Penn
Drew: Please tell me you have eyes on Thomas.
Me: On him now. Why?
I was sitting up the street from Thomas’s house. It had become my nightly routine. With the parade of women, maids, colleagues, and a few randoms I’d yet to identify in and out of his house all week, it was proving more difficult than I’d ever thought to get the piece of shit alone. But tonight was the night.
He was with the brunette from the courthouse again. It marked the third time this week. And if it went anything like those nights, she’d tiptoe out around two in the morning, twisting only the lock on the knob before hurrying to her car. That gave me a full five hours before his maid showed up.
Pad that window with time to get in and out and I had four glorious hours to watch him die.
It was almost eleven. I pulled the security app up on my phone. And according to the camera above my front door, which I’d yet to mention to Savannah, she either was already in bed or had turned into Spider-Man, scaled down six floors, and gone out for the night. I was betting on the former. She’d been doing really well. I hadn’t been able to get her into a real rehab facility yet, but I’d hired a private doctor who specialized in addiction who came by every couple of days, and I’d even gone to a few NA meetings with her too.
If I didn’t make it back, I was really going to miss that kid. But she knew how to find Drew if anything ever happened to me. And since my will left everything to Cora Guerrero, I had peace of mind that they’d always be taken care of.
I stared at Drew’s text as if I could read between the lines and find an explanation.
Me: You going to elaborate?
Ten minutes later, my chest was starting to get tight. He’d texted me earlier that day that they were going to pick up River. I’d hoped that meant Thomas was backing off Cora. But now…something didn’t feel right.
Me: Hello! Is everything okay?
When another ten minutes passed without a response, my anxiety climbing with every tick of the second hand, I gave up on the waiting game and called.
It went to voicemail after the second ring.
Motion at Thomas’s front door caught my attention. He was walking out with his hand on the brunette’s lower back. He paused to lock up and then escorted her down the short walk to her silver Lexus.
The phone vibrated in my hand.
Drew: With Cora. Can’t talk. Just stay on him until I can fill you in.
He was with her. I blew out a relieved breath. That was good. Really good, and my pulse responded immediately.
Brake lights backing out of Thomas’s driveway drew my gaze up.
“Where do you think you’re going?” I whispered as Thomas’s Cadillac followed her Lexus out onto the main road.
I put my car in drive and eased out in the opposite direction. I’d hit the neighborhood loop and meet him at the entrance. But my suspicions grew as she turned left and he cut right. Okay, so they weren’t going somewhere together. Not a huge deal, except Thomas wasn’t known to be a night owl.
I followed him a few car lengths back as he drove across town. With the city lights twinkling behind us, he led me into the burbs. It was a nice-ish area. The houses were spread out and off the main road. The lack of traffic made it difficult to stay close. In his richy-rich neighborhood, my Audi blended right in. But there, I might as well have had a neon sign on my hood.
As he rolled to a stop, I quickly zipped into a nearby driveway and cut my lights, praying that the family who lived inside was fast asleep and not peering out the window. I sank low in my seat when a beat-up ’90s-model sedan pulled up behind him. Two men climbed out and Thomas joined them, but he didn’t greet them before taking off with long and heavy strides down the dark road, the newest additions to our party falling into step behind him.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I asked the night as I silently folded out of my car. I tucked my gun into the back of my jeans and skulked into the shadows.
Just when I was convinced Thomas was only out for some late-night cardio, the three men turned toward a quaint little brick house complete with a farmhouse mailbox. The street was dead that time of night, only a few porch lights exposing the homes.
But the front door he was heading toward had glowing windows wrapping all the way around. I inched closer, sinking deep into the wooded tree line that divided the homes.
And that’s when everything stopped.
My heart.
The Earth.
Time.
My truck was sitting in the driveway.
My truck that I’d sold to Drew for a dollar.
My truck that I’d left Cora over a million dollars inside.
My fucking truck that Drew was no doubt driving that night.
And he was with Cora.
Panic iced my veins, stealing the air from my lungs. But one beat later, the rolling fire of adrenaline set me ablaze.
“Oh, shit,” I breathed as Thomas walked straight to the front door, the two men splitting off in opposite directions, heading around to the back. I frantically weighed my options: I could go after Thomas or follow the two men who were entirely too reminiscent of the ones Thomas had sent to kill Lisa.
And then, somehow, everything got worse.
The front door yanked open and Thomas whipped a gun out of his pocket. I was barely able to make out the “Where the fuck is my wife?” before the gunshot exploded into the silent night.
I didn’t think.
I didn’t plan.
I didn’t even consciously decide to move.
I just took off at a dead sprint, her blue eyes fueling my every step.
It took me a thousand years to reach that house. I darted up the driveway and then through the open door. As soon as my feet hit that fucking carpet, I scanned the room, searching for the only thing that could ever slow my racing heart.
She wasn’t there. At least not that I could see.
Drew was sitting on Thomas’s chest, his fist flying at his face. He paused long enough to turn his rabid gaze on mine, the flicker of recognition hitting him just before he continued his assault. “They’re in the bedroom,” he barked. “Go. Now.”
My vision flashed red and my body graced me with yet another surge of power when the sound of a woman’s gurgled scream echoed through the room.
“Cora!” I roared, following the commotion into the hall.
My lungs seized as I found one of Thomas’s men straddling a woman. She kicked and flailed beneath him as he squeezed at her throat.
It wasn’t Cora, but that only meant I still had no idea where she was.
Diving forward, I bulldozed him off her. The guy wasn’t small by any standards, but he was clumsy and clearly not driven by raw emotion the way I was. We rolled together, banging against the walls until we reached one of the open bedrooms. We exchanged punches—however, with an endless source of rage feeding my fight, he soon fell limp.
I rose off his unconscious body and turned my prowl onto the woman who I recognized from pictures to be Catalina. Her brown eyes and smooth olive skin matched her brothers’.
“Where is she?” I rumbled, wiping the blood off my bottom lip with the back of my hand.
With tears streaming down her face, she lifted her hands in surrender. “W…wait,” she stammered, backing into the corner.
“Cora. Tell me where she is,” I demanded.
Coughing between words, she managed to choke out, “There’s…nobody else…here. I swear. Nobody.” Her whole body trembled as I advanced on her. “No, please.”
I leaned into her face and in a violent whisper said, “I’m not here to hurt you, Catalina. I need to find Cora, and then I’m going to get you all out of here.”
She blinked at me, her chin quivering as she asked, “Who are you?”
I didn’t get the chance to answer before the sweetest sound that had ever hit my ears came from behind me.
My heart started.
The Earth spun.
And forever began.
One in. One out.
“Penn?”