Page 5 of Her Keeper
I sprinted through the office, my phone in my hand and Joseph’s number pulled up, my brain already traveling down to the garage to figure out which car would get me to my father’s house fastest.
3
PENNY
Istared after the door Michael had just run through, my mouth hanging open and tears still streaming down my face.
And then I started trying to get myself together so I could take stock of the situation.
Because if I’d thought Michael was going to calm down and listen to me, I’d been wrong. And I definitely wasn’t stupid enough to think he was going to go save his dad from some sort of assassination attempt and come back in a more rational mood, ready to listen to what I’d been trying to tell him. Joseph wasn’t here to save me—not that he would, given what Michael thought I’d done—and Brooks and Sloane didn’t even know I was in trouble.
I was officially on my own.
And Iwasin trouble. I’d thought things were bad when Alf came into the office and promptly kicked me out, and I’d been annoyed with Michael’s high-handedness of late. But I hadn’t had any idea how bad it could actually get. Now Michael thought I was a rat—I wasn’t, or at least not really—and was on the verge of trying to flat out kill me for what he thought I’d done.
Worst of all, I hadn’t been able to break through that rage to get him to listen to me.
Not that hearing the truth was going to make him much happier. No, I hadn’t been feeding information to the Carusos like he thought, but Ihadbeen giving it to a reporter. At the time I’d thought I was doing the right thing. I was, after all, only giving her the most innocent stuff I could find, and keeping her from sending anyone else in for information. I’d thought I was acting as a shield for Michael and his family.
Looking at it now, though, and knowing how upset he was at the thought of anyone selling any information at all, I was starting to think I’d been wrong.
“Stupid,” I hissed at myself, wiping the last of the tears from my face.
He was going to kill me, plain and simple. And I didn’t think anyone would even know about it in time to try to stop him. He’d gone from having feelings for me—or at least I’d thought he might have—to wanting to kill me in about ten seconds flat.
And I had no one to blame for that but myself.
Still, questions of blame aside, the bigger question was what I was going to do about it. I didn’t think sitting around and waiting for him to get back was the smart choice, here, which meant I had to get the fuck out of this office, and then out of the building. Off the block and preferably out of the entire fucking city.
Right. So that was the goal.
How was I going to do it, though? I needed an ally, and those were in very short supply at the moment.
Then I remembered who Michael had left guarding me.
My eyes went to the door and the enormous man standing there, his face full of doubt and his eyes watching me like he thought I might explode at any moment.
Perfect.
I released my hold on my emotions and let my eyes well up with tears again, blinking quickly to make sure a couple rolled down my cheeks. My lower lip started to wobble and I could feel my breath growing short as I let the fear overtake me again. It wasn’t even hard. I didn’t want to think Michael would lay a hand on me, but I’d seen what his family did to rats before—or at least I’d heard about it—and at the end of the day, it might not even be his call. One word to his father about what I’d done and I was dead meat. Fat Jimmy wouldn’t care that I was connected to Sloane or her family, or what Michael had to say on the matter. He wouldn’t care about my brother or my friendship with his oldest son. He’d only care that I’d been betraying them.
He’d make me disappear, and not even I would know where I ended up. Because I’d be dead by the time I got there.
I gulped and felt panic starting to rush through me. I had to get out of here, and I had to do it before Michael got back. Because no matter what I thought of him, Michael was no hero.
He was a mobster. And his need to protect his family would override anything he and I had done together.
Luckily, I was stuck with Barney, and from the look on his face I was guessing he didn’t like it when women cried. He crept into the room and laid a very gentle and hesitant hand on my shoulder.
“You okay, Penny?” he asked, his voice soft. “Do you need anything?”
I gulped and let go of my control on my emotions, allowing the panic to rise up my throat and take control of my head again. I knew from experience that my eyes were getting larger and my face was flushing, making me look even younger than I normally did.
And with every passing moment, Barney looked more panicked.
Poor guy. He had no idea what he was in for.
“No,” I moaned. “I don’t think there’s anything you can do to help me.”
