Read Online The Severed Thread by Dione C. Suto - Free Book Online Page A

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