Page 80 of Virtue & Vengeance

“You’re not going to let me go, are you?” I asked Rodger

I knew the answer already.

I remembered the conversation I’d heard between the two men the night before as I tried to cover my face with make-up.

He didn’t look at me as he responded. Instead, he continued staring out the window as he said, “The boss wants to keep you a little longer. We can’t exactly have you running to the police once we let you go, can we?”

“But I won’t,” I promised. “I swear I won’t. I just want to forget about you, Allen, and this whole mess.”

Finally, he turned and looked at me, but his expression held no hint of sympathy. “Do your begging and pleading to the boss, girl. I have no say here.”

He turned away, and I knew it was pointless to say anything more.

Winston returned then, replaying his conversation with Monty.

“Boss wants us to lay low for an hour or two. We don’t want to get caught up in a police search if Zander Hale decides to send out a search party for his girl.”

The police.

Yeah right.

Zander would never send out a search party for me. The only way that would happen is if he realized I’d stolen from him.

Money.

He would search for his money.

There was no doubt about that.

But as for me, he wouldn’t kick up a fuss.

“Turns out you’re going to be making the trip back to Arizona with us,” Winston said as if it was new information for me.

It wasn’t.

I tried not to cry as I thought about what the future held for me. Instead, I closed my eyes and remembered the hours earlier and what it had felt like to be in Zander’s arms.

The night had been absolutely perfect, and it would be the memory I turned to every time I needed to escape my new life in Arizona.

Zander Hale.

He was the best and the worst thing to ever happen to me.

The best because thanks to him I’d gotten to feel the most beautiful kind of love a woman could feel.

And the worst because thanks to him I’d gotten to feel the most powerful heartbreak a person could endure.

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