I Regret Nothing - JB Trepagnier Page 0,49

away. Even if I was a conspiracy theory nut that blamed everything on the deep state, this is some government level shit.”

I shook my head. This made little sense, but pieces were starting to fall all around me that raised a million more questions than I already had. Fucking Venus. If she hadn’t crashed my heist, I would have made off with the amulet and gotten some answers.

“If the government was involved in all this, wouldn’t they have gotten me out of prison? If someone greased some palms to get Venus and me in here at the same time, why haven’t they stepped in? I’m sure I was all over the fucking news if people in here know who I am.”

“How do you know your people aren’t working on it?”

Faust had been doing all this digging into my past, but he still didn’t know what I was. He was being nice to me now and sharing theories. He hadn’t asked me flat out what I was since he told me he was calling off his hunt and protecting me.

“Is this some ruse to find out what I am?”

“At this point, I’m just trying to keep you alive. I’m not going to ask you. If you feel comfortable telling me, it’ll answer the million-dollar question. You tried to rob that museum for answers. I want to help you get them.”

“Hold up. How do you know why I was at the museum?”

Faust cleared his throat. He’d better be very fucking clear on his answer because this entire conversation was leading to me being a member of Team Faust before he dropped that bomb.

“I called Hauser.”

“What? Why?” I shrieked.

Faust was massive and could easily snap my neck, but I really wanted to smash his wolfy nuts with my knee and then break his nose. Did he call fucking Hauser because he thought they could be wolf buddies, and Hauser would rat me out?

“Calm down, Rei. Hauser was your mentor, and he needed to know about the hit. I hoped that we could take the entire coven out between the two of us, and I never work with anyone. There’s no hit if the entire coven is dead.”

What the fuck? Faust was willing to wipe out an entire coven to keep me safe. Especially that coven. Robbing the Aether Circle took a ton of planning, and none of my research prepared me for all those cats and double-sided tape. None of the cats in the house were shifters because that coven would have considered it slumming. If their estate hadn’t been empty when I hit it, those cats wailing would have busted me, and they were constantly attacking me.

“You can’t just wipe out the entire Aether Circle.”

“Says you. I’m good at what I do.”

“The Aether Circle is like a twelve headed snake. They are international and super connected. If you take out one chapter, the others will find out. They’ll know it was professional if you got through all their security, and they’ll launch their own investigation. They have a lot of money because they were using that Grimoire I stole to manipulate things. They will offer money for names, and you’ll have them after you too. Don’t invoke their wrath, Faust. You’re seeing exactly what they are doing to me.”

Faust just smirked at me.

“Well, princess. It sounds like you actually care if I live or die.”

“I hardly know you, and I still think you are psycho, but you’re kind of cool now that it’s not directed at me.”

“I’ll take that for now.”

Did Faust want me to like him? He was certainly trying hard. I mean, technically saying he would assassinate an entire coven because they put a hit out on me could be considered foreplay in certain circles. It definitely impressed me, even if I knew there was no way to pull that off without dying.

Now that he wasn’t utterly terrifying, I could admit he was sexy in some weird, dark, murderous way. Hauser always told me that my attraction to bad boys was going to land me in jail.

He hadn’t said anything about flirting with the bad boys when you were already in prison. He didn’t have any rules for this. How fun.

Chapter 31

Sota

T

his had been going on long enough. I got why Rei had to be secreted out of Hell and placed topside, but I warned them several times about bringing her home as soon as possible. It wasn’t just that our families had arranged for us to marry, and I’d