It soon became apparent to Luca that even though Penny had left on her own ... something wasn’t right about it. It was fine if she wanted to go and did so. Not fine ... but legally, fine.
She was eighteen.
The girl could come and go.
Except why did she start to disappear everywhere else, too? Records of Penny Dunsworth started to vanish one by one. Every time Luca went looking for something from her past that might help to lead him to her ... he found less and less.
Digital yearbooks gone.
School records suddenly ... missing.
Hospital data, deleted.
Shit that shouldn’t happen.
That usually didn’t happen.
Someone was making any trace of Penny just ... disappear, he quickly realized. Like she did to them.
And then one after another, Luca’s days became consumed with finding her. Or even anything at all about her. The next thing that might vanish after he found it ... or just before he did, for that matter. It was only now that he had finally decided to start contacting organizations across North America to find the ghost he was chasing.
Hopefully, that would lead him somewhere new.
Somewhere toward Penny.
Or anything.
Then, maybe he could tell his friend—
“Nu-nu lu-lu,” Cross shouted inside the car, the sudden loudness making Luca blink out of his thoughts violently as the boy grabbed the stuffed bear with the blue bow from his lap. He gave the paw a squeeze the way they had been doing for him for months, and an all too familiar song started to play. “Yay!”
Luca smiled or tried. “Yeah, yay, buddy.”
Baby duty was something.
He tried to help when he could, though. Like when Naz had to report to tribute for Cosa Nostra and didn’t have someone to keep an eye on the baby when it was supposed to be his day to look after the little guy. That was why Luca currently entertained baby Cross while his father did business with the rest of the family’s men in a diner across the street.
Luca wasn’t made.
And as his focus drifted away from not only college but famiglia business as well, while he searched for Penny ... some people made it all too clear that he wasn’t welcomed now. Made or not. Some men in the family said nothing, and others said too much.
Soon, the diner started to clear out. Luca wasn’t surprised to see Naz vacate the restaurant last as he had probably stayed behind to speak to his father, and Zeke. Shit, his best friend was talking to his own father more than even he was lately.
It couldn’t be helped.
It was probably better this way.
Naz made a beeline for Luca, but greeted his son before saying anything to his friend. “Hey, little man. See, Daddy told you I’d be right back.” Then, to Luca, he added, “Thanks for keeping an eye on him. Tribute was supposed to be tomo—”
“It’s cool, man. No worries.”
Naz must have heard Luca’s distant tone because he straightened up and turned to look at what had caught his friend’s attention across the street. Cross had come to stand on the sidewalk outside the restaurant with Luca’s father at his side.
Zeke stared his way.
Luca watched back.
His father was one of those unhappy men—the disappointment was no longer loudly voiced, simply felt and understood between the two of them.
“Did you find anything this week?” Naz asked.
About Penny, he meant.
Luca didn’t need clarification.
Everything was about Penny lately.
“Nothing. What if she doesn’t want to be found? None of this makes any sense, Naz.”
“Something happened. And I want answers. Roz barely sleeps. I wake up, and she’s crying about her. I promised her ... I have to at least try.”
“You mean me.”
Naz gave him a look.
Luca only shrugged. “Yeah, I know.”
Naz would if he could, but as he’d been told over and over the past few months ... famiglia first. The mafia always got its way.
No matter what.
“I’ll find her, Naz. It’s just ... when.”
And how.
CODA.
Present Day ...
“CROSS! Get back to the house, son! Time to eat!”
Penny’s head snapped to the side, gaze darting over her shoulder through the trees to find the form of a man coming to stand on the rear porch of the three-level home. Like his son, she hadn’t laid eyes on Nazio in as many years.
He was older, yes, but his playful grin as he called for his child still felt like a welcomed sight to her.
“Cross!” he called again.
The little boy just a few feet away looked her way with a shrug. “You’re gonna leave now, huh?”
“I have to.”
He nodded once. “Yeah, you keep doing that to people, I guess. Leaving.”
Penny blinked away the veil of tears that shrouded her vision. “I don’t want to, though.”
“Cross Nazio Donati—time to eat, kiddo!”
As if on cue, Cross’s stomach growled. He didn’t even look sheepish about it.
“The interlude—the part of the song that repeats, right?” he asked her.
She smiled. “Yeah, what about it?”
“Mine feels like a hug.”
Penny stilled.
He couldn’t know that ...
It wasn’t possible.
“It does,” he said again. “It feels like a hug when I hear it. I feel the same. Light at first. But then it tightens, muffles. Like arms wrapping around me, bringing me closer, getting warmer and tighter.”
“I composed a lullaby for you. That’s all.”
Cross kicked at the dirt when his father called his name again. “Yeah, but with a hug. Right?”
“The way I thought a hug should feel. If someone made one with music. If I could hug you through mine.”
Not that she ever told anyone that fact.
“Okay.” Cross turned back toward the house. “That’s what I thought.”
“Cross, are you in those damn woods again?”
Penny sucked in a sharp breath at the sight of Nazio strolling down the steps of the porch and heading their way. Toward the woods.
“I have to—”
Penny didn’t even get to finish her sentence before the boy had turned back around. He darted for her, his small arms wrapping around her middle. The hug was light at first, and then it tightened with warmth.
“Please don’t tell them you saw me,” she whispered, hugging the boy back. “I only want to help them, okay?”
If she could have stayed right there in that moment with a piece of her past cementing her between then and now, she would have. Forever.
“I won’t tell.” Cross peered up at her when he took a step back and let her go, asking, “You’ll come back, won’t you?”
She chose not to lie.
“I’m sure gonna try.”
Want to continue Penny and Luca’s story – grab ONE SECOND 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:
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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
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: 978-1-989658-29-1
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.