A meeting at a pizzeria in Hell’s Kitchen between associates of the now-dead Elijah Smithenson and the Florida businessman. Someone else decided to see the deal—whatever it was—through.
Luca still had a few issues with the whole thing. The most important being the fact that he was chasing what he figured would end up being nothing more than another rabbit hole. There was no reason to suspect the meeting had anything to do with Penny. She had been long gone from New York for weeks without even a whisper of a possible return either from the underground criminal networks or on the dark web.
Unfortunately, Elijah was still Luca’s only lead he could connect back to her. Even dead, it was possible that whatever affiliations he had could somehow provide Luca with the details he needed to fill in some blanks. He would take anything at this point.
Everything else had long gone cold.
Besides, spying on the meeting in Hell’s Kitchen would take all of an hour out of his day. Maybe even less, depending on how it went. Then, he could head over to meet with a man in lower Manhattan whose employee had up and disappeared with a hundred grand of the company’s cash that he wanted to be returned as soon as possible.
So, without any details as to what the meeting in the Kitchen would entail or the supposed deal taking place, Luca found himself sitting in the passenger seat of his black Bentley watching the view into the pizzeria through large bay windows. He’d visited the business a couple of hours before—just long enough to grab a slice of pizza and place two bugs on both sides of the dining floor. That covered all his bases and would let him listen in when the guests of the hour finally arrived.
At worst, he was wasting his time. At best, he might gain something useful that opened up a new door or answered questions.
Luca wasn’t hopeful.
He also wasn’t giving up.
The other thing he hadn’t done?
Tell Naz.
Partly because his friend was busy this week and when he wasn’t, Naz was always with Roz who he didn’t want to know they were still looking for Penny. The other reason he hadn’t told his friend that he might have another lead to follow was simply because ... well, if he wasn’t hopeful, then why should he give false hope to Naz?
He wouldn’t.
Couldn’t.
A black car with darkened windows pulled up across the street at the same time Luca’s phone dinged in his lap. He pulled the phone up, unlocking the screen to read the message as he eyed the new arrival at the same time.
Except he couldn’t do both.
And one was more interesting.
The woman who stepped out of the backseat, that was. Her pin-straight black hair wasn’t covered by a hat this time. His slightly rolled down window allowed him to hear what she said to the man who had opened her door just seconds before.
“They’ll be here in five,” the man said. “And you know the rules.”
“Ten minutes—max,” Penny replied. “I know.”
Her voice hadn’t changed a bit; it was still light like air. Musical, even. But she was nothing like the girl he used to know.
Across the street, Penny and the man headed for the pizzeria. Luca finally checked that message on his phone.
It was his hacker contact.
With more info.
The guy from Florida—finally found what I was looking for. Known trafficker. Kids, mostly. Watch yourself, Luca. That’s a slippery slope.
He didn’t have time to process what that news meant. A second car had just pulled up to the pizzeria.
Two men in suits stepped out.
No one else.
No ... child.
He didn’t know why, but something told him bad shit was about to happen.
11.
Penny
A great wig, makeup to enhance one’s features, and colored contacts could do a great deal to change someone’s appearance. It was the only extra precaution Penny could really take for her second trip to New York within weeks. It also wasn’t nearly enough to satisfy the worries that Dare—and Cree, occasionally—continued to voice right up until the moment she stepped on the private jet.
Nonetheless, while she watched her reflection in the glass of the pizzeria’s bay window, she figured she hadn’t done a half-bad job on making herself look different than the last time she was in the city. Her skin wasn’t as ghostly with a pink-toned foundation, a touch of bronzer, and a dark contour to make her face appear more oval, and her jawline a bit softer. Add in the black kohl she had smoked around her eyes with a winged flair and black wig, and she was one step up from her usual ghostly paleness.
Not by much, though.
She also hated heavy makeup. And wigs. Contacts, too, the itchy bastards. Since landing in New York only hours earlier, she learned something else that she didn’t like very much, as well. This entire city—maybe the state.
She felt too comfortable here.
Or ... comforted.
A sense of nostalgia came along to fill her whenever she recognized a building that she had once visited. Or worse, a memory hit her while she drove down a familiar street and then she was lost to a different time and place that shouldn’t matter to her anymore because she wasn’t the same person she used to be.
Frankly, Penny blamed Cree.
And his mention of the after.
Or what could be.
It had been on her mind for days. The sleepless nights that followed certainly didn’t give her anything else to think about, either. All fun things.
It was only the squeak of the chair next to hers that finally pulled Penny from her thoughts. They had barely been sitting down inside the business for more than thirty seconds, but she was already distracted and annoyed. Neither of those spelled good things for her. Or for the man next to her.
She couldn’t afford to be anything but ready at the moment. This deal—even if it was just a sham for her to help a trafficked girl—would be over before it even began if the men she was supposed to meet to make the transaction thought something was up. Even if that something was just her distraction.
“Stop fidgeting,” Penny told her companion.
Chase was his name. Another assassin for The League who just so happened to be available to take this trip with Penny and see the job through. Cree tried to play it off like it was nothing more than coincidence, but she didn’t think so. Chase was one of the few people she could stand to talk to for more than a few minutes at a time—he’d also been on the team that trained her ... and the first man she ever allowed to sleep with her.
Not in the sex sense.
Although, he had offered.
No, on one of her few free nights out during that first year of her training, Penny did a stupid thing that left her less than sober and in need of a chaperone to make sure she didn’t choke on her vomit in her sleep. Chase was there ... he did the right thing.
Earned her trust, anyway.
A rare feat.
So few people had it.
“Not fidgeting,” Chase replied. “Getting a better look.”
“At what?”
“Our oncoming company. Check it out.”
Well, they were timely.
Penny would give the sex traffickers that, but not much else. They weren’t worth anything more, honestly. And if this were any other job for Penny, then those two men stepping out of the driver and passenger seats of a nondescript black vehicle wouldn’t make it out of the pizzeria with a heart still beating in their chest.