Page 11 of I Regret Nothing
W
e had our thief, and I wanted out of here yesterday, but I understood why Dakarys took his time with her. We needed trust all around. If these handcuffs weren’t on my wrist, I would have known instantly if she was lying. Gargoyles could always tell if someone wasn’t telling the truth. I couldn’t interrogate her with my gargoyle gifts until she’d stolen a key to these cuffs, among the other things we needed her to steal for this to work.
Dakarys and I quickly decided we couldn’t trust a single thief in Silverhold. They tended to die pretty quickly here because they had sticky fingers and stole from people they shouldn’t have. So, we got really interested in the news and who might end up in Silverhold with us.
We perked right the fuck up when two thieves had been arrested outside the Museum of the Profane. It was all over the news because of what they housed there. There were all kinds of dangerous and cursed relics behind those walls, and security was so tight, no one had tried breaking in since before I got arrested.
We had two potential thieves coming with balls big enough to try to break into the Museum of the Profane. I was against the fox at first since she seemed a little bitey, but then it became clear we couldn’t use the witch.
We followed both of them closely, trying to determine their methods. We had absolutely no idea how the Silver Fox was breaking in and only left behind one hair. The witch was using her magic, and that could be tracked. She also left an enormous mess behind at every scene. Sloppy. She would have been caught even if the fox didn’t slow her down by biting her ankle.
It wasn’t even a discussion. Both thieves weren’t stealing for themselves. That much became obvious. As evidence started piling up against the witch, arrests started getting made in the supernatural community for the clients who paid her to steal for them. All the loot was recovered, and people ended up in another magical prison besides Silverhold. Silverhold was where the bad people went now that Scorchwood was closed for renovations.
We wanted out of Silverhold, but not enough to trust a sloppy witch who would snitch to save her own ass. It became pretty obvious the Silver Fox was going to be our only option unless another thief got arrested. And it would have to be a significant player to end up in Silverhold. Pickpockets didn’t end up here. Usually, people made a mess robbing banks, gas stations, or got caught too many times breaking into houses. And that was not the kind of thief we needed. We needed agoodthief.
It didn’t hurt that she was beautiful. I thought that every time they flashed her mug shot on the news. She managed to look not the least bit sorry in her mug shot. That was another reason I was against using her at first. She was smirking right at the camera, and I just had this feeling they made her retake it because she winked and flipped her middle finger at the camera.
Still, now that I’d met her, I was glad she was here. I knew that Grimoire wasn’t the only thing she had stolen. It was just the only scene she’d left evidence behind. She was good, aside from getting sloppy at the museum. I had a lot of questions about that, and we were technically trying to build trust. Whydidshe bite the witch and get caught when she had been so careful before? She could have easily told her client who she stole it for and ruined the job for her instead of getting herself caught.
We were all back in Dakarys and I’s cell shooting the shit.
“Fess up, Rei. You were meticulous before if you only managed to leave one of your fox hairs behind. If that witch was stealing your job, why risk everything instead of calling your client?”
Rei deflated.
“Honestly? That job wasn’t for a client. I wanted the amulet for me. My mentor tried to talk me out of it. It was one of his rules. Never steal for yourself. I’m adopted, and I wanted to find out more about my past. Humans raised me. I have a lot of questions only my ancestors can answer.”
I didn’t have to have my gargoyle gifts to know she was telling the truth, but she left something out. Something pretty significant that we probably needed to know. Baby steps. She didn’t trust us yet. The feeling was mutual. If she kept this big secret, then I didn’t trust her either. No one had ever broken out of Silverhold before. If we were going to do this, then we all needed to be on the same page. No secrets.
“Did you want me to ask around with the fox shifters here?” Dakarys said. “Maybe we can find out which skulk you came from.”
“No!” she said, a little too quickly for me.
Foxes weren’t pack animals like a lot of shifters. They stayed in families called skulks. The chances of anyone in her skulk being in Scorchwood were pretty fucking slim, but her white hair and violet eyes marked her as pretty rare for most fox shifters with ancestors from Japan. That had to be talked about somewhere. If she was willing to get herself caught to get that amulet, why didn’t she want us talking to the fox shifters? Why was she here with us instead of the other shifters?
I had questions.
“You seem to be avoiding the other shifters. Some drama there?” I asked.
“I was raised with humans. My mentor was a wolf. He always told me to avoid other shifters.”
That much was true, but she was leaving something out again. Wolves didn’t take foxes in and teach them. They looked down on them as prey. Shifters had a lot a drama with other shifters, and each group thought they were superior in their animal form. Many of them looked down on the foxes, but foxes looked down their noses on some too. A wolfwould neverhave taught a fox to steal as well as she did.
“Something isn’t adding up, Rei,” I said. “A wolf would never teach a fox.”
“Do you always judge people by their race? Not everyone is the same. Hauser caught me picking his pocket. He could have killed me, but he chose to teach me instead.”
She got angry at that. She wasn’t lying, but it didn’t make a lick of sense. Every single wolf I’d ever met, and there were plenty in prison, would have killed a fox shifter for stealing from them. I guess it stood to reason this Hauser was different, but she was still leaving something out. Dakarys was trying to smooth things over while ignoring what she was leaving out.
“Hauser sounds like an amazing man, and he clearly taught you well. He must have had his reasons for telling you to avoid other shifters. I won’t ask around.”
Yeah, clearly. I heard all about how Faust was interested in her. One wolf took her in and taught her, and another wolf was up her ass.
I couldn’t smell her like a shifter would, but something told me there was more to Rei than just a simple fox shifter. And I didn’t know if I could trust that.
Chapter 11
Rei
