I slam into him and almost bowl us over. I bury my face into his chest and hold him tight. I can smell him again, and I fill my lungs to the brim.
Rich hugs me awkwardly with one arm. I can feel the restraint pulsing through him. My body does not melt into his the way I’m used to. He’s stiff.
“Penny.” Rich takes me by the shoulders and pushes me back. I’m so happy I can laugh. But I find myself sniveling instead. Now that Rich is here—here, with me!—I can confront the fear I’ve been harboring while we were apart.
I was terrified of losing him. Scared witless. I didn’t let myself feel that, because of what it would do to me. I’d have been useless. But now, with him here, here in the flesh, now I can let myself feel.
All the emotions I’ve internalized flare within me. I’m crying. The thought of losing the one person I love is too much to bear. I will never let him leave me again.
Rich does not comfort me. He holds me there, at arm’s length, looking at my face impassively. I dab at my eyes. I feel like an idiot. Why should I be crying?
Only after I compose myself does Rich lower his head so our eyes are on the same level. There is no joy reflected in his pupils. His stare is cold and hard.
“Penny.” He says my name softly. His voice is like the sound a knife makes through the air just before digging into a throat. “What. Are you. Doing. Here?”
“We came to find you,” Min tells him, coming up to us before I can speak. She places a hand on Rich’s arm.
“I DID NOT ASK YOU!” Rich roars.
Min gasps. I flinch back, only to find myself unable to move with Rich’s fingers biting into my shoulders.
Rich turns to me again. His face is a contorted mask of emotions. I’ve seen him angry before. But this… this doesn’t compare. A vein pulses in his neck. His jaw muscles contract over and over as if he’s chewing something. His lower lip trembles with intensity. And his eyes are sharp. Always, his eyes are sharp.
I swallow before I speak. I know I have to choose my words carefully here. Every second I delay, Rich’s fingers dig deeper into my flesh.
“Min’s right,” I say, glancing at her. She looks furious. “We came here for you.”
“For me.” Rich’s tone sends an icy shiver down my spine. He speaks so softly I can barely hear. “And what about—” Rich closes his eyes for a moment, suppressing a terrible shiver, “—the promise you made me?”
“You broke it first!” I challenge. “You said you would consult me before making any big decisions. I wasn’t going to sit on my hands while you run off and get yourself killed, Richard! Neither was Min!” She harrumphs in agreement. “What’s more,” I continue—
“Enough!” Rich silences me with a violent slash through the air. “Penny. Do you understand the type of danger you put yourself in?”
“Of course I understand it, Rich,” I fire back. “It’s the same type you put yourself in when you came here alone! Did you really think I’d let you go like that?”
“You gave your word.” His tone is harsh with disapproval.
“The hell with my word, Richard! You broke my trust. You knew I wouldn’t let you go by yourself, so you snuck out in the middle of the night while I was asleep.” I feel my anger rising. “What type of coward does something like that?”
Rich struggles to keep his voice calm. “I made arrangements to keep you safe.”
“Arrangements I did not ask for!” I feel like tearing out my hair. I chase all the way across the country after this man, and this is how he greets me? “All I asked is to be close to you! To be close to the person I love. Not to be left behind like some dockside whore!”
My breathing is sharp and hollow, now. “You do this again and again, Richard. You make decisions for me that you have no right to make! It’s like you don’t even respect me.”
That was the final straw.
Rich snaps. I see the rage erupt in his eyes. “You DARE talk to me about respect? Everything I do, I do for you! Yet you always find some way to undermine it! No. No, you’re the one who doesn’t respect me, Penelope! You, and your over-inflated sense of worth!” He turns his back. “You’re right. I did leave you like a whore. Because you wouldn’t understand anything else!”
What the—? Yes, we’ve yelled at each other before. But Rich has never been this mean…
Then it hits me like a splash of cold water. “I know what you’re doing,” I tell him quietly. I force all the emotion out of my voice. “You’re trying to get me to leave again.”
