Penn lifted the dressing gently to find a pale pink blemish no bigger than a few millimetres.
Jasper followed his gaze. His eyes widened. ‘It’s a miracle,’ he said in wonder.
Penn looked to Lynne, who shrugged. ‘He insisted on the bandage.’
‘Jasper?’ Penn asked, feeling the last drops of fear slip away.
‘I’ll live, Ozzy,’ he said with great relief.
Penn was about to ask him what the hell was going on when he heard a car horn out the front.
Penn looked to his brother who smiled widely.
‘Oobah.’
‘You’ve ordered an Uber?’
Jasper stood and did a couple of dance moves before grabbing his jacket.
‘See ya.’
And just like that he was gone.
Penn felt as though he’d been hit with a sledgehammer.
Lynne placed the two mugs on the table and sat.
‘And just in case you were in any doubt, when I got here, the oven wasn’t even on.’
Penn burst out laughing. He wasn’t sure if it was the relief that Jasper was okay or because Lynne was sitting here in front of him or because his brother had turned into a scheming little urchin.
Lynne joined in, and any tension between them was broken.
Penn sobered. He cupped both hands around his mug. ‘I owe you an apology. That night I should have told you what was going on when Stacey turned up.’
‘What? That a psychopath had escaped from prison and was threatening the life of your boss and possibly her team; that you were all under instruction to not be alone and that Stacey trusted you enough to come here. Yep, that would all have been good to know before I got huffy and walked out.’
‘It’s a lot to—’
‘We do the same job, Penn. I would have got it. I’d have understood. You should have trusted me.’
The words made him feel like shit.
He changed the subject. ‘What did Jasper say when you got here?’
Lynne smiled and didn’t fight the subject change.
‘He told me he burned himself, which I knew was a lie. Even minor burns are worse than that. He insisted I wrap it up to protect it from infection, which I did while he just talked away about nothing, how he does.’ She looked away.
‘What was he saying?’ Penn asked, dreading the answer.
‘Just that you were lonely and that you’d been missing me. That you’d called out my name in your sleep.’
‘I didn’t do that,’ he protested.
Lynne laughed. ‘Oh, but you admit to missing me.’
‘Oh yeah,’ he said honestly