Dirty Thief

“Ava?” I ease the door open, but the small room is dark and empty.

Fear twists in my gut. It’s stupid. I have no reason to be concerned. She’s probably in another room reading or watching television, and she didn’t want to disturb me.

She’s not in the sitting room. I go from room to room on the second floor, but every one is empty. I’m on the verge of shouting her name and waking the whole goddamn palace when I notice a light down the hall.

Sprinting toward it, I grasp the handle and burst in, causing Ava to scream and jump back, away from the table where she was sitting. She’s visibly shaking, and I’m out of breath as I cross to her.

“I’m sorry,” I say, taking her in my arms. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Holding her against my chest, I slide my hand up and down her back. It takes almost a minute for me to notice she isn’t relaxing. She’s stiff, and her hand is pressed against my bare chest as if she’s pushing me away. Taking a step back, I grasp the tops of her shoulders, forcing her to face me.

“What are you doing?”

She blinks rapidly, looking around the room. “I, um… Well… I…”

That fist tightens in my stomach again. “Ava?” My tone is stern.

Her eyes are round when they finally meet mine. She hesitates a bit longer before letting out a little plea.

“I’m sorry. You’ve just been so busy, and then it was the baby and the orphans…” She steps out of my grip and walks to the other side of the room. Her hands are clasped at her waist as she continues. “And you were so angry when it came up before. You’ve had so many things making you angry lately. I was going to tell you.”

What the hell? I couldn’t be more confused by her behavior. “Tell me now.”

She stops walking and puts her hands on the table. A fine line pierces her brow, and I can’t tell if she’s afraid or determined. “I’ve been searching for the other girls. I have their pictures and their names and ages. I’ve had them for years, and now that I’m here and everything is like a fairytale, I can’t take it anymore. I feel so guilty. I have to do something for them. It’s not fair…”

I think I know what she’s saying, but she still isn’t making sense. Crossing the space between us, I reach for her waist. “Come here,” I say, gentling my tone. “I don’t like waking up and finding you gone, but I’m not angry with you. Tell me what you’re doing. Let me help you.”

Her shoulders drop, and she leans into me. Now her body is relaxed when I slide my palm over the silk of that robe Zelda sent her. We hold each other through another few breaths, and she steps back.

“Wait here.”

She goes to the door and leaves me alone in the room. I do as she asks, but I look at the computer screen. It looks like satellite imagery, but I can’t tell of what. A folder is on the table beside the laptop, and I read the card sitting on top. The names Ramona Lewis and Emily Farther are written in Ava’s script beside addresses in Florida and Maryland.

My eyes are on the computer screen when she returns to the room. “Who are these women?” I ask, but when I look up, I see she’s holding a man’s wallet. The black leather is cracked and faded, and it’s clearly old.

“I was fifteen when Zelda and I ran away from our last foster home,” she says quietly. “Before we ran, I took this from the man who was keeping us.”

Her eyes go to my hands, and I realize I’m fisting them. It takes all my will to force them to relax. “Have you found him?”

I don’t finish my thought out loud. I’m prepared to kill him.

“I don’t care about him,” she says, and her voice has changed to the way it sounds when she speaks of him. It’s cold and hard as ice. “He doesn’t matter.”

“He matters to me.” My voice, by contrast is seething.

She crosses to where I’m standing and opens the wallet. “When I ran away, I took this because I wanted my picture back. He had taken it and made a big show of putting it in his special wallet.”

The rage burning in my stomach at this man could incinerate this entire palace. I have to steady my breathing before I can speak. “I understand.”

Her cool hand touches my chest. Her slim fingers open over my heart, and she forces my eyes to meet hers. This time when she speaks, all traces of ice are gone.

“You can’t hide how you feel from me, and I love you for it. Inside the wallet were three pictures of other girls. I can only guess they lived with him before me. I don’t know what happened to them… How bad he might have hurt them or if they had anyone to protect them like I did.”

My large hand covers hers over my heart. She’d been right to hesitate before telling me this. My rage is almost more than I can control; however, I’ll control it for her. “You’re trying to find them?”

She nods, and I watch as she pulls a plastic folder out of the wallet containing what looks like the pictures. It goes in her pocket, and she hands the wallet to me.

“I didn’t know when I took it, but it has money inside,” she says. “I’ve never seen anything like it, but I researched it… It’s a note for fifteen thousand dollars in gold.”