Huddy downed the rest of his drink and stood. “Okay, well, I’m off. I have a date tonight.”
“Will you be at the club later?”
Huddy laughed. “Most definitely. You know my dates don’t last longer than a couple of hours on average.”
Huddy left as I sat there. I should leave and go to the club myself, keep an eye on things.
I made my way to the kitchen instead. Would it really be the worst thing if I hung around the house a little more when Penelope was here?
I opened the fridge to grab a bottle of water and realized it was empty, again. So were the cabinets and the pantry. The cook wouldn’t be here for another hour, so there was only one person who might have answers and be willing to give them to me.
“Bigs!” I yelled.
“Yes?” he said, having been somewhere close by.
“Why is it there is never any food in here lately? I saw a cake on the counter yesterday that was gone by last night. There’s usually lunch meats and snacks, but it looks like the cook hasn’t ordered supplies in weeks.” We had only added one small human to the residence. Not a football team. She couldn’t possibly be eating it all, so where did it all go?
“Oh.” He made a show of walking over, opening a cabinet, and looking. “Couldn’t say.”
“Did you see anyone eating all the food?” I asked, knowing he had the answers to where the food was going. He was here all day. He knew everything that happened.
He scratched his cheek. “Hmmm. Not that I’ve noticed.”
“Bigs, what is Penelope doing with the food? Did she open a soup kitchen or something?” I used my no-nonsense tone that always got results.
“I’m not entirely sure where it’s going, so I couldn’t say if it’s her or not.” Bigs couldn’t hold my gaze.
He’d just lied for her. To me. Holy fuck. She’d stolen Bigs from me. The most loyal man I’d ever had and she’d won him over. What the hell was happening here during the day? How had she gotten to him?
“You like her better, don’t you?”
“Of course not,” he said, with an appalled face that looked way too exaggerated. Bigs was the crappiest liar I’d ever met, bar none. It was one of the things I liked most about him. Showed he didn’t have much practice in the craft. But he was lying for her, to me.
I should let it go. I needed to let it go. I had too much going on than to worry about this. “Let’s say hypothetically, you did like her more. Why would that be?”
“Hypothetically speaking, because I don’t.” Bigs hooked a finger into his collar, pulling it wider.
I nodded, rolling my hand, suggesting he get on with it.
“She’s got this thing about her. Like this innate goodness of spirit that you can’t help but warm to. All strictly hypothetical, of course, because I like you much better.” He nodded a whole bunch of times, as if that would surely convince me.
I didn’t want to get it, to understand exactly what he was saying, but I did. She had something about her. She was almost impossible to dislike. And for me, it was even worse than that. I couldn’t crucify a man for shortcomings I had myself.
“Cover for her if you must, but tell the cook to order in triplicate going forward. If she makes a cake, she makes three. And if you could somehow pass along the message to Penelope that one set of food is to remain here so I don’t need to track down her soup kitchen in order to eat?”
“If I see anything, I definitely say something, but—”
I put a hand up to stop him. “I know. You have no idea where the food is going. Leave the food thief a note, then.” I needed to go to the club.
Twenty-Two
Penelope
Bigs was waiting in the car as I walked around the store, flipping through some racks. I’d already picked Sassy up some new jeans, so the only reason I was in this store was because it had the best view of the street, which I needed today.
This morning I’d woken to a message from Sassy finally.
Sassy: Sorry I went MIA. All is good.
Me: Meet me at the place this afternoon.
Sassy: Okay. I’ll try.
Me: Be there.
When we were kids, our mother used to take us there for lunch and shopping every so often as a treat. It seemed like every weekend, Sassy would ask our mother to go to “the place.” She asked so often that “the place” had become synonymous with Barracks Row.
The idea of her out in the crowds always made me twitchy, but the coughing and hacking didn’t usually get bad until nighttime, or at least it hadn’t last time I’d seen her.
I was looking at my tenth pair of jeans when the platinum-blonde mass of curls, with a single pink highlight, went bobbing down the street. She looked everywhere but the store I was in. Dammit, Sassy.
I walked out of the store, waved at Bigs, and pointed to the shoe place next door. He nodded with a smile and went back to reading his book, leaning against the car.
Sassy moved fast, but I caught up within a block, grabbing her arm. She swung around with a raised fist but then smiled. We ducked in the nearest alley, and I hugged her the way I’d wanted to since I’d been dragged in front of the council.
“I can’t breathe,” she said, laughing.
When I finally let her go, I took her in like I hadn’t seen her in a year. Hair, still wild as mine. Clothes were a little worse for wear, but she looked healthy.
“Where’ve you been? Why’d you take so long to message me back? I’ve been going crazy.”
She fiddled with her hair, the way she used to when she’d eaten all the cookies in the middle of the night. “My phone broke. It took me a while to get a new one.”
“Couldn’t you have used Dad’s? You didn’t think to check in?”
She rolled her eyes and let out that sigh that meant he’d proved to be a disappointment once again. “He moved in with the drunken whore down the street, Lorna. I wasn’t going anywhere near the two of them.”
