One Second After Another (The After Another Trilogy Book 3)

by Bethany-Kris

  His attention drifted between the steering wheel and her. She already knew how this would end between them. He would agree; she wouldn’t have to say much to make it happen. He loved her.

  This man loved her. Luca would do anything for her.

  He already had.

  PENNY STARED AT THE gate that led into a large, three-level suburban home tucked away in a gated community that seemed safe and quiet. Then again, with only the street lamps on to give the place any life, she knew the place looked a lot different in the daylight.

  It wasn’t her first time here, after all.

  She should have been thinking about the man in the house that she had come here to see, but instead, her mind kept drifting back to Luca. He let her keep the car, but she dropped him off two miles away from his parents’ home. She would have figured out something if he didn’t let her keep the Vanquish, but he hadn’t seemed concerned.

  He simply said, “Dad’s already gonna kill me for the lodge—who gives a fuck about the car?”

  And then he kissed her.

  She could still feel the way his lips molded against hers when he leaned inside the opened driver’s window to say goodbye. Even the strokes of his tongue and the graze of his lips were still imprinted on her memory long after he was gone.

  She still felt it.

  Still tasted him.

  She hung onto that memory even when the gate guarding the driveway’s entrance started to open. Luca’s kiss still teased her senses and felt like a ghost on her lips as the car crawled closer and closer to the Donati family home.

  Luca didn’t know—she hadn’t told him—but asking him to go home and let her finish her job alone wasn’t easy. In fact, it was the hardest thing she had needed to do yet when he was ... still her safe place at the end of the day. But she wanted him to keep being that for her.

  This needed to happen.

  Penny hadn’t expected to find Cross waiting for her on the front porch of his large home. She certainly hadn’t thought Nazio would be standing there beside his father when she parked the Vanquish, either.

  Neither man seemed shocked when she stepped out of the vehicle. Penny was sure she was still quite a sight—despite getting fully dressed—with her wild hair, calm demeanor, and sure stride. She could have lost her life tonight; it was just another night for her, though.

  They didn’t know that.

  “I told you—”

  “Zeke will not be pleased the Vanquish was used,” Cross muttered, interrupting whatever his son was about to tell him.

  Naz’s lips pressed in a thin line as he glanced sideways at his father. “That’s not even close to being the most important thing happening right now, and you know it.”

  “I’ve said what I’ve said, Naz.”

  “Dad—”

  “I did what I did.”

  Ah.

  Penny came to a stop at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the porch at the same time she realized Naz being here wasn’t entirely coincidence. It seemed the man had finally found out the truth about his father’s involvement with her disappearance years ago, and he had come to talk about it.

  Bad timing.

  She was here for her dues, too.

  “The lodge was attacked—The League came up on us,” Penny told Naz. “Three hours after you guys left.”

  “Is Luca—”

  “Probably dealing with his father now.”

  Naz flinched.

  Next to him, Cross simply stared at Penny. “Why are you here? That’s a better question.”

  Wasn’t it?

  “This needs to end,” she told her former boss, “but I think I need your help.”

  He’d helped her once.

  She was willing to ask again.

  18.

  Luca

  THE familiar ceiling above his head should have been a comfort to Luca when he woke up, but it wasn’t. He spent too many seconds following the curvy swirls in the plaster with his gaze and breathing in the scent of his parents’ home. A mix of cinnamon and fresh apples. Scents his mother loved, he knew.

  He’d barely been awake more than a minute before a throat cleared to his left. He didn’t need to turn his head to know his father was watching him from the living room entryway. He still did nonetheless.

  Zeke stared back, quiet.

  The mug of coffee in his father’s palms, the rim rolling with steam, dared to make Luca’s mouth water at the thought of something hot and bitter. Zeke didn’t offer the mug, or even a word, where he leaned in pajama pants and a plain tee while Luca righted himself to a sitting position on the couch.

  “What time is it?” he asked.

  Zeke sucked air through his teeth, replying, “Little after ten.”

  Luca blinked. “In the morning?”

  “It’s not dark outside, is it?”

  He didn’t bother to check the window. He was more surprised at the fact his father was still in pajamas considering the time. It told Luca a lot without his father needing to say a word.

  “How much was lost?” Zeke asked.

  Yeah.

  Shit.

  Just like that, the night before came rushing back. Not that he really forgot but in his haste to sleep off the exhaustion that carried his footsteps up to his parents’ home, he hadn’t stopped to explain very much when Luca and Katya came out of their bedroom to find him using his key to get in.

  Clearly, Zeke found a way to fill in the blanks.

  “What do you know about what’s going on?” he asked his father.

  Zeke lifted one shoulder. “As much as Cross.”

  Well, then ...

  “The Vanquish is gone,” Luca muttered. “Or it will be.”

  “And?”

  “I don’t know about the lodge in—”

  “I had that entire place designed for your mother, Luca.”

  He winced. Zeke wasn’t even angry—the dip in his tone and almost resigned delivery spoke of disappointment. How long had he been doing that to his father—disappointing the man? Shit, even when he didn’t try.

