Lucky Penny (18 page)

My good mood disappeared, and I locked eyes with Derek refusing to back down. He straightened and said, “Keep walking, boy,” as his evil smirk spread wider.

My fists clenched at my sides, and I had to bite down on my tongue to stop myself from saying something I would regret. It was always the same. Derek would catch me off guard, and I’d struggle to rein in my temper. But the dick had me right where he wanted me. If I went after him, he would kick me out, and he knew I would never risk leaving Penny behind. Deep down, I think that’s why he went after her in the first place because he knew I liked her. In some sick and twisted way, he was jealous of our bond.

The first time I had caught Derek jerking off in Penny’s room, I thought he had hurt her… or worse. Penny explained everything to me, but it didn’t make me feel any better. The sick fuck had laid down with her on the bed, unzipped his pants, and jacked off while Penny lay paralyzed next to him. He didn’t talk to her or make her touch him; he just got himself off while stroking her skin and then left.

Penny begged me not to do anything; I was one second away from rushing out of the room and pounding my fists into his face. But then Penny dropped a bombshell. Derek had threatened her with splitting us up. If either of us said a word to anyone, he would make sure we never saw each other again.

For that first few months, I was so full of anger and darkness that I pulled away from everyone. Even Penny, to some extent. Every time I crossed paths with Derek, I saw red and it took everything in me not to confront him. It was even worse on the nights he crept into Penny’s room. I would lay down the hall listening for the creak of the door and the sound of her muffled cries, plotting ways to end him. But after a while, the cries stopped. When I asked Penny what had changed, she simply said, ‘I won’t let him break me.’ That was the day I knew I had to be strong for us as well.

Derek never returned to her room after that.

It wasn’t until Jessica aged out and Penny moved into the bigger room with Amy and Mia that I slept easier, knowing she was in a room with two other girls. Of course, part of me wondered if Derek had done the same thing to any of the others. He had made comments about Amy before, and she was always so mean and yet eager to please Derek that it crossed my mind more than once. But what was I supposed to do? Derek and Marie had been fostering for years; in the eyes of the state, they had a clean record and ran a good home. No social worker would listen to the likes of me; the hot-tempered kid from the drug dealer father and drug addict mother.

With Penny off-limits, Derek came down on me harder. Assigned me extra chores, grounded me for even looking at him wrong, and he even cornered me a couple of times and left me with bruised ribs. But I took everything he had to give and then some. When he bolted down the window in the downstairs bathroom and stayed up extra late to make sure we couldn’t sneak out, we found new ways to spend time together. Stolen kisses during our lunch break or a brush of our hands while sitting in the den. Plus, we always had Sundays out by the lake while Marie dragged Derek to the Golden Corral. Last night had been a one off; Marie had dragged Derek to some convention in town. The second they were out of the driveway, Penny and I had escaped to No Man’s Land. It was there I’d looked Penny in the eyes and told her we could survive another eighteen months in here. I only hoped I was right because Penny was the only good thing in my life. She was all I needed.

My lucky Penny.

I couldn’t lose her.

The next few weeks passed uneventfully. It was officially the summer, which meant our birthdays were finally in sight. Penny turned seventeen first on September 1st. I followed on September 20
th
. In just three more months, we would only have twelve months left. Fifty-two weeks before we walked away from Derek and Marie and their stupid fucking rules. Three-hundred and sixty-five days until we were free.

Things were good—as good as they could be in our situation. I caught Derek leering at Penny occasionally, and he still went out of his way to make my life hell, but Marie was having some health concerns that diverted a lot of his attention.

“So what do you want for your birthday?” I whispered to Penny as we walked back from the store with the others. She batted me away. I didn’t give a fuck if the others saw us like this—up close and personal—because they all knew about us anyway. But Penny was a private person, and she didn’t like to flaunt our relationship in front of them.

“Blake,” she warned. “I don’t need anything. You know that. Besides, we have the whole summer yet.”

I did, but she was turning seventeen. I wanted to make it special for her. I was saving the money I got for helping Mr. Banks out with his lawn across the road. I was surprised Derek and Marie allowed it, but when the old man came and asked them personally if Mason and I could give him a hand, they couldn’t really say no. Keeping up appearances was too damn important to them.

“Yeah, I know, but if you could have anything, what would you want?”

Her eyes flashed with desire and her cheeks flushed.
Well, damn, that backfired.

