The Complete Truth Duet

by Martinez, Aly

  Penn

  Drew: Please tell me you have eyes on Thomas.

  Me: On him now. Why?

  I was sitting up the street from Thomas’s house. It had become my nightly routine. With the parade of women, maids, colleagues, and a few randoms I’d yet to identify in and out of his house all week, it was proving more difficult than I’d ever thought to get the piece of shit alone. But tonight was the night.

  He was with the brunette from the courthouse again. It marked the third time this week. And if it went anything like those nights, she’d tiptoe out around two in the morning, twisting only the lock on the knob before hurrying to her car. That gave me a full five hours before his maid showed up.

  Pad that window with time to get in and out and I had four glorious hours to watch him die.

  It was almost eleven. I pulled the security app up on my phone. And according to the camera above my front door, which I’d yet to mention to Savannah, she either was already in bed or had turned into Spider-Man, scaled down six floors, and gone out for the night. I was betting on the former. She’d been doing really well. I hadn’t been able to get her into a real rehab facility yet, but I’d hired a private doctor who specialized in addiction who came by every couple of days, and I’d even gone to a few NA meetings with her too.

  If I didn’t make it back, I was really going to miss that kid. But she knew how to find Drew if anything ever happened to me. And since my will left everything to Cora Guerrero, I had peace of mind that they’d always be taken care of.

  I stared at Drew’s text as if I could read between the lines and find an explanation.

  Me: You going to elaborate?

  Ten minutes later, my chest was starting to get tight. He’d texted me earlier that day that they were going to pick up River. I’d hoped that meant Thomas was backing off Cora. But now…something didn’t feel right.

  Me: Hello! Is everything okay?

  When another ten minutes passed without a response, my anxiety climbing with every tick of the second hand, I gave up on the waiting game and called.

  It went to voicemail after the second ring.

  Motion at Thomas’s front door caught my attention. He was walking out with his hand on the brunette’s lower back. He paused to lock up and then escorted her down the short walk to her silver Lexus.

  The phone vibrated in my hand.

  Drew: With Cora. Can’t talk. Just stay on him until I can fill you in.

  He was with her. I blew out a relieved breath. That was good. Really good, and my pulse responded immediately.

  Brake lights backing out of Thomas’s driveway drew my gaze up.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” I whispered as Thomas’s Cadillac followed her Lexus out onto the main road.

  I put my car in drive and eased out in the opposite direction. I’d hit the neighborhood loop and meet him at the entrance. But my suspicions grew as she turned left and he cut right. Okay, so they weren’t going somewhere together. Not a huge deal, except Thomas wasn’t known to be a night owl.

  I followed him a few car lengths back as he drove across town. With the city lights twinkling behind us, he led me into the burbs. It was a nice-ish area. The houses were spread out and off the main road. The lack of traffic made it difficult to stay close. In his richy-rich neighborhood, my Audi blended right in. But there, I might as well have had a neon sign on my hood.

  As he rolled to a stop, I quickly zipped into a nearby driveway and cut my lights, praying that the family who lived inside was fast asleep and not peering out the window. I sank low in my seat when a beat-up ’90s-model sedan pulled up behind him. Two men climbed out and Thomas joined them, but he didn’t greet them before taking off with long and heavy strides down the dark road, the newest additions to our party falling into step behind him.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” I asked the night as I silently folded out of my car. I tucked my gun into the back of my jeans and skulked into the shadows.

  Just when I was convinced Thomas was only out for some late-night cardio, the three men turned toward a quaint little brick house complete with a farmhouse mailbox. The street was dead that time of night, only a few porch lights exposing the homes.

  But the front door he was heading toward had glowing windows wrapping all the way around. I inched closer, sinking deep into the wooded tree line that divided the homes.

  And that’s when everything stopped.

  My heart.

  The Earth.

  Time.

  My truck was sitting in the driveway.

  My truck that I’d sold to Drew for a dollar.

  My truck that I’d left Cora over a million dollars inside.

  My fucking truck that Drew was no doubt driving that night.

  And he was with Cora.

  Panic iced my veins, stealing the air from my lungs. But one beat later, the rolling fire of adrenaline set me ablaze.

  “Oh, shit,” I breathed as Thomas walked straight to the front door, the two men splitting off in opposite directions, heading around to the back. I frantically weighed my options: I could go after Thomas or follow the two men who were entirely too reminiscent of the ones Thomas had sent to kill Lisa.

  And then, somehow, everything got worse.

  The front door yanked open and Thomas whipped a gun out of his pocket. I was barely able to make out the “Where the fuck is my wife?” before the gunshot exploded into the silent night.

  I didn’t think.

  I didn’t plan.

  I didn’t even consciously decide to move.

  I just took off at a dead sprint, her blue eyes fueling my every step.

  It took me a thousand years to reach that house. I darted up the driveway and then through the open door. As soon as my feet hit that fucking carpet, I scanned the room, searching for the only thing that could ever slow my racing heart.

  She wasn’t there. At least not that I could see.

