One Second After Another (The After Another Series #3) - Bethany-Kris Page 0,49

happened so fast that at first, neither of the two in the pool even knew what was happening.

“Fuck,” Luca hissed.

Penny was already reaching for the side of the pool to pull herself from the water when the first smoke bomb was thrown into the downstairs. Her wide, wild blue gaze darted to his when she screamed, “Move!”

The stomp of feet accompanied the smoke and confusion. Luca just did what he was told and pulled his body from the water, naked and cold. He barely felt it at all, but he heard every step and shout coming closer as the smoke started to crawl over the pool at the far end. The only thing that worked to their favor was the smoke bombs clouded the intruders’ view of their escape.

Penny grabbed the clothes. Luca busted out the windows with a chair. The rush of air from the outside pulled the smoke toward the windows even faster. He couldn’t see anything—especially not the pale beauty who had just been at his side.

He felt her hand, though,

Finding his.

She pulled him through to the outside. It was then that he finally understood why she wanted him to move the car and for them to have a second exit plan.

Nowhere was safe.

Not even paradise.

17.

Penny

LUCA drove the Vanquish through the small, winding dirt road that led out from the rear of the lodge’s property. Penny didn’t even care to argue about who was behind the wheel because the man had proved himself in that regard on more than one occasion.

The vehicle jumped, and the tires slid on the path more than once, but even so, Luca kept the car under control. Going at a speed that would have frightened a weaker woman sitting in the passenger seat, Penny, however, wasn’t bothered.

“Are you going to say something?” Luca asked.

She glanced away from the bag in her lap—the only one Luca put in the backseat and not in the trunk; hers, with her weapons and other items she liked to have close—to see his knuckles were ghostly white from the tight grip he had on the steering wheel. But other than his stronghold on the vehicle, the man was unfazed.

He stared at her, waiting.

Penny didn’t know what kind of response he wanted, saying, “It was just a matter of time before someone found us there. That they would find you—if you’re not around to be found, then you must be with me. That should tell you something right there.”

It took Luca a moment.

Penny waited him out.

“The League attacked us tonight,” he murmured, gaze darting back to the road after their brief exchange.

He couldn’t see it since his attention was back on whatever was coming at them on the dirt road, but Penny still shrugged. “The Elite don’t know about your connection to me maybe beyond my past, and I’ve not connected myself to that in any way.”

Except him.

But her mother’s people didn’t know that. Only the organization she had been working for that was now out there hunting her like a fucking dog. As if she was the one doing something wrong when she was just trying to finish what they had allowed her to start. Just because they allowed it didn’t mean they also got a say on when it ended.

Full stop.

She respected The League for what they had done with her—for what they gave to her. And she would not go out of her way to purposely hurt anyone from an organization that for years had been the only family she had to her name. That wouldn’t stop her from doing whatever she needed to do to meet her end goal.

They could get in line.

Or get out of the way.

“Shit,” Luca snarled.

His harsh exclamation accompanied the screech of the Vanquish’s wheels when Luca slammed on the brakes without warning. Penny jerked forward violently with only inches to spare before her face smashed into the dash. She didn’t have her seatbelt on because honestly, that had been one of the last things on her mind. The only thing that saved her from getting a broken face—or worse—was Luca’s arm that caught her right under her throat.

Not that it was an easy impact. His fucking arm was like a bar, and when she hit against him with her chest, all of her breath went with it.

“Sorry,” she heard him mutter. “Fuck, are you ok—”

She didn’t hear the rest of his concern because in the midst of being thrown forward, she had finally gotten a glimpse of what waited

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