Page 12 of One Second After Another

Luca shrugged—as much as he could in his constraints. “No, I don’t feel betrayed. I don’t feel anything at all.”

Well, partly.

He felt too many things, really. Betrayal simply wasn’t one of them.

“I can’t say the same,” Cree admitted quietly.

Luca didn’t acknowledge the man’s words. He figured it was probably better if he didn’t. It wasn’t like he could pretend to know the bonds Penny shared with these people—if she had any at all to speak of, that was. Nonetheless, there had to be something. She spent over five years with these people. Someone felt something.

That was only human.

The longer Cree stood there watching Luca where he sat in the corner on the floor, the more he fidgeted. While he’d only been vaguely aware of the restraints on his wrists before, as he’d become used to them to an extent, now the plastic was biting into his skin in the worst way.

He talked just to distract himself from thinking about it, asking, “What is she doing, anyway?”

Cree sighed. “Going after her mother.”

That had Luca interested.

“What?”

The man passed him a look; the neat plait of his long braid belied the dirty scuff marks on his black cargo pants. “The Elite—her mother.”

Luca still didn’t understand. Or maybe his tired brain just wasn’t letting him put it all together. Either way, he opted to say nothing at all. Better to keep one’s mouth closed and let someone think he was a fool than open it and prove it.

Right?

“You don’t know, do you?” Cree asked.

Luca swallowed hard. “I know some.”

“But you haven’t put it all together.”

“In a bit of a situation at the moment. I like to prioritize things I have to worry about if you know what I mean. Forgive me.”

That almost had the man smiling. Or smirking, maybe.

“Don’t feel bad,” Cree told him, “no one can understand Penny or what she went through. Not really because no one should have to know the horrors she faced. And not once, but again and again. To get the full picture, you would have to go back in time ... and that’s just not possible, Luca Puzza.”

He had the distinct feeling that Cree was trying to tell Luca something without actually telling him, so to speak. But with little sleep, hunger aching deep in his belly, and an unknown future waiting beyond the doors of the room he currently called home ... well, he just couldn’t pinpoint what Cree wanted him to know.

“You were her last hope,” Luca said. “This was it—wasn’t it? For what she was trying to do, whatever she ran from years ago, this was the end of the road. The last place to go.”

Cree’s throat flexed, and his jaw tensed like he wanted to say something, but he was forcing the words back. Eventually, the man replied, “Apparently not ... look at her now.”

What did that mean?

Cree turned to leave, but Luca was quick to speak up and stop the man, asking, “What are you going to do with me now?”

A sharp gaze looked back.

Luca was still unafraid.

“At least let me know—so I’m ready for whatever it is,” he told the man.

Cree’s broad shoulders lifted almost carelessly. “We haven’t decided yet.”

He didn’t ask why.