She smiled in pity. “Your mother is in a maximum security for murderers. Your petty theft isn’t enough to make you join her.”
How strange that I was both relieved and disappointed.
Sniffing back my jumbled emotions, I said, “Thank you for finding her for me.” Looking once more at my mother’s mug-shot, I slid the file back to Carlyn even though I wanted nothing more than to keep it and break her out of jail. “What will happen next? Am I officially under arrest? Seeing as I have no home or mother to go back to, I suppose I’d better start planning my future.”
Carlyn gave me a crooked smile as she slipped the paperwork neatly into a folder beside her.
And just like that, my mother was gone again.
The moment I was free and back in England, I would visit her. I would hold her hands and kiss her cheeks and thank her on my knees for doing her best to find me. I would beg her forgiveness for the awful, awful things I’d thought about her. And I would wait until she’d served her time and then find us somewhere to live, just us...together and far away from the life that had been so cruel in splitting our family apart.
And Elder?
I would continue to nurse a broken heart and hope to God he was happy...wherever he was.
Carlyn cleared her throat. “Well, I have a question for you before we go down that path.”
My head snapped up. “What question?” And why did her voice turn coy with suspicion?
“The man you said who rescued you. You said he was wealthy.”
I nodded slowly, my hackles rising, ready to defend Elder.
“I did.”
“And you still refuse to say his name?”
“I do.”
“Is he a member of the law?”
I frowned. “What?”
“Is he in any way associated with a police force, FBI, or member of overseas law enforcement?”
I shook my head. “There are many things I don’t know about him. I don’t believe so, but he might...why?”
She cocked her head, studying me for lies.
She wouldn’t find any answers because I was as blind as her on this topic.
“Could the men who took you have ways to hack into the police servers?”
I froze. “What? What does that mean?” I hunched, looking into the empty corners of the room. “You think someone is tracking me?”
She tried to soothe me unsuccessfully. “No. However...something strange happened overnight.”
I didn’t like strange. I hated strange. “Strange how?”
“Well, your file was accessed by two different sources. Illegally, I might add, outside our servers and through a crack in our firewall.”
The knitted jumper I’d been given couldn’t ward off the ice spider legging its way down my spine. “What does that mean?”
“It means someone hacked into our data-base and instead of ransacking our files or looking at anything they wanted, they merely stole an electronic copy of your information and left, patching up the code as they did. Our technology crime divisions are already searching for the culprits but without much hope. The only thing they’ve been able to confirm is your file was accessed by two different people within hours of each other.” She narrowed her gaze. “No explanation or answers on who could’ve done that?”
I huddled in the chair, suspecting everything and everyone. “None.”
Elder was great at many things, so hacking might be one of them. That would explain one invasion, but why two? Who was the other person?
I didn’t know how these things worked or what could be done to find the infiltrators. “What were they searching for?”
Carlyn rolled her neck as if she’d had a tough night and only expected more where I was concerned. “We don’t know, but it seems as though one hack was thanks to an alert on the name QMB and another was a red flag on your name.”
She sighed full of frustration, repeating as if she couldn’t quite believe it. “Both entered, copied, and left without a trace.”
Stupidly, I’d believed while in the curiosity of the police that I was safe. That no matter what evilness lived out there, while in here, I could relax.
Was that not true?
Who was searching for me?
Who knew about the QMB apart from the men who bought and sold women illegally?
Was Elder trying to find me?
Was someone else?
Good and bad.
Right and wrong.
Friend or foe?
Who would find me first?
Chapter Nine
______________________________
Elder
* The Night Before *
WHAT WAS THE point of having skills if I didn’t use them?
I knew how to create magic with computers.
I barely used those talents anymore unless hacking into a client’s bank account to ensure he had the funds before agreeing to do business with him.
But Pim...shit, I'd do anything to find her—including illegal things.
In the time it took for me to stalk back to the hotel, crack open my laptop, and log onto the secure server so my IP and other activity would be hidden, I’d already formulated a code that would work.
The Monaco police firewall wasn’t nearly as impenetrable as a lot of the high-level criminals I designed yachts for, and I found it a simple matter of cracking open a back door, creating a patch, and firing off the search alert under the name I had never used but belonged to the woman I’d come back for.
Tasmin Blythe.
While I waited, I opened as many news sites and historical links attached to Pim’s disappearance as I could find. I skimmed the headlines all over again of what her mother had done, the murder she’d committed, the unapologetic way she confessed, and the pride in which she served time.
I could understand Sonya Blythe.
She’d done the right thing when others had failed. She would rot in jail, but at least her conscience would be clear.
I subscribed to the same rule of thinking.
I might be doing illegal shit to find Pimlico, but at least I could fix the wrongs I’d done. I could continue my promise to keep her safe. And that was all I cared about.
I didn’t have a Facebook account but quickly created a fake profile in order to track her down and stalk the sporadic and uninteresting posts Tasmin had shared before she was sold.
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.
That’s why she’s done this...
I narrowed my eyes, reading between the lines. “Even if I pressed charges, he wouldn’t serve time, would he? He probably wouldn’t even get community service.”
