A broken heart.
She took one of the knives from the leather satchel she had left on the dresser and headed for the attached bathroom. For the first time in years, she cut—a single line that bled in droplets to the sink—but she didn’t make a sound.
Not even when she dug two fingers into the bleeding wound in her upper arm to find the item there while agony tore through every fiber of her being. Instead, she focused all that pain into her reflection staring back from the mirror. A face that looked far too much like the woman who had done this to her in the first place.
How could she run from a monster that looked back at her everyday?
No one would understand why it had to happen like this. Not Luca, when he woke up tomorrow to find Penny gone. Certainly not her handlers when someone realized the chip in her arm—that now rested at the bottom of the bloody sink drain—hadn’t showed any movement activity in hours. Not the team of people at The League who had been working with Penny for years so that their plan to dismantle and end The Elite could finally culminate to a successful job. One that would earn the organization millions from the man who delivered her and the job to them in the first place.
Not one of them would be able to justify anything she did. Because they weren’t her. They didn’t live inside her head or past the way she did. They couldn’t go back in time like she was forced to all the time in her memories to explain why it all had to happen like this.
But she wasn’t sorry.
She wouldn’t apologize for this or leaving them behind to do what needed done. Something she should have finished years ago. Maybe when it was all over, the people who did matter would allow her the chance to ask for forgiveness.
One step after another, she thought. Each one she took led her right back to her mother.
Everything she did, before this and after, it was all one big circle that was destined to eventually return to the place it began. There was only one way it could stop. Wasn’t it time for this to finally end?
It started with her mother.
Penny would end it there, too.
Want to continue Penny and Luca’s story – grab ONE BREATH AFTER ANOTHER!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bethany-Kris is a Canadian author, lover of much, and mother to four sons, three cats, and four dogs. A small town in Eastern Canada where she was born and raised is where she has always called home. With her boys under her feet, a snuggling cat, barking dogs, and a spouse calling over his shoulder, she is nearly always writing something ... when she can find the time.
Find Bethany-Kris at her:
WEBSITE
OTHER BOOKS
The After Another Trilogy
One Step After Another
One Breath After Another
One Second After Another
Boykov Bratva
Fractured Ties
Essence of Fear
The Guzzi Legacy
Corrado
Alessio
Chris
Beni
Bene
Marcus
Renzo + Lucia
Privilege
Harbor
Contempt
Forever
Cusp
Renzo + Lucia: The Complete Trilogy
Andino + Haven
Duty
Vow
One Last Time
Andino + Haven: The Complete Duet
John + Siena
Loyalty
Disgrace
John + Siena: The Complete Duet
John + Siena: Extended
Cross + Catherine
Always
Revere
Unruly
The Companion
Naz & Roz
Guzzi Duet
Unraveled, Book One
Entangled, Book Two
Cara & Gian: The Complete Duet
DeLuca Duet
Waste of Worth: Part One
Standalone Titles
Pink
Pretty Lies
Dirty Pool
Effortless
Inflict
Cozen
Captivated
Dishonored
Donati Bloodlines
Thin Lies
Thin Lines
Thin Lives
Behind the Bloodlines
The Complete Trilogy
Filthy Marcellos
Antony
Lucian
Giovanni
Dante
Legacy
A Very Marcello Christmas
The Complete Collection
Seasons of Betrayal
Where the Sun Hides
Where the Snow Falls
Where the Wind Whispers
Seasons: The Complete Seasons of Betrayal Series
Gun Moll Trilogy
Gun Moll
Gangster Moll
Madame Moll
The Chicago War
Deathless & Divided
Reckless & Ruined
Scarless & Sacred
Breathless & Bloodstained
The Complete Series
Maldives & Mistletoe
The Russian Guns
The Arrangement
The Life
The Score
Demyan & Ana
Shattered
The Jersey Vignettes
FANTASY ROMANCE
The Hunted: A 9INE REALMS Novel
Find more on Bethany-Kris’s website at www.bethanykris.com.
Copyright © 2020 by Bethany-Kris. All Rights Reserved.
WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted material is illegal and punishable by law. No parts of this work may be reproduced, copied, used, or printed without expressed written consent from the publisher/author. Exceptions are made for brief excerpts used in reviews.
eISBN 13: 978-1-989658-28-4
Editor: Eli Peters
Proofreaders: Tracy A., Eli P., and Felicia F.
Cover Design © London Miller
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, organizations, corporations, locales and so forth are a product of the author’s imagination, or if real, used fictitiously. Any resemblance to a person, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.