“It’s okay. He’s gone,” my brave, stupid nine-year-old said, squatting beside her.
Her apartment looked like hell. Everything from the couch cushions to the end tables were strewn across the room. Her shirt was torn and her bra was crooked, barely covering her breasts, but I blew out a long sigh of relief when I saw she was still wearing her shorts.
At least there was that.
I kneeled beside her.
She jumped when I touched her arm.
“Relax. It’s just me,” I assured her. “Are you okay?”
She turned her frazzled gaze on me and whispered, “I got to get out of here. I gotta…I gotta go home before he comes back.” Suddenly rising to her feet, she patted her front down, doing what little she could to make her tattered shirt cover her chest. “I gotta get out of here.”
I agreed wholeheartedly. If Dante wanted her, there was no doubt that he’d be back. Unless she was gone, all River had done was prolong the inevitable.
Sidling under her arm, I took some of her weight. “Do you have somewhere you can go? Maybe someone you can call?”
“Shane,” she whispered before she burst into tears. “Oh my God. I can’t tell him about this. He’ll kill him.”
“Who’s Shane? A john?” I asked, guiding her toward the door, River following close behind us.
“My husband,” she croaked.
The air stilled along with my feet.
I cranked my head to the side. “You’re married?”
She nodded and then cleared her throat. “I need you to take me back to the hotel.”
“Wait. Is this the guy you were running from? Because I don’t want you making a hasty decision based on what just happened. We can figure something else out. Get you somewhere safe.”
“No. Shane would never… I just…” She stepped away from me. Her hands shook as she smoothed her hair down. “Listen, Cora. I need to leave for a while. But I’ll be back, okay? I won’t forget about you. I swear.”
I liked Lexy.
She was one of the easier girls in the building. She was kind and funny, always willing to help out. Her smile was infectious, and her bright-side attitude was hard not to catch.
Lexy was sweet.
And when I dropped her off at the hotel that night, I looked her straight in the eye and told her the truth. “Please don’t ever come back.”
Cora
What the hell was happening?
I’d known Penn’s wife.
She’d told him about me.
His name was Shane.
Drew wasn’t his brother.
Thomas had killed Lexy.
Penn was going to kill him.
He’d already killed Dante and Marcos.
Savannah was back.
So was Catalina.
Thomas had tried to shoot her.
Penn was alive.
And I was currently on my knees in the middle of Penn’s ginormous bajillionaire bathroom, dry-heaving into his toilet.
“I’m not a bajillionaire,” he said.
Annnnd apparently I was thinking out loud. Awesome.
He was sitting, his ass on the cold floor, his legs bent, his feet on the floor, his forearms resting on his knees. Not too close. Not too far away. He was just there in the most Penn Walker way possible.
“I made your wife a prostitute,” I announced.
“She wasn’t a prostitute, Cora. She never slept with anyone.”
“This is probably the completely wrong time to tell you this, but she brought home a lot of money. Said she had some rich guy on the hook.”
He flashed me a tight smile. “Nice to meet you. I’m the rich guy.”
“You were there?” I breathed, because at this point, anything was possible.
“No. But she used to video chat with me a couple times a week from that hotel. When she had to head back at the end of the night, she’d pull out cash from the ATM. In a roundabout way, I personally paid a few of Marcos and Dante’s bills there for a while.”
God. My head hurt. It was all too much.
I sighed. “No, you didn’t. I skimmed enough money off the Guerreros to cancel it out. Though you probably paid my phone bill a time or two.”
He grinned. “I can live with that.”
“I dropped her off at the hotel that night,” I blurted when I couldn’t hold it back anymore.
His heavy, blue eyes lifted to mine. “I know.”
“Did she…tell you why?”
“I dislocated both of Dante’s shoulders and then slammed them back in socket before I choked him out and left him for the smoke and fire to finish him off.”
Holy.
Shit.
This Shane guy was scary.
