“An offer—”
“For your life.”
Well, then.
4.
Luca
“HE blames me for this.”
Luca looked away from the glowing lights of his favorite city down below only to find the man who had spoken wasn’t even looking at him. Directly in front of his seat was another where Cree had taken a spot when they boarded the private jet hours ago. The flight attendant on board opted to stay with the pilot after the assassins on the jet made it clear they weren’t interested in being attended to for the flight’s duration.
He might have liked something.
Nobody cared to ask.
“Who?” Luca asked.
Cree’s dark gaze shifted subtly from the window to Luca, then to the man a couple of seats back with—Dare—and then back to the window again. It was so fast it was almost like it hadn’t happened in the first place. “My ... partner.”
That had Luca’s brow furrowing while he put together what the other man was trying to tell him. It seemed like Cree did that a lot—talked just enough to be interesting while letting those around him figure out the rest for themselves.
Luca couldn’t say he liked it.
This was, however, the most conversation he had been able to gain from anyone since leaving The League’s grounds. He wasn’t about to waste it. Despite their flight starting to come to an end with New York below them, he figured Cree wasn’t the type to talk just because he could. It always seemed to serve a purpose.
So, what was it this time?
“And he blames you.” Luca’s statement didn’t gain him anything from Cree. The man acted like he hadn’t even talked, let alone repeated what he had already said. He tried something else. “For what, exactly?”
Cree arched a brow, never looking away from the porthole window.
Well ...
“For Penny, you mean,” Luca said when the man wouldn’t. “That she went AWOL from her handler—you. So all of this comes back to you. Everything she does from here on out is basically on you, right?”
Cree smoothed a palm down his long braid as he leaned back in his seat and stared straight ahead at Luca. This time, he didn’t look further down the jet at the man behind them in another seat when he said, “He blames me for doing this. Or what she’s done, I suppose. He wants robots. Unfeeling machines. But broken people only end up breaking other things more often than not. What purpose does that serve? He says they’re my pet projects. I get attached, call them mine, make them different and better.”
“And that means you—”
“Try to fix them.”
“Even Penny?”
Cree swallowed hard, the suit he’d thrown on for the trip making the man look all the more uncomfortable in his seat when he replied coldly, “Especially her. It worked. Look at her now.”
Right.
Except no one could look at her. She was gone.
All the while, Luca was still wondering if tonight would be his last night alive. Fun times.
The plane’s descent finally hit the point where the pressure in the cabin changed enough that it wasn’t quite comfortable. Luca thought his conversation with Cree was mostly over when the man didn’t offer anything else. He went back to staring out the jet’s window at the lights below because even planning something like an escape at this point felt useless.
“He blames me,” Cree murmured, although this time to himself more than to Luca, and neither man acknowledged the repeated words. “And he’s not wrong.”
LUCA WASN’T SURE WHAT he expected when the jet touched down at the New York airport, but seeing his father standing next to Cross when he exited the plane certainly wasn’t it. Apparently, whatever offer the Donati crime family had to make for his safe return by The League wouldn’t be waiting one second longer than it had to.
Was he grateful?
Of course.
He just hadn’t expected them to be waiting ... right there. The very moment he stepped off the plane.
Luca kept his composure while the team of men dressed in black—from their cargo and tight, long sleeve shirts to even the gear strapped to their bodies—surrounded him when his feet hit the tarmac. Dare and Cree, the only two men in the bunch that hadn’t dressed like they were ready to go to war, headed the group and came to a stop in front of the private hangar where Luca’s father and godfather waited.
There was something to be said for being treated like you were ... a ticking time bomb. Each of the five men appointed to him watched his every move. Like the next one would be his last, but as if they still expected him to try.
Luca was way out of his league here. Even he fucking knew it. That was why he had no intention of stepping out of line in any way that might jeopardize whatever chance he had to make it out of the situation alive. If living the life he did had taught him anything over the years, it was that self-preservation was something a person needed to survive their world.
Or maybe that was just him.
“Step forward,” came the muffled order at his back from one of the men in black with his face partially covered by a black skull bandana. The butt of his rifle came forward like he was going to jab Luca in the back but fuck that noise. He’d had enough of that in Nevada, and he wasn’t doing it again.
Luca moved ahead, through the two men at his front that parted to let him pass, so that he was able to stand slightly behind, but off to the side of Cree and Dare. Zeke and Cross waited with the men of The League, and only turned back to continue their conversation once Luca was in their sights.
He knew what he looked like.
All too well.
The assholes might have cut the ties on his wrists and gave him back his jacket before they left Nevada, but he was still in a goddamn state. He needed several hours of sleep, clean clothes, and a shower. His haggard appearance was probably only aided by the fact he hadn’t shaved in far too long, he was due for a haircut to manage the high fade cut that had grown out. The beating he’d taken—more than once during his time with The League—left with him a couple of bruises that hurt more than he cared to show.
No doubt, those brief few seconds his father and Cross had to see him told the men more than Luca would when this was over.
But he could handle it.
All of this.
It was all secondary to the fact Penny was still gone, and he was sure an entire team of assassins would soon be hunting her down on top of the people that were already looking for her from an entirely different organization. At least, for Luca everything else was secondary to that. He couldn’t say the same for everyone else on that tarmac.
“Is even the suggestion of talking about what to do with the other situation on the—”
“It’s nowhere near the fucking table,” Dare interjected, stopping Cross from saying anything more. Luca had finally stepped out of his thoughts just long enough to realize he could hear some of the men’s conversation above the wind in front of the hangar. “The contract is clear, Mr. Donati. If your property remains under the supervision of The League while maintaining business for you, it is at our discretion to make final calls regarding disobedience. Especially at this level.”
“I just think there are other ways to deal with Penny than—”