He rolled his shoulders as if it wasn’t a big deal. “I’m not waiting around for paper pushing idiots. He’s the one who needs to be arrested.” He pointed his chin at Greg still passed out on the floor. “And he’s not going anywhere.”
David scowled. “You knocked him out. The police will want to talk to you, too.”
“Well, I don’t want to talk to them.” Penn marched back toward me and took my hand. “Elle, please. Come with me.”
My conviction wobbled. He looked so young, so pleading, so lost. But he was also the man from the alley.
“I—no, I don’t think—”
Penn heard my uncertainty, my lack of absolution.
His fingers looped with mine, pulling me forward with a sudden burst of power. “Before you say goodbye, just hear me out. That’s all I’m asking.”
The instinct to fight his unwanted coercion made me dig my heels into the floor. “No. Not today. Come to my office in a few days and we’ll—”
“No. It has to be now.” He stormed forward, dragging me behind him with no effort.
David leapt into action, abandoning the phone call where he’d been murmuring details to the police. He grabbed my other hand, using me as the rope in a tug of war. “You’re not taking her, Everett.”
“Goddammit!” Penn threw my arm away, severing all ties. For a second, it looked as if he’d run and never look back.
But then he spun around, seething with restraint, itching to leave. “Fine.” Ever so slowly, he let his tension uncurl, holding his hand out to me like a lover asking me to go on a hot air balloon ride at sunset. “Elle, it would mean a lot to me if you came with me.”
He lowered his head, watching me with hooded eyes. “One conversation. In private. And then you can leave. You have my word.”
David relinquished me, so I stood on my own, no longer trapped by any of the three men currently surrounding me—even though one was still in la-la land.
“Ma’am?” David played with his gun holster, touching the handle of his weapon. He kept his gaze on Penn. “Let me take you home. Your father and Steve are on their way here. I dropped them off at a local establishment before finding you. I refused to let them come to the crime scene, in case—” He coughed. “Anyway, the important thing is to call him and say you’ll meet him back at home. I’ll arrange transportation for him to meet us there.”
Dad.
I needed to check his heart was okay from this stressful night. I needed to do a great many things. I should nod and follow David to the Range Rover and never look back. I should file a police report, tell Steve as gently as I could that Greg was fired and if he ever got within a few hundred feet of me he’d be arrested, and spend the evening soothing my dad’s nerves.
And Sage—I need to feed Sage.
But something about Penn bewitched me once again. He stood there with his hand shaking slightly, his invitation unanswered.
I tilted my chin, ignoring David and asking questions of my own for once. “Why should I go with you, Penn? You’ve done nothing but lie to me. I’ve been so stupid up until now not to dig into who you truly are. To force you to tell me what you’re hiding.”
He didn’t move, merely cocked his head in agreement. “You’re not stupid. You trusted me. There’s a difference.”
“I never trusted you.”
“You did. Just like I trust you to come with me now and give me the courtesy of letting me explain myself.”
“The courtesy? Where was your courtesy when you hid who you truly are?” I moved closer, rage replacing my fear from the past few hours. “Where was your courtesy when Stewie dropped my sapphire star necklace at the charity gala and told me he’d kept it for you to reduce your robbery sentence?” My voice rose. “Where was your courtesy when you hurt me in that alley?”
David stiffened, his weapon coming back out as my voice throbbed with unresolved hatred and pain.
Penn didn’t move. His hand stayed up, waiting for me to accept him. His eyes remained unreadable, but his lips softened as he murmured, “My courtesy is now. I came for you, Elle. I didn’t save you from Greg so I could leave and never see you again. I came for you so you could give me a second chance.”
I huffed. “I’ve already given you a second chance. You blew it.”
“Third chance then.”
Shaking my head, I wrapped arms around myself, suddenly cold in the ridiculous negligée. “I’m done with lies.”
“Good, so am I.” Penn stepped closer. “I promise you on that alley three years ago that I won’t touch you, I won’t hurt you, and I’ll drive you home the moment we’ve talked.”
“So you admit you were there. On the 19thof June.”
David glanced at us, watching our conversation with steely concentration.
Penn nodded. “I admit it. Just like I want to admit all of it. If you agree to come with me.”
Answers were so close. I was desperate for them. Hungrier for closure and truth than I’d ever been. It didn’t matter he was just as handsome as when he’d taken my virginity. It didn’t matter he was just as silver-tongued as when he’d coerced me to say yes to his seduction.
All that mattered was ending this, finishing the clues, and closing the story on this so-called romance.
David stepped closer, already knowing my decision before I did and ready to change my mind. “You can talk at a later date. Let me drive—”
I held up my hand, never looking away from Penn. “All right. I’ll go with you, Mr. Everett, if that is even your real name.” I stormed toward him, not caring he was dressed in blood and gore and so many unspeakable things from his past. A large bruise marked his cheek, his nose slightly swollen, his lip cut on the bottom. Despite all that, he was just as pretty as that night in the club when I’d said yes. “But the minute you’ve told me, I never want to see you again.”
His jaw clenched. “Understood.”
He moved toward the door. “Let’s go. The sooner I tell you, the better.”
I cringed at the bitter nastiness in his voice.
I couldn’t help the sting.
He wanted to put this behind us, too. Whatever physical connection we shared wasn’t enough to climb over the chasm of misdirection between us.
Good truth or bad.
Penn and I were over before we even began.
Chapter Fourteen
Penn
AN HOUR INTO the drive and we hadn’t said a word.
I had so many of the bastards to say yet not a single sentence formed in my head.
Elle didn’t help matters.
David had given her his blazer to sling over the gold thing she wore, and she sat with her arms and legs crossed, glaring at the road, the trees, the passing cars—anything but me.
Stopping for gas didn’t make it any better.
While I pumped fuel into the hungry vehicle, she climbed out and entered the service station—not caring what she wore, making me fall even more with the aloof beauty she wielded.