Page 237 of On a Fault Line

“We’ll find her. It was her who helped open the locked doors at the end of the hall that let me in.”

Penny’s shoulders relax, as the revelations move through her mind. “That’s what Mark said too, but I didn’t know what to believe. He’s been fucking with my mind this whole time.”

“Shhh…it’s over now. I got you.”

“Police!” a group of officers call out.

“We’re over here!” I yell, drawing attention to our location. “Just two hours late.”

Yeah, I’m bitter.

But they all can be thankful this ended the way it did. We all did society a favor. I have no clue how Tanner kept his family hidden from us, but it probably had everything to do with fake passports and name changes.

Dammit, this could have all ended disastrously.

But it didn’t. We survived it.

Now my focus is getting Penny out of this place. The faster the authorities can locate the dead bodies, the faster we can be free.

“I never want to come back here,” she says, with her lip quivering.

“You’ll never be back,” I assure.

Leaning forward, I scoop Penny into my arms, feeling the strain of my muscles pull against my neck wound.

“You are hurt,” she whimpers.

“So are you.”

I refuse to allow Penny to look at the scene. She’s already endured enough trauma to last a lifetime. Why create even more vivid memories?

Before finding her, I took out Rex—that fucker—and shoved his body into a room to be sorted out later.

I’m just glad I found her. I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to her.

“Please help Dr. Radinsky,” she sobs.

“Let’s go look for her,” I try to soothe. “I bet she is outside by now and getting tended to.”

I tuck her closer to my body, and back us up away from Mark Tanner’s corpse.

“How did you find me?” She stares up at me, as I keep her cradled. “Trackers?”

“Yes,” I confirm.

Penny is silent for a few seconds. “I honestly forgot they are on me.”

I nod. “I could see that you were heading north when you left the fundraiser event.”

“I…” She takes a deep breath as a shiver rocks through her. “Needed help. I thought I was hallucinating. Mark and Rex were making me go…” She struggles to say the last word, but then lets out a choked sob. “Crazy.”

“You are not crazy, Princess. It was all a part of the big plan to break you down.”

Penny nods, burrowing her face into my chest.

I tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “You were right about him still being a danger to us. I had staged a big fight at the prison that was going to get him sent to the hospital. The whole goal was to end things before they ever went to trial.”

“And then he tricked you?”

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