Page 65 of One Step After Another

He had to be smug about it on the outside. A rule he had learned long ago was that any show of weakness would be manipulated in their life. He wouldn’t give anything for Renzo to use against him or pass along to someone else, even if that something was just his worries about the unknowns ahead of him.

Of everything.

Would going to Nevada cause a problem? Probably. In more ways than anyone knew.

What was he going to tell Naz? As it was, he’d already been underground and unreachable for a week. He was busy, sure, but not so much so that his best friend or family didn’t hear from him for days at a time. How much longer was this going to take?

It didn’t matter.

Luca would lie if he had to—it was the only way he might be able to keep this charade up and see where it would end. Hopefully, with Penny coming home to the people who missed and needed her. Or at the very least, returning to their lives in some way. He could justify lying to his sister and Nazio—and anyone else that got in his way—if it meant succeeding in his goal.

Or ...

That’s what Luca would keep telling himself.

“Well,” Penny said, slapping her hands at her sides and giving Renzo a pointed look, “when are we leaving?”

• • •

“COULD I GET YOU A DRINKor any snacks—”

“You can get the fuck out of my face,” Penny snapped.

Her harsh words and the squeaky, unintelligible reply from the single flight attendant on the private jet had Luca turning away from the beautiful view beyond the porthole window. Three hours into their trip, and Penny had clearly hit her limit of patience and tolerance for the day.

It wasn’t the first time she had been nasty to the woman who was only meant to help them throughout the flight. She even brushed off the pilot when they first boarded the jet. The man had only wanted to introduce himself which was standard.

At first, Luca blamed Penny’s worsening mood on the fact this was happening at all when she had made it clear that she didn’t want to return to Nevada. Not if it meant being put into lockdown while other plans were pushed aside. But as she unbuckled her seat belt and clamored across the aisle to snap shut the port window for the plush seats next to theirs, he wondered if it might be something else.

“Do you want me to close mine, too, or ...?”

Penny glanced his way, but not at the window. “If you wouldn’t mind.”

He closed it. “You’re scared of flying.”

It wasn’t even a question.

Penny exhaled hard. “A lot of my bad memories usually start with me getting on a fucking plane. I was a toddler, flown to Asia to deliver my virginity to a businessman with a taste for babies. Do you know what the contract said? My father kept it.”

Luca’s stomach twisted.

She didn’t notice his discomfort.

“No, what?”

Penny shrugged. “Any physical damage—say a tear—would be corrected before I was returned. And it was. Wouldn’t want to ruin the goods completely. It couldn’t be sold again, right?”

“Jesus—”

“At five, I was flown to Cuba for a set of videos they filmed with a bunch of blonde-haired, blue-eyed girls and boys. We were the ones bringing in big money for the ring at the time. They wanted to get all they could out of it. Those videos were still making the rounds until I was eighteen, and someone with an ounce of talent with the dark web finally started pulling shit down. Of course, that means nothing for the creeps who still have their own files to jack off to, you know?”

“Penny—”

“I can keep going.”

Luca frowned when she met his gaze. “I know, I’m sorry.”

“Do you—do you really know?”