Page 111 of As Thick As Thieves

Penn

The gravel crunched under my shoes as we made our way towards my father’s house. We’d kept an eye on the property for most of the day, and so far, Dad had gone out and hadn’t returned. It was getting dark, and all the staff were gone, so we made our way towards the place I’d been trapped in for my entire life, my heart hammering in my chest. Drake slipped a gloved hand into mine, speaking in a whisper. “Take a few breaths. You’re panicking yourself, and your breathing is getting louder. Shut it all out, okay? If he comes home, we’ll bail.”

I nodded, giving his hand a small squeeze. My face felt hot with the balaclava on, but I was pretty sure it was mainly the spiking anxiety causing me to overheat.

Will and two other guys were monitoring the system at home, but Cruz also had a tablet in hand, keeping an eye on things himself as we reached a window and Stone eased it open. We climbed through one after the other, then the guys walked ahead to cover me as we moved through the silent house, freezing as we heard a small thud.

“I didn’t think Daddy Whitlock was home,” Knox stated as we moved through the house, glancing at Cruz for confirmation. “Can you see any movement on the cameras?”

“Negative. It’s probably the house creaking,” he answered, his eyes glued to the screen as he trusted the rest of us to watch his surroundings for him. “Drake, come with me. We’ll check out the office and see if the safe code is still the same. Knox and Stone can split up to sweep upstairs, and Penn can stick by one of them. Don’t go off on your own,” he said, aiming the last part at me.

“Affirmative,” I said with a grin, making him chuckle.

“Alright, keep your head up and eyes open. We’ll meet back here once we’re done.”

Knox motioned me towards him, much to Stone’s annoyance, but I gave his hand a quick squeeze before following Knox. Knox seemed the most trained for shit like this, so I was more than happy to shadow him to learn.

We knew my father’s bedroom was empty, but I didn’t roll my eyes when Knox instructed me to go in and check it. He was trying to make me feel important, and I appreciated it. It was good practice anyway.

I opened the door and scanned the room before stepping inside, checking in the closet and under the bed for movement, then I started rifling through his drawers. I paused when I found a photo of Emily, picking it up and inspecting it. She was dressed up, smiling widely for the camera, and I vaguely remembered it being taken on her tenth birthday. I was only five, so the memory was small, but I remembered the pretty dress she was wearing.

I pocketed it, moving into the hallway again, and making my way into the next room, pausing when I opened the door and saw a pair of feet beside the bed. I should’ve waited for Knox, but I poked my head into the room properly, my stomach twisting as I found my father lying on the floor, blood soaking the carpet and multiple bullet holes in his head.

“Dad?” I whispered, despite knowing he was gone. Grief was a strange emotion. I hated the man that was lying in front of me, but I’d known him my entire life, he was my dad.

I swallowed, trying to control the tears as I moved closer, not expecting to find another body.

A scream left me, Estelle’s blank eyes staring up at me from the chair in the corner, her wrists and ankles bound to the chair. She’d been shot right between the eyes, just like Leah.

I ran towards her, tripping on one of her shoes that had been tossed aside and landing hard on my hands and knees, but I barely noticed my father’s blood all over my hands as I scrambled towards Estelle.

“No, no, no. Please.” I didn’t know what I was begging for, there was no way she was still alive, but the words kept coming out of me as my shaking hands felt for a pulse. Someone cursed behind me, but I wasn’t paying attention, the grief consuming me and making the rest of the world vanish. I fought when someone wrapped their arms around me and pulled me backward, Knox’s voice in my ear.

“Baby, she’s gone. Shit, I need help in here!” He shouted the second part, holding me tightly as I kept trying to escape, but the slick blood on my hands stopped me from getting a good grip. Cruz appeared, taking in the scene and pointing towards the door.

“Get her the fuck out. Take her to her old room.” I had no idea how Knox knew where that was, but he grunted a response and carried me down the hall, placing me on the bed. He held me against him as agonizing sobs left me, and he murmured words that I didn’t hear in his efforts to calm me down.

At one point, he released me, and Drake took his place, Knox growling down the phone to someone. It was all too much. Losing Emily had fucked me up, but Estelle too?

I retched as images of her dead eyes popped into my head, and Drake helped me to my feet and into the bathroom just in time for me to throw up. He held my hair out of the way, rubbing my back as I cried and threw up, and I could hear him talking to someone, but I had no idea who. It sounded like Cruz, but I wasn’t sure.

I had no idea how long it had been since I found Estelle, but exhaustion took over by the time Drake got me back on the bed, and within minutes, I was passed out.

Knox

I never should’ve let her wander into rooms alone. We had the cameras up, and it still showed the house as empty, the carnage being hidden behind fake footage. Will had no answers for me, all he could see was the same as us, but something was blocking us from changing to live feed. After a while, Will found that our footage was from almost two weeks ago.

Drake crept out of the bedroom that Penn was in, quietly closing the door behind him. “She’s asleep.”

“I never—”

“Jump on the guilt train later,” Stone growled as he joined us. “But for the record, none of us saw this coming.” He clapped my shoulder in support before motioning down the hall. “Cruz is on the phone to Beckett. We might have good connections, but the crews have better ones. We don’t have Kingslake in our pockets as much as they do, and we need to call this in. Our connections get us out of theft, but the Donovans will get us out of someone pinning us with murder. We can’t avoid this getting out, Louis is a huge part of Kingslake, his absence won’t go unnoticed, and there’s no way I’m putting Estelle in a shallow grave. She needs a proper grave.”

“The cops will want a statement from Penn,” I grimaced, glancing at the closed door she was currently sleeping behind.

“They’d have to get through me, and that’s not happening,” Stone bit out. “She needs to rest, they can bother her later.”

We left Penn to sleep, waiting for backup to arrive, and within half an hour, Beckett walked in with Maddox, Slash, and Hunter. Having the two leaders of two crews was going to get this issue resolved fast, which meant we could get our girl home sooner.

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