He’d left my little sister alone to go drink himself into the grave. Did the man have no soul left? Were any of my childhood memories true? If so, where had that man gone? He’d stolen our food money and done nothing but take for years, and still neither of us would’ve ever kicked him out, even though the house had been Mom’s. Now, when my sister could really use someone else there, he left her completely.
Bringing her to Donovan’s wasn’t an option, even if he’d allow it. He’d hear her cough at night, and I couldn’t take care of her, other than feeding her.
I was glad I couldn’t go back home, because that might’ve been the final straw for me. If Dad wasn’t too busy drinking himself down the street with Lorna, I might’ve gone there and killed him.
“Hey, is there anywhere else you can stay until I get back? Maybe with Phil?” Even if she stayed with someone linked to the resistance, it would be better than being home alone right now. The vampires were already using her sickness as leverage. It was only a matter of time before they upped the ante.
“Why?”
“Nothing, really. I’m just worried some of my issues might spill over.”
She nodded. “Okay, I can do that.”
“Are you getting the boxes of food I’m dropping off?”
“Yeah, and they scared the shit out of me when that big guy in a suit first left the bags outside the door. But then I saw all the food spilling out the top of them. I knew it had to be from you, unless someone was trying to kill me by overfeeding. There’s so much I’ve been sharing.”
Was Donovan inadvertently feeding the resistance? Probably. I could live with it. Could he? Luckily, he didn’t need to know.
“I’ll text you when more boxes are coming so you can swing by and get them.”
She shifted her attention, watching out of the alley for something. “Pen, I’ve got to go. I didn’t even really have time to come here today, but I had to see you.”
“Why? Sassy, what have you got going on now?” I looked past her, but all I saw were people walk
ing up and down the street.
She turned back to me and hugged me almost as hard as I’d hugged her. “Nothing you want to hear about. And before you start, if I’m not risking myself, then how can I expect anyone else to? Then no one does anything and nothing changes. So let’s not have that fight, okay?”
Her look practically begged me not to end this visit on a fight. Not knowing when I’d see her again, I couldn’t stomach it either. “Fine, but please don’t be on the front line, okay? Play second string or something.”
She smiled. “I’ll message you later, but I’ve got to go.” She pulled out of my grasp as my chest tightened and I fought to not cry. I couldn’t protect her anymore. I wasn’t with her every day, knowing she was home every night. There was no one to hold Sassy back from being fully her anymore. She was the girl who’d hop on the skateboard for the first time in her life and take the steepest hill, screaming with joy the entire time. I loved her for it even as I tried to reel her back in.
“You answer my messages,” I said as she left.
She nodded and ducked out of the alley.
Shit. The clothes!
“Sassy!” I ran forward. She turned around, stopping suddenly. Someone bumped into her, making her trip. She went sideways before catching herself as a smartphone slid out of her jacket pocket and crashed to the ground, where it lit up for all to see its colorful apps.
One of the tiny fairies, the kind that annoyed me most because you never saw them coming, lit up like she was on fire. She screamed, “Contraband! They’ve got contraband. Contraband!”
I looked down the street to see two human police officers already turning and running our way. Or what used to be police officers before they became the HBE, enforcers for the scourge.
Sassy went to pick up the phone, but I grabbed it first, right as the police got there.
I held my hands up, phone display on while I tried to put a little distance between me and Sassy. “I was holding it for my employer, but it’s not mine.”
Sassy’s face fell as she watched, her thoughts clear. I’d just hammered the nails in my coffin.
“You aren’t allowed to hold it. Who’s your boss?” the cop asked, ripping the phone from my hands.
“I’m marked by Donovan Tessa. He gave it to me to run errands for him. I’m his.”
The one cop looked to the other, both shaking their heads. “We’re going to have to bring you in.”
The bigger one pushed me face-first against the nearest car to handcuff me. At least they hadn’t shot me.
I turned my head to Sassy, who was still watching with the rest of the crowd that had gathered, looking horrified because there was absolutely nothing she could do to save me.
I heard Bigs running down the street, yelling, “You can’t take her. She’s—”
“We can and will. She’s committed a crime. You’ll have to take it up at the station,” the officer said.
“You don’t understand. She’s protected by—”
“We know. She’s going down to the station, and you’re lucky it’s us bringing her in. One of the ruling class might’ve shot her here and not asked questions. Your boss can pick her up there.”
Sassy was still standing there, staring, horror in her eyes.
I mouthed, Go. I’ll be okay.
When she didn’t move immediately, I shot her the look I’d been giving her since she was two, where I opened up my eyes really wide and flat-lined my lips. Sometimes it worked, and sometimes it didn’t. Luckily, this time it did. She took off in the opposite direction.
The HBE dragged me down the street to a squad car, Bigs following right behind. They threw me in the back and took me to the local headquarters.