Rich turns, and falters for a second. That is all the confirmation I need. The bastard thinks he can get me to leave by making me upset.
I won’t fall for it.
Min steps in. “You presume to know everything there is to know about danger, don’t you, Rich? You’ve got it all figured out? You don’t know a tenth! You don’t know what it’s like to be chased across the country by hired thugs, looking for a brother you haven’t seen in seven years! You don’t know what it’s like to be locked in a dark freezer, not knowing whether you’ll ever be able to feel the sun on your face again.” She gives me the barest look. “You don’t even know that your ex set fire to Penny’s apartment.”
Rich stops cold in his tracks. Worry replaces all the other emotions on his face. “Amanda?”
“Yes,” I say.
In a heartbeat, Rich is beside me. The mask he’d been wearing evaporates. He looks into my eyes, and I see the consuming love he possesses for me. “Are you hurt?”
I answer him with a full-arm slap across the face.
Rich staggers back, gaping.
“That,” I announce, “is for pretending you don’t care. And this—” I sweeten my voice, “—is for finally showing that you do.”
I pull on the neck of his shirt and bring his lips to mine.
Time stops as he kisses me. It’s the same kiss as the night we first met. The one reserved for a lover you haven’t seen for a decade. Except, this time, it holds real meaning for me.
I feel my knees go weak, and throw my arms around his neck to avoid falling. He takes me by the waist, and ever-so-slightly dips me back.
I did not know if I would ever kiss him again. I can tell he did not, either.
When we separate, I remember abashedly that we have an audience. “You should apologize for yelling,” I tell Rich. Min looks surprised for a second, then crosses her arms expectantly.
Rich clears his throat and runs a hand through his hair. He’s him again, with all his flaws and uncertainties and imperfections. The caricature he’d pretended to be minutes ago is gone.
“Right.” He looks at his sister. “Listen. I didn’t mean to raise my voice. I wasn’t angry with you. More like… emphatic…”
Min snorts. “If that’s the best apology you can come up with, you’re lucky Penny doesn’t demand more of them from you. You were at each other’s throats a minute ago. She has every reason to be pissed. But, look at her. She’s not. Maybe now you’ll get it through your thick skull just how much the girl cares for you, Rich.”
“I know she does.” He addresses me. “Amanda really set fire to your apartment?”
“As far as we can tell,” I answer. “Min and I stopped to see my old roommate before making the flight here. She said somebody broke into our place and started a fire, the day before you left. Whoever it was wasn’t caught, but the next day Abby saw a man and woman asking questions about me. Her description of them fits Victor and Amanda perfectly.”
“And Tam?”
“I don’t know. Abby only mentioned the two.”
Rich breaks away from me and starts pacing the room. “Let me get this straight. Not only did you follow me here, but you also stopped by your old apartment on the way? Didn’t you think that would be just a little bit dangerous?” He stares at Min. “You, of all people, should have had the sense to know better.”
Min draws herself up. “You shouldn’t have left without us.”
“I came to talk to our fathe
r. I need him to tell me where the documents he stole are. I was planning on finding you two after.”
“And what if just giving up the documents wasn’t enough, Rich?” Min poses. “What if they wanted retribution for what happened to Victor? For embarrassing him and Tam with Penny?”
“Then I would have faced the consequences. Alone.”
“Not without me, you wouldn’t,” I tell him. I thread my fingers through his. “Wherever you are, I want to be there with you.”
“Penny…”
“I’m here to help, too,” Min says.
Rich looks at me. He looks at Min. He closes his eyes. “I’m not going to be able to get you two to leave, am I?”
“Not unless you tie us hand and foot and throw us on a plane.” I say. I pause. “Which, considering all you’ve done, doesn’t sound that far-fetched now that I’ve said it out loud.”
