Page 92 of One Breath After Another

Only because he didn’t offer an alternative.

Once she stepped away from the desk, the man moved forward and picked up the file. The man with the braid leaned sideways a bit to peek at what was inside the file. It was the way he lifted his brow and nodded, clearly interested in whatever he was reading, that had Penny’s heart thumping harder in her chest.

“I don’t understand what this place is,” she said, wishing anyone would talk to her.

All this silence was deafening.

“Or why I had to come here,” she added.

The man with the braid gave her a rueful smile. “It appears you’re here because your boss wants a weapon. A very specialized weapon. One we can provide.”

The other man nodded, snapping the folder closed. “Cree is right.”

“Mark that one down,” Cree said in a chuckle, “It’s not often Dare says that. I like to keep count.”

Penny was so confused. “What?”

The man named Dare lifted a hand like he was showing her the space—or maybe everything surrounding them including the building—when he said, “Welcome to The League, Penny Dunsworth.”

19.

Luca

“NU-NU lu-lu,” the one-year-old babbled.

Leaning in the rear passenger window, Luca tickled the cheek of his nephew. “Uncle Luca, yeah, dude. Nu-nu-lu-lu.”

It was the most little Cross could get out. The kid had ma and dad down. He reached for things he wanted and was attempting to at least copy the sounds of some words when it was something that interested him. Luca was working on getting the baby to say his name, now.

When he could, that was.

And had time.

“Almost,” Luca praised the boy.

Nu-nu lu-lu was the closest they had ever gotten to actually saying Uncle Luca so he was going to count that shit as a win.

Cross grinned back at him, showcasing the two front teeth on the top and bottom that had given him hell growing in. He clapped his chubby hands and laughed. Luca couldn’t help but laugh back. There was something about babies—or rather, his godson, in particular—that made him fucking stupid.

Still wasn’t keen on having his own. But shit, he loved this kid.

A lot could happen in six months.

Luca learned how to change a kid’s diaper because he decided to start taking his godson once a week for a night. It let Naz and Roz get out of the house together ... without a baby in tow. He also dropped out of college officially because he was tired of trying to swim while his head was barely above water. Pride was a tricky fucking thing when a man like him had to admit he failed at something.

He learned that, too.

Six months also saw his sister finally marry his best friend—shit that was probably destined to happen from the moment they met as children but took decades to finally come true. Life was funny like that.

What else happened in six months?

Little Cross turned one the week before—his godson was starting to develop a personality with every babyish smirk and each squealy laugh.

And absolutely nothing.

Nothing related to Penny, that was. Because six months was the amount of time Luca had spent looking for even a scrap of her existence. It was like piece by piece, she started to disappear. The fact she existed in the first place was slowly erased in every way.

It started with her physical disappearance. The biggest part of the entire puzzle—what started everything. He realized there was nothing on paper to say she had actually left or been taken. They did have video, though.