I used to hate every human that had decided to stay on the force and do the scourges’ dirty work. Then I’d started to work for them myself, because eventually you realized if you wanted to eat, there weren’t many options. And if you didn’t eat, you wouldn’t be around to fight another day. So yes, I could accept that these humans were working for the scourge, as long as they only did what they had to. The ones who tried to work their way up the chain for extras? Nah, I still couldn’t get my head around that. Didn’t think I ever would.
I was still working my way around to not hating these two right up until they threw me in a damp pit of a room that had grime so thick everywhere that I couldn’t imagine it had been cleaned once in the last three years. The smell of feces, urine, and vomit blended into some new, suffocating odor that threatened to make me add to the filth. The only upside was that I was alone in the cell, although it was probably because most people never made it here.
Still, I was alive. Now I had to see if Donovan would once again bail me out—or was this the end of the line? Would he finally decide it was easier to take a hit to his reputation? This was a perfect out for him. He could say I’d been caught committing a crime and decide I was more trouble than I was worth. He could be done with me clean and easy.
Why wouldn’t he be? I was nothing but a headache to him. If I were him, I would’ve abandoned me long ago.
He was the alpha of D.C., and I was a no one. He was startlingly handsome, while I was a chaotic mess, with hair shooting out in every direction.
And now I’d blamed contraband on him. If he did show, how was I possibly going to explain this? It was a miracle he spoke to me at all anymore.
There was only one way to play this out if Donovan did pick me up. When you had no defense, you had to overwork your offense.
Twenty-Three
Donovan
My life was becoming centered upon bailing Penelope out of some problem or other. The woman was a magnet for issues. And where the fuck had she gotten a smartphone? Bigs had sworn it wasn’t him, and unlike the missing food discussion, I believed him this time.
This was the problem with these humans. They took advantage. I looked at my watch. They’d gone to fetch her eight minutes ago. How long was it going to take these idiots? What the fuck were they doing with her? It was bad enough that she’d been here for hours already. I’d been in a meeting with my top men and didn’t realize the second I didn’t answer my phone she’d end up in jail.
I glanced around and yelled to the human closest to me. None of them were making eye contact, but I knew all of them were keeping an eye on the waiting alpha.
“Tell them to hurry the fuck up. And pass on the message that if one hair has been touched, there will be hell to pay. They had no authority to take her in the first place.”
He nodded and rushed off, down the hall toward the door the other officer had gone through to get her.
Actually, they did have the authority, or thought they did. I’d have to do something about that. It was ridiculous. What if I had given Penelope a smartphone? Were they going to tell me I couldn’t?
I’d been born an alpha, and although I often despised most of the burdens that came with it, no one could deny the perks. After all, I could’ve been born a beta and ended up here, like a lot of the sergeants and lieutenants, having to do the daily hustle and grind. That was nearly as bad as being human.
Two minutes later, the door swung open and Penelope stepped out. She caught sight of me and sighed. Had she thought I’d leave her here? I wouldn’t leave a rabid dog in this place, let alone someone who I claimed was under my protection.
My eyes went from her face to the officer’s big, burly hand wrapped around her forearm, making her shoulder ride high. Did the idiot think she’d make a run for it?
I stood and met them halfway, having a hard time taking my eyes from his beefy hand, if for no other reason than she had beautiful skin and this idiot was marring it. He probably hadn’t slept with enough women to appreciate that, though.
I met his gaze, and then looked to his hand.
The sergeant released her immediately.
I steered her away from him and began walking to the door.
“Wait, we can’t just let her go. She committed a capital offense,” he
said, following us.
I stopped walking and then didn’t move for another few seconds. Penelope watched me, and I could see the fear in her eyes. I could smell it on her, too.
Oh no, she didn’t have the problem. The good sergeant did. I turned on my heel, already irritated that I’d have to put him in his place again before carrying on with my already ruined evening.
“No, she did not commit a capital offense. I gave her that phone so she could run errands for me. Whatever you thought was happening was a mistake.”
“But…”
It was clear we were going to clear up some other issues while I was here. “Don’t pick her up again. She’s beyond your jurisdiction. Make sure your men know as well.”
“But she’s human,” he said, squinting in her direction.
“She’s not just human. She’s my human.” I took a step toward him. “Are you going to tell me what I’m allowed to do with my human?”
The sergeant immediately dropped his eyes. “Of course not. I just…”
“Just what?” I couldn’t contain the growl in my chest.
“We made a mistake. It won’t happen again.”
I turned, about to walk out of the precinct, the smell of fear still thick on Penelope.
She was looking at the sergeant’s desk. “You didn’t get your phone back.” Her eyes flickered back to me.
Was this girl really asking me to now retrieve her illegal items? Yes. Why did I even have to think twice? Of course she was. And she kept on asking with her eyes. If someone could beg with a stare, she’d nailed it.
Did I do it? Fuck it. Why not?
I turned and walked to the desk, plucking the phone off it. “I’ll be taking my phone back as well. Thanks for holding on to it.” I smiled as I pocketed the device before walking out of the precinct, Penelope hot on my heels. Of course she’d be. She wanted her phone back.
Gut Deep: Torn Worlds Book One Page 13