Page 116 of As Thick As Thieves

“Sorry, how long was I out?”

“An hour. Stone’s still not awake, and neither’s Penn,” he said quietly, worry filling his eyes. “Why isn’t she awake yet? Did they miss something?”

Beckett snorted, not moving from her spot across the room. “Her mind is fried and her body’s exhausted. She might wake up soon, but she’ll probably crash again. She’s had a lot of emotional hits in a small amount of time. She was close with the housekeeper, yeah?”

I sighed, not daring to move in case I woke Penn. “Yeah, and Leah. As much as she also hated her father, finding him dead probably wasn’t a fun experience for her. She talked a lot of shit about you guys taking him down, but she’s not as tarnished as the rest of us. It probably hurt to see him like that more than she’d admit.”

“Most likely. I have a feeling she’ll come out of this a little more fucked up than you realize,” she replied, running her eyes over Penn. “The girl’s got balls, though. I take back everything bad that I said about her. She tamed Knox and Stone, the girl deserves an award.”

“I’ll give her whatever she wants once we’re home. Pizza for breakfast? Done. Those awful energy drinks I think are toxic? Done,” Drake grunted, gripping Knox’s hand on his lap. “As long as she comes home.”

I nodded my agreement, sliding my eyes to her beside me. She was so still, blood smeared across her pretty face and hands. They’d tried to clean as much as possible, but it was difficult when she was resting. I had no idea if it was Estelle’s, her father’s, or Stone’s at this point.

I slid a hand across her stomach, wanting to cuddle her but not wanting to risk hurting her. She moved, my eyes darting to her face just as she blinked against the light. “Cruz?”

“Yeah baby, it’s me. Drake, Knox, Beckett, and Lopez are here, too,” I murmured, brushing her hair from her face. Her heart rate monitor started rising as grief and panic filled her eyes suddenly.

“Where’s Stone? Is he—”

“Hey, he’s okay. He’s out of surgery. We haven’t seen him yet, he needs the rest first, but they said he should make a full recovery,” I assured her, taking her hand and giving it a gentle squeeze. “We can see him later once he’s awake.”

“He’s alive?” she croaked, tears welling in her eyes as she squeezed my hand back, making me smile.

“Yeah, not even the Grim Reaper wants his grumpy ass. Guess you’re stuck with him.”

The nurse scurried in and scolded me, shooing me off the bed so she could check on Penn now that she was awake, and Beckett pulled me into the hallway, wanting to talk in private. I didn’t want to leave her, but I knew the others would fill me in on anything the nurse said.

“Mom texted me. It seems that Owen guy was a real weirdo. The cops have gone through his house and found a lot of shit. There were a bunch of dresses that belonged to Emily, and he had a diary he kept regular entries in. He was acting like Emily was still alive, talking about their future together.”

I frowned, crossing my arms and leaning back against the wall. “Do you think he actually knew her or just stalked her? Maybe he killed her?”

“Doubtful. He blamed Louis.” She leaned closer, not wanting her voice to carry into the room Penn was in. “He also claimed it was because Louis found out Emily was carrying Owen’s child. He’s either really crazy, or he had a secret romance going on with her.”

“I’ll drill Penn about it, but not until we get home. I need to find out how much she knows before we start throwing ideas around,” I answered, thankful when she nodded.

Beckett was a good friend, but I’d fight her on it if she tried to bully her way into getting information out of Penn.

“We also found something else,” she said with a sigh, pulling a piece of paper from her pocket and handing it to me. It had names and numbers on it. “Louis never came after her the first time you took her. It seems Owen had originally hired some helpers to try and take her. No idea if he was trying to kill her, though. These guys are the ones we dealt with, and he even kept notes about their failures. We found another contact he had, which is ironically one of ours. Said Owen tried to hire him months ago but the guy refused due to Penn’s connection with us. I guess not all the people hired knew what they were getting into. Seems the drive-by at Devil's Dungeon that time was also connected to Owen. Hopefully, this is the end of it all. The only time we can find anything connected to Louis, was when he hired the Kings to retrieve her the day Stone handed her over.”

“Hopefully, that’s it then,” I nodded, handing the paper back. “I’ll keep you in the loop if I find out anything from Penn once we’re home. I appreciate you stopping by to check on her.”

“I’m only here for Lopez,” she said with a scowl as we walked back into Penn’s room, but we both knew that was bullshit. Zavier was more than capable of driving himself here.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Penn

Stone had woken for a short time later that day, but the nurses demanded I stayed in bed to rest. Cruz had gone to check on him with Knox, leaving Drake with me. The following morning they switched, Knox stayed with me while Drake and Cruz went and sat with Stone for a while, but I still wasn’t allowed out of bed.

Finally, after being stuck in here for two whole days, they took pity on me and claimed I could see Stone, but they wanted me in here for one more night thanks to my stupid blood pressure going haywire.

Cruz pushed me in a wheelchair along the hallway as the guys wandered alongside us, and Drake opened the door to Stone’s room to let us through, my eyes seeking out Stone straight away. He looked awful, but he was alive and that was all I cared about right now.

“Hey, Princess,” he said sleepily, lifting a hand to reach for me, and Cruz moved my wheelchair beside the bed so I could take Stone’s hand. I gave it a small squeeze, trying not to cry like an idiot, but tears fell anyway.

“Hey. You scared me half to death, you dumb idiot.”

“I’d do it again if I had to,” he smiled, wincing as he tried to move. Knox helped him get comfortable, and then Stone met my gaze again. “The guys said he didn’t touch you. I need to hear it from you.”

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