Page 4 of Robb

Tahnee still looked confused, although realization was slowly spreading across her face.

“You remember her now, right?” Robb said, even as part of him baulked at being the reason why Tahnee’s expression was becoming so stony. “Leopard shifter, robbed a bank – which was not easy to explain away to the human authorities, by the way.”

Robb paused to gauge Tahnee’s reaction. She gave away nothing, merely inclining her head as if to say, go on.

“With your help, she’s graduated to robbing the Australian Mint,” Robb said, his voice hard. “Or trying to, anyway. It took a whole team of agents to bring her in.”

Tahnee winced, a look of real regret crossing her face, before she composed herself.

“I’m sorry that happened,” she said, and she sounded like she meant it. “But I had nothing to do with that.”

Robb scoffed. “I think you might’ve had just a bit to do with it. She never could’ve done it without your help. You literally gave her the money to get a new identity and rent an apartment.”

“Yeah, but what about the other forty-six?” Tahnee said, her eyes blazing bright with conviction. “One of them is going to TAFE to become a chef. Another one is working in a nursing home, for crying out loud – and no, they’re not doing anything bad there. These people have genuinely turned their lives around. They’re studying, getting into legit employment, raising families. Doesn’t that balance things out for you at all?”

“No!” Robb snapped, doing his best to keep his voice down. “It’s not your decision to make! Does the legal process mean nothing to you? Do you even care about the victims of their crimes?”

“Do you care?!” Tahnee hissed back. “Would you rather these shifters end up in the justice system, angry and with a huge grudge against the world, just to get kicked back out on the streets in ten or twenty years with no safety net and no life skills?”

Robb heard a snarl coming out from his mouth that was like no sound he’d ever made before. He wasn’t sure who it was coming from more: him, or his dingo.

How could she even think he didn’t care? He cared too much. He’d dedicated his life to it. She had no idea about the things he’d seen, the ruined lives he’d encountered. The times he’d had to knock on someone’s door and tell them that their loved one had been injured or killed.

But…

He also couldn’t help but admire her principles, even as the anger bubbled up within him. Because he knew that she honestly thought that what she was doing was right. And she probably had helped some of these people turn their lives around.

But that still didn’t justify what she’d done. There were ways to help people within the system – she could have joined the Agency and worked within the criminal rehabilitation unit, if she’d wanted to. She couldn’t just go around doing whatever she thought was best. If everyone took matters into their own hands, then chaos would be the only result.

Her self-belief and determination was… well, attractive, as much as he knew he shouldn’t be having that thought. She did what she thought was right. She wanted to help others. In so many ways, she was a lot like him… but her methods were the dead opposite of his. And the feelings that were stirring within him were outright dangerous.

Maybe his turmoil showed on his face, because the hard set of her eyes softened somewhat… and she held out her wrists again, less provocatively this time.

“If you’re going to arrest me, then arrest me,” she said quietly. The fire in her eyes had dimmed, but it still smoldered. It was the most alluring thing he’d ever seen in his life.

His hand went back toward the pocket where his cuffs were sitting, his fingers trembling ever so slightly.

“Fine. I will,” he said, and the lack of conviction in his voice was plain to hear.

His hand hovered next to his pocket.

“Go on, then,” Tahnee breathed, the spark back in her eyes once more – and before he knew it, her face was mere inches from his. For the life of him, Robb couldn’t work out which one of them had made the move. Maybe it was both of them.

Arrest her already, the dingo hissed, but it didn’t sound at all convinced. Robb had never heard it sound so uncertain in a matter of law and order – normally it would pursue each task ferociously until it was completed, no matter what.

He stared at Tahnee as the breeze ruffled her feather boa, suddenly acutely aware that he was having this mild existential crisis while looking more ludicrous than he had possibly ever looked in his life, with the possible exception of that time he’d been sent undercover in Kings Cross.

And maybe Tahnee had read his mind, because her mouth twitched back into that mischievous grin she’d taunted him with in the past.

“It’s almost like you want me to escape,” she said in a teasing voice, and her hands brushed against his jeans even as her lips opened enticingly.

“Maybe I do.”

The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them.

Even if I had been able to stop them, I don’t know if I would have.

Tahnee’s mouth opened in surprise, and Robb, his voice rough, added, “But if I catch you with this many people on a yacht again, you’re not going to be so lucky. You’re breaking all kinds of regulations.”