“Penny…” I smirked, trying to ignore the way she was looking at me. Like she wanted to jump my bones right there on the sidewalk. She dropped her eyes away from me.

“Hey.” I grabbed her hand in my mine and tugged gently forcing her to look at me. “Soon, okay. Soon.”

Her eyes widened, and a slow smile broke over her face. I had been the one to make us wait, but maybe she was strong enough for this. Maybe it was time. It had been almost a year since she moved into the girls’ room, and I wanted her. God, I wanted her so much. But I didn’t want her to regret it or freak out. I didn’t want to ruin what we had. If we were really going to do it, I wanted her one-hundred percent with me. I
needed
all of her with me.

The Freeman house came into view, and Penny shrugged her hand out of mine. I jammed my hands in my pockets and jogged away from her to catch up with Mason and Ben.

“Who’s that belong to?” Ben said nodding up at the house. The scrawny blond-haired freckled kid was no more. He’d grown up and almost stood as tall as Mase and I did.

“No idea. What’s a car like that doing parked out front of their house?” Mase replied.

I didn’t join in their conversation. I was too busy wondering what in the hell a black Town Car was doing parked outside the Freeman’s house. Its paintwork glistened in the sun; so much so that if you looked right at it, you would probably go blind.

As we neared the path up to the house, the front door opened and a man in a tailored suit appeared. He turned back to say something to Derek and Marie, extending his hand to shake Derek’s hand. A shiver ran through me. What kind of business did they have with a man like this? The man nodded and turned on his perfectly polished shoes and walked out of the side gate. A younger man in a black suit climbed out of the driver’s side and went around to open the door for him. The guy had a fucking chauffeur.

“Whoa, did you see that? The dude has a driver. Who the fuck has a driver?”

Ben shrugged and answered, “Someone with money, I guess. What do you think, Blake?”

Not taking my eyes off the car as it rolled away, I said, “I have no fucking clue.”

I didn’t, but my gut told me it wasn’t good.

The feeling didn’t leave me for the rest of the day.

I
kicked open the door to my apartment. Grease and egg rolls assaulted me. The lavender air fresheners had obviously masked the smell more than I realized. My feet shuffled through a summer’s worth of mail, and I dropped my bag on the floor by the counter.

Welcome home.

I took in the space before me. Somehow, it looked worse since returning from Camp Chance. What did that say about the place if a wooden cabin in the middle of nowhere was the nicer option?

The door knocked behind me, and Mr. Chen appeared. “Hello, Miss Penny. You return from good summer?”

Nodding, I smiled and motioned for him to come in. He shook his head. “Ahh, no. Just come to say hello. Welcome back.” He disappeared back down the stairwell, and I closed the door.

For as much as I hated this place, part of me was relieved when Mr. Chen agreed to let me pay half rent for the weeks I was gone. He even said I could pay upon my return, but I had a small amount of money saved. The thought of having to try to find another place to live was not something I wanted to deal with anytime soon.

Before I went in search of lavender air fresheners, I retrieved my cell phone from the drawer and turned it on. There had been no need for me to take it to camp with me because only a handful of people had my number. The screen flashed to life and it bleeped.

I miss your face already.

I smiled at Marissa’s text and typed out a reply, and then set about making my apartment habitable again. It didn’t take long to replace all of the dried-up air fresheners, and when I was satisfied the smell of fried food was almost unnoticeable, I carried my bag into my small bedroom and unzipped it. My eyes fell straight to the small white envelope.

There was a cell phone number with Blake’s letter. Tina confirmed it was his number but said I should him give some time before trying to contact him. She wouldn’t tell me anything else, but I didn’t need her to. Blake had told me there was someone else in his life, and now, it all made sense. I suspected he had pulled away because of his own guilt; only, I had wrongly assumed it was guilt over what Derek tried to do to me. Now, I realized it was guilt over the person in his life. A girlfriend, a fiancée… wife. Either way, it didn’t matter. I couldn’t sit around waiting and hoping Blake would take care of things.

I wouldn’t.

The doorbell chimed as I entered Vrai Beauté, and Tiffany looked up from her position at the counter. “Ahh, Penny.”

Well, that didn’t sound good.

“Hi, Tiffany. How are you?” I said politely ignoring the alarm bells ringing in my head. She rounded the counter mumbling something to Kylie and ushered me to the side so we weren’t blocking the entrance.

“Penny, I didn’t expect to see you so soon.”

She didn’t?

“I got back yesterday.”