But I couldn’t say that Dante didn’t deserve it.
Guilt settled like a boulder in my stomach. “I thought she was going home. Dante came looking for her the next day, but I told him she’d run away. I never considered something had actually happened to her.”
“She was coming home. She’d booked a flight for the next morning.”
“She never made it,” I whispered, emotion bubbling to the surface again.
The first time Penn had told me about his wife, I’d thought it was crazy that he blamed himself for failing her when there was so obviously nothing he could have done. But right then, I got it. Dropping her off there, I’d failed her too.
Reaching over my head, I snagged a decorative floral towel that I knew without a shadow of a doubt Penn had not bought and used it to wipe my mouth.
“I have an extra toothbrush if you want it,” he said.
Fresh breath was the least of my concerns.
Settling on my butt, I mirrored his position against the bathtub for two. My body ached like I’d been through a wash cycle, and my mind was a jumbled mess, trying to fit together all the pieces he’d been doling out over the last God only knew how long. Each time I’d thought I had a handle on it, he’d dropped another bomb at my feet.
“Is there anything else?” I asked. “You have some kids or something I need to know about?”
“No,” he promised.
“Okay, do you need a kidney and I’m the only match?”
His lips twitched. “No, Cora. All my organs are in good condition.”
“Seriously, I can’t take any more surprises. If you have anything else up your tattooed sleeves, it needs to come out now. Are you secretly Savannah’s biological father come to save her from the clutches of her abusive adoptive parents?”
“What? No. And don’t encourage her with that. She’s been calling me daddy for weeks.”
My stomach rolled.
Apparently, he did have more surprises.
“You’ve had her for weeks?” I squeaked.
He leaned his head back against the wall. “I got to her as soon as I could. I stalked the hospital for a few days, hoping to see her get discharged. When that didn’t work, I went to Cleveland and tracked down her parents. I found her standing on the corner, trying to score some cash. Picked her up and brought her home.”
“Home,” I whispered sadly. “Right.”
He cursed under his breath. “That’s not what I meant. Obviously, her home is with you.”
At a loss for any other response, I repeated, “Right.”
“Truth or lie?”
I picked invisible lint off the towel. “No. That’s why I’m sitting here right now, lost and confused, feeling like I was transported into another person’s life. I let you lie to me for too long.”
“Okay…then truth. My body’s about to tear out of my skin over here. Any chance you’ll let me come over there and hold you?”
With sadness saturating my vision, I looked up at him. He was wearing the Penn Walker uniform: boots, tattered jeans, and a T-shirt. His scruff had grown in until it was straddling the line of becoming a beard, and the black tattoos on his arms and hands looked completely out of place in that lush bathroom. But Penn was always beautiful—rugged and unortho
dox—and as though he’d cast a spell on me, even knowing what I knew now, I still craved his touch.
“I spent the last few weeks wishing you were sitting in front of me,” I confessed, pausing when my voice gave out. “And here you are, but it’s like all my dreams and all my nightmares have melded together to form the perfect mindfuck. I’d love nothing more than to dive into your arms and bury my head in the sands of comfort rather than confusion.”
Relief softened his face as he started to stand up.
“But I can’t, Shane. The man I fell in love with was nothing but a carefully constructed façade, tailored to who he needed to be to seduce me.”
“That’s not true. It was always me.”
“And who is that exactly? Please, I’m dying to know. What parts of you were my Penn with the big heart and gentle touch and what part was Lisa’s Shane out for revenge?”
He shook his head. “Me. It’s all just me. I didn’t show you who I wanted you to see to seduce you, Cora. If you recall, the only seducing I did was begging you to stay away from me for fear that we would find ourselves sitting right here, right now.”
“So it’s my fault.”
“No. Not at all. I just mean I didn’t have to pretend with you. Yes, I omitted a lot of stuff about my past and even lied to you about my motives. But every smile. Every laugh. Every kiss. Every touch. That was me. That was us. And that was the truth.”
