The moment Harper starts to soften toward her I almost curse. Fuck. I know what she’s going to tell Penny before she opens her mouth.
“You don’t know your father.” Harper glances toward the door, but I squeeze her hand to make her look at me.
I give her a shake of my head and narrow my eyes. She can’t tell Penny what she knows. Because Harper shouldn’t know about my abuse. No one should.
“Do you know where your room is?” I ask pointedly to Penny.
She nods. “I was going to tell you earlier, but somehow William always seems to know what I do. Even if he isn’t part of my life.”
I blow out a breath. Fuck. He’s been watching her. Of course, he has. She’s a fucking asset to him. Another clone of his creation.
But she’s also in danger every second she’s in this house.
My phone buzzes.
Nico:
All good. Meet you in twenty
Fuck.
“Grab whatever you need.” I give Penny a hard look. “We’re going out for burgers.”
Harper
The car is quiet the whole way to the restaurant. Penny plays with her fingers as she stares out the window into the night from the backseat. I’m not as surprised as I thought I’d be.
All those looks Penny gave Luke make sense now. She wasn’t hoping he’d fuck her. Ew. She just wished he’d known that shewas his sister. How do you grow up with someone and not realize they’re your sibling?
Luke parks in the lot and glances in the rearview mirror at Penny. “I can’t trust you. You know that, right?”
Penny nods and sighs. “I called my girls to meet us here. I’ll hang out with them while you guys talk. You can trust me though. Not because I’m your sister, but because I care about Harper. And you.”
I open the door and climb out of the car. When she joins me on the sidewalk, I ask, “You were going to break the NDA earlier?”
She nods. “So many times I wanted to tell Luke, but my mom barely gets by as it is.”
“Did you become friends with me to get close to him?” It’s been buzzing around my head since she appeared in the dining room.
“A little.” She gazes at me sheepishly. “The other parts are true too. I really do want to be friends with you. There’s a reason I always had a boyfriend. I couldn’t risk one of the horsemen or Luke claiming me. Especially if I couldn’t tell them why.”
I nod. Luke puts his arm around my shoulder and leads me into the restaurant. Jack, Nico, Caden, and Eli wait for us at a booth. My heart swells to see them all.
“You don’t need to worry about me.” Penny gestures to the table with her friends. “I’ll be over here.”
Luke leads me over to our table. As soon as we sit down, the server brings over burgers and fries for everyone. The others glance toward the table with Penny at it with curiosity.
“Thank you.” I pull my plate closer and take a bite. Fuck, I’m hungry but my stomach was shredded during the entire farce of a dinner. I was on edge waiting for Luke’s father to do something to one of us.
Nico drapes his arm around my shoulders. “You okay?”
“She’s good.” Luke glances over at the table of girls. “Penny Wright is my half-sister.”
Jack’s eyes widen and he glances that way. “Fuck, dude.”
“At least she isn’t on any of your lists.” I pop a fry in my mouth and look around the table. “That would have been hella awkward.”
Caden chuckles and glances toward another table. Ava and her two friends with dark hair sit across from Zoey and her friend from the bathroom at the game. The table separates the two groups and they don’t look happy to be together.
