Page 18 of One Second After Another

“And I know,” his godfather added, “about you and her.”

That took Luca an extra minute.

Maybe two.

Cross didn’t mind the silence because he used that time to his advantage to keep talking. “Thank The League for keeping me informed—part of their obligation to the old contract. See, I put a lot of money on the table for Penny to be able to do what she’s done in these past five years, and that gave me ... certain rights to information about her business.”

“Did she know that you knew—”

“Yes on some things. Maybe not on others. I wasn’t given the information to use it against her, if that’s what you’re asking. Sometimes, it was just good to be informed.”

“Naz doesn’t know that me and her—he doesn’t know shit about it yet.”

“I figured,” Cross murmured. “But the better question is what do you know?”

Luca swallowed hard as he swung the door open further. Leaning against the doorjamb, he crossed his arms and muttered, “A lot of it. Where she’s been, what she’s been doing ... everything happening now.”

“And her mother?”

He nodded once.

That was enough for Cross.

“Then you should also know what it means for her mother to do what she’s done in recent weeks,” Cross said.

Luca couldn’t help the harsh sigh that passed his lips as he scrubbed a hand over his freshly shaven face. At least, he managed that and a shower the night before. “I’m starting to figure it out, yeah.”

“She’s put herself back in the public sphere in a way that she hopes will protect her—or at least give her a wider space for safety—from Penny while she attempts to rebuild what remains of the organization she controls with her own father. Allegra Dunsworth is not an easy target, Luca. Penny knew it when she first went into it and—”

“Penny is in a bad position.”

“Especially because she decided to go AWOL now. Anyone,” Cross said, giving Luca a look, “anyone at all close to her or even attached to her name is at risk of being put on The Elite’s radar. A way they can get to her, if needed. The Elite is bigger than just North America—there was a reason she was overseas for as long as she was.”

“Except she needs to finish what she started,” Luca replied.

Because that much was clear.

Why else would Penny do this?

“I did what I could,” Cross said, flipping over one hand when he added, “and the rest is on her. The better question, is what does that mean for you. What are you going to do?”

Was that why his godfather showed up—just to ask that question?

Luca did think so.

“I’m going to help her. The same thing I’ve always done,” Luca said.

It was the only thing he knew how to do. It was the how he planned to do anything at all that he hadn’t quite figured out yet. Unfortunately, he was running on limited time to get that shit worked out, and he couldn’t do that standing at the front door of his apartment.

If there was anything he learned about Penny in all the years he spent chasing her, it was that she knew how to disappear.

“But I can’t help her standing here with you,” Luca said, turning back to his apartment and ready to close the door again. “You already know that, zio.”

It’d been years since he called Cross that.

He heard the man’s sigh before Cross said, “You can’t tell him, Luca. Naz, I mean. You can’t say a word about my involvement with Penny or The League. He’ll learn in his own time, but not because you told him.”

Well ...