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She wasn’t, and from the way Drake was eyeing her, he fucking knew it too. I didn’t need her being hauled off in an ambulance because then they’d question what happened.
We couldn’t exactly say she just wasn’t used to being around dead bodies and it knocked her around a little bit.
I’d have to distract her to make her focus.
“I want a report. Right now. Start to finish. Where were you?” I was surprised when she actually had answers for me.
“The Squashed Melon Cafe on the edge of Rawson and the Heights.”
She continued to give me almost every detail, only missing a few, and I knew I was being an asshole when I asked her the final question.
“How many steps was it from your table at the cafe to the car.”
She didn’t even fucking hesitate.
“Seventy-six.” I couldn’t lie, she’d impressed me. Her hands weren’t shaking as badly anymore and her eyes seemed more focused. “Have you heard from Knox and the others? Are they okay?”
“They’re fine. Knox will give me a debrief when they get back. You need to go and rest in bed for a few hours to make sure you don’t end up needing medical help, okay? Watch a fucking movie or something.”
I turned to leave but her fingers wrapped around my wrist, her voice gentle.
“Tell Knox I’m sorry that I couldn’t finish helping him.”
I had no idea what she was talking about so I shook her off and walked towards the door, opening it wide for them.
“Whatever. Now get out of my office. Penelope?” Her eyes burned into me with anticipation, waiting to see if I’d flip out on her again or not. “Keep reporting like that and there might be hope for you yet.”
Drake and Cruz would’ve given her most of the information, I knew that, but the fact was that she’d memorized information while in a panic. Over time, she’d know what to take note of and she wouldn’t need help.
I was being harsh on her but that was how all my guys had been trained. My brother had run a tight ship, so I wasn’t going to insult his memory by going soft on everyone.
Once Drake had escorted Penelope out of the office, I sat in my chair at the computer and flicked through some footage of the incident, not turning around when the door opened an hour later.
Knox leaned against the wall beside me, crossing his arms.
“She’s keen, I’ll give her that.”
I turned to face him, tapping my fingers on my knee.
“What do you mean by that? She told me to tell you she’s sorry she couldn’t finish helping you.”
“Seems our residential princess is trying to pull her weight. She wanted to help with the clean up,” he chuckled, his mouth curving into an amused smile. “She’s got a stronger stomach than Drake at least. She managed to help get him on the tarp and into the trunk before losing the contents of her stomach.”
“She gave me a pretty impressive report on the entire incident too,” I mumbled, rubbing my chin thoughtfully. “She volunteered to help with the body?”
“Yep. Claimed she wanted to learn. Do you think we should test her more? I could drag her on a few of the more messy jobs to see how she handles it?”
I wasn’t risking that. The less she saw, the better. Theft was one thing, but murder was another.
“No. I don’t trust that she’ll keep the information to herself.”
“Tell her some bullshit secrets and get Donovan to fake a kidnapping. She can try to scare it out of her. If she keeps her mouth shut, she’s fine,” he suggested, and I couldn’t help but chuckle at that. Beckett would get a kick out of it too.
“Then Penelope would end up with PTSD from the entire ordeal and we’d never hear the end of it.” I glanced behind me to make sure the door was shut before continuing. “I want your opinion on her.”
“That’s a conflict of interest. I hate her since I’m pretty sure she’s the reason Drake decided he didn’t want me anymore,” he scowled, dropping down into the chair beside mine and pulling up the security footage of Cruz’s room.
She was curled up between them as they watched a movie, her body half on top of Drake as his hand moved up and down her back. I didn’t like that Knox was accessing this, it was for emergencies only, but I understood.
