Page 77 of The Shape of my Scar
She smirked. “Predictable and boring.”
He shrugged, stealing one more. “Still delicious.”
She took a bite of hers and chewed in silence, watching him from beneath her lashes.
Between bites and laughter, they shared stories from the old days. Callum talked about tales from her police academy training, while Arthur mentioned Denmark and how she ended up working abroad.
She explained that she’d gone on deputation to Copenhagen, as part of a cross-border child protection initiative. It had been long, intense work, which was why she wasn’t well known in the UK circuits, despite who her father and brothers were.
Later that evening, after the pastries were long gone and the room had quieted, Thane sat on the edge of her bed, fingers idly toying with a scrap of pastry wrapper.
“How did you become Trish?” he asked quietly.
She glanced at him. There was no accusation in his tone, only curiosity.
“There was intel,” she began, “about a trafficker’s girlfriend. She fit my build, hair, and general features. Not an exact match, but close enough. She was taken down during an op. They wanted someone to stand in for her because she was due to join the operation here.”
“So you did?”
She nodded. “Altered my appearance. Temporary tattoos. Hair dyed. Contacts. Learned her accent, her swagger. I had to be loud. Flashy. Vampish. Rude.”
He looked at her, as though trying to reconcile the woman in front of him with the persona he had met.
“What about the kids?” he asked.
“They were safe. Every buyer I met was a setup and part of the sting. Those children were rerouted to safety, protected by the force. Every single one.”
She looked down at her hands. “And no, I wasn’t snorting coke,” she added with a dry smile. “It was a powder called inositol. Vitamin B. They use it as a cutting agent, so it mimicked the real thing.”
“I know,” he said, letting out a slow breath. “I figured you wouldn’t have touched that stuff…not after what they did to us.”
Her blue eyes flicked to him. Up close, they were the same shade as coastal waters on a sun-drenched beach.
“I should’ve known. Only if—” he cut himself off, shaking his head. “I would’ve treated you better.”
She felt the heat rise to her cheeks. Regret rolled through her like a tide.
“That’s my fault,” she said quietly. “I was the one who rushed it. I came onto you. I just… After everything we’d been through, I wanted to be with you, you know? I didn’t know what kind of time we had, and I just wanted to…I don’t know, seize the moment? Even if you turned out to be on the other side in the end. I didn’t know how to reconcile it.”
There was a long pause.
Then Thane said, voice low and careful, “We were given the brief, you know. The Horsemen. To shut the whole thing down.”
She blinked. “You were?”
He nodded. “We were told to shut the operation down. Too many moving parts, too many risks for…a bigger organization, let us say.”
Her brows knit together. “Who gave the order?”
His jaw flexed as he hesitated. “Let’s just say…it wasn’t a clean deal. These guys don’t always operate on the right side of the law. But the one who runs it? He’s solid. I’ll tell you everything. Just give me some time.”
She looked at him then, truly seeing the exhaustion behind his strength.
“The guys…” he continued, eyes meeting hers tentatively. “They’d like to meet you. Would you be up for that?”
She hesitated, biting her lip. “Maybe in a week?”
His smile was soft, lopsided. “You set the pace. They’ll behave, trust me.”
