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Chapter 8
KAI
Hearinga commotion coming from outside my office, I get up from my desk to see what’s going on. Maggie, Penelope’s assistant, is standing in front of her desk with the phone pressed to her ear. Her wide eyes are directed at Penelope’s office door and her complexion is pale.
I’ve taken one step when something that sounds like glass shattering, followed immediately by Penelope’s loud voice, has my steps speeding up until I’m sprinting.
When I run through the door of Penelope’s office, I find her behind her desk glaring at an older gentleman. His back is facing me so I can’t see his face, but from the back view, he looks haggard. His clothes are dirty and wrinkly with several holes, and I can smell the stench coming off him from where I’m standing ten feet away.
Penelope’s chest rises and falls as she stares at the man with pure hatred radiating from her eyes. On the floor to the side of her desk is a glass figurine that’s been smashed to pieces. I recognize it as the teal angel she had sitting on her desk.
Her eyes flicker to mine for a split second before she points them back on the man.
“This is your last warning, Phillip,” Penelope says, her voice calmer than her heated expression. “Leave now before the cops get here. If you’re still here when they do, I’m pressing charges this time.”
The name Phillip rings a bell, and it only takes me a moment to recognize where I know it from. I switch my gaze to the man. Penelope’s father doesn’t look anything like he used to. From what I remember, back when I was younger, he had loads of money. The man standing a few feet away from me looks to be living on the streets. Years ago, from what I heard, he washed all of his money—money he inherited from his parents when they passed—down the drain.
Phillip huffs and crosses his arms over his too slender chest. “I’m not leaving until I get what I came for. What you owe me.”
Penelope’s eyes narrow on her father. “I don’t owe you anything.”
“The fuck you don’t, little girl. We have an arrangement.”
“We had an arrangement. You broke one of my stipulations by coming here. I told you, if you show up at my job, the deal is off. You came here, so the deal is off.”
“Bitch, you will give me what I came for or so help me, you’ll regret it. I leave here without my money, I’m going straight to one of your sisters’ houses.”
From the threat in his tone and the step he takes toward Penelope, I’ve heard and seen enough. Coming up behind Phillip, I wrap an arm around his neck and apply pressure. Not enough to cut off his air supply, but enough to hold him in place.
He immediately digs his fingers in my arm, trying to pry it off him. “What the fuck? Let me the hell go.”
“It’s time for you to leave,” I growl in his ear.
“The fuck you say. I don’t know who in the hell you are, but you’ve got no clue who I am. You best let me go.”
“The name’s Kai, and I do know who you are. You’re the bastard who used to beat the shit out of his kids.” My eyes meet Penelope’s across her desk. She holds her chin high and her gaze is determined. “As I said, it’s time for you to go. You can either do it on your own, or I can carry your ass out.”
I was too young to really remember how bad things got at the Adair household, but I do distinctly remember once when Penelope came to babysit me. She had her arm in a brace and told Mom she fell down the stairs. There was another time she had a bruise on her chin. I remember that one because I asked her if I could kiss her chin to make it better. I felt like a kid on Christmas morning when she laughed and said yes. It wasn’t until after she and her sisters had left for college and their mother died that I overheard my parents talking in the kitchen about how Sherry Adair was at peace now and wouldn’t be Phillip’s punching bag anymore. Apparently, things got worse for her once the kids left the house. All five of the siblings tried to get her to leave him—Wesley going so far as to offer to rent a place for her—but she always refused.
“Fuck you,” Phillip spits out. “You don’t know shit about me and my kids.”
“I know enough to know you have no right to claim Penelope and her brother and sisters as your kids. Now what’s it going to be? The easy way or the hard way?”
“Shove it up your ass!” he shouts.
He begins clawing at my arm, so I tighten my hold around his neck. His face begins to turn a deep shade of red.
“The hard way it is,” I state.
I maneuver his body around to face the doorway and begin frog-marching his ass out of the office. The asshole is lucky I haven’t knocked his ass out yet. I’d love nothing more than to beat the fuck out of the guy for ever laying a hand on Penelope and her siblings and their sickly mother. He deserves to have his ass handed to him a time or twenty.
Just as I make it past Maggie’s desk, who’s still standing in front of it watching the scene with wide eyes, the elevator door opens and Detective Erikson comes out, followed by a couple of officers.
“Hey you!” Phillip wheezes out, pointing to the detective. “I want to press charges against this asshole for assaulting me.” He starts wiggling in earnest again.
“Let him go, Kai,” Detective Erikson says, his hard gaze on Phillip.
Before I loosen my hold, I flex my bicep at Phillip’s throat. He gasps as I cut off his air supply. I let the bastard go and he hunches over, trying to catch his breath. After a moment, he stands back straight.
