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“I’m going to need more than that. We have all the security cameras deactivated within a quarter mile of your house.”
“Fuck,” I shouted again, reaching into my pants pocket to retrieve my wallet. I sifted through one, then the other. Then, I lifted my pants and shook them out, grinding my teeth as I found nothing. “On second thought, look for any activity on my credit and bank cards. Anything within the past half hour.”
I heard Justin clanking on the keyboard quickly, and I clenched my jaw as I waited.
“Nothing.”
“Well, keep a lock on activity. If a card is used anywhere, I want to know within seconds,” I told him. If she took my wallet, she’d use one eventually, and then I’d have her.
Then, she’d learn precisely what consequences I’d warned her about.
“Do you want me to put a lock on the cards until you retrieve them?”
I considered his request before shaking my head. “No,” I decided. “I’ll let her think she is getting away with it.”
All I could hope was that she didn’t take her newfound freedom and run directly to the police station. If she did that…well, she’d become enough of a threat to be dispatched.
“Well, that was quick,” he muttered over the phone, and I froze. “She’s just a couple blocks away on the strip.”
“What the fuck is she doing on the strip?”
“She made a purchase at the Gucci store.”
I ground my teeth. He had to be wrong. Maybe she ditched the wallet or gave it to someone else for the sake of escaping. Why thefuckwould she be spending my money at the Gucci store? My chest tightened as I considered the woman I’d let into my house. Part of me expected her to run straight for the police, but instead…
Was she insane?
***
I walked into the Gucci store, both hands in my pockets, as if I were browsing through a cigar shop nonchalantly.
“Good afternoon, sir. Can I assist you in finding anything?” one of the employees asked with a bright, winning smile that told me she’d spent years in the sales industry.
I silently shook my head and walked deeper into the store.
When I saw the telltale signs of wavy red hair behind a display case, my eyes narrowed.
She didn’t notice me until I stood two feet away, and when she did, her eyes widened.
“You’re a klepto?” I asked.
She put down the bag she’d been holding and glanced up at me with cunning blue eyes that seemed further deepened by the bright lights along the edges of the display case.
“If I would have run, you would have caught me,” she said with a shrug.
I narrowed my eyes. “You did run.”
“How do you know I didn’t plan to come back?”
That cunning in her eyes was something I hadn’t missed before, but I underestimated it. “You planned to steal my wallet, spend my money, and then come back?” I asked.
She knew who I was, yet I wondered if she really understood.She’d watched me order two men killed, and within the same day, she decided to test me in this way. She continued browsingthrough the bags as my phone rang in my pocket. I pulled it free and glanced down at the text that had come in.
Justin:$500 purchase, Gucci store. Nothing else yet.
“What did you spend five hundred dollars on?”
She shrugged and smirked at me. “I thought that tipping the main sales lady would get me better assistance,” she said. “Think of it as an investment. If you decide to keep me as a pet, I want you to know that I’m not cheap.”
