Thousands (Dollar 4)

There were a few tags with her barely smiling with bitchy looking girls and another with her fists curled as a boy draped his arm over her shoulders.

She was younger.

Less damaged.

She’d had a life before me, but it didn’t look like a happy one.

Not that the life with me had been happy, either.

I would do everything in my power to change that when I found her.

Twenty minutes after I cast out my fishing line, dangling her name as bait, something latched on, and my computer pinged.

Closing my web browser, I scanned the code that gave me everything I needed to know.

Pim had been caught for thievery. She wasn’t stealthy enough, quick enough, corrupt enough. She’d stolen before she was ready, and whose fucking fault was that?

Mine.

All goddamn mine.

My heart cramped at the thought of her in captivity yet again. Shackled behind bars. Interrogated and ridiculed.

Alone.

Goddammit, Pim.

At least, I knew where she was now.

And I wouldn’t fucking stop until she was mine again.

Chapter Ten

______________________________

Pimlico

I’D BEEN MOVED to a room just off reception and left alone for the past hour.

After delivering the terrifying news that not one but two people had hacked into the police system all because of me, Carlyn had guided me to this new waiting area, complete with a metal barred window and large one-way mirror, and mumbled something about getting the rest of this mess sorted out as soon as possible.

A few minutes upon arrival, a male officer popped his head into the room and asked to see Carlyn privately.

Reluctantly, she secured a cuff to my wrist and the table and left. It took all I had to remain calm and not let my thoughts slither back to another time when I’d been restrained against my will.

I’d never been a bored person. Too many things went on in my mind to ever let me get fidgety and impatient, but that hour seemed to drag for days.

I was in limbo.

I hadn’t been booked for my crime nor had I been told I was free to go. They’d given me free medical treatment and tests, and all for what? So I was healthy in prison, or so I was strong enough to survive if I was released?

Until I knew an outcome, I couldn’t mentally prepare for jail or concoct a new plan.

I had no mother to go to.

No lover to return to.

No womb to create life—

You said you wouldn’t think about it.

Resting my head in my hand, I pressed my fingers against the bruising on my eye. Luckily, the night in the hospital meant the swelling had gone down considerably, and only the discolouration and the odd twinge remained. My other bumps and scrapes were nothing I couldn’t handle.

Harold had been fiendish, but he was a baby shark after the great whites I’d swam with for two years.

Thinking of Harold and the girls, I wondered what Simone was doing. Hopefully, she was back with her family and second-guessing her relationship with such violent friends.

Would I see her again?

Or had she decided I wasn’t worth the hassle, after all?

Can’t say I blame her.

The door finally opened, and Carlyn returned. She gave me a bright smile, and I jangled the metal around my wrist in a silent request.

“I have news.” She came around to my side of the table and released the cuff.

I rolled my arm, rubbing where the cold metallic kiss had turned warm over the hour of waiting. “I’m going to jail?”

She laughed softly. “No.”

My head whipped up to look at her. “No?”

Her bob swung as she beamed. “We were able to make a bargain.”

“A bargain?”

What sort of bargain?

“Yes.” Moving to take her seat, she added, “My team has discussed different scenarios that would work for both Harold and you and have luckily reached a happy median.”

I sat taller in the chair, doing my best to understand cop speak. “So what does that mean?”

“It means the two women you stole from have agreed not to press charges if you agree not to press charges against Harold.” She waved her hand as if this hiccup was nothing. Which compared to a lot of the crimes she dealt with was probably true. “If you agree, it would mean the entire thing is null and void. There won’t be any crime from either party.”

How was that possible? Last time I saw the girls, the black-haired one had been out for my blood. Could people change their minds like that? Could time cool tempers?

If it could…did it mean Elder’s addiction toward sex could be cooled given time, too?

That new thought sprang like a leak, gushing with possibility.

What if I—

Leaning over the table, Carlyn’s face became stern but encouraging. “We’re a small city, Tasmin, and like to make friends rather than enemies. If you can live with that, then you’re free to go.”

I scowled, forgetting for a moment that I was the thief here and the one who’d started this mess. I couldn’t ignore the fact that Harold wouldn’t be punished for hitting me. But then again, hadn’t my past taught me that most men got away with hurting a girl—especially if they had money and connections.