Page 14 of Her Keeper
Photographs of some of the guys. Notes about a racket we’d run that had to do with a charity in the city. An email that referred to a party we were throwing in the vaguest terms possible.
She’d been giving the reporter information that amounted to nothing.
I frowned, trying to put the pieces together. The things I was seeing didn’t have anything to do with the attacks on the Rossis or our holdings, and they certainly wouldn’t have led anyone to the ship that went missing off the coast or the ship we now had sitting in impound.
The reporter was actually paying for this shit?
And speaking of which…
I scanned the email again, looking for a name, and saw that Penny had been emailing Monica Hart.
My heart froze anew at the name, because I knew the woman. She was one of the most powerful—and vicious—reporters in the city, capable of unmasking the most hidden witness and exposing criminals who thought they were safe. She was a pit bull with five times as many teeth and no possibility of a teddy bear personality. I’d met her in person at several events and she was no nicer in person, either. Snide, rude, and incredibly arrogant, she’d told me without blinking an eye that she was going to expose me and make her career on it. And then she’d tried to get into my pants.
Talking to her once had left a bad taste in my mouth and I’d avoided her from then on out. Though I’d kept her threat in mind and had watched her closely for years.
How the fuck had she gotten to Penny, and what had she been holding over the girl’s head to force her to do her bidding?
And how the fuck had Penny managed to deal with a woman that nasty?
This wasn’t at all what I’d been expecting, but it told me something very important. Penny hadn’t been selling information to the Carusos, and she definitely hadn’t given anyone information that could have led to the attacks. My heart soared at the thought, which lined right up with what my gut had been saying about Penny’s innocence.
But then I realized I was missing a big possibility. Penny could have been communicating with Monica in person, too.
I bit my lip, forcing myself to think through that. If she was meeting with someone personally, she could have passed information on that I didn’t know about. She could have held the most dangerous stuff for an in-person hand-off rather than sending it via email. Shecouldhave given her stuff that had led to the attacks on the Rossi men and goods.
Was it possible Penny was selling information to the Carusos as well as Monica Hart?
I didn’t want to think so. It didn’t seem possible. But I wouldn’t know the truth until I got it out of Penny.
I had to find that girl before my father’s men did. To get my answers…
And to protect her.
Because I didn’t want her dead. I wanted her to answer my questions and come clean, and I wanted her to tell me why the fuck she’d done what she did. Why she’d continued doing it once she and I started… doing whatever we’d been doing.
I wanted her to tell me why she’d acted like I mattered to her, and then stabbed me right in the back.
I thought I knew where she’d be going, and a quick search told me that Monica Hart had the good sense to live close to where I thought Penny would end up.
Perfect. I’d blow by Monica’s apartment, threaten her life until she gave up the information I needed, and then go find Penny. I’d just have to hope the girl had the good sense to keep her head down until I got there to save her from herself.
* * *
It was raining out when I got back to my car, and dusk was starting to fall. Neither of those things scared me, though, and I drove far too quickly to be safe, dividing my attention between the road ahead of me and the directions on my navigation system. Luckily most other people seemed to have decided to stay off the road in this weather, and aside from one near collision and another close call with a parked car, I got to the address I’d marked without any serious problems.
Then I looked up at the building where Monica Hart lived.
The woman must be making an awful lot from turning other people’s lives upside down. This was a swanky building in a good neighborhood.
The owner of the place would probably be pretty upset about me shooting up the inside of an apartment. Not that they’d say anything to me about it.
Besides, if Monica gave me what I wanted, there would be no need for bullets.
I grabbed the extra gun out of my glove box, slid it into my pocket, and got out of the car, striding through the rain like a man on a fucking mission.
I guessed that was what I was.
The doorman didn’t give me any trouble—smart man—and I paused for a moment to look at the directory in the lobby. Monica was on the fourth floor.
