Page 85 of One Breath After Another

Everything.

Penny whispered to the man still looking her way, “They call themselves, The Elite.”

And she told him all of it.

Every sordid detail she knew.

17.

Luca

FOR once, Luca hadn’t been late to a party. He was starting to think his family and friends might withhold invitations—joking, of course.

Naz slapped Luca on the shoulder as the two of them faced the large rose gold three-tier cake with the sparkling 18 resting at the very top proudly. “Didn’t think we were going to make it to this point if I’m being honest. It’s not a bad thing for me to want to ... celebrate that as a personal accomplishment, is it?”

Luca grinned his friend’s way, knowing the truth. Naz and Roz had nothing but goodness in their hearts where Penny was concerned. So ... “Yeah, I think you earned a bit of celebrating.”

“Me, too, man.”

Turning back around to face the rest of the room, they surveyed the people milling between the grand rooms of the Donati mansion. Another party that everyone decided was better thrown at someone else’s house because of space. Given the number of people who showed up to support Penny’s birthday party, he had to admit the suggestion wasn’t a bad one. There had to be at least a hundred people.

Or more.

He found his parents in the crowd standing next to Naz’s. As usual. His sister drifted between guests with a smile on her face, talking to everyone like she did because that was just Roz in a nutshell. Servers from the company his family liked to use for larger events—when the ladies couldn’t handle making all the food themselves—kept everyone’s hands full with either treats or something to drink.

The party was in full swing.

Had been for a while.

And that’s when Luca realized he needed to ask, “Where’s Penny?”

He was sure he’d gotten a peek of her earlier talking to Naz’s grandmother, Emma, but it was brief before he was pulled away. Shit, he hadn’t even been able to tell her happy birthday—even if he did tell her the day she actually turned eighteen.

“I don’t know,” Naz said, sucking hair through his teeth. “Fuck, I wonder if she found somewhere to hide for a bit. There’s a lot of people here. We told her it was okay if—”

“Want me to find her?”

Naz laughed. “Would you?”

“Yeah, why not?”

It wasn’t like he was doing anything but standing there. At least this way, Luca would look busy. Maybe then his father would quit shooting looks his way like Zeke was going to come over and find something new to run his mouth about.

But who could say?

Certainly not Luca.

“I’ll find her,” he promised his friend.

At his back, Naz called, “But don’t make her do shit if she’s not in the mood. We’re still surprised she even let us do this.”

That was fair.

Luca was surprised, too.

It took him longer to find Penny in the mansion than he cared to admit. She wasn’t anywhere that he thought she would be. Certainly not mingling with the people or sneaking sweets from the kitchen where the caterers had been set up. He even checked in the rear of the mansion to see if she might have slipped outside for a breather.

No such luck.