  Drew was sitting on Thomas’s chest, his fist flying at his face. He paused long enough to turn his rabid gaze on mine, the flicker of recognition hitting him just before he continued his assault. “They’re in the bedroom,” he barked. “Go. Now.”

  My vision flashed red and my body graced me with yet another surge of power when the sound of a woman’s gurgled scream echoed through the room.

  “Cora!” I roared, following the commotion into the hall.

  My lungs seized as I found one of Thomas’s men straddling a woman. She kicked and flailed beneath him as he squeezed at her throat.

  It wasn’t Cora, but that only meant I still had no idea where she was.

  Diving forward, I bulldozed him off her. The guy wasn’t small by any standards, but he was clumsy and clearly not driven by raw emotion the way I was. We rolled together, banging against the walls until we reached one of the open bedrooms. We exchanged punches—however, with an endless source of rage feeding my fight, he soon fell limp.

  I rose off his unconscious body and turned my prowl onto the woman who I recognized from pictures to be Catalina. Her brown eyes and smooth olive skin matched her brothers’.

  “Where is she?” I rumbled, wiping the blood off my bottom lip with the back of my hand.

  With tears streaming down her face, she lifted her hands in surrender. “W…wait,” she stammered, backing into the corner.

  “Cora. Tell me where she is,” I demanded.

  Coughing between words, she managed to choke out, “There’s…nobody else…here. I swear. Nobody.” Her whole body trembled as I advanced on her. “No, please.”

  I leaned into her face and in a violent whisper said, “I’m not here to hurt you, Catalina. I need to find Cora, and then I’m going to get you all out of here.”

  She blinked at me, her chin quivering as she asked, “Who are you?”

  I didn’t get the chance to answer before the sweetest sound that had ever hit my ears came from behind me.

  My heart started.

  The Earth spun.

  A
nd forever began.

  One in. One out.

  “Penn?”

  Cora

  The day Nic died, I remembered not being able to comprehend anything. As I’d sat on the sidewalk, watching them load his body into an ambulance, the cops had spoken to me. Their mouths moved. Sounds found my eardrums. But nothing made it to my brain. Every now and then, I found words coming out of my mouth to answer a question, but it was more like an involuntary reflex than a conscious thought.

  My feet moved when I was told.

  My head turned when someone was speaking to me.

  I was able to prattle off Manuel’s phone number to a cop when they asked if there was anyone they should call about Nic.

  It was like I had been on autopilot.

  The same thing had happened to me when Penn died.

  And then it happened all over again the moment I heard his voice in the hallway.

  “Cora. Tell me where she is,” he demanded.

  My whole body jolted, and then my mind checked out.

  It was all wrong. Drew was fighting with Thomas. Isabel and River were hiding in the closet. Catalina had gotten caught by someone in the hallway.

  And Penn was outside the door.

  My ears started ringing as my hand lifted to the knob.

  I couldn’t be right. It was impossible.

  He was gone.

  I cracked the door open. The wide, muscular back straining against a white T-shirt could have been anyone’s. But those tattoos? I’d traced them too many times to ever be able to forget them.

  “I’m not here to hurt you, Catalina. I need to find Cora, and then I’m going to get you all out of here.”

  He was…

  Alive. Oh, so beautifully alive.

  “Penn?”

  He spun around so fast that I nearly fell when the tangible weight in his eyes hit me.

  “Cora,” he breathed, his whole handsome face softening.

  My nose started to burn, and he took a step toward me. Instinctively, I backed away. Shaking my head rapidly, I waited for him to disappear. It had to have been some kind of cruel trick Thomas was using to torture me with.

  “You’re not here,” I croaked.

  “I’m right here, baby,” he soothed in a voice so sweet and so kind that it crumbled reality.

  Tears hit my eyes.

  I was dreaming. That had to be it.

  But I wasn’t.

  He was too real.

  Too perfect.

  Too Penn.

  I brought a shaking hand to my mouth. “How?”

  He curled two fingers in the air. “C’mere, Cor.”

  I couldn’t process any more words. He might have vanished by the time I got to him. Or maybe I was dead too. But no matter what happened after that moment, there was only one place I wanted to be.

  I launched myself full body, all at once, into his arms and burst into tears.

  “Shhhhh,” he breathed, palming the back of my head and tucking my face into the curve of his neck.

  I shimmied in his arms. I couldn’t get close enough to absorb him the way I so desperately needed to.

  The deep baritone of Drew’s voice interrupted our rose-colored reunion. “We gotta go. Cops are on the way.”

  My head popped up, and even though my thighs were still wrapped around his waist, I waited for Penn to cease to exist.

  Instead, he replied, “Where’s Thomas?”

  Drew took his hand away from his head, revealing a gaping wound pouring blood from the side. “I don’t know. His fucking buddy caught me with a tire iron. They tore out of here.”

  I felt Penn’s body go stiff.

  Penn.

  Fucking Penn.

  Alive, well, breathing.

  Penn.

  He turned the blue stare that had been haunting my dreams for almost three weeks on me. “Where’s River?”

  “In the closet,” I replied.

  He gently set me on my feet, kissed my forehead, and marched over. I knew the exact moment he opened that door, because I was certain her gasp and then the sob that followed could have been heard around the world.

