Page 20 of One Step After Another

And didn’t believe her.

He shouldn’t.

Not that Penny would willingly say that out loud. Seeing her past right in front of her eyes had been a frank reminder of things—and people—she had been running away from for years. That didn’t mean she planned to do anything with the complication he posed.

“He could be a problem to the grander plan, especially now that you’re slightly easier to track being in the states more often while we infiltrate and dismantle The Elite,” Dare explained. “I’m giving you the option now to allow me to correct the problem before I make the choice on my own because you leave me nothing else to work with. You know the deal, Penny. To make this work, nothing else exists ... nothing from your past, your present, or your future.”

She understood.

All too well.

She also wouldn’t give the okay for Dare to make a call that would effectively end any hope that Luca would live to see the end of the week simply because he was doing what he had always done. He was only trying to find her ... she knew why, too.

Because people loved her. She was also here because she loved them.

It didn’t seem fair to hurt those people again by removing someone else from their life just because it might make this plan of Dare’s for The Elite a little harder to see through. That was not her problem; she just did the killing.

It’s what they wanted.

“Are we done?” Penny asked.

Dare’s gaze drifted to his partner at Penny’s side with a glint she recognized. He wanted to push; to question and ask more but that had never been his MO with her. He liked Cree to do that dirty work for him ... just like the show downstairs. It wasn’t by accident that Cree knew exactly where to find Penny or that he was the only person within the large complex that had been able to reach the music room despite all the locked doors. No one got anywhere in this place without Dare allowing it to happen through his security system.

In that moment, Cree was silent.

He wouldn’t indulge whatever Dare was silently asking. Maybe because he didn’t care to or, perhaps, he agreed with Penny. It didn’t matter to her if they left the conversation—and Luca—alone.

Dare gave her a pointed look. “Don’t play any games, got it?”

“What game?” Penny widened her arms, adding, “Call me when you can tell me the next move I need to make. You know where to find me.”