“Actually, it’s not. You didn’t pay for your training and position. You don’t make the final calls on the plans. You have a boss—”
“If we give them even a month to recoup, then it’ll be like starting over!”
They had too much money.
Way too much power.
It would be stupid to let The Elite have even a second to start digging backward toward Penny and The League. They already had the bone; now they were just looking for the rest of the skeleton.
“I agree,” Dare said calmly, “but in the last day, circumstances have changed and we have to consider what it means.”
“I don’t—”
“I know, Penny. You know nothing. You’ve been unplugged and underground, and then on a plane. I don’t expect you to already know, just understand.”
Dare hit another key on the laptop. The screens changed again to a news anchor sitting behind a desk ready to report—something Penny hadn’t expected. What did this have anything to do with their current situation?
She would soon learn.
An image of a New Jersey senator flashed on the screen and the woman behind the desk smiled behind her painted mask of television makeup. “Senator Gilles Tracey has announced his engagement today. We were expecting a different announcement from the senator’s team this week—something like a presidential run in the upcoming election—but we were assured that was still on the table.”
Penny blinked.
The image changed.
Her throat closed.
Two little girls—the caption said their names were Jennifer and Jules, twelve and ten years old respectively—stood in front of their father, the senator, and another woman. A familiar face. The same face Penny had been staring at for minutes without being able to look away just moments before when the pyramid of Elite members had been plastered across the screen.
“Senator Tracey provided little details about the engagement but stated he planned to marry Allegra Hatheway within the next few months in a private ceremony.”
She was different, now.
Her last name had changed. The white-blonde hair was now a caramel wave that fell over her shoulders in soft curls. She still looked entirely fit for her position as a trophy wife standing beside a rich and powerful man.
“Do you want me to let it keep—”
“Shut it off,” Penny said through clenched teeth.
Dare did.
Beside her, Cree reached over to clasp her shoulder in his large palm. She side-stepped the touch, not wanting anyone too close. He didn’t seem offended, but he did pass Dare a knowing glance.
“The report continues,” Dare said softly. “It glosses over her previous husband and life. Probably because a lot of that happened years ago, and the senator has more money than he knows what to do with. I’m sure he doesn’t want his future wife’s dead husband’s misdeeds staining his family’s pristine reputation or ruining his potential run at the presidency when—”
“Is he in any way connected to anything we’ve gathered around The Elite?” she asked.
“It appears not.”
But he had two girls.
That woman had access to two girls.
The screen switched back to the image of the pyramid and faces when the video player eventually minimized itself like it did when videos were paused for too long. Penny would have preferred to keep staring at the reporter doing her job than the face of a woman that had haunted her every waking moment since the first memories of her life. Every monster that had ever done her harm came from the permission of that woman.
Allegra Hatheway was Allegra Dunsworth.
Penny’s mother.
Her image sat at the top of the pyramid alongside a man that had been an accomplice in her abuse and trafficking for years with her mother and father—her grandfather. Allegra’s father. The whole family tree was rotten, and it started in the fucking roots.
She could still hear Dare talking—trying to explain things. It all felt like she was underwater, and everything was muffled around her.
“This is going to be a lot more difficult and messier with Allegra coming back to the spotlight in this way,” Dare said from where he had moved to sit behind his desk. “It is possible that this move was purposeful; maybe even meant to hold off what’s been happening to members of The Elite, but we’re not really—”
“I need a minute.”
Her words came out short.
Sharp.
Even to her own ears.
For a man who had been quick to say he needed to stop caring about the emotional needs of the people he controlled at The League, Dare didn’t hesitate to nod and say, “Whatever you want. Just know, Penny ...”
She had already turned to leave, and while walking away, she heard him say, “You’re to do nothing right now—not until we know their next move. Since you brought that man with you, staying at the complex is off the table, but we can just as easily keep an eye on you at the hotel. Go ... there. I won’t say home because I know that isn’t what it is for you. Either way, go there and stay out of sight. Do not force my hand. This is for the best.”
Right.
The best.
But all she could think about?
Those little girls.
19.
Luca
“WHY was every room locked until I found this one?” Luca asked the presence that had joined him in what he could only describe as a music room.
“Because this was where Dare wanted you,” Penny said simply.
“What, like—”
“He controls the locks on every room door and corridor. If one was unlocked, it was because he left it that way purposefully to direct you to the place where he wanted you to be.”
Huh.
The whole damn place gave him the fucking creeps, but he wouldn’t say so out loud. Cameras watched him from every corner. He couldn’t even remember the many dirt roads they had taken deep into the desert to arrive. All the doors were black. Some didn’t even have handles to open them. He hadn’t seen a single soul, but maybe that was purposeful. Locks were controlled by a man with a strange name hidden somewhere he couldn’t see. What, were they in The Wizard of Oz or some shit?
At least, he liked the room he was currently in. That was one good thing. Instruments lined the walls. Everything and anything one could want to indulge their musical interests waited for the right hands to pick the instrument of their choice. At first, he considered the row of vintage guitars, but the piano at the far side called his name just because of the nostalgia he felt looking at it.
He was far from a pianist.
That was all his sister.
And Penny, too.
Still, he dared to play. Of course, the piano seemed a bit out of tune. To his ear, anyway. The small set of familiar tools that he found under the piano gave him something to do as he tuned the instrument for a while as he waited to be found.
He figured ... how hard would it be? All they had to do was check the cameras.
Right.
Sitting at the piano bench, Luca played a few keys, letting his fingers dance over ivory. Mary Had A Little Lamb rang out into the room, making Penny laugh.
“You missed a key,” she noted. “And it’s better in the higher note, I think.”
Luca shrugged as she came to join him on the bench. He shot her a smile while he played the next few keys of the song. “Never said I was a pro.”