Trapped like a rat.

The shoplifter was out of sight by the time Alex entered the labyrinthine corridors used by the workers at The Sunshine Mall. His lungs burning, Alex bent double when he was out of the public view and could finally catch his breath. Still wheezing but relieved not to have to do anything, he thought he could take a quick look around for 10 – 15 minutes before returning back to the security offices and say he did the best he could but she got away. He was halfway through this when Alex walked past one of any number of nondescript hallways and saw the girl at the other end looking for a way out. Realising she had picked a dead-end at random Alex reluctantly made his way to her. He would have to deal with her after all and this time she would have no way out.

“Just stop ok,” Alex said as she tried to open the handle on a locked door to get out.

Turning towards him and seeing she was caught the shoplifter let out a big, “Fuck!”

“Look just hand over the goods and this will all go easy,” Alex told her, warry for her to try and barge past him.

The shoplifter was in her very late teens - early twenties, Alex thought. She had long blonde hair and average height. She wasn’t unattractive but a bit on the trashy poor side of things. She did as he asked however and started pulling a number of brand new cell phone boxes, headphones and other pieces of high-end electronics out of the numerous internal pockets of her oversized coat.

“Damn! What were you going to do with all this stuff?” Alex can’t help but ask, amazed at the amount of stuff she had hidden on her.

“Sell it,” she tells him sullenly, “probably going to jail now though.”

“How much do you get for it?”

“Couple hundred bucks,” she told him.

“What for all of it?”

“Nah each for the phones. Rest maybe not so much.”

Alex mind raced. The money she was talking about was more than his shitty security job would pay him in a week and he has bills coming out of his ass. Perhaps there might be an opportunity in all this for him.

“Damn straight you’re going to jail after all this!” he told her, putting on what he thought was his best tough-guy act.

The girl, defeated, started to shed soundless tears at the thought of going to prison.

“Unless we can work out some sort of understanding, you and I…” Alex left the prospect dangling there for her.

“Yeah whatever you want just don’t call the cops,” she seized on the ray of hope.

“Alright. This is what you're going to do for me. You're going to sell the stuff and give me half,” he told her his deal.

“Aww man,” she began to complain at the amount of money he was extorting out of her.

“The police it is then,” he told her.

“Alright, alright I’ll do it! Just give me the stuff and let me go.”

“Not so fast. I’ll hang onto the gear for now and you come and get it off me when I knock off. Meet me at 7 in the employee parking area.”

The girl nodded her head, agreeing to the deal they just made. Her face changed when Alex brought out his handcuffs though.

“Come one! We had a deal,” she shouted at him.

“This just to make it look legit to my boss. I’ll say you ditched the stuff before I caught you and can’t find it. Without it, they have no proof on you and have to set you free. Just deny ever having touched everything and it's his word against yours,” Alex spelled out everything to her.

With that, he had her turn around and place her hands behind her back as he cuffed her.

“So, I kind of have to do this,” he told her as he started to pat her down from head to toe, starting at the bottom. “What’s your name anyway?”

“Chloe,” she said.

Then as he was making his way up her legs and past her hips, Alex brought his hands around her front and continuing his pat-down, squeezed Chloe’s tits as he felt them from behind.

“Get off me,” she shouted at him again and tried to push him off with her shoulder, “you get off on that shit don’t you pig!”

“Shut up!” Alex told her as he pushed her against the wall, holding onto to Chloe’s breasts long enough to let her know he was in charge.

Handcuffed, he let her back through the Mall to the security department. Before they left the behind the scenes area, Alex stuffed the stolen goods into a storage bin for him to collect later.