Page 17 of The Housebreaker's Assistant
Greer let out a breath, shoulders dropping. “It’s a person,” he said. “They want us to rescue a young man who is being held captive by…by slave traffickers.”
Penny’s gut clenched. He wasn’t naïve enough not to know what Greer was talking about. As bad as things were in the gutters and slums of London, he knew they were infinitely worse for young people who were singled out by the wrong sort. He knew because he’d come within a hair’s breadth of being nabbed by a gang who’d had that intention for him.
He’d been just fourteen, and a handsome, older gentleman had lured him into a closed alley with the promise of feeding Penny’s newly awakened curiosity about himself, his cock, and other men. Two other men had been waiting in the darkness. They’d grabbed him and carried him off to a house halfway across London. After testing the merchandise, as they’d called it, they’d made the mistake of leaving him alone. Penny hadn’t hesitated. He’d used the skills he’d learned on the street to pick the lock on the window and to climb down to the mews and safety.
If he hadn’t been so bound and determined to make his way back to Helen, he might not have fought so hard or thought so quickly to save himself.
“I cannot leave London,” he said once again, but with a much heavier heart.
He pushed a shaking hand through his hair, trying to rub away those old, horrific memories. Whoever Greer’s friends were, he would wager his last farthing they knew of his past brush with slavery. They likely knew of his escape as well. They knew, and they were working through Greer to trap him into doing their bidding.
Greer knew nothing of Penny’s suspicions. “Why are you being so stubborn, man?” he huffed, crossing his arms. “It’s only Cornwall.”
Penny pursed his lips and stared at Greer. He liked the man. More than he should have. He’d been craving something like what had happened between them in the cabinet for ages. Anddamn him and his soft heart, he wasn’t sure he liked the way men with more power than either of them were manipulating Greer into doing something that was probably more dangerous than Greer knew.
He’d brought Greer to Mrs. Hunt’s for a reason, though, and whatever hope he’d had that he could avoid tipping his hand was clearly a vain hope now.
“Come inside,” he said with a sigh, then turned, shaking his head, to step up to Mrs. Hunt’s front door.
Inside the boarding house, Mrs. Hunt and several of her boarders were already gossiping about the night’s events.
“I see that you escaped the noose,” she called out to Penny as he and Greer passed the entrance to her parlor.
“I will always escape the noose, Mrs. Hunt,” Penny told her with a smile he didn’t feel. “You know that.” He winked at her, despite not particularly liking her, then continued on to the stairs without stopping to join the company.
“You had better not be transacting business under my roof,” Mrs. Hunt called after him when she saw Greer.
Penny picked up his pace instead of replying. He didn’t owe anyone an explanation for his behavior, particularly not Mrs. Hunt.
“Charming landlady,” Greer drawled as they reached the door to Penny’s rooms. “I can see why you wish to stay in Cornwall.”
He was joking, but as Penny grasped the doorhandle and opened the door, a sense of seriousness swirled in his gut. He held a finger to his lips, then gestured for Greer to enter the room with him.
A lamp burned low on the table beside the bed where Helen slumbered. Helen didn’t like the dark, and she often awoke in the night, particularly when Penny wasn’t there. Mrs. Hunt had complained about her disturbing the house with her crying a fewtimes too many, so Penny made certain they always had enough oil to keep the lamp lit through the night now.
He peeked sideways at Greer as they both approached the bed. Greer’s expression shifted from grave to shocked. Penny couldn’t help but smile at his sister, though.
“This is Helen, my sister,” he said, sinking to sit on the bed by Helen’s curled form. He brushed a stray lock of hair away from her face, then leaned down to kiss her cheek.
“Your sister,” Greer said, staring at her.
So much could have been said, so many stories and explanations. Penny didn’t feel as if he owed any of them to anyone, let alone Greer. At the same time, he could see in the intelligent flicker of Greer’s eyes that he understood without an explanation.
“I cannot leave her,” Penny said, just above a whisper. “She is more like a child than not. She cannot fend for herself.”
Helen stirred and scooted closer to Penny, feeling his presence even in her sleep. An angelic smile spread across her sleeping face for a moment before it went slack again.
Penny’s throat constricted and his eyes stung. “After our mother died, it took us years of moving in and out of boarding houses, not to mention more time than I want to think about living on the street, before we found Mrs. Hunt,” he explained. “Even now, if it weren’t for me paying her three times what this filthy room is worth, she’d cast us out. If I disappeared for more than a day or two, I’ve no doubt Helen would end up on the street.
“No,” he corrected himself right away. “She would not end up on the street. She would at first, but by nightfall, you know she would be snatched up and taken to an asylum. I cannot let that happen. It would kill me.”
He glanced up at Greer with pleading eyes. He despised feeling vulnerable in front of a man he wanted to impress, onehe wanted to turn him over a barrel and fuck him silly. But there was no helping it. Helen came before everything else in his life.
Greer was still for a while before letting out a long breath and rubbing a hand over his face. He sank to sit in one of the chairs a few feet away, under a darkened window. “You cannot leave London,” he said. Penny couldn’t tell if he was frustrated or relieved.
“Your friends will have to employ someone else to rescue whoever is trapped in a castle in Cornwall,” Penny said.
“They want you,” Greer argued, still watching Helen.
