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“Yes, but not inside where we all sleep,” he scoffed, not slowing down to let me catch up. “We need to work on all your skills. Guns, knives, combat, all of it.”
“Ask Knox, I have a good hit.”
“I’ll believe it when I see it.”
“I’d show you, but you’d get mad at me for attacking you,” I teased, and he turned to stare at me as he grabbed the door handle to open it.
“You can actually fight? Penelope, the few times you tried to attack any of us, you failed. You got a cheap shot in that first day, that’s all.”
“I used to sneak out to Stoneleigh for classes. I just didn’t want you guys to know what I was capable of.” I had to talk to Cruz about sneaking me out for lessons because I really enjoyed them. “Couldn’t show all my cards too early, right?”
“Where in Stoneleigh?”
“There’s an old warehouse on the edge of Stoneleigh and Kingslake. I’ve been going for years.” He watched me for a moment before nodding, holding the door open for me to walk ahead.
“I know the place. How’d you pay for that shit without your father finding out?”
He thought he’d caught me out in a lie, I could see the look in his eye of victory.
“I didn’t pay with money. I paid with information. Living amongst the rich means I know lots of gossip about those in higher society. Ask me about any family and I can probably dig up dirt on them.”
He steered me behind the warehouse and towards a large trapdoor, opening it and encouraging me to walk down first. I hesitated, the door space suffocating me before I’d even stepped foot inside, but Stone rolled his eyes.
“A few steps in and the lights automatically come on. Hurry up. You do know we’re called the Night Thieves for a reason, right? We do a lot of jobs in the dark. If you can’t handle that—”
“I can handle the dark when it’s not boxed in,” I hissed, slowly stepping down and blinking against the light as it turned on.
Once I knew Stone wasn’t going to lock me in here in the dark, I relaxed, his footsteps sounding behind me as we descended the stairs.
“Tell me about your father then,” Stone continued as if we hadn’t changed the subject. “What are his secrets?”
“You want illegal activity? Betrayals? The safe code is six-two-two-seven-zero-five if you want it. It’s in his office,” I said without missing a beat, noticing a flicker of surprise cross his face. “What? He’s a piece of shit. I hope you guys go back and get everything else.”
“You’re something else,” he muttered, eyeing me for a moment before walking towards a cupboard and opening it, pulling out a small handgun. “I’m not letting you near the snipers until you’ve mastered one of these.” He shoved it into my hands and slapped earmuffs over my ears, turning me to face a target wall once he had his own on, shouting instructions. “Loosen your shoulders and brace your legs apart more. These don’t have nasty recoil but a little thing like you would probably still go flying backwards.”
“Dick,” I huffed, doing as he said. I stopped fucking breathing as he stepped in behind me so that his chest was to my back, helping me hold the gun and aim it.
“Focus, Penelope,” he growled close to my ear. “Breathe in, then slowly release it as you squeeze the trigger.” It was difficult to focus with his dick rubbing against my ass but I tried, missing literally all the targets. “Focus!”
“It’s hard!”
“Bullshit. Point and shoot, that’s literally it,” he bit out, letting me go. “Go on, try again.” I tried three more times but kept missing, making him growl. “You’re fucking hopeless.”
“Fuck you, asshole. We can’t all be trained machines like you. Some of us grew up in cages,” I spat, stumbling as he snatched the gun from me and put it away, yanking the earmuffs off me too.
“You don’t know shit, Princess. All you have to do is listen to what I say and do it. Stop talking back, stop making excuses—”
“I’m trying! Stop being a dick and give me a chance!” I threw back, and I swore he was going to burst a blood vessel in his forehead. “No one even likes you and this is why. You bark orders and demand respect but you don’t give any. Is this why your family wants nothing to do with you? Even they're sick of your shit.” He turned and stalked up the stairs, making me snort. “Yeah, go cry about it!”
It felt good to piss him off until the lights went out and I heard the trapdoor open, the sunlight shining down at me.
“Want to be a tough bitch, Penelope? Stay here in the dark until someone comes and finds you.”
“Don’t you fucking dare,” I said sharply but my voice cracked with terror.
“Fuck you,” he snorted, shutting the door and locking it, blanketing me in darkness. The pure panic that consumed me had me scrambling for the stairs and I tripped on them as I crawled up them to avoid falling down to my damn death, bashing on the door when I couldn’t open it.
“Stone! This isn’t funny! Let me out!” I couldn’t hear anything, my mind racing as I realized this place was sound proof. “Stone!” I screamed and hit the door harder but he didn’t open it again.
