living a long time ago. This world just made me think I couldn’t.”
His words hit me with force.
“What’s the offer?” Mr Yersaw said firmly.
Blinking, I opened the folder. “Well, we had your home evaluated two months ago for four hundred and sixty thousand,” I said, reading the bottom number of the valuation range as Katerina had taught me.
Mr Yersaw considered that, and sighed, “Should have sold five years ago, but I could buy four brand-new RV’s with that. My Navy pension would be enough to cover travel costs. I’ll take it.”
… He would?
“Uh, uhm.” I shuffled through the contracts. “Let me just see…”
The man burst to his feet, pointing at the cooking show on TV. Four women were racing down a country lane on their Harleys. “Why not? Anyone can start at any time, right?”
Wasn’t that what I’d tried to do when I left the estate? My voice was soft when I answered him, “Yes. I really do believe that, Mr Yersaw.”
“Where do I sign?” he said with a nod.
“You haven’t read the contract,” I said weakly.
He paused in the act of searching for a pen.
“Is it a good contract?” he suddenly asked, glancing at me. “You seem like a nice person, but I guess this house is all I have. Shouldn’t be stupid with it.”
Angelica had assured me their clan operated and obeyed human law to the letter. Still, I was securing someone’s home so they could fulfil their retirement dream. “How about you take a seat and we go through the contract together?”
I drew out the back contract and read the value print on it. “And Live Right would be delighted to offer you five hundred and ten thousand for your home.”
Take that, Kyros. You fucker.
Smirking as a gobsmacked Mr Yersaw took a seat, I began reading through the contract with him line by line.
I blew my hair out of my eyes. Long hair was really annoying sometimes. Like when I rolled over at night and the strands somehow got trapped in my armpit. Or like when my hands were handcuffed behind my back.
“Just take me to the station,” I told the officer who’d dragged me out of the car and was now pushing me ahead of her. Jail was the perfect solution to all my problems.
“You’re an employee of Kyros Sky,” the woman grunted—like that explained why they weren’t locking me up like a normal person.
A second officer was pulling my scratched-up loan car into the garage. He parked beside the police cruiser I’d ridden in. Man, I’d really done a number on the white car.
Fun while it lasted.
The female officer had called ahead to the tower, so I had no hope of giving the po-po the slip and burying the whole episode.
The middle-aged male officer joined us, and both police tensed as the door to the lobby opened.
I blew out a loud exhale as Kyros bore down on us dressed in the same pinstripe suit he’d worn to visit me this morning.
“Officers,” he greeted, extending his hand.
The police officers didn’t hesitate to shake it. They hadn’t even shaken my hand when they saw I was a Le Spyre.
Why wasn’t I surprised that Vissimo had a friendly relationship with the police? Sticking to the letter of the law, my butthole.
Kyros turned to me. “Explain.”
I clamped my mouth shut.
His jaw ticked as the silence extended.
The female officer intervened as the air between us crackled with unspent tension. “Basilia was caught driving the wrong way down a one-way street, sir.”
Power to her, she didn’t so much as blush in his sexy presence. Unlike her partner.
My mind had snagged on another problem.
I’d had to show the officers my learner’s licence with my real name on it.
Shit! If these vampires found out who I really was, that would lead them directly for my grandmother.
“Basilia,” Kyros said slowly, sliding me a veiled look. “That’s what Basi stands for?”
“Nope, Basil,” I quipped, shifting my arms. Hard to look dignified in handcuffs. The metal was cutting into the underside of my wrists something chronic. “What’ll it be, officers? Three months in jail? Life? Let’s get a move on.”
“Further to that,” the female officer sent me a quelling look, “Basilia then produced her learner’s licence. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that driving without supervision on a learner’s licence is against the law. In addition, we received two phone calls today regarding complaints of a white car that we believe she is responsible for.”
It must’ve been the hedge. What else did I do?
“I