“Oh, I’m sure I could think of a couple things,” he muttered.
“Now, Daniel, you shouldn’t say things like that. You wouldn’t want to hurt my feelings, would you? Because if you did, then I might get angry, and I might have to take out some of my rage on your girlfriend and her sister.” She smiled at him as she spoke. “I might even have to kill them.”
“I’m just keeping it interesting, Penn,” Daniel replied coolly, instead of throwing her to the ground and telling her that if she ever touched Harper, he’d kill her. “I know it’s the thrill of the chase that gets you off, so I can’t make it too easy for you.”
“That’s why I like you. You know exactly what I want.”
She leaned into him and kissed him on the mouth. She put one hand on the back of his head, running her fingers through his hair and holding him to her. Then he felt her teeth sinking into his lip. He was about to push her off when she let go and stepped back.
“Eight o’clock on Wednesday night,” Penn said as she backed away from him. “You and me.”
“I won’t forget,” he promised her.
Penn laughed, then turned and ran down to the end of the dock. She dove off and went into the water with hardly a splash.
He could taste the blood from his lip, and he wiped it away with the back of his hand. His heart pounded in his chest, and he felt like throwing up. Every encounter he had with Penn left him feeling like he needed to shower.
He was ashamed to admit that a small part of him liked it, which made him crave the shower all the more. As much as he detested Penn, she sparked something in his anatomy that he couldn’t completely control.
Penn had left his clothes wet and dirty from throwing him on the ground, and he’d have to change before he went down to the theater. He really did want to shower now, but he wasn’t sure he’d have enough time to, so he pulled out his phone to check the clock.
That’s when he saw he had two missed texts from Harper. In all the commotion with Penn, he hadn’t noticed his phone vibrating.
But I want to do something special for you, Harper had texted when Penn interrupted.
Daniel? Are you still there? That was her newest text, the one that came when he didn’t respond.
Daniel stared down at the phone, unsure of what to say, and feeling worse than he’d ever felt before. While he’d been kissing Penn, Harper had been texting him, completely oblivious to the fact that Daniel was cheating on her.
He knew he’d do whatever it took to protect Harper, but he didn’t want to betray her like this. She deserved more from him.
But he knew that if he told Harper about his pact to sleep with Penn, she’d try to talk him out of it. She might even succeed. And it wouldn’t be worth it. Saving their relationship would be meaningless if it meant sacrificing Harper and Gemma’s lives.
I have to go to class. I’ll talk to you later. Love you. Harper texted him as he stared down at his phone, trying to decide not only what to reply to her but also what he should do about the whole situation with Penn.
In some strange way, that text seemed to solidify his decision. Harper loved him, she trusted him, and she needed him now more than ever. He had to protect her the only way he knew how to, even if it meant that he’d lose her forever.
Sorry. I love you, too, Daniel replied, and hoped that she truly understood how much.
FIVE
Mistaken
“When will Penn be back?” Liv asked for the thousandth time since Penn had left earlier that afternoon.
Thea sighed loudly and flipped a page in her script. Her back was against the arm of the couch, so she could rest the book on her legs. A flyaway hair had come loose from her messy bun, and she smoothed it back and tried to ignore Liv.
“Thea?” Liv said when she didn’t respond.
“I don’t know,” Thea replied, and made no attempt to mask the annoyance in her voice.
“But I’m sooo bored,” Liv whined like a small child on the second day of summer vacation. “Can we go swimming, at least?”
Thea slid lower on the couch, so she was lying on her back, and her knees would block Liv from her field of vision. “You can go swimming with Penn when she gets back.”
“But you have no idea when she’ll be back?” Liv flicked the TV off and sat sideways on the couch, so she could face Thea fully. “Do you even know where she went?”
“Nope,” she said, but that wasn’t entirely true. She had a good idea of where Penn had gone, but she didn’t know for certain.
Penn was being unnecessarily shifty lately. An hour ago, she’d declared that she had to go somewhere and that Thea would have to stay behind with Liv. When Thea reminded her that she had a play rehearsal she needed to get to, Penn just told her that she’d done the play several times before and didn’t need the practice.
And then Penn dove off the cliff behind their house, crashing into the waves and swimming off, leaving Thea alone with Liv.