Page 93 of One Breath After Another

Security camera footage of Naz’s place showed Penny taking the external hard drive and other devices attached to his dark web program, writing a note, and leaving. She got into the back of a waiting vehicle that was blacked out on all four corners.

And that was it.

He went into her accounts, first. Bank. Email. Anything to find something. A purchase, even, that would start him out when he realized she left of her own will. He couldn’t find a plane, bus or train ticket in her name—nothing. Any legal way to track Penny came up with the same, and he exhausted those options fast, but he had already moved onto the illegal ways of finding someone in their world, anyway.

It soon became apparent to Luca that even though Penny had left on her own ... something wasn’t right about it. It was fine if she wanted to go and did so. Not fine ... but legally, fine.

She was eighteen.

The girl could come and go.

Except why did she start to disappear everywhere else, too? Records of Penny Dunsworth started to vanish one by one. Every time Luca went looking for something from her past that might help to lead him to her ... he found less and less.

Digital yearbooks gone.

School records suddenly ... missing.

Hospital data, deleted.

Shit that shouldn’t happen.

That usually didn’t happen.

Someone was making any trace of Penny just ... disappear, he quickly realized. Like she did to them.

And then one after another, Luca’s days became consumed with finding her. Or even anything at all about her. The next thing that might vanish after he found it ... or just before he did, for that matter. It was only now that he had finally decided to start contacting organizations across North America to find the ghost he was chasing.

Hopefully, that would lead him somewhere new.

Somewhere toward Penny.

Or anything.

Then, maybe he could tell his friend—

“Nu-nu lu-lu,” Cross shouted inside the car, the sudden loudness making Luca blink out of his thoughts violently as the boy grabbed the stuffed bear with the blue bow from his lap. He gave the paw a squeeze the way they had been doing for him for months, and an all too familiar song started to play. “Yay!”

Luca smiled or tried. “Yeah, yay, buddy.”

Baby duty was something.

He tried to help when he could, though. Like when Naz had to report to tribute for Cosa Nostra and didn’t have someone to keep an eye on the baby when it was supposed to be his day to look after the little guy. That was why Luca currently entertained baby Cross while his father did business with the rest of the family’s men in a diner across the street.

Luca wasn’t made.

And as his focus drifted away from not only college but famiglia business as well, while he searched for Penny ... some people made it all too clear that he wasn’t welcomed now. Made or not. Some men in the family said nothing, and others said too much.

Soon, the diner started to clear out. Luca wasn’t surprised to see Naz vacate the restaurant last as he had probably stayed behind to speak to his father, and Zeke. Shit, his best friend was talking to his own father more than even he was lately.

It couldn’t be helped.

It was probably better this way.

Naz made a beeline for Luca, but greeted his son before saying anything to his friend. “Hey, little man. See, Daddy told you I’d be right back.” Then, to Luca, he added, “Thanks for keeping an eye on him. Tribute was supposed to be tomo—”

“It’s cool, man. No worries.”

Naz must have heard Luca’s distant tone because he straightened up and turned to look at what had caught his friend’s attention across the street. Cross had come to stand on the sidewalk outside the restaurant with Luca’s father at his side.