I Regret Nothing - JB Trepagnier Page 0,4

away. I got here first!”

I’d made so many mistakes. I’d broken several of Hauser’s rules when I realized Venus was here. I felt a pinch in my hindquarters right as Venus went down, and I realized I also broke rule three—always watch your six. As my vision started going black, I heard the pounding of boots and saw men standing over me.

“Are they still offering that reward for the Silver Fox? I think we got a two for one special here, boys.”

Shit. If they could tie every single heist to me, I was never getting out of prison. I couldn’t even fight because of the dart they hit me with.

I blacked out.

Chapter 3

Rei

J

ail sucked, and they wanted to put me on trial as fast as possible. That boded well for me. The more they rushed to have some circus of a trial because they finally caught me, the less time they had to gather evidence. They saw me at the scene biting Venus, but they found the amulet in her pocket. I already knew they would have clipped my fur at the scene to compare it to the hair I left behind on accident. At most, they could tie me to a five-million-dollar theft and being at the scene of another. I was still going to prison, and there was no avoiding that, but maybe I wouldn’t die in there.

They’d pin me with grand theft, and they might even charge me for assaulting Venus, but if they could only pin me at two scenes of crimes, I’d spend a few years in jail and have a release date. I’d do my time, rebuild my reputation, and make sure no one could pin a crime on me again. I could have pulled this off if Venus hadn’t ruined everything.

They were holding me in a magical prison before my trial. I probably could have escaped from a human prison if given enough time, but I wasn’t even going to try here—too many variables and too many things that could go wrong. Slipping out with human guards would have been hard, but I could have managed. Sneaking out with a supernatural staff that had so many ways of tracking me? I wasn’t stupid. They would kill me.

They had frozen all my assets that they knew about, and I wasn’t about to let them know about my offshore accounts. The only reason I had a talented lawyer instead of a public defender was because of Hauser. They wouldn’t let him visit, and they weren’t allowing me to use the phones to call him.

They had me isolated from the rest of the prison population, and it was driving me insane. I had no one to talk to. The guards were grumpy fucks and wouldn’t chat with me. My lawyer didn’t like me, and I didn’t like her much either, but I was desperate for her visits just to talk with someone.

She sat across from me, looking down at me through her glasses.

“I had to work for this since they want to make an example of you. The theft where you left the hair behind rocked the entire supernatural community. I hope it was worth it. They wanted a big spectacle of a trial that was televised, but I’ve talked them down from that if you cooperate. I’ve reminded them they can only technically tie you to one theft, and even though you were at the scene, the amulet wasn’t found on your person. I’ve ironed out a plea deal. You can avoid being paraded around in handcuffs and a public trial if you’ll agree to it.”

“I’m listening.”

“They tore your entire apartment apart and couldn’t find anything linking you to crime. Your bank accounts are reasonable for someone running a soap business online. They know if they try to nail you to anything else, it won’t stick because there’s no proof. I’d say you were an excellent criminal if you weren’t caught mauling a witch over something she just stole. They want to nail you for every theft that has happened in the supernatural community, but they can’t.

“There’s also the issue that the witch you bit was the one who did the stealing. That opens up a whole new can of worms. They are offering a plea deal. Confess to what they can tie you to and tell them where the Destruction Grimoire you stole is, and you’ll get seven years in Silverhold Detention Center for the Magically Delinquent. They wanted to tie you to everything