Page 32 of One Step After Another

Penny grew cold all over.

“Looks like an eleven-year-old girl. Untraceable, practically,” Marcel added. “On her end, anyway. The details of the apparent meeting and final transaction, however—”

Penny held a hand up, quieting the hacker as her mind ran through the details she now had and what it might mean. She kept circling back to the same thing ... she couldn’t let the transaction happen at all.

“And,” Dare said, his tone harsh with his irritation, “the cold hits Marcel put through on the deal suggested we’re interested in continuing the transaction on behalf of Elijah as associates of The Elite.”

“They’re willing to see it through,” Marcel added quickly.

Dare shook his head, fists balled against the glass top of his desk. “Penny, it’s too dangerous to head back to New York right now where they want the transaction to take place. You were just there. You know how this works; we don’t go back to the same place twice in a row when you need to be a ghost that comes and goes.”

She heard none of that.

“If I’m not there to make the sale, then who will?” she asked quietly.

Dare didn’t reply.

Marcel just kept staring.

“Who was there to help me?”

Behind her, a new but familiar voice joined the conversation to say, “You can’t help them all, Penny.”

Cree had a point.

“Right,” she agreed, nodding, “but I can help this one.” Then, she pointed at Marcel, adding, “Make contact again—let them know someone will be there to see the deal through.”

“Penny—”

“It’s one girl, Dare,” Penny interjected sharply. “And since you apparently have nothing else better for me to do at the moment, then what’s the problem?”

“You know the problem.”

Sure, she did.

It was never just one girl. There would always be another. Penny would help that one, too, if the opportunity presented itself. It’s just what she did.