Read Black And Blue (Quentin Black Mystery #5) for Free Online

cannot do what we need him to do. Moreover, you told me before he is not even aware of us, correct? As per the treaty with Charles, no one in either of our camps who did not already possess that information was given it. So you would have to educate him in that matter, first.”
    “Or... not,” Brick said, shrugging. “He is hardly a fool. He will put the pieces together well enough on his own, particularly once he is inside the facility. Telling him in advance might only give him further reason to fight us.”
    Konstantin gave Brick a harder look below his black and iron-gray eyebrows. “There is much at stake in this. Our whole family, perhaps.”
    “I do understand that, sir. Believe me, I do.”
    “I wonder sometimes.” Konstantin’s eyes went back to scanning the horizon. “You seem to enjoy this work a little too much at times, Brick... even with your desire to free Lila. And you are too young to remember our first run-ins with the psychics.”
    Brick heard the real anger there.
    He knew some of it was aimed at him, at his supposed arrogance and refusal to abide in his place. But Brick had been warning the others, including Konstantin, about the dangers these foreigners posed from the very beginning. He hardly felt the need to pretend he was quaking in his boots now.
    The truce was a farce.
    All it had done was allow that fucker, Charles––or “Lucky,” as his followers called him––to gather strength and consolidate power. It had given him the time to build an empire, along with the time to seek out and draw more and more recruits into his fold, indoctrinating them into more and more zealous ideological beliefs.
    If it were up to Brick, he would have wiped them out while there were still only a few of them here. Then he would have assigned a permanent team of hunters to seek out and kill each new one as it appeared in the years since.
    He certainly wouldn’t have stood around and whinged and whined and wrung his hands while they made themselves formidable. Now Lucky was competing with them directly on the world stage, including in the business arena. The paltry tributes he paid would never justify allowing such a thing, not for those who never belonged here in the first place.  
    This wasn’t their world. It belonged to Brick, and those like him.
    So no, Brick would not apologize.
    That this was an issue at all came from sheer stupidity on the part of the elders. The problem had been entirely preventable, and easily contained––until it was not.
    But they hadn’t listened. And now it was Brick they called to help clean it up.
    He gazed out over the smog-dusted landscape down to the ocean as he thought all of this, inclining his head once more, almost in a nervous tic. His voice held a hint of indifference when he spoke, likely another semi-conscious effort to needle the old man.
    “I take my job here very seriously, Konstantin,” he said. “If you are concerned about the seer’s ability to perform while wearing the collar... don’t be. He is trained in an impressive number of human skill sets as well as seer ones, many of which will benefit our cause greatly. If he can manage not to get himself killed while he adjusts to life inside, I have no doubt he will be able to accomplish the task we’ve set for him.”
    “And if Charles discovers we’ve planted him in this little menagerie?”
    “He won’t.” Brick’s voice was certain. “Charles has no assets at the facility. Truthfully, I have my doubts Charles even knows of it... or is aware of our exposure problems at all.”
    Again, Konstantin frowned, shaking his head without looking from the window. “And just how do you plan to capture him in the first place?”
    Brick smiled. Now the old man was just grasping at straws.
    “That part needn’t concern you at all, Patrón . It is already in motion.”
    “Already in motion?” Konstantin turned, glaring at him openly that time. “You have put this plan in motion? I and the Council