Page 19 of One Step After Another

“Filled with what you would expect for a man of his tastes,” Dare informed with a dry inflection that said nothing he found on the drive shocked him. That was a sad fact about this entire world she had fallen into; the monsters were everywhere, and they did the most monstrous of things. Nothing was surprising. “All files were, of course, wiped of anything usable regarding metadata, but we’ll see what our people can do with the videos and photos. Connect it back, if possible. I assume you don’t want to see—”

“Would rather not,” Penny interjected shortly. “I don’t need visuals when I already have a whole memory bank of my own to get me through cold nights, thanks.”

Beside her, Cree folded his arms over his chest but avoided looking her way. Still, he said quietly, “Have you considered you might be able to help those ch—”

“I am helping.”

Cree let out a weighted exhale. Dare didn’t miss a step and continued with his previous discussion like the exchange between Penny and his partner beside her didn’t happen at all.

“We can safely assume if Mr. Smithenson was willing to go outside his usual connections within The Elite for his fix,” Dare said, his back facing Penny while he observed the many security cameras keeping watch on the halls and rooms of the compound, “then perhaps other members will do the same in the coming months. That will make knocking out a few more of them easier than we’d hoped. This is a good thing.”

“Did you consider it might only be because of recent events?” Penny asked.

Dare lifted his silk-covered shoulders. The sky-blue hue of his button-down was a stark contrast against the light of the screens in front of him. “Depends on what you mean.”

“I think it’s likely the only reason he did go outside of the group is that their members keep showing up dead. Do you think they haven’t caught on yet that someone is hunting inside their group? It was bound to happen.”

“We don’t have proof of that.”

“Yet,” Penny muttered. “It is inevitable. We knew that when we moved on to the group in the states. I’m sure they know it, too.”

Dare didn’t reply.

He rarely did to her attitude.

“Either way,” Dare added, “we continue like we have. Carefully. One step at a time. We don’t move without purpose, and we don’t hit without—”

“I know.”

Finally, Dare turned on his heels his ice-cold stare burrowing holes into her stoic form across the room. “Anything else you want to fill me in on while you’re here? Or should I pre-emptively lock all the doors leading to the music room, so you can play unbothered for the next two hours before you leave?”

“Does my playing bother you?”

Cree tipped his head her way. “Penny.”

She knew it didn’t bother them.

They gave her the room.

“This entire conversation would go faster—and easier—if Dare just said what he wanted to say instead of trying to dance around it like I’ll willingly offer it.”

“Why won’t you?” Dare asked.

Like Cree, her other handler was approaching a later age in his life. Gray had started to color his hair, though, and the lines on his face gave him a visual sense that he had learned many things in his life. But the same way Cree could just look at Penny and know things, so did Dare. She wasn’t sure if that was because she wore her truths on her sleeve or if it was something else. Something about them.

Either way, she hated it.

“Because it wasn’t an issue,” Penny said.

“A man that has been tracking you for years finally catches up to you while you’re on a job, causes a problem during the—”

“After, Dare. The hit was done.”

“Fact remains. He is an issue.”

“Luca Puzza is just a man who knows my face,” Penny said firmly. “You’re right, he’s been chasing my trail for years, and this is the first time he got close. A stroke of luck, nothing more. It’s not something we need to act on. I handled it. Get your people on the reason why he found me, and work to make sure that doesn’t happen again. There’s no reason to make it bigger than it is.”

Dare’s jaw tightened. A sure sign he was pissed.