Page 14 of The Complete Truth Duet
They kept going.
I kept freaking the hell out.
“Seriously, it’s fine.” I glanced over my shoulder. Marcos thankfully hadn’t followed.
As we reached the bathroom, my heart was beating so fast that it probably could have been read on the Richter scale. They entered before me: Penn and his lanky body then Drew and his brickhouse frame.
The three of us would barely fit in that tiny bathroom, but I forced my way in and strategically wedged myself between Drew’s tattooed bulk and the shower.
“Could be leaking from behind the sink, running down the wall into the second and first floor,” Penn guessed.
His brother’s only acknowledgment was a grunt.
“The sink!” I repeated a little too loudly for such a small space. “Good idea!” Whatever. Just as long as they didn’t think it was the shower.
“Could be coming from the line to the shower,” one of them suggested, though I was too busy cursing Murphy’s Law to notice which one.
“It’s not the shower!” I exclaimed.
They both turned to look at me. Penn’s eyes were wide with surprise. Drew’s narrowed with suspicion.
I laughed awkwardly. “Look, um… Any chance you guys could come back in say, an hour? I really have to use the, um… No!”
Drew snatched the curtain open, revealing Savannah curled into a ball in the tub. Her knees were tucked to her chest and her eyes were filled with terror as they slid from him to me.
“Jesus, fuck,” Penn mumbled.
Drew remained stoically quiet.
Suddenly, Dante’s voice floated down the hall along with his footsteps. “The fuck are you yelling about, woman?”
With shaking hands, I yanked the curtain shut and whispered, “Please don’t tell him about her.” I grabbed his tattooed forearm and peered up into his hollow blues. “I will do anything you want if you just don’t mention her.” I could sell myself to the devil. One time wouldn’t kill me. At least not physically.
Especially not if it saved her.
When he didn’t reply, I stepped closer until my breasts brushed his arm. “Drew, please.”
As if I’d punched him, his whole muscular body recoiled.
Glancing to the curtain hiding Savannah and then back to me, he silently waited for an explanation. But I had none to give. At least not any that I could convey in the seconds it would take for Dante to reach us.
“Drew,” I hissed urgently.
His gaze never drifted to my breasts the way I’d expected. Nor did he seem to have any interest in my promise of anything. He just stared at me, the massive weight of his gaze alone anchoring me in place. And then, finally, in a jagged voice that was equally as intriguing as it was intimidating, he rumbled, “I’m Penn.”
My mouth fell open. No. Freaking. Way. That would make Mr. Plain cellmates with Old Man Guerrero?
I blinked.
The “alleged” Penn Walker blinked back, and then, just as Dante rounded the corner, he jerked his arm from my grasp and marched from the bathroom, calling over his shoulder, “Leak’s in the kitchen.”
Goose bumps pebbled my skin as relief exploded inside me. I was positive my hands were shaking as Dante pinned me with a vicious glare before following after Penn, but I didn’t care.
No one, not since the day Nic had used his body to shield me from a wall of bullets, had anyone done anything to actually help me.
Not without a price.
Not without a punishment.
Not until now.
Penn
“She was a fucking kid,” I growled, sliding the toolbox from the bed of my old Ford before slamming the tailgate.
Drew lowered the cigarette from his lips and taunted, “But you said you needed this, remember?”
“And you said we were working at a whore house. Not a fucking pedophile’s haven.”
“It’s not too late for you to leave.” He flicked his gaze to the tattoos on my hands. “They might not let you join the country club, but I’m sure you could make other friends.”
“Fuck off.”
“Then shut your mouth. The chick was obviously hiding her in the shower for a reason. Maybe the kid’s only in training or something.”
“In training? Because that’s better?”
The sound of dirt and rocks crunching behind us caught our attention. Drew straightened as Marcos and Dante approached, but my focus was pulled up to the third floor. The blonde was standing there with her small hands wrapped around the railing as if it were the only thing supporting her.
As soon as her eyes found mine, she mouthed the one word that had the power to demolish me. “Please.”
One in. One out.
I immediately looked away, that hot knife twisting in my stomach.
“Drew,” Marcos greeted.
“You two heading out?” He tucked the cigarette between his lips and extended his hand for a shake.
Marcos spared it only a glance before sliding his hands into his pockets. “I take it you remember the rules?”
Drew inhaled deeply and then blew it up to the sky. “Fix broken shit. Keep my hands off Guerrero property. And not one goddamn thing else.” He smirked and dropped the cigarette to the ground, stubbing it out with the toe of his boot. “Though, just to clarify, it’s cool if I jerk my dick, right? Technically, I know it will be in a Guerrero shower, but don’t worry. I’ll clean it up real nice.”
