Page 4 of Their Wicked Secrets: Untouched, Vol 5 of 6

He squeezes my hand and warmth settles inside me. He hasn’t been sleeping well without me.

“It’s why I didn’t want you to spend the night here when I knew I’d be gone.” Luke lifts my hand to his lips and kisses my knuckles. “I don’t know what his plans are for you.”

Penny’s face is pale, and she looks speechless.

“Do you...” She swallows and clears her throat. A tear slips down her cheek. “Do you think he’d hurt me?”

“As long as you play his games, probably not.” Luke shrugs and sighs. “But I think he wants to use you to keep me in line. He can’t keep beating me. It doesn’t work, but he wants me to want to protect you. So he could use you, hurt you, to make me fall in line.”

She gasps softly.

“I don’t know what you were hoping for when you came here, but if it’s a loving father, you won’t find it in ours.” Luke shakes his head.

“I wasn’t given a choice.” Penny straightens. “He gave Mom more money. That’s all I’ve ever been to her, a guaranteed paycheck from William Foster. I think she wanted more at one time. Hoped to be the next Mrs. Foster. Figured he’d want her to help him raise both of us.”

I kind of want to give Penny a hug. I can’t understand a parent who only sees their child as a paycheck.

“You didn’t want a sister, but I came here hoping for a brother.” Penny’s eyes well with tears again. “It was stupid, but it’s hard to go through life being someone else’s meal ticket.”

She shrugs, and before Luke can say anything, she stands.

“I won’t be your weakness.” Her gaze collides with mine. “Either of your weaknesses. I’ll help with Sidney and figure out a way to get my mother to take me back in.”

CHAPTER 2

Gathering the Troops

Harper

Luke, Eli, and Jack all give me kisses goodbye as we separate to go home to our respective families. Or in my case tag along with Caden to his house. It makes the most sense. He already has a closet filled with clothes for me, and who’s going to find me in that huge house?

I wish we could all stay together, but it’s not reasonable on a school night.

Caden’s quiet on the drive. It’s just him and me, but the air is thick while we wait for the next thing to crash down on us. He ran the bug detector over his car, but it still doesn’t feel safe to talk about anything.

“Do you think your room will be bugged?” I ask quietly.

“They better hope it isn’t.” Caden turns onto his street. He glances my way and softens. “I’ll double check. No one needs to hear or see what we do in the dark.”

He winks, and my body flushes with heat. Yeah, we should keep that to ourselves.

“Are you going to even tell your parents I’m staying?”

They’re home right now since Ava came home. I don’t know how they’ll feel about Caden moving his girlfriend into his room for an undefined amount of time. Something tells me they aren’t quite as open-minded as my mom, or as kind.

Grinning, Caden pulls into the garage and shuts off the car. “Nah, little nympho. I’m going to keep you all to myself.”

He opens his door and grabs our bags from this weekend out of his trunk while I get out. He jerks his head for me to follow him. We don’t go to the basement like usual or even to the front door. He takes me around the other side and keys a code into the pad. The lock snicks as it disengages.

“Open that for me?” He nods, and I hurry forward to open the door.

I follow him into the house, down the hallway, and up a set of stairs I don’t think I’ve been on and climb to the second floor. This house was made to lose yourself in.

He opens the door to his bedroom, and I follow him in. After he sets our bags down, he sweeps the room for bugs. His bedside lamp is broken on the floor. He steps over to it, and the device lights up.

“Fuck.” He turns to me. “In my bag, silver on top.”

I open his bag and pull out what looks like a silver baggie. I bring it over to him and he gestures for me to open it. When it’s open, he picks up the little camera and drops it in the baggie.