“Open the door or I am breaking it down,” he heard called.
Well ...
Time for him to go.
It took all of two seconds for Luca to realize what Penny had done and why there was blood in the bathroom. She told him once that The League could find her no matter where she was. He bet the blood wasn’t the only thing she left behind for them to find. Might they find a tracking chip at the bottom of the sink drain?
He didn’t plan to find out.
How would this situation end for him if Cree—and whoever was with him—broke down the hotel door just to find Luca in there alone? Fuck, they already threatened to kill him. He wasn’t about to give them another reason to see it through.
He did like being alive.
Even if he didn’t know why.
Luca was just beginning to scale the ledge of the hotel room’s small veranda when he heard wood crack as the door was kicked in. Lucky for him, it wasn’t the first time he had to make a quick exit ... or take an unconventional route of escape.
Unluckily for the people in the hotel room below Penny’s, too. Because the naked couple—the redheaded female riding her partner on the bed facing the veranda down below where Luca landed—certainly hadn’t expected him to dart through their hotel room with a quick, “My bad!”
The woman shrieked, scrambling off her partner and grasping for the sheets that really did nothing to hide her body. The man only swore.
“Nice tits, though,” he called over his shoulder.
They didn’t even have time to react. He was already exiting their smaller hotel room before the two even fully understood what had happened. The hallway was empty. He had no idea what was happening above his head a floor higher or if this plan of his would even work.
If he could call it a plan.
Could he if he didn’t know what he was doing?
Likely not.
What did it matter?
Luca doubted running would work for him—Nevada wasn’t his territory, after all. He didn’t have connections, didn’t know the streets, and on top of that, still needed to get out.
Would it work?
Probably not.
Fuck him if he wouldn’t try, though.
Where are you, Penny?
That was the real question.
The entire fucking problem, honestly.
LUCA ALREADY HAD A familiar number dialed, and the cell pressed to his ear with the call ringing through when the remaining man in the airport bathroom finally left. Without washing his hands—disgusting prick.
Not that Luca had time to focus on that. Naz picked up his best friend’s call in less than two rings, but that wasn’t surprising. How many weeks had he gone now without even a text to Naz to explain what was going on?
Too many.
Even he knew it.
No doubt, the conversation wasn’t going to end particularly well but if Luca needed help, then he only had one person to go to for it, really. Naz. That was it.
“Where the fuck are you?”
The first words out of Naz’s mouth the second he picked up Luca’s call. Scrubbing a hand down his face, irritated by the thick patch of facial hair that had started to grow out since he’d been without a razor for too damn long, Luca tried not to sigh.
Tried being the keyword.
He failed.
“I’m ... in Nevada,” he muttered.
“What—”
“With Penny—or I was.”
Silence answered him back.
He waited Naz out.
“What?” his friend snarled.
Like a record on repeat.
“I don’t have long,” Luca said, not realizing how true that statement would actually be in just a few short minutes. “But I found her, man. I don’t have time to explain everything right now. We went from New York to Nevada—now she’s gone again.”
“But you were with her,” Naz replied.
It wasn’t even a question.
Luca swallowed hard. “Yeah—”
“And you didn’t tell me.”
Anger clung to his friend’s words. Luca understood that all too well even if he didn’t have the time to indulge whatever Naz felt about the news he had just dropped on him without warning. Welcome to Luca’s life—that shit was a regular thing now.
“Point is,” Luca said, trying to get the conversation back around to what was important, “she got me here, but then she left. And now I think she’s got people after her, Naz. Except they’re probably after me, too. I’ve got thirty minutes before I’m jumping on a flight. Better to be back in New York than here, no doubt.”
“You were with her and didn’t tell me.”
“Naz.”
He knew good and damn well why that was the thing Naz wanted to focus on. The entire reason why Luca stood where he did boiled down to the fact his friend asked him to find Penny in the first place. He’d done that. And didn’t tell Naz.
“What does that mean—she left?” Naz asked. “How can she leave, Luca? The girl is already gone.”
“Woman,” he corrected just because that was the only thing his stupid brain decided was most important to say. “She’s not—”
“Luca, what is going on?”
God.
He wished he had an answer. An excuse. Anything.
Instead, he was left saying, “A lot has happened, man.”
“I fucking guess!”
“And—”
“Where is she?” Naz demanded.
Luca blew out a breath, refusing to even turn toward the mirrors where he could see his reflection staring back. Like he needed the visual reminder of the mess this had become and his failures. He felt it more than enough.
“I don’t know,” Luca admitted. “I basically forced my way to Nevada with her when the people she works for here called her back, but she seemed all right about it. Except I woke up and she’s gone, people are banging down the door, and this is all bad. Every bit of it.”
“None of that makes any sense.”
“It does. I just haven’t explained the rest.”
Any of it, really. And he wouldn’t have the chance to.
Three figures slipped into the airport bathroom, making Luca quiet as he recognized one of the men. The one in the middle with his neat braid flipped over his shoulder and dark eyes nailing into him as if he’d just caught his prey.
“Cree,” Luca greeted.
Were they on a first-name basis now? He figured ... why not? It wasn’t like this situation could end well for Luca, so he might as well do what he wanted while it happened.
“Luca, what’s happening?” Naz asked, a worried tinge coloring his tone.
“Nothing—”
“Hang up the phone,” the man to Cree’s right said.
The one on the left was now pointing a gun at Luca.
All good things.
Not.
“In a sec,” Luca replied. And then to Naz, he said, “It’s really bad now, man.”
“Who?”
That was all Naz asked.
Luca simply said, “The League.”
“Hang up the phone.”
He did.
Not that he wanted to.
Up until that moment, Cree had said nothing. Only the men that accompanied him—men Luca didn’t know—spoke. Since he didn’t care about the other two, he looked to the man in the middle for what would happen next.