Page 6 of One Second After Another

Yes. They wasted their time chasing him when they should have been looking for Penny. Good. At least, he did something right this time around.

He didn’t know why Penny ran.

Or why she left him behind.

He could have been pissed off about that fact—maybe he would be given enough time to think about it—but all he knew was that she did it. And she must have had a reason. He bet part of it was The League and why they forced her back to Nevada.

“You’re coming with us,” the taller of the two, on the left, said.

He was already reaching for Luca.

“Don’t think so,” Luca replied, swinging out of the man’s reach.

He just forgot about the other guy. He wouldn’t, however, forget how hard the man’s punch landed against the right side of Luca’s jaw. The hit sent him sprawling to the floor. It was the kick to his head that had stars bursting behind his clenched eyelids, though.

Bastards.

But what did he expect?

2.

Penny

RAIN clung to the streets of Brooklyn. Penny avoided the rivulets of water dripping from the eaves of buildings when she dared to stop underneath one as best she could.

The black windbreaker she wore did nothing to keep the wetness from seeping through to her clothes and skin underneath. Despite the chill in the air and the raindrops plastering what white-blonde strands of her hair managed to escape from beneath the jacket’s hood, she didn’t shiver.

Really, she barely felt it at all.

The discomfort was a comfort. Something else she was used to now. A constant sense of unrest—that nothing was right or good in a real way. A little bit of water wasn’t going to make it any better or worse.

Right?

Penny’s gaze swept the quiet Brooklyn street, thankful that the rain had decided to fall despite the weather forecast giving only a fifty-fifty chance of showers. It cleared the streets of almost everyone who didn’t need to be on them for one reason or another. With the sun starting to fall beyond the view of the high buildings, darkness had finally begun to creep through the streets.

She felt safe.

Or safer.

At least, to be out and about like she was. With barely twelve hours on the ground in New York, Penny had to start moving fast. Part of her plan had been put into motion the second she opened up the safe in her hotel room. It was where she kept several sets of fake identification, a burner phone—one The League didn’t know about—and cash she stacked up. She was running on a limited timeline to get certain things done before someone came looking for her.

Someone like The League.

Or The Elite.

If they hadn’t already.

Penny was a lot of things, but stupid wasn’t one of them. She was neither ignorant, nor arrogant. Certainly not enough of one or the other to think that her decision to go AWOL from her handlers would be met with sighs of resignation and little else.

And shit.

The Elite was already hunting her. Might as well make it worth it.

Stepping out from under the entrance of an apartment building, rain splattered against Penny’s face as she started her walk again. Cabs were an option if she cared to hail or call one. There was something to be said for walking, though.

Like the fact it let her think. She hadn’t been doing that enough lately. Well, not for herself, anyway.

Time to do that.