'm not going to have that discussion again.
Regardless of who the money really belongs to, you're the one who's
doing most of the heavy lifting where our finances are involved.
You were depending on that money to meet obligations and execute
our plans."
    "Things will indeed be difficult for a time
given the depleted state of our reserves."
    "The meeting place I tracked Sergen
down to was a brothel. There were nearly thirty girls there, half
of them underage. The madam seemed like a half decent person
though. He used her daughter to control her. Once he was gone and
I'd killed most of his organization, she didn't have any reason to
continue to sell the girls."
    "The money would be incentive enough for some,
Master, Alec."
    "She's not that good of a liar. I set up a
trust that will make monthly payments to support the girls. They'll
be getting regular psychiatric visits too. The two guys you went
ahead and had Alexi send arrived just in time to help gather up a
chunk of Sergen's assets. It's in a warehouse near Pier 15. Half