A GOOD MAN ✔

FIFTEEN

               Jonathan watched as Penny ate her food in silence. She didn't talk unless spoken to, didn't even add to the conversation going on at the table. She was back to being nurse Penny. Quiet, shy, socially awkward. But he knew better. The look in her eyes said it all. She was planning something and he only hoped he could get to her before she did something stupid.

He'd tried to get her to leave that house. Hell, he'd tried to put her on a plane out of Italy but she wouldn't budge. She made it clear that she wasn't leaving until she found what she went there to look for. He understood she was a mother and in his experience mothers fought the hardest for their children. But she didn't understand how dangerous Wes was. There was a reason he'd kept his cover up for so long. It wasn't for lack of evidence. Oh no. He had a room full of evidence that would compel any judge to put Wes behind bars for the rest of his miserable life.

What he hadn't been able to do was find a way to prosecute him without getting himself killed. He might be the boss but that didn't mean he wasn't disposable. Wesley Bianchi had connections with the most powerful men on earth who would kill anyone to protect their secrets. If word got out that he had ties to the CIA, he'd be dead in less than twenty-four hours. That is how dangerous his partner was. Not that Penny had any sense of self-preservation. If she did she wouldn't have gone there in the first place.

Now her story was heartbreaking. Having her child taken away had to have been a painful experience and to some extent, he understood that because he'd been taken away from his family. He wanted to help her too, but far away from the Bianchi organization. He could probably pull some strings, call in a favor or two to start the process of getting her son back. But then he realized that wasn't the only reason she was there. Getting her son back was priority number one. Killing her father was priority number two.

"I will not stop until that man is six feet under" she'd told him. That was why she didn't want to take the legal path. It would expose her to the media who in turn would keep an eye on her. Senator Allen was a public figure, a politician at that. Leave alone the internet, the media would have the time of their lives with that kind of revelation. And in turn, it would put Penelope Lewis smack in the middle of that scandal. That kind of exposure wasn't what she was looking for, especially if she was planning on murdering someone. He had tried to tell her there was always another way but she had stopped listening after he'd said that. So he'd resorted to watching her day in day out.

The dinner they were currently having had been Wes' attempt at trying to be civilized. He had apologized for staining his carpet the last time they were together. What he wasn't sorry about though, was killing his men. Apparently running an organization as big as theirs required discipline. As if Jonathan needed the lessons. If only Wes knew he ran a bigger organization than the Bianchis. Speaking of which, Cassandra hadn't checked in yet. Daniella had to have realized that she'd kidnapped the wrong woman by then. He didn't want to think how Cassandra would handle the situation. She was one of those agents who were reckless and didn't follow the rules. If shooting him hadn't made that obvious, he didn't know what would.

"How come you never had any children Wes?" Jonathan asked to gauge his reaction.

The other man laughed like that was the funniest thing he'd ever heard. "In my line of work children are liabilities. A weakness I can't afford to have."

"Surely you must have entertained the thought of being a father at one point in your life" he refrained from adding worthless before life.

"Yes. I did but then you came along"

Jonathan tamped down the urge to roll his eyes. They both knew the only reason Wes considered him his son was because he was dispensable. It was true that if the man happened to die, he would stand the chance to inherit the organization. But it also meant that if something were to happen to him, he would be replaced in the blink of an eye. "I'm touched that you consider me as your son Wes. Really" he said letting the sarcasm ring out clearly in his voice.