Page 46 of Devoted

CHAPTER11

Penelope

Lettingmyself get lost in the music, I find my temporary escape. I’m not thinking about my face all over social media gossip sites. Accusations that I ran off with the bodyguard. Which is true, but not for a secret romance. Worrying about Mother and Juan Pablo, but I can’t talk to them. London said Jacobi would discreetly check on them.

I’m intent on my form, envisioning a partner—a tall man with wide shoulders and dirty-blond hair—

“You’re right. She is really good.”

Hearing an unexpected man’s voice tears a scream from my throat. I whip around and crouch into the fighting stance Cannon taught me with my arms raised, but I’m not under any impression I would win a fight cornered in this little studio against an unknown man.

Your biggest asset is surprise, swan.

I relax when I see Kase’s twinkling brown eyes and his big grin.

Cannon shoves past him with a scowl. “I told you to knock, jackass.”

“Where’s the fun in that? Besides, I got to see how she’ll react.” He nods at me, the humor in his eyes replaced with respect. “You did good, Penni.”

I don’t know Kase very well, but his words fill me with a pride I haven’t felt often before. I brush an invisible strand of hair behind my ear, a nervous gesture that’s better for me than chewing my fingernails. “Cannon’s worked with me on self-defense.”

Kase switches his attention to Cannon. “Have you started her with knives or guns yet?”

My insides freeze at the mention of weapons. My main objective in learning self-defense is to surprise an attacker long enough that I can run. The plan has always been escape.

Cannon’s roaming the outer edge of the small studio as he peers at the corners. “No, but I’ve been thinking about what the best type of knife is for her to carry.”

“A gun would be better,” Kase says.

“A knife would be easier for her. We don’t have the space to properly train for a weapon like a gun, not to the point where she would be comfortable wearing one and using it on someone.”

I don’t mind that they’re talking about me like I’m not here. I don’t want to carry a knife. I don’t want to carry a gun. But since Kase mentioned them, I realize how useless my fists would be against either one. Surprise would get me only so far.

“Gotcha,” Kase says. “Knife it is. I should’ve thought of it. I could’ve brought a Taser.”

“Wanna bring it next time?”

Kase makes a note in his phone. I nod, never having touched a Taser in my life. Weapon or not, my goal is the same—to get away from an attacker.

But they didn’t come into the studio to watch me dance or talk about my self-defense. “What’s going on?”

Kase is still in the doorway. He points to three corners. “Since you spend a lot of time in this room with music playing, we need some sort of alert system.” He steps out of the room and looks around at the rest of the basement. “We’ll also need to practice escape plans before I leave.”

Cannon mentioned the added security and had me iterate all the different ways out of the cabin when we talked after reviewing the gossip news sites. This cabin has become my sanctuary. My special place with Cannon where the real world isn’t supposed to touch us. I don’t like the need for extra security, but it’s necessary. “What’s practice going to entail? Like fire drills? Climbing out windows?”

Cannon stops his roaming to stand next to me. “It never hurts to climb out a few windows. The more you do it, the faster you get.”

He says it like he’s climbed out of a hundred windows, and he probably has. I haven’t climbed out of one. “Okay. Do you mind if I go get some sturdier clothes on?”

“No problem. Kase and I will be securing all the windows down here while you change.”

I run upstairs and close myself in the bedroom. Then I change into the clothes I wear for what’s becoming our daily hike. It’s been three days since our first venture out. Now, we wake up, eat breakfast, and explore our own path through the trees to the trail.

The guys haven’t mentioned giving up our adventures outside, but with the increased security, I’m worried it’s coming. I console myself by repeating It’s temporary.

I inspect the window in the bedroom. The small metallic device is hard to see, but Cannon said it will alarm if someone opens the window without deactivating it, and it can only be deactivated on the inside.

I leave the bedroom. The extra security measures are supposed to make me feel safer, but a familiar panic claws at my throat. My brain thinks of them only as signs my freedom will be taken away soon.

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