Page 83 of Keeping Penny

A sob escaped his throat, but Pyro didn’t bother trying to stop it. He closed and locked the window before turning and hopping back to the chair where he’d been restrained. He practically fell into it, then hunched over, burying his face in his hands as he cried his eyes out. He hadn’t broken down like this since he was eight years old and told he was going back into the system, after the foster mother who’d cared for him for two long years passed away, and his grieving foster dad couldn’t keep him.

He’d been devastated then…but it was nothing like the feelings he suffered now. Dread. Remorse. Fear. Debilitating fear. Not knowing what Bowie was going through was torture. A kind of torment he hadn’t been trained to deal with.

By the time his tears dried up, his face felt swollen and he couldn’t breathe very well because of the snot in his sinuses. He wiped his cheeks with his shoulders and took a deep breath. He wasn’t ready to give up. If nothing else, he needed to survive whatever would happen in the morning so he could go out and find his Bowie-Bear. To apologize. To beg her forgiveness.

He did what he’d thought was best, but that didn’t mean he didn’t regret it. That he wasn’t second-guessing his actions. What would Penny say? Would she hate him for putting Bowie in such grave danger? For doing something so incredibly stupid?

Time would tell. But if he lived through this, if Bowie made it through this asinine ordeal unscathed, and if Penny forgave him—and that last one was a big if—Pyro would spend the rest of his days making it up to his girls. Giving them the life they’d always deserved. Full of love and laughter, and giving them everything their hearts desired.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

The grass under Bowie’s hands was scratchy. She could smell the ocean, hear the waves lapping gently on the shore, and taste the salt in the air on her lips. Her heart was beating way too fast and hard in her chest.

“I’m not scared. I’m not scared,” she whispered quietly as she crawled slowly toward the ocean.

But the truth was, she was scared.

She might only be six years old, but she wasn’t stupid. She learned a lot by listening. Her hearing was super good. Mommy said it was because her ears were making up for her lack of sight.

When she lived in Africa, she heard Mommy cry at night sometimes, even though she was trying to be very quiet.

She heard what the other grownups said about her when they were in Gabon. That she wasn’t smart enough to go to school. That she’d be a burden…whatever that was. It must be bad if it meant she wasn’t allowed in school. She’d heard them say they didn’t have the time to teach someone like Bowie, and besides, she couldn’t read or write, so why bother sending her to school at all?

But her mommy always told her how smart she was. Took the time to teach her at night when she came home from work. Bowie knew her mom also gave her the most food. She heard Mommy’s stomach growling even when she swore she wasn’t hungry.

Things were so much better since they’d moved to Nor-fick. Bowie had a bed—a really, really soft one. And as much food as she wanted. Mommy was happier, and Bowie got to go to a real school. She had a best friend, Abigail, and the bad men didn’t come around anymore, making Mommy cry.

And then there was Kylo-Pyro. She loved him so much! He was so nice to her and Mommy. She felt safe with him. He didn’t treat her like she was stupid. He made her laugh and he read to her all the time.

She didn’t really know what was happening, why someone would hurt Kylo-Pyro and put them in the trunk of a car and take them to that house, but she understood that none of it was good. That the bad man who took Mommy’s money in Africa was the one making it happen. That if she didn’t get help, Kylo-Pyro would be hurt in the morning.

That alone made her keep crawling, even though she was shaking with fear.

“I’m not scared, I’m not scared,” she repeated. If Kylo-Pyro said it would help to pretend she wasn’t afraid, she believed him.

Bowie’s world was pretty predictable. She could get around the apartment without any problem. She knew where the furniture was and Mommy kept everything very neat. She could recognize voices and knew all her new friends. But being outside in a place she’d never been, alone, wasn’t something she’d ever had to do before. She’d always had Mommy or someone else with her.

But Kylo-Pyro couldn’t fit through the window. It was up to her to help him. For some reason, she thought about Laura Ingalls Wilder from the Little House on the Prairie books Kylo-Pyro was reading to her. She found herself in all kinds of scary situations, but she was smart and able to get through them. And then there was Wonder Woman. Kylo-Pyro had started letting her listen to the cartoons, and she wanted to be just like the superhero. This was her chance.

She couldn’t let Kylo-Pyro down. He said all she had to do was find the water and follow it. She could do that.

The grass ended, and Bowie let out a small whimper when her hand unexpectedly landed on a hard rock. She’d reached the end of the grass. Moving so she was on her butt, Bowie carefully made her way over the rocks even more slowly. They were sharp, and they hurt her hands and butt, but the sound of the water was louder now. Her hands slipped three times, hurting her arms, but she kept going.

Then all of a sudden, the hard rocks under her disappeared—and she could feel sand.

She’d done it! She’d reached the beach!

Feeling proud, Bowie shifted back to her hands and knees and continued to crawl toward the sound of the water. The sand was cool under her palms, unlike when she and Mommy and Kylo-Pyro went to the beach. It wasn’t long before the sand turned damp and mushy. She was getting close to the water. She remembered the feel of the wet sand from when she’d played in it and made sandcastles.

The feel of a wave cascading over her hands made her jerk and yelp in surprise. She was at the water! Her excitement was quickly replaced by fear, which threatened to overwhelm her. She didn’t mind being in the water with Kylo-Pyro, because he wouldn’t let her head go under, but she didn’t want to be in it without him. Mommy had warned her that just because she’d floated one time, that didn’t mean she could swim.

As much as Bowie wanted to be a mermaid, she understood she had to practice first.

She stood and tried to figure out how close to get to the water lapping at the sand. She took several minutes to listen to the waves, figuring out the pattern of when the water came up and when it retreated.

Tilting her head, she then tried to listen for the music Kylo-Pyro said he’d heard when they got to the house. But all Bowie heard was the sound of the water and the occasional bird. She’d also been embarrassed to admit that she sometimes mixed up left and right. He’d said to go left…but Bowie wasn’t sure what direction that was.

Biting her lip, she was unsure what to do. What if she went the wrong way? What if she messed this up and didn’t find anyone to help Kylo-Pyro, and the bad men took him away? She didn’t want him to get hurt!