“They haven’t found her, have they?” Roz asked. “Still nothing?”
She had stopped asking after a couple of weeks. He was surprised she even asked now, really. When none of their contacts could find Penny after the declaration of a claimed bounty ... he had started to think that was the point. They didn’t want even her body found.
“Nothing,” he murmured.
And not for a lack of trying.
Except leads ran cold and politics and policies kept them from doing things above board which only made shit harder when they didn’t even know where to begin. A part of him wanted to bring her home—even a piece of her—for his own selfish reasons.
He would never tell his sister that, though. He would never say he kept looking even when he truly believed there was nothing to look for because he needed to have a part of her with him. He didn’t keep looking because Roz wanted closure. He did it for himself.
“But it’s not over,” he added.
More for her benefit than his.
Roz nodded, turning back for the house. Luca pivoted with her if only to make sure she didn’t trip on the damn lip of the back door’s threshold. It wouldn’t be the first time that happened, but he didn’t want to risk her doing it while she was pregnant, too.
“Okay, well, I better get Naz out of the shower, or we’re going to be late for—”
“Penny!”
Luca swung back around at his nephew’s sudden shout. It took him a second to find the form that stumbled out of the treeline at the rear of the property. In his distraction with the conversation, he had missed the fact that Cross had kicked the ball to the other side of the back lawn almost to the trees.
Of course, the boy saw her first.
Luca didn’t wonder if it was Penny—even the messy, ratty black hair would have made someone else pause as far away as he stood. But he didn’t. Every part of him had thought she was dead up until that moment. He’d denied it outwardly to anyone else that asked until he just stopped saying anything at all.
And yet, right then ...
Every part of him knew she was alive.
It was her.
“Oh, my God,” his sister breathed.
Luca didn’t even take the stairs. The running start helped to launch him over the railing of the deck. He hit the ground already running. Roz’s footsteps beat against the wood of the deck’s stairs when he was already halfway across the backyard.
Unfortunately, he also got to watch as Penny’s knees hit the grass, and the red splotch in the front of the loose gown she wore spread wider. Little Cross was already in front of her, his words carrying back in the breeze to Luca’s spot.
“You came back,” he told her.
Penny’s laughter was weak, but real. “Of course, I did.”
“Because you never wanted to leave.”
“Ever.”
“Why are you bleeding?” Cross asked next, his voice pitching higher.
Luca was almost to them, so he was quick to shout, “Go get your father, buddy! Go tell him we need help!”
His nephew didn’t question him. Luca was able to catch Penny as she was falling to the side. Instead of meeting the ground, her shoulder and back tucked along his legs as he wrapped his arms around her. He had a lot of questions, but none of them wanted to come out when tired blue eyes blinked upward and met his.
Instead, he kissed her.
Leaning down, while his sister found the ground beside them and a little boy shouted for his father, he found something beautiful against the lips of his greatest treasure. His impossible wish. He felt her mouth curve against his, and the chapped texture of her lips moved with his. It was only when her damp, dirty hands found the sides of his face that Luca pulled back a bit.
There was too much blood.
He was trying to figure out why.
Then, her trembling fingers ghosted over his smiling lips—because despite the worry and sadness in his heart at seeing her in such a state—he couldn’t help the happiness swelling in his heart, either. For the first time, Luca truly understood what it meant to be overjoyed.
And it was overwhelming.
“What are you doing?” he asked her.
And where the fuck was Naz with help?
Like his sister could read his mind, Roz whispered to Luca, “Cross just got inside—Naz will only be a few more minutes.”
“We need a clean towel—something,” Luca muttered. “Me and Naz can get her in the house but—”
“I’ll run in and find something.”
“Okay, thanks.”
“I’ll be right back, Penny,” Roz told the woman shivering in Luca’s arms.
“I’m fine,” Penny said in a breath that rattled on the exhale, “just tired.”
But that wasn’t good, either. And the bloody gash on her chest was now more visible as she laid in his arms on the damp grass. He was grateful for the privacy of his best friend’s yard and regretted every single thought he’d had earlier about wishing he could be anywhere else.
“I am fine,” she promised. “I haven’t slept in fifty-two hours and—”
“Your chest is bleeding.”
“I shouldn’t have taken the trails. A root caught me when I slipped. That’s all.”
God.
Her flippant, yet breathless, assurances were crazy. Yet, she made them like she expected no fight from him.
“What are you doing?” he asked her.
She was still touching his lips, the black strands of her faded box-dyed hair sticking to the pale skin of her face and throat. Not once had she looked away from him.
“Anything,” she replied softly. “I want to do everything I couldn’t before.”
He would let her. Hell, he’d be right there doing whatever she wanted with her.
“I kept my promise,” Penny said. “To everyone, Luca. Even you.”
She had. He couldn’t deny that. And God above knew that he loved her more because of it, too.
But did he ever expect anything different? Luca couldn’t pretend that Penny was the average woman—certainly the exception. Beyond, even. Exceptional. She walked through hell, and then went back for more with a smile. And here she was, saying she wanted to be all of those things with him.
With a wound in her chest.
While she bled in his arms.
“I just want you,” he eventually replied. “All I ever wanted was you.”
He wouldn’t let her go.
Not now.
Not ever.
Penny smiled wider, then, her lips trembling when she told him, “And now we can start over.”
It took Luca a second.
Those words echoed; they were a reminder of something he had been told two months ago when he first learned the bounty was claimed. His godfather’s promise that had left him so unsettled for more reasons than he was able to explain.
Like a restart, Cross had said.
“Can’t we start over?” Penny asked him. “I want an ... after.”
“And I’ll give you one.”
Nothing else mattered.
It never would.
Did you love Penny and Luca’s story—want more?
Try Lucian, Where the Sun Hides, or The Arrangement—all free! Get your BK library stocked up today.
XO,
-BK
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:
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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
Worth of Waste: Part Two
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: 978-1-989658-30-7
Editor: Eli Peters
Proofreaders: Tracy A., 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.