Page 11 of One Step After Another

The same night they kissed.

Her first real kiss.

If she cared to indulge that thought, then she knew damn well her mind wouldn’t let her forget how it felt to have him kiss her. All because she asked; she had wanted nothing more than to be kissed simply because she wanted it. Something on her terms; born from her desires. With someone she trusted.

That someone had been him.

“Did you know about me?” Luca asked.

Penny didn’t know what he meant for sure, but she had a damn good idea. “That you’ve been tracking me for years?”

“All these years, in fact.”

Right.

Couldn’t let that slide.

“Why do you think they make it so hard for you to catch up?”

Luca nodded, a glimmer of appreciation in his gaze that stayed nailed on her as though if he blinked, she might disappear. Hell, he wasn’t exactly wrong. If he gave her the chance to get out of there without him on her tail, then she was absolutely going to take it.

She didn’t have a choice.

Penny came and went.

She didn’t leave a trace.

“You know I can’t let you go tonight, right?” he asked.

She was only grateful for the fact that he kept his tone down, frankly. Too low for their guests to hear and below the shitty music playing through the speaker overhead. The speaker that was located right beside the blinking number that kept dropping with every floor they passed on their way down.

“Give me a day—or night, rather,” Luca said. “Go see them. Naz and my sister, I mean. Explain what the fuck happened. What did happen?”

Penny didn’t reply because she couldn’t. What difference would it make to a man who had been chasing any and all breadcrumbs of her very existence for years? All on what, the off chance that he might be able to return her to people she had been forced to leave behind?

It wasn’t like she could explain why.

They wouldn’t understand.

Even she didn’t.

Not completely.

Her gaze snapped up to the numbers overhead still counting down.

Five ... four ...

She needed a plan and fast. Chances were, her handlers from The League wouldn’t be willing to let actual contact between her and Luca slide. Not when the entire point of her taking the offer to train and work as one of their assassins had rested upon the need of leaving everyone in her life behind. Beyond that, this could only cause more trouble for the actual job.

Another reason for the people above her to get rid of the issue altogether.

“I’m a bit confused,” Luca murmured, sticking his hands in his pockets which was at least one thing she didn’t have to worry about. Fewer appendages to fight back when she took him by surprise in another couple of floors, right? That was the only way to fix this situation by all accounts. She needed to make it out of here cleanly.

Or as clean as possible.

She didn’t want to do that to Luca. At the same time, he really didn’t give her a choice tonight. Any other night, had he accosted her—though she had no clue how he managed to track her this time, but they knew her working in the states would be dangerous—then she might have been able to do ... anything else.

Indulge his conversation. Lie. Run.