Carlyn scowled with displeasure but nodded. “You’re right. Money talks and good lawyers are expensive, but they usually get the job done.” She lowered her voice. “Meanwhile, you would be the one paying as he would ensure to come after you with every tool available.”
His creative lawyers would spin a good tale while I rotted in a cell with no hope of appealing.
It burned my throat at the injustice, but I nodded slowly. “Fine, I won’t press charges.” My side, where his fist had imbedded itself, twinged as if in argument, but I pressed my elbow into the throb and said with more conviction. “I accept the deal.”
Carlyn smiled sadly. “I know what this means, and I don’t like it, just like you. But at least you’ll be free. Your momentary lapse of judgement won’t be punished, and you’ll live a life without a record. I’ll contact the English embassy and start the process of arranging a new passport for you, so you can go ho—”
“Where the fuck is she?” A roar tumbled through the station, cutting Carlyn off mid word. Our heads whipped to the heavy door cracked open and leading toward the reception area.
Adrenaline whizzed through my veins, panic rearing up, ready to run from such ferocity.
Carlyn marched to the door, her hand flat and ready to slam it shut to block out the domestics of criminals, but she wasn’t fast enough to stop another shout.
“Sir, you can’t just barge in here and—”
“Tasmin Blythe. I expect answers. Now.”
The world stood still.
I recognised that timbre.
I recognised that anger.
That voice...
It was deep and dark and dangerous, thicker than what I was used to, yet...my ears tingled with besotted memory.
My heart scrambled out of its lovesick bandages and cartwheeled.
Elder...
He found me.
Carlyn turned with her hand plastered on the door. Her eyebrow rose as rageful footsteps sounded outside. “Expecting someone?”
My heart stopped its cartwheeling and became a bobble-head, nodding in eager happiness.
Elder had come back for me.
He’d ignored my letter.
He’d been one of the hackers to access my file.
Whoever else had searched for me no longer mattered.
He’s here.
I’m safe.
A scuffle sounded outside, followed by a loud thump. “I know she’s here. Hand her over.” A flutter of paperwork as if someone had swept it off a table. “Now!”
“Sir. Unless you wish to be placed under arrest for abusing a police officer in his own establishment, I suggest you calm down and—”
“She’s here because of me. Get a manager, a captain. Anyone who can fix my mistakes.” The sound of boots stomping painted a mental image of him prowling the reception, glowering like a caged beast.
Carlyn closed the door, locking it quickly. “Tasmin, I need an answer from you. Is that a friend of yours or someone I need to arrest?”
My smile was so wide it hurt it. “You don’t need to arrest him.”
A small injection of worry pricked me. Elder was a murderer and a thief. There was no way he should be in a hundred-mile radius of a cop.
He’d put his own safety and freedom at risk to come and fight for mine.
How the hell did I walk away from him before?
And how the hell would I ever keep my hands off him now?
“So...he’s a friend?” Carlyn crossed her arms. “Sounds pretty aggressive.”
“He’s also gentle.”
My dreamy voice tipped her off. She stiffened, eyeing me closely. “That’s the man who recused you?”
My instincts immediately smothered my joy, and I painted a blank look on my face. “No.” I couldn’t under any circumstance tell them Elder’s name. As much as I liked and respected Carlyn, I would never tell her. If she had his details, who knew if she could pin Alrik and Darryl’s murder to him.
He’d be taken away.
He wouldn’t be mine
anymore.
I cocked my chin, daring her to argue with me. “He’s someone else.”
She didn’t buy it. “Someone else, huh?”
“Someone else.”
She rolled her eyes. “And you want to see this someone else?”
Quietness reigned over the station, but the vibrations of Elder’s temper continued to seep through the walls.
How did he return?
Why did he return?
“Am I allowed to see him?” I glanced at the door, wishing I had x-ray vision.
Carlyn planted her hands on her hips. “You’re free to go, Tasmin. Just sign a statement saying you won’t press charges against Harold Medessa, and I’ll give you a copy of his testimony stating the same thing.” She shrugged. “Then you’re free to walk out the front door with whoever you please and do whatever you want.” She shook her head with a small smile. “Within reason, of course. No more purse snatching or illegal business.”
With a short sigh, her face turned serious. “If you go with whoever is out there, then you should arrange to have your medical files sent to your chosen doctor. When you get home, you might want a third opinion on your arthritis and infertility issues—”
“I understand.” I flinched, hating the quick-lash of wetness to my eyes. “I don’t need a third opinion.”
I gritted my teeth, doing my best to forget the tests, the questions, the doctors, and ultimately, the conclusions about my black and blue body.
This was supposed to be a happy moment.
I didn’t need to ruin it by mourning things I never wanted in the first place.
Carlyn softened, sympathy glowing in her hazel eyes. “Is there anything else you need? Anything at all? Money? Food? A change of clothes?”
I smiled gratefully. “That’s very kind of you. But along with being aggressive and gentle, that man out there is also extremely generous. Too generous most of the time.” I shivered with anticipation. “He’ll give me everything I need. He’s far too good to me.”
“No one can be too good to another.” Motioning for me to stand, she tugged her suit jacket into a more military precision. “How will you return to England without a passport or identification? I know you’re not a minor, but I need to know you’re going to be okay on your own.”
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