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I raise my hands, looking around. “Do we have something better to talk about?”
Penny cuts me with her hazel gaze. She is quiet for a moment, her eyes veering away from me entirely.
“We met when I was only fifteen. My parents are a somewhat successful artist and a local politician. My father is not just my father… he’s also married.”
“To yer mother,” I clarify.
She shakes her head. “No. He’s married to a New Orleans socialite. He also has made it clear from the get go that we are his second family. His secret. He lives a separate life from us. It isn’t so much that he is embarrassed of us, I guess…. my mom says that he’s just busy. Doing important things, being the man that he needs everyone to believe he is.”
I squint, trying to keep up with her narrative. “He sounds like a bastard.”
“He’s just… complicated.” She wrinkles her nose. “I promise, I’m getting to Constantine. You see, my brother and I were…” She pauses, stops walking. “I don’t like to say neglected. We had enough money. We had our mom around, some of the time. But we grew up…” Pain lurks in the shadows of her expressive face. “Let’s just say that when I met Constantine, I was looking for someone that would lavish me with attention. Constantine was friends with my mom, and he could tell, somehow, that I had this…” She scrunches up her face. “I don’t know, this need to be seen, I guess. A hole in my heart. And Constantine was good at that. He started showing up, bringing me expensive gifts, offering to take me places. And my mom just… let him. She encouraged the relationship. I was only sixteen and having the attention of an older man was everything I thought I wanted.”
“Sixteen? God, that’s young,” I say, being careful with my words.
“Yeah. I was such a fresh-faced little idiot. So stupid and naive.” Her expression turns sour. “I started running with him and his crew. Moved in with him at sixteen. Met my best friend Maddie, who was dating one of the guys that ran with Constantine. It just spiraled out of control from there.”
“What do you mean?”
“Constantine was an addict. Cocaine, mainly. He started doing risky things just to pay for his habit.” Penny shakes her head. “Selling drugs, at first. Then guns. Soon, it was selling big loads of weapons to sketchy guys overseas.” She looks down at her feet. “I should’ve left the first time he raised his hand to me. Or the second… Or the fucking tenth. But…”
She shrugs.
“Constantine hit ye?” I ask, my voice hard. The idea of someone as delicate and sweet being harmed by someone I already fucking loathe makes bile rise in my throat. I try to control the rage that surges up inside me, making my chest feel like it’s going to burst.
She nods, still looking at the ground.
“Eventually, I went to art school part time. And he took Maddie as a second girlfriend. I found out about them one night when we were at a party in Gulf Shores. The house was way up on these craggy rocks with the ocean beach just below. He… he did a bunch of coke, so much that I was sure he would overdose. And then he… he hit Maddie.” Tears shine in her eyes. “I lost my cool and threw a book at his head. Which is when he started chasing us.”
She turns abruptly, walking quickly toward the house. I can hear her sniffing, but I hurry to catch up with her, grabbing her wrist and turning her around.
Big, fat tears roll down her face. Penny tugs at her hand, but I refuse to let her go.
“Tell me the rest,” I demand, my eyes searching her face. “He started chasing ye and…”
She wipes away tears. “It was dark. Constantine was out of his mind on blow. He chased us to the edge of a cliff. Maddie could have even been an accident, maybe…” She stops, sucking in a breath and shaking her head. “Once she ran off the cliff though, he knew. We both stared down at Maddie’s body, lying still in the wet sand below. But then he came for me. I begged him not to… And he pushed me off anyway.” She shakes her head, fighting off a sob. “I don’t remember anything after that until I woke up days later in the hospital. There was no sign of Constantine. No sign of my parents, either. Just Lawrence.” She raises her right hand, clenching it into a fist. “I couldn’t talk. Couldn’t walk. I was so freaking scared, and I didn’t really have anyone to tell me it was going to be okay.” Her expression turns bitter. “The doctors said my brain had gotten damaged. And that I would probably always have some paralysis on my right side.”
She flexes her fingers weakly, as if demonstrating the paralysis. I study her for a moment, my mouth twisting.
I think of the embrace she gave me a few days ago. Comforting, as much as anything can be after such trauma.
Swallowing, I hold my hand out, silently asking for her to put her injured hand in mine. Penny hesitates, pinning me with a questioning gaze.
“Trust me,” I whisper.
And after a moment?
She slips her hand into mine. I step closer, pressing her knuckles against my lips. The breath leaves her body in a shudder as I slowly turn her wrist and place a solid, warm kiss on her freezing cold palm.
Her tears fall freely, but she makes no move to stop them. She just looks at me, her expression unfathomable.
“I do,” she says crisply. “I do trust you, even though I think you are a villain.”
Her words strike a chord in me. I gather her in my arms, warming her against my body.
And then I tilt her chin up, angling it just so for my kiss. When I lower my lips to hers, it is perfect.
Hot, hard, demanding. Her fingers curl in my shirt as she pulls me closer, pressing up on her tiptoes. I use my tongue to sweep her sweet mouth, pulling and pushing against hers.
