Page 8 of One Step After Another

There wasn’t a single mark in his history that fucked him up the way Penny did. He wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing only because his desire to catch her had become an obsession of sorts. One that wouldn’t be satisfied until he had finally done his job.

Maybe it was the fact that in all his years tracking the ghost of Penny Dunsworth, never once had he been close enough to breathe the same air as her. He’d never been just seconds behind her. It was all he could focus on.

All he knew.

It was the only thing racing through his mind when he passed a young girl dressed in a white, flowy gown. Not unusual considering the formal event downstairs even if she did look too young to be wandering a very large hotel on her own. It was a little strange to him that she didn’t just take the elevator but instead the emergency stairwell. He also didn’t have time to stop and question her.

Her gaze met his as they side-stepped one another one in the stairwell, and their stares lingered for the length of time it took to pass by. Something about her was familiar. He didn’t know what.

He only cared about catching Penny.

That was the problem.

• • •

LUCA HADN’T EXPECTEDto find a guard wearing a black suit with a wire comm hanging from his ear waiting outside the exit door inside the stairwell on the eighth floor. Only because Keys hadn’t mentioned seeing one on the cameras. That would have been an important detail to know.

Helpful, and all.

He wondered if the guy had seen Penny head to room 801 earlier or if she had noticed him. Either way ... it didn’t matter because now he was in Luca’s way.

Luca plastered on a fake smile, hoping to distract and get past the guy without a problem. The suit eyed him when he leaned sideways to glance beyond the glass window of the exit door and pointed at the bank of elevators he could see. “Got lost—place is crazy tonight. Wouldn’t have booked the whole week had I known there was going to be a political event. Don’t mix pleasure with politics, you know? Will that elevator take me—”

“Only Smithenson family on this floor,” the guy said, offering nothing else.

In fact, he altogether turned his gaze away from Luca. That was fine. It allowed him to size up the guard while he considered what the man said.

What was Penny doing—or who was she visiting—on the floor where the Smithenson family was staying in the hotel? The same political family currently raising funds downstairs from wealthy donors.

The guard was two inches shorter than Luca’s six-foot-two. But the guy also had probably forty pounds of muscle on Luca’s fit one-ninety-nine. So, he had a bit of height on his side, and the occasional kickboxing training that had become more and more infrequent over the years as he focused on his job might help but ...

“Really,” Luca said, taking a step forward and reaching for the door. “I’ll only take the elevator back down to my fl—”

Luca didn’t even reach the doorknob or finish his sentence before the guy grabbed his wrist and squeezed hard enough to make him flinch. Not that he did so, or showed his irritation.

“I said no entrance to this floor, asshole. And how the fuck are you getting lost when you’ve had a room booked for the week, anyway?”

He smirked.

Good catch.

Maybe the guy wasn’t just meat shoved into a suit. Not that it was going to do him any good at the moment. Luca had been willing to forgo violence thirty seconds ago had he been able to get past the man but now ...

Too bad.

“I lied,” Luca said frankly.

And with a shrug.

Just because.

Honesty was the best policy, wasn’t it? Especially in cases where it gave Luca the leverage of shock.

The guard’s head snapped to the side, his gaze nailing into Luca, but it was already too late. He used his free arm to lift fast and hard, and his elbow hit the intended target. The nose of the guard which broke on impact. And stunned the guy just long enough for Luca to get his forearm against the man’s throat as he pinned him to the wall.

Forty unfortunate seconds later, because the man bled all over Luca’s arm, and he let the asshole fall to the floor before stepping over the unconscious body. Chances were, by the time he woke up, Luca would already be gone from the hotel.

Hopefully with Penny. Even if he hadn’t figured out how to make that happen yet. Shit, if all else failed, he would just go the same route for Penny that he’d gone for the guard. Why not?