  “I’ll replace everything,” Luca said, pushing up to stand from the couch. He tossed the afghan blanket to the tan-colored, leather arm, and faced his father again. “Or Naz will. Penny, maybe. We have time to figure out the details.”

  “Do we?”

  He didn’t know what his father wanted him to say. No doubt, there was a whole spiel that Zeke was holding back. He wasn’t sure what he could do about that, either.

  His father didn’t hold back for long.

  “What in the hell are you doing?” his father demanded. “You disappear for weeks and days at a time—I can count on one hand the times you’ve called your mother in the past couple of months. How did you go from hunting down an invisible girl to—”

  “I never hunted her. I only wanted to find her, Dad.”

  Zeke’s tension didn’t ease. “To what cost? Have you really asked that yet? Really considered it?”

  “Yes and no.”

  Because it didn’t matter.

  “Luca ...” Zeke dragged in a hard breath, stopping only when Luca felt like all the air had been sucked from the room. He didn’t pretend to be perfect—he could be selfish even if some people might call him selfless. It was why Zeke knew better than to ask for an apology when Luca wouldn’t say he was sorry. “This isn’t what I wanted for you, son. This—what you’re doing. I wanted you to be—”

  “It’s what I wanted, and I can’t be like you. I won’t be like you.”

  “What does that mean?”

  Now or never, he supposed.

  Right wasn’t always easy.

  Penny taught him that.

  “You were like me once—doing what you wanted, being who you wanted. The only difference between me and you is that you let your father decide your future, but we both know you won’t do that to me, too.”

  Zeke said nothing.

  Luca understood why.

  The values of Cosa Nostra ha
d been at the base of their family’s entire life. Everything about the way they invited people to their home to the color car his father could drive was determined by the rules of made men.

  Of mafia.

  His father would do and say a lot of things—but he would never speak against la famiglia. Not even to tell his son that he was right.

  That was fine.

  Silence could still be respect.

  “Maybe I just want to be more than this,” Luca told his father. “Or maybe I just don’t want to be told what I have to be.”

  “Does being more also mean being alive, too?” Zeke returned, softer than Luca expected.

  He didn’t get the chance to answer. His mother slipped into the entryway beside Zeke, the cordless phone to their home pressed against her palm where she covered the receiver end.

  “It’s Naz,” she said, her gaze flicking to Zeke and then back to her son. “He said he was told to call here to find you.”

  Luca didn’t hesitate to step across the room and take the phone from his mother. “Thanks, Ma.”

  “You busy?”

  It was the first thing Naz asked when Luca said hello. Was he busy? He thought about Penny, and how he only ever wanted to help. It was sadly ironic that in the end, helping meant doing nothing. That killed him.

  Still, Luca replied to his friend, “No, man, I’m not busy.”

  “I WAS AT MY FATHER’S place when she got there,” Naz said.

  Although his words were clear, his gaze was distant, stuck on the little boy who sat beyond the doorway of his mother’s music room. Little Cross either didn’t know his father and uncle were watching him, or the kid just didn’t care. He tinkered with the keys as a familiar tune echoed from the brown bear perched on the edge of the piano. Soon enough, his tinkering of the keys turned into a matching melody that he played by ear.

  Huh.

  Luca missed that—somehow, his godson went from showing interest and taking lessons to seeking a piano out and making music. It was that moment when he realized just how much of his time and life had been wrapped up in a game he wasn’t sure he would be able to win. Or even ... a game he still wanted to play, for that matter.

  He didn’t want to keep missing things.

  “Luca,” Naz murmured.

  He dragged a hand through his hair and tried to shrug off the distraction when his attention came back to his friend. “Sorry—she was there, you said?”

  “I was already there—I had business to settle with my father. Personal and otherwise.”

  Luca let out a soft damn. Then, he asked, “How was that, anyway?”

  “Hard.”

  Yeah, he bet. Luca wasn’t the only one dealing with issues relating to the most important man in his life. Still. Was that maybe the fate of men like them? Fathers and sons that pushed and pulled just a little too much from one another.

  “She asked him to help again,” Naz said low, like he didn’t want the little boy in the music room or even the woman down the hall to hear. “Penny asked my father to help her.”

  “How?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Luca’s gaze caught and held his best friend’s. “How the fuck do you not know when you were there?”

  “He asked me to leave.”

  And he did, Luca knew.

  Left.

  “And that’s it?” Luca asked. “Now I what ... I wait?”

  Naz lifted one shoulder, his stare drifting back to his son. “We wait, and we keep people safe, we handle business ... we help. Because if we’re doing what we need to do, then they don’t have to worry about us while they do whatever it is they need to do.”

  Right.

  To Luca, that only meant he was still in the dark.

  Still playing the game.

  19.

  Penny

  “I was going to tell you to relax, but then I realized you look just fine sitting there and didn’t need me to tell you anything at all.”

