“Actually, I’m just thinking like you. Because I had to do that for a while to figure out what I missed here. I think I went insane for a little bit. It’s hard to be the monster you must see in the mirror when you’ve always been just human, sweetheart.”
Why?
Why did he have to do that?
She was the reflection of her mother. She could have been Allegra had she just ... been worthy, right? All of that left her cold and sick.
“I missed the mark,” she whispered. “Didn’t have a clear shot.”
Luca swallowed hard. “I’m sorry.”
“Someone is still going to die tonight.”
“But not like this,” he returned.
No.
Because while he had been right about a lot of things, he was also wrong about one. She would have taken the chance to kill Allegra from the roof even if the cost was her life. It would have been worth it.
The only thing Penny cared to ask in that moment was, “What are you driving?”
His answer made her smile.
“An old favorite I keep in storage just for city driving when I need it—my Ducati.”
Perfect.
THE ONLY SOUND IN THE dark alley was the constant drip-drip-drip of water falling from the eaves of two buildings. Penny wasn’t opposed to rain on a job—sometimes, it even worked in her favor when the danger didn’t scare her in the first place. The noise helped to muffle Luca’s question that came behind the black visor of his helmet.
He only had one.
She made him wear it.
Penny should be seen, anyway.
“How do you want me to do—”
“Just drive,” she told him.
Staring at her through the visor from over his shoulder, she wondered if he was looking at the gun in her hand while she worked the silencer into the barrel, or her. Calm and focused, gaze on her work as she spoke softly. Unfeeling about what might happen next.
It’s who she was.
Now.
“Just drive, don’t look anywhere but the street ahead of you—drive fast,” she said.
“Who are you going for?”
“Anybody. A face I recognize. My mother if I get the chance through the windows but that’s unlikely. I don’t care. She’ll know I was here.”
“Are you—”
Before he could even finish his question, Penny reached over and poked the tip of her finger against Luca’s visor. She couldn’t see his face through the dark tint, but she would have given anything to in that moment. Her left arm, even.
“Help me and drive, Luca.”
Maybe there was a hint of a smirk in his tone when he replied, “Drive—got it, babe.”
It was the second time he called her that tonight.
She was starting to like it.
Sticking the gun into the holster at her chest, Penny used a bandana that had been tied to the handlebars to wrap up her hair as Luca’s Ducati Superbike roared to life. Matte black like his helmet, the beast would do just fine for what she had planned. It moved like lightning but with the gracefulness of shadows.
What more could she ask for?
The first jerk of the bike sent Penny leaning in close to Luca. She didn’t need to look up to see where they were—she had tracked these streets and alleys—even the buildings—from the moment she knew where Allegra would be having her engagement party in the city.
She also didn’t need to see to know what was happening. From the road of the bike and the pressure that sent her body leaning back a bit said when Luca was speeding up—probably to miss the set of lights that might possibly be turning yellow. They couldn’t stop. Not once they left the alley.
The bike leaned hard to the right when they took the turn at the lights while Penny leaned with Luca, one hand wrapped tight around his waist while her other grasped firmly to the butt of the gun inside the holster at her chest. Tucked down like she was, someone might not even notice her on the back of the bike until they passed.
It all worked.
But then she counted the seconds when the bike roared and darted forward with more speed—one, two, and then three ... Penny leaned up from her tightly tucked position, already pulling the gun from the holster as the Ducati growled past the restaurant on the other side of the street. She aimed the gun, gaze already scanning as the black bandana pulled away from her hair in the wind.
It was better than she ever imagined.
Her grandfather had just arrived.
It took all of a second.
Less, even.
The League would never forgive her for what she had done to them, but at least they trained her to be one hell of a shot on the back of a moving vehicle.
Charles Hatheway saw her—their gazes locked as the bike passed—when she pulled the trigger. She didn’t get to see it hit the intended target before they had already gone by, but she heard the screams.
Those were beautiful.
12.
Luca
“IS it appropriate for me to say a small prayer?”
Penny shot Luca a look from where she stood behind his beloved Ducati. He didn’t get to drive the machine nearly enough for his tastes. He’d spent a crazy amount of money for the bike and on it to get it customized just the way he liked. The damn thing even had its own storage unit in the city because he absolutely refused to drive it in the winter, or on any road that wasn’t pristine.
He loved the bike.
If he had a baby, it was it.
“Thought we agreed getting rid of it was the only option?” Penny asked.
Luca sighed, ghosting his hands over the curves of the matte black beast. From the handlebars, down the seat, and even over the rear flare. “I’ll see you again soon,” he told the bike.
That was a lie.
Soon, it would be at the bottom of the river.
“You can always buy another,” Penny said with more care to her tone. He didn’t know if it was a genuine concern for his feelings or just her patronizing him, though. It could have gone either way. Damn woman.
She also wasn’t wrong.
“Fuck it,” Luca muttered.
Grabbing the back of the seat in one hand and the left handlebar with his other, Luca pushed the bike to the end of the dock. There was never much movement at the shipping docks this time of night. The shift change made sure of that, and he was grateful because it worked in their favor when they needed to make the bike disappear. He was sure there were probably a few dozen people scouting for a matte black Ducati Superbike with two possible drivers. Letting them find the machine would only connect him to the shooting.
The Ducati hit the water with a plop and a splash. Luca watched it sink from up above before he bent down to grab the helmet he’d tossed on the dock earlier. With a few larger rocks in the bottom of the helmet, he expected it to sink.
Another item he could replace. Like the bike, too. But goddammit, it still hurt like hell to watch the bike disappear under the depths of the water while the helmet bobbed and struggled to fall beneath the surface as well.
Penny was soon at Luca’s side to survey the scene down below as well. Without warning, she reached beneath the jacket he’d given her after they arrived at the docks. She didn’t say she was cold, but he saw her shiver and that shit wasn’t okay. Not when he had a perfectly fine leather jacket that she could use.