Page 50 of Oliver

Her defeated tone sends a shard of ice through my heart, but I tuck that shit away. Forcing Penny to confess her truths in front of those assholes no less was not my finest moment but nothing I do is getting through to her.

She has to back off before she fucking dies. Why doesn't she understand?

Then again, apparently, she doesn't care.

Once we’re in the car, I pull onto the street and tap my finger against the wheel. I know I backed her into a corner, and I do regret it, I guess, but I don’t have time for her to come back. I have to continue while she’s down because if I don’t, shewillfucking die.

“Whatever you told Dixie, she couldn’t let it go. Sound familiar?” I say, clenching my jaw when she flinches.

“When did she tell you?” she whispers, and I glance her way. Her dark eyes shine at me with an emotion that I can’t understand.

Although I don’t want to see her in pain, what she’s actually feeling is beyond me. Most emotions of those types are. I’m not saying I don’t feel, it's just blighted. Like I face the world with a numb halo around my heart. When I do feel, it’s almost overwhelming though which is why I avoid it all fucking costs.

“Last year,” I say, and she clenches her fists. I eye those tiny fingers, the ones I enjoyed wrapped around my dick and mentally sigh.

Stay the fucking course, dick. There’s more at stake than Penny fucking Loughlin’s feelings.

“What did she say?” she asks, and I shrug, turning a corner.

“She told me that she was into something dangerous. I agreed to look into it.”

“For a price,” she sneers, and I look up. Her wide eyes glitter and my dick jerks in my pants.Down boy, I think, but I know it's no use. Penny has always had the ability to make me hard. It’s the shit brewing in her head that kept me away. Until Dixie came along anyway.

When I don't answer, she slams her hand against the dash and says, “What was it?”

“Playpen…” I grunt and she turns to me. I can feel her eyes boring into the side of my head. I need to get her to back off and the only way to do that is to distract.

With a smirk, I grab my dick and adjust it in my pants, chuckling when she follows my movements. “I like you when you’re angry, Penny,” I say.

Silence follows my statement as I pull into her drive. Finally, she breaks it to say. “Of course, you do. It’s the only time you understand what I’m feeling, you soulless fuck.”

She jumps from the vehicle while I hide my frown. Before she slams the door closed though she says, “You don’t deserve me.”

“No, I don’t,” I murmur, watching her stalk up the steps and unlock the door.

Once she’s inside, I slowly back out and drive down the street before flipping off my lights and turning around. When I park across the street, I spy her bedroom light on and lean back, closing my eyes.

It’s going to be a long night, but after her shenanigans at the fucking restaurant, I can’t leave her alone. God knows who might be looking for her now.

Chapter 16

I can’t take back what I did, but how is it my fault?

Penny

Once I’m inside, I stomp up the steps and into my room before losing all my steam and collapsing to the floor. With a weird cry, I curl into a ball and let loose all the fucking pain that’s been pressing at my chest. I miss Dixie. I miss my mom.

Most of all, I miss the person I used to be before.

“C’mere,” he says, pressing me against the wall and dropping his lips to mine.

I’m stiff as a board but he doesn’t seem to notice, and I close my eyes when he touches my breast. How the hell did I end up here?

With a groan, I sidestep around him, my skin positively crawling. All I can see is my escape, which is the closed fucking door not ten feet away. Before I do though, I need to make this fucked up situation go away.

"What is it?” he grunts, cocking his head. Once again, I feel like a fucking science experiment under that stare. Did he enjoy treating me like a toy? Is he rough like that with all women? Or just me?

I'll never truly know. What I do know is that his behavior in that shady fucking house changed something within me, awakening an understanding that as a teenager, I never should have had. I thought Jensen stole my innocence but it's this fucker who ripped my world apart.

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