Rich laughs. “I promise I won’t do that, then.” He takes a deep breath. “I’m not good at this, Penny. I thought maybe, if we were apart, you’d see how staying with me isn’t your best option. I’ve always been there with you, before, when you had to make the choice. I thought that maybe this time, if I removed the pressure…”
“You thought wrong,” I declare.
“Yeah. I can see that now.” Rich gives a cheeky grin. “Come on, then,” he beckons. “I want to show you something. Returning to this house after so many years away reminded me of something I forgot even exists.”
Chapter Six
Rich leads the way to the east wing of the house. We come to a room with a large oak desk in the center.
Min hesitates before entering. “Dad’s office,” she says. “I’ve never been allowed in without him here.”
“He had a reason for that,” Rich says, kneeling by the desk. He reaches underneath and presses something. I hear a beep come from the side of the room. I look over, and see the edge of a large painting suddenly swing away from the wall like a hinged door.
Rich stands and walks to it. He pulls it open to reveal a secret stairwell leading down.
“He showed this to me once when I was a boy,” Rich explains. “I’d forgotten all about it.” He helps Min over the threshold first, then extends a hand for me. “He said I would know when I’d need to look inside.”
We take the circular stairs down one level. The stairway ends in a small, concave room that reminds me of a wine cellar. There’s nothing there except a hanging overhead light bulb.
“A dead end?” I ask.
Rich smiles. “Not quite.” He picks a brick on the wall, seemingly at random, and counts eleven to the left and three down. When he pushes his hand against that one, it depresses into the wall. Suddenly, the outline of another door becomes visible. It had blended in so well with the mortar that it was impossible to see before.
“This house has more secrets than you know,” Rich tells us. He puts his shoulder against the newly-formed door and pushes. It takes some effort, but eventually the entrance grates inward, sending a cloud of dust in our faces.
I sneeze as it settles. This door opens to a small, dark room—even smaller than the one we’re standing in. There’s a metal container inside, about the same size as a beer cooler. A PIN pad is visible on one side. Obviously, it’s a safe.
Min’s eyes widen in excitement when she sees it. “Rich is that…? Oh my God!” she exclaims. “This is where he keeps his documents, isn’t it?”
“I don’t know of any better place,” Rich says. “Close enough to be within reach, but hidden so that only those who know about it can find them.”
“Do you know the combination?” I ask, my voice eager. Finally, I can feel the saga of uncertainty come to an end. This is why Tam and Victor were trying to get to Min: To use her as collateral to get her dad to reveal the location of this safe.
“He made it impossible for me to forget,” Rich says. “It’s my birth year, punched in backwards.”
He squats in front of the safe and inputs the code. A shrill beep sounds with every key press.
I wait.
Nothing happens.
“Strange,” Rich mutters. He pulls on the handle. It doesn’t move. He tries entering the code again. Same result.
“Bastard must have changed it after,” Rich curses. “Of course it wouldn’t be this easy!”
For the next hour, we try every combination we can think of. We use Min’s birth year. Her birth year backwards. Their dad’s birth year. Their dad’s birth year backwards.
Nothing works. Min and Rich try every other set of numbers that has ever meant anything to them, from credit card PINs to social security numbers. All give the same result.
“Only one person knows how to get into this safe,” Rich says finally. “And he’s locked behind bars. Until we get that information out of him, none of us can sleep easy.” He heaves the brick blockade back in place and leads us up the stairs. When the painting is replaced, he turns to Min and me. “All right. We’ve got to get you girls out of here.”
“Not without you,” I remind him.
“I’ll check us into a hotel. From there, we can decide on the best approach to use with my father.” He gives a cheeky grin. “Together.”
***
Later that night, we’re all together in the sitting room of a posh hotel suite. It’s hard to imagine anyone finding us here, in a city of so many people.
Still, Rich had us take precautions as we arrived. He made us walk into the hotel one at a time so as not to stand out. A group of three is much more visible than lone individuals.
