“Don’t be cheeky. Just tell me where the money is and we’ll retrieve it. Then, we can all be on our way.”
“It’s in the bank.”
“No, it’s not.”
“It is.”
“There is no way you put that much counterfeit foreign cash into the bank.”
Deidre tried to hide her surprise. She’d made a mistake. He wasn’t looking for the money in the bank. He was looking for the cash she’d retrieved from the lockers. Who were these people?
She didn’t respond.
“Listen, I don’t want to hurt you, but I will if I must. You’ve taken money that belongs to people who would have me shoot you in the head to get it back.”
“Well, let me loose and we’ll go to my house and get it, though I’m not sure what use you’re going to get out of fake bills in today’s world.”
“You let us worry about our business. You just worry about keeping your brains intact.”
“As I said, it’s at my house. In the closet, in shoe boxes beneath a blanket.”
“Are you telling me the truth?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t count it. I just stuck it in the boxes and left it there,” she lied.
“Why didn’t you try to take it to the bank or the exchange? Most people would have done that.”
“It wasn’t mine. I didn’t know where it had come from.”
“Oh, come on now. You know exactly where that money originated. That’s why you made arrangements to retrieve it. If you’d just left it alone, you’d not even be involved in this.”
Deidre was confused, but she wasn’t about to ask questions. She didn’t want to expose anything more than necessary. Niall had told her that the money was clean but hadn’t explained. He’d told her he was still checking into it and that there might be a chance it was hers free and clear. She had taken his word for it.
Now, here she was, wired to a chair and being questioned, but it didn’t seem like the man knew about the money in the bank. Instead, he was only after the money from the lockers. He was after the money in the closet, if you could even call it money since it was fake.
So, her best bet was to just give him what he wanted and hope he let her go. She watched as he picked up his phone and called someone, barking commands into the speaker for whoever was on the other end.
“Search her closet. I’ll hold on while you do,” he told them before growing silent for a moment. “If you’re lying, you’ll wish you’d not made that mistake,” he said, addressing her directly while he waited.
A minute or so passed. It felt more like an hour, and then he was talking to whoever was in her house. She couldn’t help but feel violated and then realized how ridiculous that really was considering that she’d effectively assumed someone’s entire identity. It was hard to hold the moral high ground about stealing from someone when she’d taken the life of a long-dead child from them.
“Good. Good. Make sure you get all of it and get out of there. I’ll meet you back at the docks,” he told them, ending the call and turning back to her.
“I told you,” she replied.
“Yes, you did, and thank you for that,” he replied. “Such a pity to waste such beauty, though. You up for a final shag before you meet your unfortunate end?”
Deidre’s heart was pounding against her chest again. He wasn’t a shifter, and she wasn’t sure if he knew that she was, but whoever had sent him to take her and at least told him she was dangerous enough that she needed to be secured with chains and razor wire.
“You’re not really my type,” she replied.
“Well, you know, beggars can’t be choosers and all that. Any port in a storm.”
“You do know that you won’t survive the week if you kill me, right?”
“Is that so? Who is going to avenge you? You have no family left, and you’re living under an assumed identity. No one will realize you are even gone.”
It was the first real clue as to who he was. He had to be tied to the man who’d set her up with a new identity. Perhaps it had all just been a scam to get her to retrieve something they couldn’t and now they’d come for it. If that was the case, why not just wait until she was at work and ransack the house, take what they wanted?
“It’s been good meeting you then,” she said with a tone far too even compared to how terrified she was right now. “However, I think I’ll pass on the worst ninety seconds of my life. I’d prefer you just go ahead and shoot me.”
“I like your spunk. It makes me randy, but you’re in luck. I’ve been instructed to keep you in one piece until my associate arrives to claim you. So, I’m just going to go get my money and finish doing what needs to be done with it. I’ll leave you with Chatty Cathy over there,” he told her, nodding toward the still silent guard who sat on the opposite side of the room.