Page 45 of One Step After Another

“What, got away again?” Luca scoffed. “Doubt it, sweetheart. Those alleys just keep getting longer and longer. They were too close. I had to make a choice, and I knew this place was close by. Freddie and his people won’t let anybody in here to search for shit. That’s now how it works. You’re safe until you think, or know, it’s clear to go.”

“And how am I supposed to know when that is if I don’t even have a phone—”

Luca closed the distance between them and shoved his hand into the inner pocket of his leather jacket that she was still wearing. Penny jerked slightly away from him, but he was all too aware of the way she watched him—her gaze soft, but wary. Pulling the item out that he was looking for, he held off on handing it to her.

Just long enough to say, “I knew Freddie or one of his guys would hear the knocking. I just needed a couple of minutes. I wouldn’t have kissed you or made it look like we were doing any—”

“It’s fine.”

She said that too fast. He heard that clearly, and the air in her words, too. Also, she wouldn’t meet his gaze, determined that everything else in the room was apparently more interesting than him at that moment.

“It’s not,” Luca said. “If that freaked you out, a guy being on you like that after everything that’s been done to you—”

“Could you not?”

Luca straightened at the sharpness in her tone and the sting of her gaze when it leveled on him. Unashamed and without fear, she challenged his notions of her with nothing more than her presence and a look. He had to keep reminding himself that this woman he finally found was not the same one he had been chasing. Years had changed her; circumstances and life turned her into someone else.

Not that it was a bad thing.

It just ... was.

“I’m not a fragile doll that breaks apart every time someone comes within breathing distance of me, Luca,” Penny said, yanking his jacket off and then throwing it to the bed behind him. “And I know how to make someone stop. You got me?”

He nodded.

“Good,” she muttered.

“Here.” He held out the phone that he’d taken from the jacket. One of two phones he kept on hand—but this one was for work, only. “It’s a burner. No one’s listening in. You’re welcome to use it. Call your ... handler, or whatever.”

Penny eyed the phone in his outstretched hand like it was diseased. He didn’t move a muscle until she did finally take the device. A minute later, he listened from where he sat on the foot of the bed while she spoke to someone she called Cree.

“Definitely dead, yeah,” Penny said. “Probably before I even made it out the back. Is someone going to retrieve his ... no? Why the hell not?”

A beat passed.

Penny scowled. “Fine—but he’s got a kid. Had a kid. Someone’s going to tell them he’s not going to be around, right?” She shifted from foot to foot, watching her reflection in the mirror as the person on the other end of the call replied before she said, “At least two are looking right now. And yeah, I can stay out of sight until the mess is cleaned. How long do you—”

A curse fell from her lips.

“Tell Dare he can fuck off, too. This wasn’t something we could have seen coming. Nobody knew the deal was bait to draw me out. Nothing suggested that in the contacts our man had with them. Don’t let him call anything off, Cree. We’re too close and—”

Another minute passed. Penny grew more irritated by the second. Luca couldn’t help but notice how she didn’t mention him or his involvement in what happened at the pizzeria.

“Fine, I don’t move until someone comes looking for me. Got it.”

Penny offered nothing else before she hung up the call. Before Luca could even ask for his phone back, she proceeded to beat it against the side of the metal sink until the device crumbled into a hundred broken pieces on the floor.

He just ... stared.

Like an idiot.

“Why the fuck did you do that?” he demanded.

Penny didn’t even turn around. “Because I can’t trust you not to trace the call back, or try. Not that it would do you any good because my handlers can’t be found that easily. Either way, I can’t be too safe with you.”

That pissed him off.

“What, like I didn’t help you today? I’m still helping you!”