  Penny’s stare drifted away from the burry trees to the man sitting beside her in the back of a black town car that had arrived earlier at his mansion to pick them both up. “Men tend to do that a lot, don’t they?”

  “Do what?” Cross asked.

  “Think women constantly need your help—even in little ways.”

  “It could also be a way we’ve learned to show we care.”

  “Because it makes men feel better in some way to provide. Even if whatever their providing isn’t really needed.”

  Cross dared to crack a smile, clearly amused by Penny’s challenging stance to what was a kind gesture. She would never say it was anything but, either. That didn’t mean she couldn’t also see the intentions of others—but especially men—for exactly what they were at the end of the day. Not that she thought this man had any bad intentions for her, but she also couldn’t change the part of her that would forever be protective of her very self.

  Besides, she didn’t think it was wrong to believe women should be taught to love, serve, and care for themselves before a man ever did. After all, how could a woman be expected to know what she wanted from a man when she didn’t even know what she wanted for herself?

  “If I wanted to be a real prick just because I could,” Cross told her, his amusement lifting one brow high while he regarded her, “then I would make a comment about women wanting to fetch good husbands who can and do provide, but that’s not my style. And my wife would pickle my balls.”

  Even Penny smiled, then.

  Cross’s grin stretched wider, as though he had gotten what he wanted from her. Maybe he did—some sign of life that she was there despite what they were driving toward. “Relax, Penny. This needed to happen. At least ... consider that you’re going to finally know how this will end. One way or the other. There’s solace in that—try to find it.”

  She let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. Damn. Maybe she had needed him to tell her what she didn’t want to hear.

  “How much longer?” she asked.

  A man in the front seat, a trusted enforcer for the Donati crime family, spoke up before his boss could answer the question.

  “Ten more minutes to the meeting spot,” he said.

  Cross gave her another look. Penny only turned back to the window where she could watch the trees. It was easier. She thought about things a lot less ... felt less about everything. It was the only way she could do this.

  IT HAD BEEN CROSS’S idea to make contact with The League—to extend the offer of a sit down so that two organizations could come together for a peaceful discussion on the current situation. She hadn’t been agreeable ... to say the least.

  At first.

  But the man explained the benefits to what he had called a meeting on no man’s land. No weapons. No guards but for their drivers. Out in the open ... mostly. Because apparently a man’s word was everything in their world, and if both sides gave their promise to a non-violent meeting simply to discuss a possible alternative option to hunting Penny down like a dog, then she would be foolish not to take the opportunity.

  Again, so Cross said.

  As she had been the one to seek him out and ask for his help, who was she to say that he wasn’t right? She was trying to trust him.

  As much as she could.

  Penny was surprised to see Dare followed through on his promise to only bring as many people as the Donati side of things. They made two, and their driver made a third. Cree stood a few feet behind Dare with his hands folded at his back, as usual. The man who didn’t exit the black four-door SUV kept his window rolled down with a sharp gaze on the new arrivals.

  Penny and Cross stepped out of their vehicle at the end of a dirt road that stopped at the mouth of a large farming field far outside of New York City’s limits. Rows of gold wheat swayed like waves against the black backdrop of the open sky. She might have admired the many stars that dotted the sky and how peaceful it all seemed far away from the noise and movement of the city, but she couldn’t.
r />   Not considering the circumstances.

  “I appreciate you agreeing to this meeting, Dare,” Cross said.

  The League’s highest-ranking member didn’t reply. Not at first. His piercing stare followed Penny’s every footstep until she and her companion were only five feet away from the man standing in his pressed slacks and red, silk button-down. Not an inch of Dare suggested the man was anything but calm and unbothered, but she knew that couldn’t be true.

  After everything ... he must hate her.

  She didn’t blame him.

  “I had my reasons for agreeing,” Dare murmured, finally giving Cross his attention. “And let me say, it had very little to do with you.”

  Cross nodded. “That’s fair.”

  Penny asked what Cross didn’t—what she felt was the most obvious and important thing. “Then, why did you agree to this?”

  Dare’s stare darted back to her and for a second, silence answered her back. She couldn’t even hear her own breath or heartbeat as the man considered her. If he really wanted her dead, she had no doubt that she would already be six feet under.

  So, what was he waiting for?

  “Because I have something to say—the only offer I am willing to make,” Dare said, “and there was no other way for me to tell you.”

  “I did make it hard for you to catch up, didn’t I?”

  Dare chuckled. “And yet here we are ...”

  Exactly.

  “The offer?” Penny asked.

  “It’s more like the consequences, Penny,” her former handler explained. “We’re going to allow you to finish what you started with The Elite ... without interference from our organization.”

  Her next exhale stuttered, but she didn’t have time to reply.

  Dare was quick to add, “However, The League will be available and ready to collect on the bounty of a former member once your task is completed. You have two weeks without any contact or issues from us to kill Allegra Dunsworth, but that’s it. We will come to collect one way or another when the two weeks are up. Someone will be there, Penny. Look for them.”