I Regret Nothing - JB Trepagnier Page 0,16

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 a good thief.

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. Why did she 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 wolf would never have 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