Page 64 of Lesson In Forgiveness

“Go on.”

“All right, our initial thoughts are that you’d be in charge of security. Complete charge, with a rather substantial budget, access to whatever tech you required, and the opportunity to select your own team. Van and I would retain overall control, but we’d essentially be leaving you to our own devices.” Elias glanced at his husband and got a nod in return. “As a club Master, you’d have access to all areas. Lifetime membership, insurance, a hefty salary which can be negotiated. One of the residential cabins would be reserved for you for the length of your employment.”

“Which we hope would be considerable,” Evander added.

Fuck, it was tempting. “Tabitha?”

“Tabitha would be welcome.” Elias said it as though he was insulted they’d be anything but welcoming to her. “She’s yours every bit as much as Callie is ours. We’d turn down any offer, no matter how lucrative, if one of the terms demanded was that she be excluded. We expect no less from you.”

“Some part of you sees us as family already, Grit. We wouldn’t be here now, extending this invitation, after watching you share an incredibly intimate scene with your sub if you didn’t. Family trusts family.”

That was undeniably true. While he was short on options for trustworthy contacts in the area to act as chaperones for such scenes, he admitted he’d have done it in the privacy of his own room before exposing Tabitha to strangers he couldn’t guarantee would protect her.

Inhaling quietly, he nodded. “I can’t commit to anything right now. This needs time and thought so I make the right decision for everyone. But,” he said slowly, “I’m happy to offer my services for the time being to get whatever security you require up and running.”

“We appreciate it.” Apparently satisfied that the business part of the evening was concluded, Elias nipped playfully at Callie’s shoulder. “It appears we’re having pizza for dinner, probably accompanied by beer and another movie. Would you like to join us?”

What the hell, Grit thought. What was that British saying he’d heard Eli mutter under his breath more than once?

In for a penny, in for a pound.

*

Tabitha

God help her, she hurt.

Religion was non-existent in her world. Growing up, she’d been taught that Dominic was her God, with Rita standing close second. Their will, their commands, their laws were the only ones she needed to abide by, and they would strike her down where she stood if she even thought about disobeying them.

Dominic once dedicated an entire day of lessons to the religions of the world her future victims believed in, and how to use their rituals and traditions and times of worship against them.

No, she’d never believed in God, but maybe today was going to change that.

Pressing her fist to her heart where the incessant ache wouldn’t stop, Tabitha turned the music in her SUV up until the frantic, banging beat almost deafened her. Her brain was stuck in a rhyming loop—Don’t leave, time to grieve—and had been since she snuck out of Grit’s bed, room, life an hour before dawn.

Honestly, it was a miracle she’d been able to focus on catching a cab to the airport and getting on the right flight to return to Phoenix.

She hated he was going to wake alone. Maybe he’d think she just went to the bathroom or was watching TV, but once he went into the kitchen and found the note… well, then he’d know she was gone and wasn’t going back.

If I could’ve loved anyone, it would’ve been you.

A terrible sentiment, really, but he’d understand. She’d told him she didn’t have a heart, she didn’t know how to love. It wasn’t what she’d been bred for, and certainly hadn’t been part of her curriculum in the school of Fairfax.

It was honest though, because honesty was all she could offer him.

Taking the long route to the small apartment she secretly leased, Tabitha made sure to avoid her brother’s neighborhood. Both Jasper and Anarchy would be heading out to Heisler headquarters to start the workday, and she didn’t want them to know she was back in town.

Atticus would mobilize his entire platoon of merc soldiers to bring her in, and she really wasn’t in the mood for bloodshed this early in the day.

That thought depressed her; she was usually in the mood no matter what time of day or night, which just went to show how fucked up her time with Grit had made her.

No, it was better to keep her head down, get in and out before she was spotted, and forget the last few months of her life, along with the man who dominated her thoughts.

Shifting gingerly in her seat, the echo of Grit’s fingers working inside her still plaguing her hours after she surrendered, she wound her way through the streets at a sedate pace, keeping five miles under the speed limit.

Because she was paranoid, she circled the block housing her apartment three times before pulling into a vacant spot outside the liquor store six buildings down. She pulled her shiny new Beretta from the glove department and loaded it with ammo from the box she’d tucked into the middle console.

She’d taken precautions when leasing this shithole, but her sister-in-law was a fucking demon on a keyboard. If there was a welcoming party inside, it wouldn’t come as a surprise.

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