One Step After Another (The After Another Trilogy Book 1)

by Bethany-Kris

  She would soon learn.

  An image of a New Jersey senator flashed on the screen and the woman behind the desk smiled behind her painted mask of television makeup. “Senator Gilles Tracey has announced his engagement today. We were expecting a different announcement from the senator’s team this week—something like a presidential run in the upcoming election—but we were assured that was still on the table.”

  Penny blinked.

  The image changed.

  Her throat closed.

  Two little girls—the caption said their names were Jennifer and Jules, twelve and ten years old respectively—stood in front of their father, the senator, and another woman. A familiar face. The same face Penny had been staring at for minutes without being able to look away just moments before when the pyramid of Elite members had been plastered across the screen.

  “Senator Tracey provided little details about the engagement but stated he planned to marry Allegra Hatheway within the next few months in a private ceremony.”

  She was different, now.

  Her last name had changed. The white-blonde hair was now a caramel wave that fell over her shoulders in soft curls. She still looked entirely fit for her position as a trophy wife standing beside a rich and powerful man.

  “Do you want me to let it keep—”

  “Shut it off,” Penny said through clenched teeth.

  Dare did.

  Beside her, Cree reached over to clasp her shoulder in his large palm. She side-stepped the touch, not wanting anyone too close. He didn’t seem offended, but he did pass Dare a knowing glance.

  “The report continues,” Dare said softly. “It glosses over her previous husband and life. Probably because a lot of that happened years ago, and the senator has more money than he knows what to do with. I’m sure he doesn’t want his future wife’s dead husband’s misdeeds staining his family’s pristine reputation or ruining his potential run at the presidency when—”

  “Is he in any way connected to anything we’ve gathered around The Elite?” she asked.

  “It appears not.”

  But he had two girls.

  That woman had access to two girls.

  The screen switched back to the image of the pyramid and faces when the video player eventually minimized itself like it did when videos were paused for too long. Penny would have preferred to keep staring at the reporter doing her job than the face of a woman that had haunted her every waking moment since the first memories of her life. Every monster that had ever done her harm came from the permission of that woman.

  Allegra Hatheway was Allegra Dunsworth.

  Penny’s mother.

  Her image sat at the top of the pyramid alongside a man that had been an accomplice in her abuse and trafficking for years with her mother and father—her grandfather. Allegra’s father. The whole family tree was rotten, and it started in the fucking roots.

  She could still hear Dare talking—trying to explain things. It all felt like she was underwater, and everything was muffled around her.

  “This is going to be a lot more difficult and messier with Allegra coming back to the spotlight in this way,” Dare said from where he had moved to sit behind his desk. “It is possible that this move was purposeful; maybe even meant to hold off what’s been happening to members of The Elite, but we’re not really—”

  “I need a minute.”

  Her words came out short.

  Sharp.

  Even to her own ears.

  For a man who had been quick to say he needed to stop caring about the emotional needs of the people he controlled at The League, Dare didn’t hesitate to nod and say, “Whatever you want. Just know, Penny ...”

  She had already turned to leave, and while walking away, she heard him say, “You’re to do nothing right now—not until we know their next move. Since you brought that man with you, staying at the complex is off the table, but we can just as easily keep an eye on you at the hotel. Go ... there. I won’t say home because I know that isn’t what it is for you. Either way, go there and stay out of sight. Do not force my hand. This is for the best.”

  Right.

  The best.

  But all she could think about?

  Those little girls.

  19.

  Luca

  “WHY was every room locked until I found this one?” Luca asked the presence that had joined him in what he could only describe as a music room.

  “Because this was where Dare wanted you,” Penny said simply.

  “What, like—”

  “He controls the locks on every room door and corridor. If one was unlocked, it was because he left it that way purposefully to direct you to the place where he wanted you to be.”

  Huh.

  The whole damn place gave him the fucking creeps, but he wouldn’t say so out loud. Cameras watched him from every corner. He couldn’t even remember the many dirt roads they had taken deep into the desert to arrive. All the doors were black. Some didn’t even have handles to open them. He hadn’t seen a single soul, but maybe that was purposeful. Locks were controlled by a man with a strange name hidden somewhere he couldn’t see. What, were they in The Wizard of Oz or some shit?

  At least, he liked the room he was currently in. That was one good thing. Instruments lined the walls. Everything and anything one could want to indulge their musical interests waited for the right hands to pick the instrument of their choice. At first, he considered the row of vintage guitars, but the piano at the far side called his name just because of the nostalgia he felt looking at it.

  He was far from a pianist.

  That was all his sister.

  And Penny, too.

  Still, he dared to play. Of course, the piano seemed a bit out of tune. To his ear, anyway. The small set of familiar tools that he found under the piano gave him something to do as he tuned the instrument for a while as he waited to be found.

  He figured ... how hard would it be? All they had to do was check the cameras.

  Right.

