Page 2 of Phantom
“Come on, Val! Stay for one more round. I got you this next hand. I promise you that!”
A woman with auburn hair emerged through the bar’s swinging front doors. “If I take any more of your money, Marianne is gonna have your neck and mine. Give it up.”
A melody of groans and laughs rang out, but the woman just waved her hand and stepped out into the moonlight, a hulking pit bull at her side. Her curves swayed back and forth as she sauntered into the parking lot, and I couldn’t help but smile.
“Beautiful,” I whispered into the night.
She was recognizable as the person I once knew, but she was so much more beautiful than I thought possible. Her arms now held colorful tattoos that, if I got lucky, I’d get to inspect closer when I got the chance. Though still the same, gorgeous color, her hair now fell past her shoulders and down her back—much longer than she ever kept it as a kid. The teenager inside me was both delighted to be back in her presence and lamenting the time we’d lost. If the circumstances were any different, I’d charge in and make sure I didn’t let life snatch her away from me again.
Unfortunately, I probably wasn’t going to get that lucky.
She approached a sleek, modern Ducati. It was bright red, exactly her style. I grinned and watched as she loaded her vicious-looking pet into a rear carrier that had been affixed to the back, and then she mounted the bike and started it with a magnificent growl. I started my own bike in synchronization with hers to mask the sound and waited as she started to move. Just like the girl I once knew, she was fluid and smooth as she whipped it out of her parking spot and onto the road. She’d be a nice way to say goodbye to Arizona and America forever.
When there was a safe distance between us, I started up my own bike again, a more old school Harley-Davison. It was an old bike of Luther’s that he’d let me dig out of a dumpster full of old meat and probably the rotting parts of his victims as an initiation. It didn’t even work when I got it, but I worked on it painstakingly until it was in the pristine condition it was currently in. When I wasn’t taking care of Caid, I was working on my bike. I wouldn’t say that this little joke alone was the reason I was willing to steal from Luther, but it sure made it a hell of a lot easier.
I kept the distance of a few car lengths or more between us until we were clear of the bar, then I closed the distance bit by bit. At first, her driving was calm and smooth as she abided the speed limit, weaving at a leisurely pace between the cars on the road. I kept up without issue until she started speeding up, slowing down, and changing lanes suddenly. Following her actions, I tried to keep her in my line of sight without making it too obvious that I was following her. If she moved lanes, I would stay in mine for a few feet and then switch. If she sped up, I’d allow her to do so for a few minutes, and then I’d follow suit.
Trying to stay covert was costing me, though, and I was beginning to fear that I was going to lose her when she rode past a row of houses and then turned down an alley. My options ran a mile a minute through my brain. I could pass the alley, wait for her to come out, and try again, or I could roll the dice and follow her in.
She wouldn’t sic her pit bull on someone on sight, right?
Shadows closed around me as I turned down the alleyway, and I immediately became confused at the sight of the red Ducati sitting at the end of the alleyway, still with the dog in it, still alive and rumbling.
I pulled my bike to a stop and cut it off. My experience had me reaching into my waistband for my gun, but then I stopped. I came seeking help, and I needed the person I sought to know that I didn’t pose a threat. Relying on the hope that she didn’t know where I’d been for the past fourteen years was already a calculated risk. I didn’t need to make the situation any worse by pulling a gun.
With my hands in the air, I stepped carefully down the alley. The pit bull started to bark and growl as I approached, but I didn’t flinch. A few dumpsters shielded the end of the alley, so I crept past them slowly and looked to see if she was hiding.
But there was no one.
I started to fear that maybe something bad had happened to her when the cold, heavy feeling of steel against the back of my skull snapped me into place.
A sweet but menacing voice huffed from just behind me, “You have thirty seconds to tell me why you’re following me, or I’m gonna leave you in a puddle of your own blood.”
I smirked. She’d always been a badass. “Tess,” I said before turning my head slowly to give her a better look at my face. “It’s been a long time. You look good.”
Chapter Two
Tess
Lockjaw, my beefy, all-white pit bull, had gotten used to sensing danger whenever my gun clicked. The second I set the barrel to the back of the head of the man following me, Lockjaw let out a low, menacing growl. Unbeknownst to my pursuer, I’d unlatched Lockjaw’s harness when I climbed off my bike, just in case. All it would take was one word, and he’d be out of his seat and latched onto whichever body part he could get to first.
Unfortunately for me, the typically simple task of speaking was eluding me for the time being. The confidence I’d just had when I slunk behind the alley’s dumpsters to get the jump on my stalker abated in an instant. His dirty-blond hair was a bit longer, even a bit unkempt, and the clean, baby face I had etched in my brain was hidden behind a growing scruff of a goatee, but there was no denying the voice or those emerald eyes.
Colin, my childhood love, was the man at the other end of my gun.
I kept the barrel against his head as I sidestepped him slowly and paced to his front to view his face better. What wasn’t covered in facial hair was covered in various scrapes and scratches, along with a couple of places that looked like someone had held a lighter against his skin. I studied him closely, making sure I wasn’t projecting one of my lingering high-school dreams, but as I locked my eyes on his, it felt like being suddenly thrust backward in time.
It was him.
“Colin?”
He tilted his head with a crooked smile. “A decade made you forget me? It’s CJ.”
I furrowed my brow. I wasn’t misremembering the name of the first guy I’d ever fallen in love with. I had half a dozen notebooks still packed in storage at my parents’ house with his name scribbled all over them. The boy I was infatuated with was named Colin.
“CJ?” I asked.
“Yeah. Blue house four doors down. I accidentally broke your front window, trying to get your attention,” he responded.
