Page 12 of One Step After Another

Tonight, there was no option.

She had to get away.

Without him.

“Confused,” he continued, tipping his head her way, “because clearly you have freedom. See, I have heard the rumors about the organization you work for. What they do—who you are. And in all this time, if you knew we were looking for you ... why didn’t you try to come back? Or call? Anything? Did you think the time you were with my sister and Naz meant nothing to them? To me? We lo—”

“Shut up,” she snapped.

Her sharp hiss did quiet the people behind them. She could practically feel their gazes burning into the back of her head. Probably taking in the long-sleeved gown she wore and the color of her hair. Imprinting the image of her to their memory, so they could relay it later to police when the dead body was found upstairs, and the mysterious woman caught on camera coming and going from the eighth floor was connected.

Two and two always made four, after all.

Jesus.

Penny was really screwing this job up.

Not her usual style.

Luca sighed. “You’re not even going to say a thing to—”

The elevator jumped when it came to the third floor. Rubber squeaked when the doors opened to the hotel’s floor with the pool. The same floor that had been lit up on the elevator’s switchboard from the second she stepped inside.

Had Luca been slightly less distracted by her and trying to get her to talk, then he might have noticed the same things she did. That the people behind them weren’t exactly dressed for the party downstairs. That they all held towels. Even the light on the switchboard designating the floor they intended to get off on ...

Where the pool was.

It told her a couple of things. She did have her opening to escape. This would end badly for Luca because he hadn’t given her a choice. And his chance to find her tonight had happened so quickly that the man didn’t even have time to properly check out the hotel in such a way that he would be aware of the pool on the third level.

The people moved forward, forcing Penny and Luca apart and creating a sea of five moving bodies that acted as a curtain for privacy between them. He didn’t see her reach into the bag she had been carrying all night—the one that held the gun, the electronics she had taken from Elijah’s room, her wig, and anything else she might need for the night.

Including a syringe full of a sedative that would work in less than six seconds once injected straight into the neck. The people didn’t look back as they exited the elevator.

Luca didn’t even see the needle coming.

“Fuck,” he snarled when she hit him with the syringe, arm swinging for her but missing because she had already shoved down the plunger and yanked her arm back. His wild gaze swung on her, angry and betrayed. “What did you just—”

“Tell them I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I always am.”

She at least caught Luca before he hit the floor. She got out on the second level instead of the ground floor because it wouldn’t exactly look good to come out on the ground section full of a busy entry with a body in the elevator.

Right?

The job came first. Everything else was second. That was Penny’s life now.

It had to be or no one, including Luca, would like what came next.