Page 51
“Kate is in on it,” Royal whispered, his head dipping down until his forehead rested against the span of his hand.
“Of course, she is.” Penny’s lips thinned into a tight line.
“He doesn’t think it would have been suspicious as fuck, the club not being in conflict with anyone, and both of my dad’s children coming up dead?” I circled around once more, denial still kicking my ass.
“Kennedy,” Royal groaned, his hand dropping to reveal the most tortured eyes I’d ever stared into. “He has a sick sense of humor, alright?”
“Like what?”
I don’t know why I didn’t drop it or why I hadn’t fled already. Maybe it was because inside, I believed him more with every bout of denial Royal chiseled through.
“Just stop, okay?” He sighed, with a gentle shake of his head.
“You prevented my murder, and covered my brother's ass. I appreciate it, but it’s time to go home,” I announced.
“He wanted to kill you over your mother’s grave and make it look like a fucking suicide.” Royal mumbled.
My face contorted and my stomach heaved. I jerked my head up and darted my gaze around, fearful I was about to be sick.
“Kennedy,” Royal whispered, drawing my attention to the fact that he’d stood up.
I took a step back and sucked in a panicked breath.
His hands raised, and he pressed the air between us in a bid for peace, “I have no intention of hurting you, and I’m not going to let anyone else, either. But I need you to stay here. If they see you, they will finish it. I need to convince them that I already have, feel me?”
I gripped the back of my chair, drawing it between us as I digested his words.
“What in the world do you mean, convince them that you already did?” His mother blurted out for me, “You can’t fake someone’s death, Royal. This isn’t television! I can’t believe he dragged you into this bullshit.”
“I don’t know, alright!” he shot back, throwing his hands in the air, “I just need time to fucking think.”
“No. You need to go. You need to get on that bike and don’t even tell me where you’re going. Just, go and leave her with me. It’s not too late to step away from whatever the fuck this is,” Penny pleaded.
My mouth watered, my head spun, and I desperately gripped the chair.
I felt like shit, and I was having a hard time following the conversation buzzing around me.
“Are you okay?” Penny timidly asked after a time, her concerned hand finding my shoulder.
I blinked, and realized Roy had left the room. It was the first time I really looked at Penny. I knew her name, and I’d been in her house for what must have been nearly an hour already, but it felt like I was seeing her for the first time. She wasn’t anything like Kate. Her blue eyes were kind, with little worry lines at the edges. She wasn’t wearing any makeup. Her long, sandy-blonde hair was swept up in a lazy bun with long wisps fallen free to frame her face. She wore a sleeveless, crocheted vest that spanned to her mid-thigh, distressed jeans, and an elephant-print tank top beneath it all.
She looked like someone’s therapist, not a former side piece of Birdman Crowe.
“I– uhm. I might need some uhm…” Speech seemed much more elusive than my racing thoughts, but I tried to focus on the words I needed. “They said my sugars go low...”
“Oh.” Her eyes widened with alarm and she quickly moved to her refrigerator and then the cabinet.
The front door slammed, and I jolted in my seat.
“He won’t hurt you,” his mother reassured, her hand finding the top of mine as she set the glass before me. “I don’t know what in the hell Birdman is scheming about, but I know my Roy.”
She shook her head as if such a thing simply weren’t possible. “He isn’t like them.”
I held onto her words, until my tongue and brain seemed capable of working together once again. I didn’t mean to lash out, but my sudden, unpredictable episodes of incapacitation, and all the uncertainty was eating me up inside.
“He fucking kidnapped me,” I blurted out, looking her dead in the eye.
She flinched hard, swallowed, and lowered her gaze. Her hand nervously fretted with the edge of the tablecloth as she sank down in her seat.
