Page 63 of One Step After Another

17.

Luca

LUCA was finally thefly on the wall in Penny’s life, gathering more information by the second to connect every dot he had ever missed, but he wasn’t sure that he liked it. Especially while the conversation between her and Renzo continued at the table. He wasn’t stupid—the few things that had slipped from Penny over the time they were together added into what he already knew, and now piled onto the details Renzo gave about the situation ... it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure things out.

He could put two and two together.

This wasn’t good.

At all.

Penny also didn’t seem to care.

“So, what you’re saying is The League is going to force my hand one way or another,” Penny said, “because if a simple order isn’t going to make me follow along, then the subsequent threat will?”

Renzo sighed. “You know it’s not like that.”

“What is it fucking like, then?”

“Dare and Cree—”

“Have no bone in this fight but money. The money they get for every successful job I do, and you know it. Were you any different, Renzo?”

The man at the other side of the table from Penny didn’t blink a lash at her growing anger. “They warned me this might happen.”

Penny’s brow dipped. “Excuse me?”

“This,” Renzo said, gesturing between the two of them. “That you would put up a fight about everything. They planned for that, too.”

Now, it was Luca’s turn to worry about what he was hearing. He managed to stay quiet at his table but only because he didn’t think speaking up would help the situation at all when he still wasn’t sure what the entire situation was, to begin with.

One thing was clear, though.

Every single move Penny had made up until that moment had been done with a purpose for her work and little else. It was obviously the one and only thing that kept her moving. The very idea that someone planned to shut her down—even for a time—was too much for her to handle.

He supposed if the past five years of her life had revolved solely around hunting the same kind of monsters that had hurt her, it would be horrifying for someone to say they were going to back off. Allowing those same monsters to continue hurting others.

No wonder Penny had been able to pinpoint his obsession in finding her with such cruel precision. She wasn’t any different from him at the end of the day; her reason for doing so was the only major change from his own.

“And because they figured this is what would happen when I came to deliver to you the news,” Renzo continued saying, dragging Luca from his thoughts before they could spiral further. “Your handlers have arranged a private jet by your boss’s demand—”

“Who’s the boss, exactly?” Luca asked.

Speaking up before he could help himself.

Neither answered. In fact, they didn’t even look his way. If the small bit of information he had gathered on The League was true—their practices and members were infamous for being difficult to track or infiltrate; his work trying to find Penny proved both to be correct—then getting the name of the person pulling all of Penny’s strings would be impossible.

Assassins trained by The League were not owned by the organization but rather, whoever delivered them to their training. There were also rumors of auctions where assassins fresh out of the program were sold to the highest bidder to do whatever they wanted. Penny’s situation could be either of those things—or something else entirely.

He doubted she would tell him even if he asked.

Renzo continued speaking to Penny as though Luca hadn’t interrupted in the first place, explaining, “At the moment, considering everything that’s happened, they all think removing you from the state and taking you back to Nevada is the best choice. The only choice.”

“It’s not the only—”

“It is,” the man interjected, shrugging like nothing she said would make a difference. “You’ll be better protected where The League has more control and resources. Once Dare and Cree are satisfied with the new plan—whatever that might be—then, you can go from there. So far, you’ve done well by going underground like you have, but now they want you to do that at headquarters. Or at least, somewhere within their reach. I’m sure you understand.”

Despite her earlier anger, Penny reverted to a cold demeanor in a blink when she stood from the table and replied, “No, I don’t understand.”