  “Penn? Oh, God, Penn!”

  I turned in time to see her dive into his arms much the way I had. No DNA test needed.

  River wasn’t particularly cuddly with anyone but me. With the way she’d been raised, I’d never seen her hug a man. And there she was, wound around him like she too was trying to absorb him.

  And, like he had with me, he held her, palming the back of her head and whispering something I couldn’t make out in her ear.

  Seeing her with him—him with her—broke me in so many ways.

  I wanted so badly for that to be real.

  For her.

  And for me.

  I didn’t know what the hell was happening or when it would suddenly end, but I never wanted to wake up.

  I could live a lie.

  To keep that moment, I could live a lie for the rest of my life and die with a smile on my face.

  “Mom?” Isabel croaked, shoving to her feet and sprinting into Catalina’s arms.

  Catalina looked at me and asked the only question I couldn’t answer with a truth or a lie. “What the hell is going on?”

  That would have entailed someone filling me in first.

  However, I didn’t figure we had a hundred years for someone to explain to me how Penn had overcome the plague of death in order to save me all over again.

  “We gotta go, man,” Drew said. “And I mean now.” He reached a hand out. “Cat, let’s go.”

  She looked at me nervously and then moved toward him.

  Penn set River onto her feet. The ink on his arm danced as he dug keys out of his pocket and threw them at his brother. “My car’s parked three houses up. Change the tag before you bring it back to the apartment.”

  Drew looked at the keys. “It’s a two-seater.”

  “Just you,” Penn clarified. Taking River by the hand, he marched over to me and curled me into his side before herding us both toward the door. “I got everyone else.”

  Drew stood there for a beat, his jaw tight, flicking his gaze between the keys and Catalina. Then he finally muttered, “Yeah. Sounds good.”

  Catalina caught my hand as we passed her, falling into step beside me. Her daughter matched our gait as we all power-walked to keep up with Penn’s long, purposeful strides.

  Somehow, we all made it to the truck.

  Somehow, I ended up in the front with my seat belt on—the same with River, Catalina, and Isabel in the back seat.

  And, somehow, in the miracle to end all miracles, a dead man got behind the wheel.

  I couldn’t stop staring at him as he put the truck in reverse.

  “How are you here?” I whispered.

  He did reply, but not with an answer. “How did he find you?”

  Sirens screamed in the distance. “Who?”

  “Thomas.” He glanced over at me, concern hitting his eyes. “Shit, are you okay?” His big, warm palm came down on my thigh.

  I blinked at him some more, waiting for the oasis to fade. “I don’t think I am.”

  “You’re gonna be,” he promised. “From here on out, you’re gonna be.”

  It was sweet.

  And impossible.

  “You think he could have traced my phone?” River asked from the back. “They kept ’em locked up during the day sometimes. Do you think he—”

  Penn snapped his fingers. “Phones. Everybody’s. Now.” Three little phones came over the seat. Penn took them all and pulled into a gas station before climbing out. I watched in awe as his long legs carried him to three different trash cans and then back to my door. He yanked it open. “Baby, I need your phone.”

  I just stared at him.

  And then I kissed him because…he was there.

  He smiled against my mouth, his hand coming up to cup my face. His callused thumb stroked back and forth across my cheek. “Phone, Cor. I promise we can continue that
as soon as we get you back to my place.”

  “Yeah,” I breathed without moving.

  And then he smiled, gorgeous and full of life. “Back pocket?”

  “Yeah,” I repeated.

  He kissed my forehead as he dug it out, and then he was gone to another trash can.

  And then he was back, the truck was in drive…and Penn was alive.

  Shock was weird.

  It numbed your mind, only allowing a single emotion to breach the surface at a time.

  It’d started with denial when I’d seen him at Catalina’s.

  But by the time we got to Penn’s apartment, he’d yet to vanish into thin air. And I’d yet to wake up. So using the loose formula of A plus B equals C, I’d come to the definitive conclusion that I wasn’t delusional.

  And it pissed me off more than words could ever explain.

  But more, it hurt more than words could ever explain.

  He’d left me. He’d lied to me. He’d…he’d broken me.

  And, now, he was back?

  Even knowing all of that, there was still a part of me that wanted to crawl into his lap and hold him for all of eternity.

  It just wasn’t a big enough part to block out the mounting anger.

  “You live here?” I asked when he cut the ignition.

  We were in an underground parking garage connected to a high-rise in downtown Chicago. To my left was a white Acura. To my right, a royal-blue Mercedes. Considering I drove a sedan that had run the assembly line when Magnum PI was the world’s sexiest man, I wasn’t exactly the most-educated car enthusiast. But even as a novice, I could guarantee that there was at least half a million dollars in four-wheel increments all around that concrete hideaway.

  “I bought it recently.”

  I laughed and there was no mistaking the betrayal laced in my tone as I said, “Good for you. This is a big step up.” I slung the door to the truck open, careful not to damage the other cars, and then opened the back door for River. “I guess this means you had more than just a million dollars lying around, huh?”