Page 36 of One Step After Another

Once he knew the area to look for—like the dead Smithenson man and any secrets his family was attempting to keep hidden—the only thing left to do was uncover them. Well, he needed the right people looking in the right places to uncover them, so to speak.

In the process of his hacker contact digging through every single morsel of information regarding the political family that he could, the guy managed to stumble upon rumors of an upcoming business deal. One between a dead man and another guy, a businessman from Florida, who was very much alive.

Two things were important in that information to Luca. Dead men didn’t make deals—business or otherwise. And there was always a little bit of truth to every rumor. It took a bit more digging, some money shoved into the right hands to figure out why the deal was still apparently on the table despite Elijah being dead, and Luca had what he needed.

A meeting at a pizzeria in Hell’s Kitchen between associates of the now-dead Elijah Smithenson and the Florida businessman. Someone else decided to see the deal—whatever it was—through.

Luca still had a few issues with the whole thing. The most important being the fact that he was chasing what he figured would end up being nothing more than another rabbit hole. There was no reason to suspect the meeting had anything to do with Penny. She had been long gone from New York for weeks without even a whisper of a possible return either from the underground criminal networks or on the dark web.

Unfortunately, Elijah was still Luca’s only lead he could connect back to her. Even dead, it was possible that whatever affiliations he had could somehow provide Luca with the details he needed to fill in some blanks. He would take anything at this point.

Everything else had long gone cold.

Besides, spying on the meeting in Hell’s Kitchen would take all of an hour out of his day. Maybe even less, depending on how it went. Then, he could head over to meet with a man in lower Manhattan whose employee had up and disappeared with a hundred grand of the company’s cash that he wanted to be returned as soon as possible.

So, without any details as to what the meeting in the Kitchen would entail or the supposed deal taking place, Luca found himself sitting in the passenger seat of his black Bentley watching the view into the pizzeria through large bay windows. He’d visited the business a couple of hours before—just long enough to grab a slice of pizza and place two bugs on both sides of the dining floor. That covered all his bases and would let him listen in when the guests of the hour finally arrived.

At worst, he was wasting his time. At best, he might gain something useful that opened up a new door or answered questions.

Luca wasn’t hopeful.

He also wasn’t giving up.

The other thing he hadn’t done?

Tell Naz.

Partly because his friend was busy this week and when he wasn’t, Naz was always with Roz who he didn’t want to know they were still looking for Penny. The other reason he hadn’t told his friend that he might have another lead to follow was simply because ... well, if he wasn’t hopeful, then why should he give false hope to Naz?

He wouldn’t.

Couldn’t.

A black car with darkened windows pulled up across the street at the same time Luca’s phone dinged in his lap. He pulled the phone up, unlocking the screen to read the message as he eyed the new arrival at the same time.

Except he couldn’t do both.

And one was more interesting.

The woman who stepped out of the backseat, that was. Her pin-straight black hair wasn’t covered by a hat this time. His slightly rolled down window allowed him to hear what she said to the man who had opened her door just seconds before.

“They’ll be here in five,” the man said. “And you know the rules.”

“Ten minutes—max,” Penny replied. “I know.”

Her voice hadn’t changed a bit; it was still light like air. Musical, even. But she was nothing like the girl he used to know.

Across the street, Penny and the man headed for the pizzeria. Luca finally checked that message on his phone.

It was his hacker contact.

With more info.

The guy from Florida—finally found what I was looking for. Known trafficker. Kids, mostly. Watch yourself, Luca. That’s a slippery slope.

He didn’t have time to process what that news meant. A second car had just pulled up to the pizzeria.

Two men in suits stepped out.

No one else.

No ... child.

He didn’t know why, but something told him bad shit was about to happen.