“Maybe. But that’s the thing about lies, Penn. They taint the truth until you have no idea what to believe.”
A vise in my chest cranked down until I thought my ribs would break. I knew for a fact that crawling into his lap and feeling his strong hands gliding up and down my back would ease it. But what I wanted and what I would allow myself to get sucked into again were two different stories. He’d said that he wanted to protect me. But in the process, he broke me in ways that Dante, Marcos, or even Thomas never could. There wasn’t enough of me left to take that chance again.
“I believe you. I think you did have my best interest at heart, but I also think you highly underestimated who I am as a person. All I know for sure right now is that, despite that your heart is beating, Penn Walker died in that fire. And you need to accept that we aren’t just falling back into us. I have to figure out for myself how much of the man I loved is left inside this Shane guy, but it’s going to take time.” I got to my feet and walked over to him, extending a hand down to help him up. “Time that is going to have to wait. After tonight, there is a storm brewing around us. We all need to sit down and figure out what to do about Thomas. There are three girls out there who have been through some pretty traumatic stuff. Our problems don’t matter until we make theirs disappear.”
He stared up at me, his blue eyes locked on mine. “You don’t have to worry about Thomas.”
I scoffed. “That might be the biggest lie you’ve ever told me.”
He took my hand and pulled himself up. When he got to his feet, he gave me a sharp tug, sending me stumbling into his chest. I didn’t have a chance to react before his arm snaked around me, dragging me closer until our bodies became flush, head to toe.
My breathing sped as his warmth encompassed me, driving out the chill that settled in my bones since he’d been gone. His chest moved with mine, rising and falling in a synchronized dance as though even our exhales desired each other. He dipped his head, the hairs on his jaw tickling my cheek, eliciting countless memories of his face scrubbing mine as he surged inside me, our bodies fevered and frenzied.
Better judgment told me to back away. I’d asked for time. Thirty seconds wasn’t what I’d meant.
But then his breath flittered across my skin, causing a wave of chills to wash over me as he said, “This thing between us was never about truths or lies. We both felt it before the first word had ever been spoken. That day in your bathroom when you grabbed my arm, begging me not to expose Savannah, you might as well have crawled inside me and recoded my DNA, because two seconds later, my life started all over again. You felt it then.” He gave me a pointed squeeze. “And I know you feel it now. So take all the time you need, baby. But consider this fair warning: Penn Walker didn’t die. I’m very much alive and coming for you.”
I gasped when his lips touched just below my ear, igniting sparks inside me.
And then all too soon, he released me and started toward the bedroom door. “I need to make sure Drew got back.”
I blinked. Like a million times.
What the hell was happening?
I’d known Penn’s wife.
She’d told him about me.
His name was Shane.
Drew wasn’t his brother.
Thomas had killed Lexy.
Penn was going to kill him.
He’d already killed Dante and Marcos.
Savannah was back.
So was Catalina.
Thomas had tried to shoot her.
And Penn was alive…and coming for me.
What the hell was going on?
“Did you have dinner?” Penn asked, swinging the door open.
I did another round of the blinks.
“Right,” he mumbled. “Let me see if I can find a delivery place that’s still open. Any preference?”
“Yes. One that can deliver me a new life.”
He winked. “I’ll see what I can do.” He tilted his head toward the door. “You coming?”
I wanted to say no. I wanted to lock that door and crash into his bed, which was probably bajillionaire comfortable and smelled like him. I wanted to sleep for a month and hopefully wake up in a world that made sense. But River was out there, more than likely worried sick. And Savannah was out there, healthy and smiling. And if my memory served me correctly, she was wearing pajamas that actually made her look her age and not twenty-six. That alone was a miracle far bigger than Penn coming back from the dead.
And with all of that in mind, I put one foot in front of the other and said, “Yeah. I’m coming.”
