Because she still needed it. To love was human.
Penny had never been loved until these people—now she loved them entirely too much. She realized that only made her need their love, too.
Maybe that was why she told Roz, “Staying away was easy when I didn’t have time to think about what I did when I left—I’m sorry I did it that way. I’m sorry I left without telling you why. You deserved better than that. I loved you more than that.”
Roz blinked, and the tears fell. “It’s okay.”
“Is it?”
Because she didn’t think so.
“I just want a hug, Penny,” Roz said, smiling in that way of hers again. The way that made everything okay. “Can I have a hug?”
How could she say no?
16.
Luca
“MA said there’s a pool,” his godson said as Luca guided him beyond the front door of the lodge.
Naz walked ahead of his son, replying to the boy before Luca could say a thing, “And I told you that we weren’t staying long enough to swim, my dude.”
Cross sighed.
How did so much attitude fit into such a small human?
He kind of loved it.
At the same time, Luca was also too distracted with the scene they had left out in the driveway to really focus on the conversation happening between Cross and Naz. He reached for the door to close it, unaware that his friend was watching him as he took one last glance at Roz and Penny still locked in each other’s embrace.
His sister had started crying, and Naz nodded toward the door. Luca got the hint, and pulled his nephew away from the two women to let them have their moment in private. And yet, even as he felt like he was intruding by watching them for another few seconds, he couldn’t help himself.
Roz had waited a long time for this, but so had Penny. He didn’t think people realized that—as confused and lonely and abandoned that they had felt for years, so had she. Just in her own ways.
“Look at you,” he could see his sister say to Penny, her hands pressed against either side of the younger woman’s face. “I thought you were dead.”
He couldn’t see Penny’s reply, only the shake of her head. And that was enough for him, anyway. He didn’t need to see more; he didn’t feel the same urge to make sure everything was going to be okay if he closed the front door and let Penny out of his sight. That monster was a hard one to shake, but he was doing well about hiding it.
Mostly.
Naz told him differently when Luca finally closed the door only to turn around and come face to face with his best friend. Gone was his nephew—probably already raced ahead of his father when Naz decided to tell the boy where the pool was. Whether he swam or not was another story. Now, it was only him and Naz left in the front foyer of the lodge, and he knew just by the way his best friend stared at him that his distraction was not missed.
Stoned-faced, Naz’s gaze drifted over Luca’s shoulder to the closed door and then back to him without pause. Then, he asked, “You’re close.”
Luca blinked. “What?”
He didn’t even know where to begin with that statement. Or how to take it, for that matter.
Naz didn’t intend to make him wait to find out because he followed it up with, “You and Penny—the two of you are close. I saw it. How you stare; when you touch ... I saw it, Luca.”
Shit.
Yeah.
Something else he hadn’t gotten to.
“Is there anything else you want to tell me?” Naz asked, his fiery stare never wavering from Luca even though his tone kept calm.
Luca was fucking tired.
Of a lot of damn things.
Serving everyone else’s hand but his own was high on that list—even if that meant betraying people who meant the world and more to him. Like his own godfather.
“It’s more than just Penny,” Luca told his friend, “but I can start there.”
“Start,” Naz deadpanned.
“Well—”
“No, I mean ... start, Luca.” Naz shrugged, adding, “And try to make it quick—we really aren’t staying long. I just promised my wife I wouldn’t lie anymore and when you texted Connecticut, I knew where you were, and I couldn’t not tell Roz. And guess how that worked out.”
Luca didn’t bother to hide his grin. “Seems obvious.”
“Start.”
“Relax—I just ...” Luca let out a hard breath and shoved his fists into the pockets of his jeans so that he had them under control. His nerves always showed in his hands first. Naz had told him that more than once. “I could love that girl—I think I already do.”
Naz blinked, muttering a soft, “Huh.”
That was it.
Just huh.
“That’s what you say to—”
Naz tipped his head to the side, his stare lowering from Luca’s like he was thinking about something when he replied, “There’s really nothing else that I need to—or should—say when you lay it out to me like that. If that’s what it is, that’s what it is.”
“You don’t feel any kind of way about her or before when she was living with you guys—”
“I know you. I know who you are. I don’t need to ask that. I already know the answer to that, Luca.”
He breathed easier ... because despite being who he was, he never wanted to be a monster, either. It was a lot harder to be the man he was—who came from the people and place he did—while also maintaining compassion. All of their moral compasses were a bit broken. That didn’t mean they always had to act like it.
“You said to start,” Naz pointed out. “So what else did you have to tell me?”
For a second, Luca hesitated.
He even started to ask, “Shouldn’t we go find Cross? The pool is—”
“It’s protected by a passcode. He’s probably staring at it through the glass doors, scowling and looking like my father, but a mini version that constantly mocks me.”
Jesus Christ.
“He also acts a hell of a lot like you.”
Naz’s lips dared to twitch with a smirk. “Yeah, well—”
“It was your father,” Luca decided to say with no warning. He said it when his friend was amused and slightly distracted because he hoped it would lessen the blow. He wanted to give Naz a chance to absorb the news without the hard impact. “It was your father that helped Penny get away all those years ago—he signed her contract with The League which included paying the millions for her training. Cross did all of that.”
And more.
But that wasn’t the important bit.
“He’s known where she was this entire time,” Luca added quieter.
Naz said nothing. His stare turned so cold, it burned. The way he stood a little straighter, jaw tensing like he might speak before he decided to say nothing telling Luca everything he needed to know. Naz was pissed.
“All this time?” his friend finally asked.
Luca nodded once, ignoring the way his mouth wanted to close around the words he spoke. “Since day one, man. I’m sorry.”
“When did you know?”
“The day I got back from Nevada.”
Naz blew out a hard breath and swung away from Luca, his hand coming up to cup his lower face as he growled something into his palm. Then, he turned back around, waving that same hand wildly when he snapped, “That’s why he did what he did ... all the things he did. Telling me to focus somewhere else but Penny—so my workaround was you. But then he made me so busy that you were basically out there on your own while I handled business. And just when shit starts to come to a head, when she’s getting closer, and I might stick my nose where it didn’t belong, he decided to put me into his seat to head the family. Because what boss has time to be everywhere when he can barely even be at home, right?”