Beautiful Trouble: A Dark Mafia Romance

“One of them?” She frowned, tilted her head, then grinned. “Oh, you mean I’m part of the family. How’d you know?”

“Your eyes. And you have your mom’s nose.” Assuming her mom still had most of the original.

“My name’s Penny. I wanted to come and welcome you to Servant Manor. We don’t get a lot of visitors.”

“That’s the sort of thing people say in a horror movie.” I leaned up against the wall, catching my breath. How was I so tired already? Whatever Darren had given me wasn’t leaving my system fast enough. “You’re not about to throw me into a murder basement, are you?”

“No, no murder basement on the premises, only a murder hedgerow and a murder barn.” She grinned and I couldn’t help but smile back weakly. “Honestly, though, Darren calls the shots around here. I’m just the boring little sister.” She drifted toward me.

I wanted to tell her to stop—but something held me back. Maybe the way she smiled, like she was completely at ease, but different from her mother and her brother. There was no malice behind her eyes, no anger, no control.

She seemed almost normal, at least by the standards of this messed-up situation.

“My name’s Winter.”

She extended her hand. “Pleasure.”

We shook. It was the strangest introduction I’d ever experienced.

Penny beamed at me. “I guess you met my mom already.”

“She was the welcoming committee.”

“She’s not so bad, honestly. I mean, terrifying, yes, definitely, but not so bad. She means well.”

“I did get some Stepford vibes from her.”

“That’s just all the breeding.” Penny rolled her eyes. “You know, formal manners and such. She tried to get a tutor in here to teach me and Erin and—” She stopped, just a tiny pause, before barreling forward. “We refused to go. The poor teacher lady’s life was a living hell for a few weeks before my mother called us all a bunch of little animal heathens and swore we’d never be good enough for polite society. Here we are a decade later and she was pretty much spot on.”

I laughed. I couldn’t help myself.

That story was terrifyingly familiar. Different in the details, but the same as mine.

“Can I ask you something, Penny?”

“Sure.” She glanced over her shoulder. “Just don’t ask if I can let you leave. I don’t exactly agree with everything Darren does, but I’m not about to go against him for some stranger.”

“No, it’s not that, although freedom would be nice.”

“Maybe some other time.”

I laughed and shook my head. “No, I mean, your brother. Does he kill the girls he kidnaps and brings back home?”

Penny’s eyes went wide. “Oh, god, no. If he kills people, he does it far from this house. Mom would have a fit.”

“That’s good.” I did feel a little bit better, although I wasn’t sure how much his mother’s disapproval mattered when it came to life-and-death power struggles.

“Can I give you some advice?”

“If you’re about to tell me to play along, don’t bother. I’m not exactly into being kidnapped.”

She smiled again. I liked her smile, the way it lit her face up. It reminded me of Cassie, at least a little.

“Well, you should probably do that, but no. I just wanted to say that Darren’s not such a bad person, you know, despite kidnapping you and everything. So please don’t give him a reason to do something stupid. You seem okay.”

“Thanks, I think.” I wanted to say more—to ask her questions about the house and get a sense of what went on in this place—but a door at the end of the hall opened and Darren stepped out.

It was like moving from shadow to blinding sunlight. He wore a pair of dark slacks and a crisp white shirt with the sleeves rolled up, showing off his muscular forearms. He walked toward us, scowling the whole time, and Penny turned around, her sweet smile not faltering one bit.

“Speak of the devil,” she said, then laughed and covered her mouth. “Oops, I mean, speak of the kind and loving gentleman.”

Darren rolled his eyes. “What are you doing, Pen? I told you to leave her alone.”

“She was in the hall. I just wanted to make sure she was okay.”

“Why don’t you go find Mom and see if she needs help?”

Penny looked back at me and winked. “See ya later.”

“No, you won’t,” Darren grumbled as Penny jogged past him. He scowled after her, then turned to me.

I leaned against the windowsill and stared.

Nothing happened. No alarms, no bells, no thunderbolts, or electric bursts. I’d expected—something.

Instead, Darren’s mossy eyes drilled down deep into mine and I felt pinned, excavated, and laid bare.

The silence stretched. I wished Penny would come back.

“We need to talk,” he said finally, and the tension broke. “You’re going to make me regret bringing you here, aren’t you?”

“Where exactly is here? I know we’re in some big, fancy house, but maybe you could give me some GPS coordinates or something. You know, just for my files. And by the way, I didn’t have any choice in the matter.”