  Sitting at the piano bench, Luca played a few keys, letting his fingers dance over ivory. Mary Had A Little Lamb rang out into the room, making Penny laugh.

  “You missed a key,” she noted. “And it’s better in the higher note, I think.”

  Luca shrugged as she came to join him on the bench. He shot her a smile while he played the next few keys of the song. “Never said I was a pro.”

  Far from it.

  “That was always Roz’s thing,” he added about his sister. “And I was just there to help or annoy her when she needed it.”

  “I don’t think she needed the annoyance part.”

  “And you clearly never had a younger brother.”

  It was par for the course.

  Basically siblings’ rights.

  His joke went over Penny’s head when he glanced her way. The song came to a stop when he realized she wasn’t smiling or even looking at him. Her stare had focused on the wall behind the piano, emotionless and dead. It was impossible to miss.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing,” Penny murmured, a fake smile tugging at the edges of her lips.

  “You’re a terrible liar.”

  “I’m a fantastic liar.”

  “Hard to argue with that.”

  Penny’s hands lifted like she was considering playing the piano, but stopped short of resting on the keys when she said, “You know, Roz was more of a mother to me in the time I spent with her than my own ever was for my entire life.”

  This was not the conversation he expected. Especially not when she was supposed to be here for a briefing on her work. He didn’t think she would share that information with him, either, but he wondered why she had Roz on her mind. Particularly in a mothering sense.

  He wasn’t going to pass the opportunity up to once again remind Penny that the woman she cared about enough to consider a mother still loved her and worried every day. Like a mother would.

  “She still talks about yo
u,” Luca said, letting his fingers zip down half the keys in the span of a second, the twang annoying even to his own ears. “Sometimes, she’ll be in random conversation and something reminds her of you ... it’s like she can’t help herself. You’re always on her mind. Those photos she took when you lived there? She hung them up with the family photos she had done with Naz and little Cross, too. You’re still there even if you’re not.”

  “I wish you wouldn’t do that.”

  Luca nodded. “I know.”

  “Do you, really? Do you know how it aches inside my chest when you tell me that people I only wanted to help are hurting because—”

  “That’s why I keep telling you,” he interjected, not unkindly even if he could plainly see her pain staring back at him from ice-blue eyes. “Because maybe if I do it enough, you’ll let me go back and tell them you’re okay. Even that would be better than what they have now, Penny. I’m only here because they want to know why.”

  “It’s not occurred to you even once, has it?”

  “What?”

  Penny stood from the bench, muttering, “That I’m only here because they loved me, Luca. I don’t need you to tell me things I already know.” She didn’t give him time to dissect those words. With a wave as she headed for the door, she told him, “Let’s go. It’s time to leave before someone changes their mind, and your bed tonight ends up being at the bottom of a hole somewhere.”

  Well ...

  Okay, then.

  PENNY DIDN’T HAVE A home.

  She had a hotel.

  A suite—a nice one, mind—that felt nothing like her. It was the first thing he noticed when she slid the card through the lock and opened the door. There wasn’t anything that suggested she had been here before, recently left, or even planned to return. Sure, the sitting room and small kitchenette were meticulously cared for and clean. The walls had a few scattered pieces of art that matched the decor. Likely compliments of the hotel.

  But the place felt ...

  Sterile.

  Cold, even.

  Penny must have noticed his curious stare sweeping the place because she was quick to say, “It does what I need it to, that’s what counts.”

  “Which is?”

  “A place to sleep.”

  Was that all she needed?

  Just a place to sleep?

  Hell, people did that on the fucking streets. Not by choice in most cases, he knew, but still ... if all she wanted was somewhere to lay her head at night, then he was sure there were cheaper or closer alternatives to the complex that had taken them over an hour to drive to once they hit the dry desert land.

  At least the view was decent. He took the chance to admire the sight of the Vegas strip lit up down below as he followed behind Penny without a word. She hadn’t suggested he should chase after her, but he also wasn’t going to give her the choice at the moment.

  Up until then, Luca had been fine to play whatever game she had going on between the two of them. If doing so meant gaining more information on her and possibly being able to bring her home, then what did it hurt?

  She called the shots.

  He let her.

  But the missed calls and piling texts on his phone that she hadn’t destroyed were starting to burn a hole in the back of his mind. Not that he’d answered any of them despite the growing frustration from Nazio’s messages and his mother’s constant stream of worries. Luca had been off the grid—unreachable by his family, friends, and even people who had jobs waiting on his back burner—for longer than he could excuse.

  At this point, he was just playing with fire.

  Inside a bedroom, Luca lingered by the doorway as Penny carelessly shed her clothing and tossed it to a nearby chair. She disappeared into the connected walk-in closet as he considered how to broach the fact that she was running out of time to make the choice of returning herself.

  Not that he could force her to go back. The time for that had obviously passed long ago. He missed his chance there big time.

  Luca knew that.

  He wasn’t stupid.