We made it inside without any trouble. But Rich is still nervous. I can tell. He won’t sit still for more than a minute. Even the slightest noise makes his head whip to the door.
I wish I could say his concern doesn’t affect me. But that would be a lie. His anxiety is making me worried, which in turn probably fuels Min’s discomfort. It makes for a tense atmosphere.
“Tomorrow morning,” Rich says, going over our plan for the umpteenth time, “you and I leave for the penitentiary. Min stays here. I’ll try to convince our father to give me the combination. Min, while you wait, you call every available hotel and check me in for that day. Use my real name, and give them my credit card. It’ll help throw off anyone looking for me.”
Min grumbles in dissatisfaction. She wants to go with us to see her father. Rich said all of us arriving together would be too risky. Since I am not about to let him out of my sight, Min is the one who gets left behind.
“I know you’re just giving me busywork,” she mutters, standing up. “But I’m not going to fight you now. Goodnight.”
She goes into her room and closes the door. Rich exhales when she’s out of hearing.
“If it weren’t for you being here,” he says, “she would have fought tooth and nail against staying. She can be damn stubborn at times.”
“Just like somebody else I know,” I note, smirking.
Rich gives a weak grin in return. He looks exhausted. “Right.”
I come up to him and sit on his lap. His hands curl easily around my waist. I fuss with his hair a bit, straightening it as best I can. “You’re worried,” I observe.
Rich takes a deep breath before answering. “Yes. I’m worried about you and Min. You should never have come. You would have been safer away.”
“Safer doesn’t mean anything if you’re not there,” I tell him. “If you’re worried now, imagine how I felt when I found you gone.” I focus on his strands of hair, raking my fingers through them. “I didn’t know if I would ever see you again, Richard. Whenever I heard about people suffering heartbreak in their lives, before, I thought they should mourn for some time and then move on. I never understood the ones who claimed they couldn’t move on. After all, life continues. Right? You have to make the best of each situation and survive.”
I let my hands fall, then turn my attention to the intricate tattoos on Rich’s forearms. “But, I knew, when you left, that I could never heal if I lost you.”
> Rich’s hands tighten around my waist. “Penny, you wouldn’t have lost me. I would have come back.”
“You say that, Rich, as if it’s all up to you. What if something happened to you outside of your control?”
He makes a visceral sound in his throat. “I wouldn’t have let it. I’d have known you were waiting.”
“Damn men, and damn all their macho pride,” I mutter. That gets a small chuckle out of Rich. I smile, pleased that he remembers the comment from our night in the motel.
His hands start moving up and down my back. I look into his eyes. “Are you going to be okay meeting your father?” I ask softly.
For a flicker of a second, Rich’s hands stop moving. They start again when he speaks. “I have to be, don’t I?”
I can tell the meeting is gnawing at him. He’s more nervous than logic alone would dictate. Then again, I know only a sliver about his relationship with his father.
I catch his face between my hands. His stubble scratches against my palms. “I’m going to be there with you, Richard.”
“I know.” He kisses my forehead. “Thank you.”
“Whatever he says, whatever he does, we’ll face it together, all right?” I hug him tightly. “You are not alone anymore.”
He picks me up like it’s nothing and carries me to our room. I laugh. “You enjoy showing off, don’t you?”
He drops me on the bed. “I can’t help it. You’re so small and fragile.” He kisses me as he hovers over me. “I want to take care of you.”
“Hey.” I push him back by the shoulders. “I may be small, but I’m not fragile.” I nip at his ear to prove my point. “I can be quite feisty.”
“I remember,” Rich smirks. He falls to his side beside me and stares deep into my eyes. “You’re also beautiful, Penny. So fucking beautiful. And you’re mine. Only mine. Never forget that.”
My hear flutters at the intensity of his words. My stomach clenches at the same time. Even though I love him, I don’t know if I can trust him again. Not yet. Not after the way he left me.
It’s something I need to work on. And I will.
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