Page 43 of One Step After Another

Both men flipped their hands high, a silent apology. They moved on out of view of the mouth of the alley without another word. The air he released felt like relief but did nothing to ease the pressure in his chest and pants.

He reached over and banged on the door one more time.

Come on, Freddie, he thought. Come on, man.

Under his hands that he still hadn’t taken from Penny’s body, he felt all of her tremors. Every single one. And the way it increased when his fingers flexed against her waist, holding her tighter.

He met her gaze again.

Wide, and unsure.

“Don’t be scared,” he told her.

For so many reasons.

Their current situation, the fact he was a man and touching her when he knew ...

“I’m not scared,” she replied through clenched teeth and a tight jaw.

In all the years Luca had chased after this girl—no, a woman now—he had pushed aside the knowledge that once, she had looked at him differently than she did other men. Her young crush on him, that even she admitted was silly, wasn’t something he could indulge back then. Or even wanted to when all he could see when he looked at her back then was a broken girl desperately trying to make it one more day. He’d been her friend; nothing more.

He couldn’t say the same at that moment. It fucked him straight up.

“I know,” Luca murmured.

He could still taste her on his lips, and the tightness of his throat only increased when he tried to swallow the feeling away.

Penny opened her full, pink lips to say something else but finally, the door opened at their right. The familiar face of a man Luca had been cursing for the last several minutes peeked out of the doorway. Freddie Jonesburg cocked a brow like he was the one being inconvenienced.

“Puzza—what the fuck do you want?”

“A favor,” Luca replied.

Freddie eyed the situation happening outside his door. Luca at least had the decency to put some distance between himself and Penny, even though he couldn’t help but keep one hand on her waist. “Like what kind of favor?”

“A room. Maybe for a few hours or the night, or—”

“You pay it back whenever I want?”

“Just ask,” Luca agreed, “and I’ll do it.”

Freddie nodded once and pushed the door open wider. “Come on in, then. Last time I saw you was what, last year when you were hiding out from some fuck in Brooklyn that you pissed off, right?”

“First of all, I didn’t piss him off. I just took something that he took from someone else. He had it coming.”

Or mostly.

Luca entered the building first, but Penny soon followed. The dark hallway was dimly lit by a single bare bulb over the stairwell at the far end. Red walls. A metal staircase. It wasn’t much to see, but the exits of the underground haven rarely were to begin with. Equipped with everything from rooms to sleep in, and a bar to drink when one wanted, a guy could hide out for as long as he could stand to stay out of sight as long as he was willing to pay the price to stay. Although, with a recognizable face like Luca’s because he’d been around doing business here before ... he had a bit of pull in some cases.

Freddie was already climbing the stairs not even bothering to wait for the boarders he had decided to room without more than the promise of a returned favor in the future.

“What is this place?” Penny asked.

Luca shrugged. “It’s used for a lot of things. None of which we ask about.”

Penny followed behind Luca in silence; he was grateful.

All he could think was what happens now?