  There were other means at his disposal, now. Ways he could expose her current life and location to the people who wanted that information. Except he was quite aware that could be dangerous for her. Someone had tried to kill her. How long would the Donatis have Penny on their radar—just to know she was alive and well—before the news was passed on to someone else who only meant to do her harm?

  It made him pause.

  Fucked his plans entirely.

  Stuck between a rock and a hard place, Luca didn’t know where to begin with his next move. He wondered ...

  “Was that your plan?” His question came out quiet when Penny reappeared from within the closet with an item that she dumped to the bed. “Get me close, let me see just enough of your business right now that I have a basic understanding of the situation you’re in, and let me draw conclusions myself from there,” he clarified at her silent stare. “Because why else would you stay put with me for days, right? Why else bring me here, too? The devil you know is better than the one you don’t, huh?”

  “Luca—”

  “I think some of this was ... all accidental.”

  “Some of it,” she admitted. “Most of it.”

  “You’re being hunted, aren’t you?”

  Penny didn’t flinch.

  In fact, she smiled.

  “It was bound to happen, Luca. One can only keep the company of monsters for so long before they start to notice you’re not quite the same.”

  Appropriate, he thought.

  Considering everything ...

  “You just had to go and make yourself a very present complication while it happened,” she told him without any heat in her tone.

  “And if I don’t go along with keeping everything I know about you under the radar—”

  “You already have your answer, I’m sure.”

  He did.

  And it pissed him off.

  Because he understood, too.

  “I didn’t plan very much,” Penny added, shrugging as she opened a leather satchel across the bed. The spread of sharp knives in all shapes and sizes stared back, nestled in their hooks and glinting under the light of the bedside lamp. “I just let what was going to happen ... happen. Inevitable, you know?”

  “No, I don’t—”

  “You’re mad because I gave you what you wanted?”

  Luca’s brow lifted high. “What?”

  “Access. You have access. To me. The thing you’ve been chasing for years. A ghost you couldn’t catch but saw around every corner. I gave you what you wanted, and you’re mad about it?”

  “Are you fucking serious?”

  “Ask me when I joke, Luca.”

  Man.

  This female was something else.

  Penny gave him one last look—it burned more than he wanted to admit—before she headed for the closet again. The next time she reappeared, she was punching her arms through a too-large T-shirt with a faded logo across the chest that barely covered the black cotton panties stretched over her pert ass.

  Of course, his cock noticed those things.

  Why wouldn’t it?

  It wasn’t the fucking time.

  “So, this is it?” he demanded.

  Penny didn’t reply.

  He was getting really tired of that shit, too. Her silence. The lack of cooperation. He was fine and good to follow along like a puppy at her bidding but that was it. Any plans that related to her or that fucking place back in the desert were off the table entirely.

  “Is this it, Penny? I can be here, but I can’t help or know what’s going on ... or do anything even remotely useful because—”

  His words cut off when an item flew past his head with blinding speed. He didn’t need to turn to see where the knife had embedded itself into the wood of the doorway. The corner of his eye provided that view just fine. She had picked that knife up and threw it with such precision that there had been no hesitation b
etween her first move and the last. If she had meant for that blade to be buried in his chest, then that’s exactly where it would have landed.

  No lie, he swallowed a little bit harder in those few seconds when her gaze met his.

  “Remember,” she said, each word after a warning that he heard loud and clear, “you are here because I allowed it. That doesn’t mean I owe you anything during or after.”

  He hit a nerve.

  That much was clear.

  But which one?

  Luca searched for the reason, wracking his brain but all he could come up with was ... “Because I suggested I might be able to help? Or that you won’t let me help.”

  “Just drop it.”

  “Penny, come on.”

  What was her aversion to talking?

  It drove him crazy.

  “Did you get those knives out just to throw one at me?”

  “No, I wanted this one to peel the wax off the wine I’ve been saving.” She didn’t give him the chance to push the topic before she headed right for him, stopping at his side only long enough to yank the knife from the doorframe. The tip of the blade teased far too close to his chin when she said, “And now I need a damn drink, but I doubt the wine is going to be enough.”

  “Penny—”

  “Drop it.”

  “I didn’t mean that you needed my help.”

  Wasn’t that obvious?

  The girl was a created killer. That place—those people—she worked for ... they had turned her into someone he was still trying to learn. She was a shell of who she used to be, but he no longer thought that was a bad thing.

  That didn’t mean she liked it.

  Luca knew that.

  He could have left Penny alone. That might have been the smarter option. Considering she had just thrown a knife at him. One she still had within reach. Instead, he followed her like a dumbass and watched from behind a couch as she poured herself a glass of whiskey at the wet bar facing the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the strip.

  Her silence irked him.

  More than he could explain.

  Even as she lifted the glass of whiskey and swallowed two fingers worth of burning liquor without as much as a cringe, the feeling only festered inside of Luca. More and more. Until he was brimming with it and unwilling to keep quiet any longer.