I Regret Nothing - JB Trepagnier Page 0,23

Astrid fought hard for that, and I had no doubt Venus would join them. They segregated us in our jobs. Since Dakarys and I were the only representations of our kind in Silverhold, they didn’t put us with any of the gangs. There were plenty of us in prisons in other countries, I was sure. They didn’t have anywhere to put us when we transferred. We lucked out with the mailroom. That’s where they put people who didn’t fit. I really hoped Venus didn’t end up here with us because the witches shunned her.

Astrid burst into the mailroom and glared at us.

“We had an agreement! Your fox is safe, and we get our ingredients.”

Dakarys shoved Venus’s list at Astrid.

“Venus bypassed Darius and came to us to get her ingredients for poison. Which begs the question of how she knew to come straight to us and why she thought we would help her. You do realize our little business keeps going because we don’t tell just everyone what we are doing. There are a lot of snitches in Silverhold.”

“Venus must be watching me. She saw me meet with you before I called my coven about Rei. I don’t trust her. That poison could very well be meant for me so she can take over my coven.”

Well, shit. We did not need Venus taking over the witches here. The only reason we got along so well with them was because of Astrid.

“So, what are we going to do about this wayward witch?” I asked.

“We aren’t going to do anything. Venus is my problem, and I’ll handle it. I’ll make sure she doesn’t become your problem, though I’m still not sure why this fox is so important or why she’s not with the other shifters.”

I still didn’t know that myself. We were risking so much protecting Rei and causing so much drama with the witches. And we still didn’t know why Rei was hanging with us instead of her own kind.

Chapter 16

Faust

I

should not have an inmate in here helping me with my paperwork. I was lucky the warden liked me because I had to spin about a million stories as to why I needed her in my office instead of fixing shit in mechanical with the other shifters.

It wasn’t that I didn’t want her around the other shifters so they could get curious about her too. She seemed to have pissed off a lot of witches. There was the one in here that wanted her, and I’d already gotten a message from the coven she stole the Grimoire from on my burner phone. They wanted her dead.

They offered enough money that I knew even if I didn’t take the job, it was only a matter of time before someone else did. That particular coven was swimming in money. Enough to get an inmate out of Silverhold early and set them up nice and comfortable if they killed her and didn’t get caught. Enough for someone to be willing to commit a crime and get caught to come here and complete the job for them.

I didn’t know why. Even when I found out what she was, I didn’t want her dead. I should have. She was mouthy, and I didn’t think she was the least bit sorry for all the shit she had stolen. She probably had every intention of going straight back to theft when she got out.

Still, I could respect that in a way. Stealing was her job just as much as killing people was mine. She had to be good at it if they could only tie her to one theft and being at the scene of another. There was nothing I hated more than sloppy criminals.

I had her in my office doing my paperwork because it was the only place I could watch her and keep her safe now that I knew they had put a hit out on her. Fuck. I was risking so much for this girl, and I didn’t know why. She smelled better than anyone I’d ever met before. Why did she have to smell like that?

She smelled like diving into freshly laundered sheets under the full moon while someone was baking your favorite dessert nearby. It was like everything I liked at once, and now I had her right in the same room all day. I wasn’t just curious about what she was. I was addicted to her scent.

And she was just so fucking adorable as she slammed my files around and called me an