Page 76 of One Second After Another

She made no sound.

There was no warning.

Like all of her kills before Allegra—each one that led up to her—the white ghost swept in with the same grace, danger, and beauty that had accompanied every murder she had ever made. She had never planned to treat her mother with any less respect—and lack of empathy—that she had for any other pedophile that met their end by her hand.

Because the woman wasn’t different.

Pain was pain, and God above knew that Allegra hadn’t been anything to Penny for a long time ... not a mother; nothing but a living, breathing scar she felt forced to wear. Another reminder of a shameful, dirty secret that had left her believing she was broken and unwanted for more than half her life.

Not worthy.

Not good enough.

Used.

There should have been more satisfaction inside Penny’s thundering heart when Allegra turned back slightly—just enough to catch sight of her daughter raising the nine-millimeter with the long end of the silencer pointed directly at her face.

Instead, what she felt was fear.

It clawed through her chest and lungs like a hungry, angry bear woken from its cave before the spring. All of her muscles locked, tensing into hard balls; boils ready to spring, and even her breath caught in her throat with a painful slice right down her windpipe.

The fear was still real.

Still violent.

It was also fleeting; a blip in the raging war of what was Penny’s mind whenever she stared into the eyes of the woman who had both birthed her and took away her will to live. All because she could—because Penny was hers.

Allegra’s piercing, cold stare widened when Penny told her mother, “I thought you might like to die with the only person you ever loved—so die with him.”

Allegra didn’t speak.

Couldn’t.

Not when Penny didn’t give her the chance. Those painted-red lips of her mother’s opened with words that she would never get to say. And what was more beautiful was the fact that Penny didn’t wonder what those words might have been when the bullet from her gun plugged into Allegra’s forehead.

Two seconds later, her mother’s body hit the floor. It was the only noise left in the crypt, the dull thud carrying down the massive corridors, around the corner to where she knew people were waiting fifty feet away for Allegra to come back out.

But there were two wings.

Two ways in.

Not that Penny had time to absorb the impact of her finally ending what had been started far too many years ago. She had to leave—the white ghost left in much the same way that she came—but she did take the chance to glance back as the skirt of her black dress whipped wildly around her legs when she turned back for the left-wing.

Allegra’s dead stare and the blood pooling down between her eyes, ruining the canvas of heavy makeup, stared back.

“Goodbye, Allegra,” she whispered.

She’d done it.

Faced her demon.

Slayed the monster.

It should be over.

Penny should have been happy.

Angry.