Page 14 of Morally Gray Daddies

Moving as quickly and quietly as I could, though warehouses were often creaky, I tried not to flinch when the metal stair made a groaning noise under my weight. I flitted through the warehouse, following the thief’s path. He seemed like he was looking for something—he was also smaller than I’d thought. Perhaps a boy rather than a man?

He was very good at what he did. If he was a boy, maybe I could talk my uncle into recruiting him… after he received a bit of justice for his thievery from us. Skills like this used for us… but I’d have to see how my uncle felt first.

The thief paused, looking at a crate that was on top of a short stack. A crate he could easily reach. I was only now realizing how many things had been taken from storage that was lower to the ground, though I had a feeling the thief would be an adept climber if he needed to. He was very light on his feet.

I was proven right almost a moment later when I moved and accidentally stepped on something that cracked. The sound wasn’t that loud, but the thief reacted as if I’d shot at him.

He didn’t run—he jumped up, climbing up on the crate, vaulting to the taller one beside it, then dropping down on the other side—putting the crates between me and him. I cursed under my breath and started running in the same direction I heard his footsteps going on the other side. My long legs put on a burst of speed before I realized I couldn’t hear him anymore.

I rounded the bend and saw the thief—his face was completely obscured by some kind of black fabric—between me and Tomas, who was looming at the end of the aisle. The thief turned back in the direction he’d been going and saw me.

This time, I was prepared for the vertical leap, and it didn’t catch me off guard. I was already moving as he left the ground, getting to him just in time to grab his ankle before he could pull himself up on top of the crates beside him. I yanked hard, pulling him down, and heard the ominous creak of wood.

Tomas saved me from being crushed under tumbling crates, appearing beside us, hands up to keep the stack in place. The thief, however, tumbled against me, and I automatically gripped him around his torso to hold him in place… and felt something soft.

His chest was soft, pressing against the top of my arm.

It took me a moment to realize what I was feeling.

To realize that he wasn’t a he at all.

She made a noise like a scalded cat, twisting and elbowing me in the gut, knocking the air right out of my lungs with the sharp point. All it took was a moment of my hold loosening, just a bit, and she managed to tear herself up and away.

If Tomas hadn’t been there, I would have lost her right then.

He vaulted over me, catching her by the arm.

And if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it.

The moment he grabbed her, she twisted in his grip, her foot already going out, aimed straight at his groin. He bent at the waist, jerking his lower body back and out of her reach. It didn’t matter. Even as she kicked, the rest of her was moving as well, continuing to twist and her other leg came up as she threw herself into a spin in the air, nailing him right in the head.

My jaw dropped open as Tomas hit the ground.

She just kept surprising me.

But it also meant I was more prepared.

If there had been just one of us—if it had been anyone other than myself and Tomas—I’m not sure we would have caught her.

As I was moving past him, he was already getting up, shaking off the kick to the head. I ran up behind her, but this time, I didn’t try to grab her arm. I tackled her instead. We went rolling. Being bigger and heavier, I managed to get on top of her, but almost the second I straddled her waist, she was grabbing onto my shirt and pulling me forward. Her hips lifted, and I found myself rolling forward, off of her.

Tomas was on her before she could get onto her feet, his face a grim mask. Getting into a sitting position behind her, he pulled her arms back hard enough that she cried out, and a shiver went through my body. Straddling her legs, pinning her lower body down, I reached up to rip the thin fabric—the veil—from her face.

And found myself staring into Clara’s furious, tear-filled blue eyes.

“Fuck.”

We’d captured my cousin-in-law’s best friend.

Clara is our thief?

A multitude of thoughts tumbled through my head, but there was one that rose to the top above all the rest—I was going to spank the hell out of her.

Clara

Caught.

There was no point in continuing to fight once my face had been revealed, so I didn’t. I needed to save my energy for escaping. Eventually. Not that Gio was going to make it easy on me.

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