Page 36 of One Breath After Another

Why was she searching for one?

“Has anything concerned you—maybe business within the home—with them?” the doctor asked. “Anything at all?”

Penny turned on the chair, making it spin on the pedestal to face the therapist. “What do you mean?”

“Anything. Maybe they ... argue. Or perhaps you’ve noticed things aren’t always as they seem as they come and go. Have you noticed any criminal activity—”

“What?”

Penny wasn’t stupid. Like every other teenage girl in America, she also had access to the internet. She knew who Naz and Roz were, where they came from ... their family’s legacy in the criminal underworld. The few exchanges she had—mostly with Naz—about the undercurrent of the mafia side of things made it clear she shouldn’t concern herself with something that didn’t involve her.

They weren’t above board. But they also weren’t bad people. Not the kind of people who hurt her, anyway. Penny was very black and white in that way. Things either were or they were not.

“I’m asking,” the therapist said when Penny remained mute in the chair, “because your caseworker is concerned that your current residence might not be the best place for you considering some of the recent actions and notes from your school. She wanted me to bring up these issues with you and see how you felt.”

“You mean, how you feel,” Penny returned. “Because that’s what it boils down to here, right? What you think and feel about me. It goes into your little notes there—” she waved at the notepad in the doctor’s hands “—and then you pass it on to the caseworker who I barely even see and can’t remember her name. And then she comes around occasionally, to tell people who take care of me what they’re doing wrong all because she read some bullshit written on paper. Right?”

She had a scary realization, then. One that took her breath away and hurt worse than even the memories that chased her daily. These doctors and her caseworker, they could take her away from the only people who ever cared. People who helped her ... who protected her without asking for anything in return.

People who loved her.

People she loved.

Because she did.

Love them.

“Penny—”

“If they try to take me away from Naz and Roz,” she told the therapist, “it’ll be the last thing the state ever does to me.”

She had another thirty minutes on the clock with Dr. Tangler, but it didn’t make a single difference to what she did next. Standing from the chair, Penny snatched the coat hanging off the arm and headed out of the office even as the therapist called out behind her. She didn’t stop walking until she was outside and sitting in the passenger seat of Naz’s new Roadster.

He looked her way, brow raised when he said, “That was too fast. What happened?”

Penny pressed a hand against her heart, willing the organ to slow down and stop hurting. “She asked questions ... about you, and Roz.”

‘What kind of—”

“Nothing good.”

Naz dragged in a sharp breath. “You mean like ... business? The family?”

Penny only shrugged, muttering, “Said the caseworker brought it up and suggested she mention it to me. Like they want to look into the home and if it’s the right place for me or not. Are they going to remove me from—”

“No.”

“But—”

Naz reached over and grabbed Penny’s hand with his own. It was the first and only time the man had touched her, but instead of pulling away like she would for anyone else, there was stability in the action. Comfort.

“Penny, you’re not going anywhere unless you want to,” he said. “Do you hear me?”

Water had welled in her eyes, making everything a bit blurry. Still, she met his dark gaze as she asked, “Promise?”

“Absolutely.”

“Okay.”