Page 37 of Phantom
As I was unloading my pockets, the door of the guest bedroom burst open. My back was to the door, and I froze in place. I hadn’t heard Tess’ bike approaching, but Lockjaw’s lack of barking was concerning. Whoever opened the door wasn’t speaking, and I was debating whether or not to grab my gun before turning around.
“The burns.”
Relief and anger battled for domination in my mind. I flipped around and saw Tess standing in the doorway, staring at my bare torso. My hand flew to the desk to grab a clean shirt, but Tess reached out and snatched it from my grip.
“Tess,” I growled, “give me the shirt.”
Her stare finally left my arm and came up to meet my eyes. “Isthiswhy you’ve been so weird?” She clung the shirt tighter when I attempted to grab it back, and when I turned to try and grab a different one, she shifted toward the desk to stand between me and it. “Answer me. You’ve been hiding this from me? Why? Do you think I’m that shallow?” The discoloration on my left arm, my left pec, and left half of my stomach were screaming. The overexposure was difficult to deal with, and I was beating back my fight or flight response with a mental stick. “Colin. Answer me.”
“No,” I responded finally. “I know you’re not. It’s me.”
She lost some of the stiffness in her body. “Well…” She scoffed. “There’s nothing wrong.” She stepped up to me and stuck out a hand, dropping the shirt on the floor and leaving it behind. Her fingertips grazed across the permanent scarring, and I rigidified. “Does it hurt?”
“No.” Not physically, at least.
Her hand settled a little more against my arm and started to smooth its way down. Tess’ hands felt on my skin burned in a different kind of way. It was a welcome heat, unlike anything I’d experienced before. I stood still and watched as she methodically trailed her hand over all of the discoloration. For a brief minute, her hand slipped up toward the only bandages I still had on, those covering my Unchained Dogs tattoo. My heart and mind both started to race as I imagined what I might say if she pulled off the bandages and saw it, but eventually, her hands slid away and continued down my pec.
As her hands grazed over my stomach, her lips pursed into a hard line. “I hope they never come for you,” she said before looking up at me. “Cops or not, I’m gonna struggle not to kill them for hurting you like this.”
My heart was pounding in my chest, and I looked directly into Tess’ eyes. “I hope they never come.”
Tess swallowed hard, and her hands started to shake. “Well, if this is what was holding you back, I’ve seen it now.” The hope in her eyes was almost too much to bear. “Do we have to wait any longer?”
The blood coursing through my veins was a loud, rhythmic thrum in my ears. Wanting to hide had been a reason, and not wanting to get attached had been a reason. Those things were gone now, so what was I waiting for?
“No. We don’t.”
Tess’ shoulders lifted, and she leaned toward me. I brought my hand to her face and cupped it. Excitement rocketed through my body that felt like I’d finally let a wild animal out of a cage that had been too small to contain it. I leaned in to set my lips on hers, and it was at that exact moment that the doorbell rang.
“I swear to fucking God, Colin, if that’s my dad, I’m gonna chop his head off.”
I gritted my teeth. “I’ll hold him down.”
Tess turned around and tossed the door to the bedroom back so hard that it left a crack in the wall. As much as I hated to do it, I reached down and grabbed the long-sleeved t-shirt that Tess had dropped to the floor and pulled it over my body. I spent a few extra minutes in the room, letting my visible excitement die down, then I walked out into the living room where Tess was sitting on the couch next to—who else but—Nick, who was quickly becoming known for his supernatural ability to show up at the worst possible time.
Tess shook her head and rolled her eyes at me, and I smirked. “Nick, hello.”
“Hey, sorry to drop by so late,” Nick replied. “I assume Val told you what happened?”
I locked eyes with Tess. “Uh.”
“We hadn’t gotten that far. I rushed home to make sure the trouble hadn’t moved this way,” Tess said.
My heart thudded in my chest. “What trouble?”
“Taylor killed Adley after his little display today.” Nick sighed, running a hand through his hair. “I can’t fucking deal with this right now. I’m gonna need to pull from the prospects now. The week of MiD. God, this is a cluster fuck.”
“He killed him?” Lockjaw hopped out of the armchair as I walked toward it, and I sank down into it. “Why would the trouble move this way?”
Tess looked over at me. “He said to me, and I quote, ‘No one touches what belongs to me and gets away with it.’ He made sure to emphasize, ‘No one’.”
My mind traveled back to when I kissed Tess in the parking lot at Hoppa’s, and I remembered Taylor riding in to see us at that exact moment. That was an oversight on my part. “I’m not worried about him.”
Nick snickered. “You’re not easily spooked, are ya, CJ? You’re like a fucking phantom.” The racing in my heart doubled. I’d been called that nickname before—it was my moniker back when I was still with the Unchained Dogs. It could have just been a coincidence, but it was a little too close to home for comfort. “That’s good if you can keep your head on straight around him, but it doesn’t change the fact that we have a murder on our hands now. He’s got a goddamn wife and kids. We can’t deal with this shit right now.”
“Well, we have to. It’s way too close to MiD for rumors to start flying around. For now, we need to just treat him as a missing person,” Tess said. “So just relax, and let’s think this through.”
“I don’t want to overstep,” I started, “but can I make a comment?”
