Page 21 of One Second After Another

Luca blinked, surprised at how sharply Naz said the word. “I—”

“No, I don’t fucking know! And you know why—because you didn’t tell me! Beyond the fact that you were doing this for me, that you were looking for her because of me, you didn’t even have the decency to let me know—”

“It’s not that simple, man. None of this was simple.”

“Fuck you.”

“Naz—”

“Fuck you.”

The unspoken I said what I said lingered between the two men, hanging heavily in the air like a poison that would easily kill them both. It was the Donati way, Luca knew. Donati men were all the same when it came right down to it, and Naz was no different than his father at the end of the day. Their stubborn streaks were legendary.

He knew when to push.

Or not.

Naz waved a hand, saying, “Start over—from the beginning. I want to know how this happened. I want to know why you’re standing here right now and she’s not. Tell me everything.”

Well ...

Luca would try.

He didn’t skimp on details—mostly. He started from the beginning like Naz wanted him to, from that night at the hotel, until the point the familiar man showed up to demand Penny return to Nevada. He kept out the personal shit, and he respected Cross wishes about keeping his involvement on the down-low but that was only because Luca didn’t know how to approach it yet.

Or if he even should.

Nonetheless, he gave Naz the bones and most of the meat of the story. From The League, to even The Elite. He didn’t stop there, even going as far as explaining how Allegra Dunsworth fit into it, her upcoming marriage to a respected senator, and what Luca had learned over the past couple of days. The longer he spoke, the more irritated his friend became.

With him, certainly.

But also with everything else.

It was expected.

Naz raged for a bit. Luca let him.

At the end of the day, only one thing really mattered to him now.

“I need to find her,” Luca said when Naz finished his rant about people keeping shit from him just because they could. His friend wasn’t wrong, he just didn’t have the time or concern to handle that when other things needed his attention. Things like Penny. “She’s already got whatever remains of The Elite—or whoever is working for them—looking for her. Now, she’s going to have an entire team of assassins from another organization hunting her down, too.”

Naz fell into the chair behind his oak desk. “It all comes back to her mother, doesn’t it?”

“Like one messy, vicious circle.”

“And The League—”

“I got the impression that because they don’t think they’ll be able to get the situation under control with Penny being AWOL that they’re going to handle it in a more ... permanent way.”

“Kill her, you mean. Just say it.”

Luca dragged in a shaky breath. “Yeah. It’s just her ... whatever she’s trying to do right now, she’s out there doing it alone.”

He didn’t like that.

He couldn’t have that.

“They can’t risk it otherwise,” Luca added.