Page 27 of Savage Redemption

“Eva, please.” Eva grins. “I think I may have heard of you, Casey. Can I call you Casey?”

“Of course.” Casey reaches for Eva’s bag. “Shall we get you all inside?”

Jed takes my bag in one hand and my precious violin case in the other, and gestures me to follow Eva and Casey who are already chatting like old friends.

“You developed that ‘Mugmatch’ program,” Eva is saying. “Ingenious, if somewhat… unorthodox. I was hired by the Met to find a way of neutralising it. Took some doing, I’ll tell you that.”

“I know. I had to keep building in extra tweaks to keep ahead of you. You’re tenacious, Eva, I grant you that.”

“They paid me well. That job funded my holiday to the Bahamas that year, so I should be grateful to you. Am I right in thinking you developed a suite of gaming programs as well?”

“Yes, but not so much these days. There’s good money in gaming, but I specialise more in financial projections now. Cryptocurrency in the main. It’s lucrative, and legal.”

Beside me, Jed chuckles. “It’s not often Casey finds someone she can talk shop with. They’re both in their element.”

“Yes. Eva’s very… clever.” An understatement. Last I heard she had an IQ of 180, one of the brainiest half a percent in the world. Somehow, she manages to also be one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. I’ve always adored her.

“Casey, too, though she tends to turn her talents towards more practical applications. She got her degree in computer science when she was a teenager, her family insisted, apparently. But she’s always been a doer rather than a thinker. She’sfascinated by Eva’s research, though, so I suspect you’ll be seeing a lot of her.”

“That’ll be nice…”

He slants me a glance. “Will it? I somehow get the impression you’re not as enthusiastic as your stepmum about being here.”

“It’s not that. I just… it’s a lot, that’s all.”

“A big upheaval, I get that. Must be frightening, too, after all you went through.”

“Yes. No, I mean…”

He pauses, turns to face me. “What is it, Rosie?”

“It’s nothing. I’m just being silly.”

“No, I’m not buying that. Tell me what’s wrong.”

I glance up at him. He’s handsome, but there’s more to him than just a pretty face. He reminds me of Adan, somehow, a latent kindness beneath the hard-nosed exterior.

“I just don’t understand, that’s all.”

“Okay. Go on.”

“Why would Adan turn on me like this? I did nothing to him, and he was always so kind. So… gentle. I thought he liked me.”

“He probably did, then. Why would he not?”

“I can understand that he might want me back. I… I belonged to him, he owned me.”

“No, he didn’t. You were an innocent victim, not a possession. Never lose sight of that.”

“Yes, but in his head…”

“If that’s what he still thinks, then he’s just plain deluded. But you need to remember, Rosie, San Antonio was a prisoner for a year. That can change a man. He was probably tortured…”

I gasp, choke back a sob. “They shot him. I heard it. I saw them dragging his body out of that cottage.”

“Not his body. Clearly, he was alive, and whatever he may have endured, he survived it. But he’s not the same man you remember. Who knows what he’s thinking, what he might do?”

“My dad thinks he may try to snatch Erin.”

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