Running with Rogues

CHAPTER 32 - TURN FOR THE WORST

Why is this update so late? Well, lads, I do have some good excuses, actually. Firstly, it's long. Secondly, this is my first day off in a month. Thirdly, I was trampled by a horse!!! Lololol. (absolutely fine btw) (just a little beat up) (was my own fault). You will all have to forgive me. Now that I actually have some time in the evenings, the updates should speed up again. Thank you all for your patience this summer :)

"We work together now, huh?" Lin told me. "That's pretty cool. You can help me swipe the toilet paper."

I made a distressed noise. "I thought you were smuggling it in, not stealing it."

We were taking our mid-morning break on the lawn behind the pack house. It was drizzling and generally miserable, but Liam and Will's patrol was training not twenty metres away, so it was worth getting soaked. We were sharing a packet of popcorn, huddled under a single, flimsy umbrella.

"We were smuggling it. But that was before I realised the girls in commissary never bother to take inventory. They just fudge the numbers and then take a nap whenever they're scheduled to do a count," Lin muttered.

Huh. Those ladies sounded like my kind of people. But that aside, I tried not to think about the sheer volume of things I could nick from the commissary. They had phones in there. Why had the Goddess decided to tempt me? I was supposed to be on my best behaviour...

But if I managed to steal even a single phone, my little brother could have a new pair of shoes. He'd outgrown his boots last winter, and he'd been walking around in sandals ever since. If I could steal a dozen, we could replace the tent with the snapped pole and still have enough left over to take the kids to McDonalds.

"So...?" Lin demanded once I'd gone quiet. "I need to acquire a key, and I could use some help..."

"You don't need a key," I told her, laughing. "You just need two paperclips and some patience."

Uh oh. Should not have told her that. This girl was crazy enough without me enabling her. And more importantly, I'd just given out information that normal flockie girls weren't supposed to have.

Lin sat up very straight. One eyebrow went crawling towards her hairline. "You know how to pick locks?"

"Me?" I spluttered defensively. "No. Of course not. I watch a lot of crime drama, is all."

I'd watched one programme while I'd been waiting for Liam to come home last night. It had been utterly shit, of course, but at the same time, I'd struggled to tear my eyes away.

"Hm," she said. "Well, if you did know, you'd stand to make a lot of money. It's a seller's market out there at the moment. I've got nearly a dozen contacts."

I brought my knees up to my chest and used them to hide my smile. Of all the things she wanted to steal, she'd picked toilet paper. I reckoned it wasn't about the money. Not really. It was just a quiet sort of protest about how this pack was run.

"I can't help you. I'd love to, don't get me wrong, but I can't. Not until my probation's over," I told her.

Lin made a huffing noise.

I closed my eyes, knowing the decision was out of my hands. A chance at mischief was just too tempting to pass up. "But I can teach you how to use a bump key. What you do with that information ... well, that's none of my business."

"What on earth is a—"

Will and Liam had broken away from the rest of the fighters, and they were headed in our direction. Lin shot me a sly wink and pressed a finger over her lips. I took that to mean she had yet to share her evil scheme with her mate.