Page 4 of Her Keeper
Another tear went streaming down her face. And then another. “I had no choice. She had information about me and told me if I didn’t help her, she’d release it. But I only—”
I didn’t let her finish. “What information? We’ve been watching you since you were fourteen. What the fuck could she have on you that we don’t already know?”
Her eyes narrowed in anger at that, and I knew I’d touched a nerve. Penny had always been the good girl in our group of gangsters, and she’d always hated it. Everyone else—me, Joseph, Sloane, Brooks, even Penny’s brother Alfonso—had been raised in the mafia world, but Penny wasn’t a part of it. We’d worked hard to keep her out.
And she’d hated us for leaving her behind.
“For your information, Michael, I’ve done things you’ll never even know about,” she hissed. “Things you could never even imagine!”
I wrapped my fingers around her jaw and tipped her face up toward mine. “So it would seem. What, exactly, did this reporter have on you?”
“I’m not going to tell you,” she said evenly. “You’ll think badly of me.”
Like I could think any worse of her than I already did.
“You’ll tell me,” I said quietly, “or you’ll be in even more trouble than you already are.”
She caught her breath like I’d actually hit her, and her mask started to slip again.
And at that moment, I almost backed off. I hated scaring her like this. I wanted to take my gun and shoot myself in the foot for making her cry. Yes, I was furious at her for selling me out like this when I’d thought we were building something together, but the truth was, I was more angry at myself. I should have known better. I should have seen this coming from a mile away. I’d hired her without doing a proper background check because I’d assumed I knew everything there was to know about her, and it turned out I was wrong.
So, so wrong.
Penny Lane had, from the first day, been more than I expected. More fiery and more stubborn and a hell of a lot more charming than I’d ever realized. I’d been an ass to her from the day she started working for me and she’d stood in the face of it and laughed at me rather than backing down.
And then she’d let me see inside of her, and it had been like finding the other side of the rainbow.
Of course, maybe it had all been a lie. But it definitely wasn’t a stretch to say she was more than I’d expected. She had levels I’d never even seen before. And I should have fucking realized she would.
I should have done a background check on her before I hired her.
I should have realized I was starting to like her more than I should, and that it was dangerous to take her home to my bed.
I should never have let myself fall for the girl.
And that made me angrier than even her betrayal. I was smarter than this, dammit. I never fell for the girl. I used them and then put them to the side, where they belonged. I didn’t have room for that sort of vulnerability in my life. Case in point: I fell for the girl and she stabbed me in the back the moment I let my guard down.
The sound you hear is the sound of my heart cracking in two. And I had never dealt with emotion in what you might call a healthy manner.
I slammed my hands down on the table again. “Tell me!”
This shocked her so much that she opened her mouth, presumably to tell me what I needed to know, but at the exact same moment, the door behind us flew open, hitting the wall with a bang. Penny jumped and slammed her mouth shut and I whirled around, furious at having been interrupted.
Barney was standing there, his own mouth open and his eyes snapping back and forth between Penny and me.
“What?” I snapped, already tired of him delaying.
His eyes came to me and stuck there, leaving Penny on her own. “Boss, it’s your dad. Attack on his house. Some of his guards were killed and he’s holed up in there. Shooters are still outside on the sidewalk. We got the call thirty seconds ago.”
I was already on my way to the door. “You got the call thirty seconds ago and it took you this long to get in here?”
“I didn’t—”
“I don’t care! Watch Penny. Don’t leave her alone.”
I didn’t stop to see whether he acknowledged me or not. My dad’s place was several blocks from here, and if the call had just come in it meant I could get there before the shooters left the place.
With luck, get there before they shot my dad as well as whatever guards he had left in the house.
