Jackal’s heart beat hard as he neared the door where Penni and he had stayed when they had made love the first time.
Henry was talking to one of the bartenders, but he turned to watch him cross the room.
Jackal keyed in his number, but the door didn’t turn. Henry had overridden the door’s commands.
“What are the numbers?”
Henry raised a brow at Jackal’s menacing tone.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about it.” Sherri’s, Henry’s girlfriend, gloating face showed she didn’t know she was risking her own life by thwarting his attempts to enter the room that Jackal was even more sure Penni was in. There was an easier way to find out without killing the woman, though.
Jackal went to the middle door where the bouncers could look into both rooms while the clients used their services. Jackal keyed in his number again, and this time, it worked.
Jackal gave Henry a killing look before going inside.
The mirror showed that the room on the left was empty. Jackal stepped to the right mirror, and his breath caught. Penni was sitting on the bed, facing the two-way mirror and staring down at the phone in her hand.
Jackal hadn’t cried since he was kid when his mother hadn’t come home, and his father had made fun of him for it. But he cried now, knowing no one could see him.
It had been six months since he had last seen her. Shade had offered to send pictures of her, but Jackal had told him no. Jackal had known that, if he had seen her, he would have broken and gone to her. However, he’d had an oath to keep, and he had been determined to keep it. Too many lives depended on him succeeding, and one of those lives was hers.
His blood still ran cold at the thought of her being there when the explosives had been detonated. If he hadn’t scheduled the meeting with Reefer to sell him a dime bag, they would have been in his bed at the clubhouse that Saturday morning. The only reason Ice had been up was because Ice had made it a rule that, when someone was out on a job, someone had to keep watch, and he had known the rest of the brothers wouldn’t want to get up so early.
He saw that Penni had lost weight. She had been a tiny thing before, but now she looked so fragile a gust of wind could blow her away.
He walked closer to the mirror, wanting to run from the room and into the one she was waiting in. Knowing Henry wouldn’t give him the number until she told him to was the only thing stopping him. He couldn’t even fucking call her since her cell phone was at her condo, and he didn’t know the number to the one she was holding.
Jackal was about to take his cell phone out of his pocket to call Ice and tell him to call Grace and beg her to call Penni to let her know he was here when Penni suddenly lifted her head, staring at the mirror. Then she dropped the cell phone onto the bed.
She rose unsteadily to her feet. The peach teddy she wore wasn’t seductive or playful like she usually liked to wear. It enticed. Tiny straps led to her satin covered breasts, and then her skin was exposed all the way to the small patch of satin that covered her pussy. It was an all-out assault on a man’s dick.
“I know you’re there.” Her soft voice filled the small room he was in. “I can feel you.” She placed her hand on the mirror, and Jackal lifted his to place it in the same spot.
“I’ve missed you so badly.”
“I’ve missed you, too.” Jackal replied, despite knowing she couldn’t hear him through the soundproof glass.
“Before I tell you the combination to the room, I want you to listen to what I have to say.”
Penni raised her other hand to the mirror, and Jackal mirrored her movements.
“I love you. I love you so much I don’t even care what you’ve done since you’ve been gone. I don’t care if you’ve fucked a hundred women. I don’t care who you killed. I don’t even care if you love me. I just want you.
“I don’t want to hear any excuses for why you wouldn’t see me, and I certainly don’t want to know who the women you fucked are. I don’t want any more oaths or promises, even if you plan to keep them. I just want you. I will always want … you.” She gave a shuddering breath, stepping away from the mirror.
Jackal waited for her to tell him the combination or to keep talking. When she did neither, he began to laugh. She had forgotten to give him the combination.
It took him a minute to get Ice to quit laughing before promising to call Grace, He waited breathlessly for her phone to ring.
When she went to answer her phone on the bed, he was already debating smashing through the mirror. However, her soft laughter had him calming long enough to hear her tell him the combination.
Jackal practically tore the door off its hinges as he left the viewing room, going to the locked door. He had to key in the numbers twice because of his bumbling fingers. Then he rushed inside, slamming the door by kicking it closed.