Page 18 of Her Keeper
“Are you okay?” she asked breathlessly. “Are you hurt?” She leaned back and looked me up and down, her eyes full of questions like she thought I’d been shot or something. And when her eyes came back to mine, they were glowing with confusion. “Penny, what the hell did youdo?”
* * *
Igave Sloane the shorter version of what I’d just told Brooks, fighting the tears that wanted to break to the surface. We didn’t have much time, and that meant we didn’t have time for me to break down and lose it the way I wanted to. I was terrified and heartsick and itching with the need to get out of there, but Sloane needed to know everything if she was going to help me.
So I got to tell the truth. Again.
Sloane was left speechless by the time I was done, and looked between Brooks and me several times before she could talk. “Joseph just told me you’d done something stupid. He said he wasn’t sure you were safe and that I had to find you and get you out of town. But I didn’t... Wow, Penny.”
Brooks snapped her fingers in front of Sloane’s face. “Yeah, we know. She fucked your husband’s little brother and fell in love with him. It’s bad. But we can deal with the emotional fallout later. Right now, Sloane, we have to figure out how we’re going to get her out of town. Because you know Jimmy’s coming for her.”
Sloane jerked herself out of whatever trance she’d fallen into and grew suddenly serious, her eyes turning a darker gray than I’d ever seen them. “You’re right. What’s the plan? Do you have anything yet?”
“Do you know if there’s already a hit out on her?”
Sloane shook her head. “Maybe. Joseph didn’t say. If there is, Joseph isn’t on board with it.”
“There was a man sitting outside my building,” I said, breaking into their scheming with the only information I thought would be helpful. “I didn’t recognize him but he was definitely watching me.”
“Shit,” Brooks said. “Then they’ve got eyes on you already. He wasn’t a Rossi?”
I shook my head. “If he was, he’s not one I know.”
“Because they wouldn’t use one of their own,” Sloane said sharply. “Of course they wouldn’t. Killing a woman isn’t something you keep in house. You farm it out to a contractor.”
Oh my God. She was right.
I couldn’t believe we were sitting here discussing my impending death so calmly.
“Right. So we won’t know who he is when he finds us,” Brooks said, jumping to the next thought. “We have to get her out of town, Sloane. Hard stop. But how?”
Sloane looked at me for a moment, then nodded. “Her brother.”
“He’s on Michael’s side,” I said quickly, remembering the scene in Michael’s office.
Sloane shook her head, though. “He’s your fucking brother, and I know him well enough to know he’s not going to turn you over to Michael. No matter how long they’ve been friends. Let’s go. It’s not going to take long for them to figure out that you’re with us, and Brooks and I don’t exactly blend in with the crowd.”
8
MICHAEL
Istormed out of Monica’s building with one thing on my mind.
I needed to get to Alfonso’s house, and not only because he was my best lawyer and might be able to stop any article before Monica could run it.
He knew the ins and outs of the mafia world better than anyone else, and often had a clearer head than my best men. He might have an idea of who Monica was working with—or he might know who we could ask to find out. She was certainly being protected by someone, and I couldn’t figure out who it was. I hadn’t recognized the men she was with in her building but they weren’t Carusos, and I didn’t think the head of the Caruso family would send freelancers to protect someone important.
If Monica was gathering information for someone, she was definitely important.
You’d only send trusted soldiers to guard such a person.
She might be working for the Carusos, but someone else was involved—and they were sending men to guard their property. It fell right in with what I’d already been thinking. The Carusos were the ones causing the trouble in the streets, but the trouble we were seeing out west and on the water was more than the Carusos should have been able to carry off. They didn’t have the men and they didn’t have the funding.
Or the intelligence.
Someone else was pulling the strings. I’d thought so before, but now I was positive. And Alfonso had contacts I didn’t. Hell, he’d been the first one to know about the ship being seized at the port. Maybe he knew more than he was telling.
Also, maybe Penny was at his house. I hadn’t forgotten about my need to find her and I was hoping I could kill two birds with one stone right now. I needed to find Penny... but I also needed to make sure someone stopped Monica in her tracks.
