Knowing I’m taking my anger out on the wrong person, I let him loose. “Fuck it!” I brush my hands over my bald skull. “Get out of here, Mac.”
I’m so enraged, I’m likely to do him serious damage if he doesn’t get out of my sight. I slam the door as he goes, and plant my fist against the wall. In my head, I’m envisioning how I left her secured.What did I do wrong? How the fuck did she escape?She didn’t have a phone so couldn’t have called someone to get her out of there. How could one slight woman get out of both zip ties and chains? One thing’s for certain, I’ve underestimated her. My rage is tempered slightly with admiration as my anger turns inward.
I’d been too cocky thinking I had the upper hand, and despite her fighting skills saw only the weak female who’d ended up comatose on the ground. If I hadn’t been swayed by her tits, or lack of them, and ass, maybe I’d have considered securing her better.
Well, one thing’s for sure. That will be the last we’ll see of her. She’s not likely to come thieving again. Pinching my nose and trying to take deep breaths, I try to convince myself that it’s a good thing. We’ll tighten security, make sure neither she nor anyone else could ever again steal from us, and chalk it up to an experience best left as fodder to fuel my cock in the depths of the night. Yeah, it’s a good thing. Now I don’t have to worry about punishing her, and being gone, maybe I’ll be able to forget the strange reaction I had to her.
But as I pull on my t-shirt, I wonder why I’ve got this feeling of having missed out, of lost opportunities, and that perhaps I’d have liked to know more about her, and most of all, how she felt to sink my cock into her.
I shake my head, knowing there are questions I’d have preferred answered. Like why, when she successfully got onto our premises undetected, why she didn’t try to take more expensive stuff? She could really have fucked us up if she wanted. She hadn’t even touched the petty cash left overnight.Or not yet.I make a mental note to get Bull to check. Knowing she’d paid her last visit to our premises, who knows what she’d taken with her when she escaped?
And what, exactly, had caused her to pass out? If it was my very male reaction to her, there’s a part of me that’s frustrated I’ve lost my chance to track down all the men who’d ever hurt her.
What the fuck?
I place the back of my hand against my forehead. Nope. No fever. Nothing to explain my unusual interest in someone who, if they’d been of the opposite sex, would probably already be dead, or at least regretting the day their mother gave birth to them. As for going after anyone who’d laid their hands on her, I very much doubt there’d be anything left for me to clean up if she’d gottenthere first. Damn, that woman can fight.And there goes all my blood draining south.
Putting my phone on charge, I take a burner out of the drawer. I hit the keys and dial a number. As soon as it’s picked up, I snarl, “Did she steal anything else?”
Recognising my voice even without caller display, Bull responds, “Yeah. Just petty stuff like before.”
“Cash?”
“Nah. Money’s not been touched.”
That’s something at least. “Got any suggestions how we can find her?” Bull might have something I haven’t thought of. While I’m in charge, I’m not one of those men who think I’ve got all the answers.
“Legend’s digging into what he can, but we’re not hopeful we can track her. Might have to mark this one up as a loss, Prez.”
“You coming back?” I’d debated going to the shop myself, but if my men can’t pick up any clues, I wouldn’t know what I could offer. Bull, being my VP, is one of the best.
Bull seems much of the same mind. “Yeah. Not much I can do.” He pauses. “Fuckin’ shame. I wanted to see the bitch who almost got the better of you.”
“I putheron the ground,” I correct, while thinking I’d perhaps been lucky. But there was no way I was going to admit to that. Not to my VP, or anybody.
I end the call, exit my suite, and head down to the clubroom, making my way to the inner sanctum where Legend holes up. Without knocking, I open the door and step inside.
It’s gloomy in here, blinds are pulled, and the main light comes from the bluish glare from his multiple screens. Cigarette smoke fills the air, and as I inadvertently suck it into my lungs, I cough. The sound alerts him to my presence.
“Prez.” He stubs out his cigarette. He glances down at his screen, then up again, his eyes narrowed. “She got away.”
“I heard.” Pulling out a chair, I sit down. “Any clues?”
He rakes his hands through his shaggy hair. “Been doing whatever the fuck I can. Don’t like losing her, Prez.”
You and me both.
He points to a screen. “Been tapping into whatever CCTV I can find. All I can tell you is that she left on foot. Went around to the back near that telegraph pole where presumably she’d had some kit stashed.” He turns the screen around, and I see the woman reappear, and she’s sliding something into her pocket. “I’ve looked everywhere for a bike, car, scooter, any fuckin’ mode of transport she might have used, but I’ve not been able to find anything.” He taps at his keyboard for a moment. “It was quiet that night, so I’m searching all the cameras I can find on the roads leading away from the shop. If I see anything, I’ll try and track it down. Maybe a process of elimination, but anything will help.”
It sounds like a lot of work, but I’m grateful he’s doing it. Seems, he too, wants her found. But then, that’s Legend. He’s like a dog with a bone when he’s got a lead to follow, and he keeps gnawing until it’s done. Satisfied he’s doing all he can, I start to stand.
“Well, I’ll be buggered.”
I pause half bent. “What you got?”
He turns the monitor around to face me. There, approaching a junction is a hooded figure exactly like our thief. I watch as he taps and advances the footage. She crosses over, then proceeds down the darkened road leading away from the suburbs.
“She is on foot,” he says, unnecessarily.