Page 10 of Her Keeper
“Of course she does.”
“She’s not safe, Michael. If our father finds out about this, she’s dead. It doesn’t matter who she’s connected to. He’ll never forgive her betraying the family.”
I jerked my arm away from him. “What do you think, I don’t realize that? Do you think I’m an idiot?”
“No, I think your vision isn’t clear when you’re looking at her. In fact, I don’t think your vision has been clear since the wedding. What are you going to do?”
I almost asked him what the fuck he was talking about, but realized we didn’t have time. “I need to find out what she did. No one can know about any of this until I’ve had more time with her.”
I needed to know whether it was actually as bad as I thought, or if the gut instinct telling me she was innocent was right. And I needed to figure out whether I could save her from any consequences. I wanted to have a plan for that before anyone came after her.
She might have betrayed us. And she might deserve some punishment. But I would kill anyone who came after her. She was my assistant.
My girl.
And this was therefore my problem to figure out.
“Sounds like you’ve had quite enough time with her, Michael. And you haven’t been able to keep her in line.”
Shit.
I turned, seeing only now that the door behind us had opened to expose my father. He was leaning on my sister’s shoulder, his shirt covered in blood and his face slightly gray.
But he was also glowing with fury.
“I did you the favor of keeping the girl alive so you could protect her, when I told you she’d be nothing but trouble. And this is what happened? She sold you out, Michael, and you just let it happen?”
I stiffened. “I guarantee I didn’t just let anything happen, Father. You know better than that.”
“I also know better than to let people I can’t trust into my operation,” he snarled.
“And yet the boy you hired to deliver groceries just walked into your house with a gun and shot the place up!” I snapped. “So don’t talk to me about not letting people into your operation!”
His hand shot up and wrapped around my throat, the fingers squeezing slightly. “Don’t talk to me like that, son, or I’ll be forced to remind you who’s in charge, here.”
I froze, not from pain but from shock. My father hadn’t laid a hand on me since I was fourteen and got taller than him. “Get your hands off me,” I growled, cold with fury. My skin was already prickling with the need to strike out at him and I had to remind myself that the man was my father.
And that my baby sister was standing right next to him and would certainly be collateral damage if I did anything. Granted, she was a pain in the ass most of the time, but that didn’t mean I wanted to hurt her.
Instead of letting go, my father tightened his grip and leaned in. “Then do what you should have done in the first place and take care of the girl. She’s a rat, and she’s your problem.”
He released me and turned, leaving Dante behind and wobbling down the hall on his own. Dante looked up at me with narrow, suspicious eyes.
“Trouble with your girlfriend?”
“She’s not my girlfriend, and that’s none of your business,” I muttered. “You know you’re not allowed to involve yourself in this.”
She made a face at me, all eighteen-year-old sass, and walked after my father, rushing to catch him when he stumbled. I watched her go for a moment, then remembered what my father had just said.
He’d just threatened Penny’s life. Sure, he’d told me it was my problem, but that didn’t mean anything more than that he was going to give me a chance to handle the problem on my own.
The moment he decided I wasn’t going to, he’d handle it himself. He’d send someone after Penny, and I might not be there to protect her.
I snatched my phone out of my pocket and hit the number I needed, breath coming short in my lungs.
“Boss,” Barney answered after one ring.
“Where’s Penny?”
