I had chosen wrong.
~ 28 ~
Fighter
“Penny?” I tapped quietly on her door with my knuckles.
I’d barely slept with worrying about her all night, scared half to death she’d either come at me with one of Charlie’s kitchen knives and cut my dick off, or that she’d do something worse.
“Penny?” I knocked again.
“You’ll need to knock harder than that,” Charlie said as she came out of her bedroom, her silk kimono wrapped around her loosely.
I looked away from her and back to Penny’s door.
“What is it with you men? You can’t bear to share a feeling in case you start growing a pair of tits and a vagina. It’s okay, Fighter, all men break down their walls at some point. Feelings aren’t the enemy—you are.”
“What would you know about it?”
“First off, speak to me like that again and I’ll break your nose. You’re in my house, and you’d do well to remember that. And secondly, because I’m married to Rider aren’t I. You think he’s the same man with you as he is with me? Hell no. We’re all softer when we’re alone, and that’s okay.”
I scowled at her and she shook her head and walked on toward the kitchen.
“Coffee?”
“Yeah,” I growled.
She was right. Of course she fucking was. Charlie was always right. She had some sort of superpower when it came to shit like that. I was the enemy. But the thing was, that wasn’t what worried me. I already knew that. What I didn’t like was the dark world I’d be dragging Penny into. She didn’t know me or the things she was capable of, and she deserved better.
We hadn’t exactly had a fucking biblical moment stuck in that house together, but it was as close to God as I was going to get. She got me—whether I wanted her to or not. But worse, she got me and she didn’t seem to care.
No, this thing between us had to be a business thing. Nothing more.
I turned and stalked away from her door.
She’d come around. She’d fuckin’ have to if either of us were going to live through this bullshit.
Charlie barged past me as I walked into the kitchen. “She’s gone,” she said, and I turned and followed her back to Penny’s door.
She pushed open the door and stormed inside. “Rider!” she called as I made it into the room.
Sure as shit, Penny was gone.
The bed had been slept in, the covers thrown back and the wet clothes from the night before resting over the arm of a chair in the corner. Her clothes and shoes were gone though, and I felt the sinking feeling in my gut.
“Rider!” Charlie called again just as Rider stumbled into the room.
“Woman!” he barked out, dragging a hand down his face. “Quit fucking yellin’ my name.”
He was completely naked, his dick hanging between his legs, and I shook my head and turned away.
“She’s gone, Rider. Penny’s gone,” Charlie said.
“Fuck,” he replied. “This is your fucking doing, brother. Whatever happens to that girl is on you.”
I turned back around sharply. “And how d’you figure that?”
“Because you’re an asshole, that’s why.”