He stood at the door, holding it open until I walked through it, at which point he proved that he had no concept of time whatsoever because he placed his hands on the small of my back.
At which point my body followed suit, proving that it had no desire for time, by arching into it. Dammit!
“Oh, thank God, you’re back,” Penn said as he ushered me into the open living area.
Drew was sitting on a barstool while Catalina hovered over him, putting a bandage over his left eye. I caught sight of Savannah, Isabel, and River huddled together on one of the brown overstuffed leather couches, and when all of their heads turned our way, I shot them a reassuring smile. Isabel and Savannah returned it, but River was too busy watching Penn as though she were waiting for him to disappear. God, how long could I delay telling her that Lexy was actually Penn’s wife? She was going to be crushed, and after the last few weeks, guilt was not something else I wanted to add to her plate.
“Is everything…okay?” Drew asked, flicking his gaze between me and Penn.
Penn walked straight to the fridge. “Yeah. Cora needs time. I don’t. We’ll be fine.”
I shot him a glare that I hope singed his chest hair.
His response was to lift a beer in my direction. “Drink?”
I could use a drink. Dammit squared.
After stomping over, I snatched the open bottle from his hand. “The jury is still out on whether we’ll be fine, Shane.”
“Penn,” he corrected. “And we’ll be fine, Cora.” He twisted the top off his bottle, clinked it with mine, and then tipped it to his mouth for a long pull. Asshole didn’t even try to hide his beautiful, beautiful smile.
Desperate to get away from him for fear that my body’s next move was curling into his side, I walked around the island and stopped beside Catalina. “How bad is it?”
She gave me a quick once-over. “It’s just a gash. It’ll scar, but he won’t die.”
“Good. Good,” I said just before poking him hard on the bandage.
&nbs
p; Drew jumped away, cradling his eye. “What the hell, woman?”
I stabbed a finger at him. “That was for lying to me.”
He swung a hand out to Penn. “That was his idea!”
“Hey!” Penn objected. “Don’t blame me for all of this. You were the one who wanted me to make her think I was stealing all her money.”
I bulged my eyes at Drew, switching the beer in my other hand before going in for another poke.
He dodged it. “Shit, stop.”
“Oh, this is just the beginning, Drew.” I prowled toward him. He backed away, but I kept advancing until I was all but chasing him around the kitchen. “You watched me cry for days. You sat there with a front-row seat while I fell apart. You better sleep with one eye open, because when I’m done with you”—I pointed to his bandage, taking great pride in the way he jumped back—“the only scar you’re going to have is my fingerprint right there.”
Catalina and the girls giggled.
However, Drew’s mouth fell open. “Jesus, you’re scary.”
“You have no idea,” Catalina said and then snapped her fingers. “Sit. I’m not done with you yet.”
“You gonna be able to protect me from her while you finish?” he asked Catalina, keeping his gaze locked on mine as he meandered over to the stool.
“Probably not,” she replied, flashing him a teasing smile. “But if you hurry up, I’ll give you an extra layer of gauze for padding while you sleep.”
Just as he sat back down, I lurched toward him, my finger poised.
He shot right back to his feet, throwing his hands up to block his face. “Come on. Quit. This isn’t funny.”
The twitch of my lips on a night when I’d thought it was impossible said otherwise.
Cora
“You can fuck right the hell off with that shit,” Catalina whisper-yelled while pacing a hole in Penn’s hardwoods. Her straight, long, brown hair floated behind her with every turn. “You didn’t live with that monster.”
Drew’s nostrils flared as he watched her every movement, his fists opening and closing at his sides. He’d been staring at her all night. But this was different.
Unable to sit still, he’d abandoned the couch at least twenty minutes earlier and was currently leaning against the wall at the mouth of the hallway, constantly shifting his weight from one foot to the other. “No. I didn’t. But I promise you, if the man is still getting an hour of time under my fucking sun and three meals a day, it’s too much for me.”
The Complete Truth Duet Page 36