Page 47 of Phantom
“What?” I asked.
“It’s just so ironic,” she responded. “For, like, a whole fucking month, getting you into bed was like pulling teeth. Now all I have to do is touch you, and”—she snapped her fingers in the air—“you’re in.”
I turned my head so that I could kiss her cheek. “That wasbefore-Colin. I don’t know what his problem was.”
She looked at me. “Thank God we got rid ofthatguy.”
“Good riddance.” A gruff bark from the direction of the doorway brought our attention to a very irritated Lockjaw. I snorted. “Sorry, bud.”
That time, when I tossed back the covers, Tess didn’t stop me. I leaned down over her to give her one more kiss and then fought to drag myself out of the room and start breakfast. Lockjaw got his dry kernels first, but he ate them while staring at me as I cooked, having not gotten the additional cooked meats he usually got when the humans had their breakfast.
“He’s such a brat,” Tess said as she walked into the room. She bent over and looked down at him. “Youdorealize that most dogs aren’t as spoiled as you.”
He looked back at Tess as if to say, “What does that have to do with me?” and continued crunching away at his food as if we’d given him a servant’s gruel for breakfast.
Tess and I enjoyed a light conversation while we ate the bacon and eggs that I made for us, then after getting a little distracted taking a shower, we finally found ourselves dressed and on our bikes, headed for Hoppa’s.
It seemed like most of the club had already arrived when we were finally pulling into the lot, so we were intentional in not lingering. We headed straight in to convene with the club for the after-MiD meeting. Tess would probably have to attend some specific officer meetings, but I also had to find some time to talk to Nick about the Unchained Dogs and about the information he was working with that was sure to get them all killed. No truly good plan had occurred to me about how to get the information to Nick in a way that wasn’t suspicious. The only best way I could think to get the knowledge across to him was to tell him the truth, and I was heavily considering it. I’d been living half a truth in Hoppa for long enough, and if I was planning to stick around, at the very least, Tess and Nick needed to know the truth. They both trusted me, and I trusted them. Surely if I told them the truth, they’d understand why I’d hidden it from the beginning, right?
Though they both needed to know the truth, who to tell first was a bigger conflict than I was expecting it to be. On the one hand, having Tess know before Nick could serve as a backup plan for when I told him. However, if Nick reacted badly and found out that Tess knew, as well, he could take it out on her, which was the last thing I wanted.
Tess would probably never forgive me, but I needed to come clean to Nick first. Only then could I tell her the truth. She wasn’t an unreasonable person, and I was confident that if I could just get her to listen to me, she’d understand. The bigger battle was getting in and out of a conversation with just Nick, and I prayed that the truth didn’t get a bullet in my brain the second that I said it. As soon as I had an opportunity to pull Nick aside, it was finally time to come clean.
“Hey!” Nick greeted Tess and me as we walked in. “You’re late.”
“Yeah, sorry. We overslept. Partied a little too hard,” Tess explained.
Across the room, Taylor was glaring at us, and his glare was new. The hatred behind his eyes had his pupils dilated wider and looking much darker than normal. The only thing that really scared me about Taylor was that he was going to do something that I was going to have to kill him for. If he truly tried to hurt Tess, Lockjaw, Nick, or myself, I’d have no choice but to end him for good. Things in Rumble had been a little more murderous for me than I would have liked. I didn’t want that life in Hoppa, but if Taylor continued to pose a threat to the new family I was building, I wouldn’t stop until he was under the ground.
“Well, MiD went amazingly. Best turnout we’ve ever had and,” he said and paused as he held up a stack of envelopes that he tapped against his hand. “Dues are the best they’ve ever been.”
One by one, Nick went around the room, handing envelopes to Avery, Bernard, Bullet, whose real name I still hadn’t learned, and Taylor. When he got to where Tess and I were situated near the bar, he handed an envelope to Tess, and then he held one out toward me.
So as not to insult Nick, I took the envelope despite the glares I was getting, and when Nick walked away, I leaned toward Tess. “What’s this?” I whispered.
Tess took her envelope and tucked it into her back pocket. “He just said it’s dues, weirdo.”
Fortunately, only officered club members were around because it probably would have gone worse than it already was going with all of the officers looking at me like they wanted to chop my head off.
“I thought only officers got paid,” I replied.
She side-eyed me. “Dad gave you a very specific and important role in preparation for MiD. He kept you by his side almost the entire time and had you join our exclusive, high-officer meeting. What do you think you are?”
It didn’t take a bylaw expert to know that the treatment I was getting from Nick was far outside the realm of what was normal or accepted, but though I was nearly tempted to return the money and ask Nick to start treating me more normally, when I flipped through the earnings in the envelope, my eyes nearly came tumbling out of my skull.
There was close to five grand in the envelope.
I quickly folded the top down again and moved it to my back pocket as well. There was no way for me to know if everyone else got the same amount, or if Nick’s preferential treatment was extending even to this, but there wasn’t a single day when I was with the Unchained Dogs that I got more than a grand in a single sitting. It was more than enough to get me to Munich, and even enough to get Caid and me situated once I got there. Glancing over at Tess with Lockjaw at her side, my brain started to wander.
It was even enough for a second passenger and her animal companion.
“Jeez, you look like the man just offered to give you a prostate exam,” Tess joked. “If you really don’t want it, I’ll take it.”
I opened my mouth to respond, but Nick’s voice cracked out and interrupted me before I could. “Okay. Now that the money’s all squared away, let’s talk about how the meeting went with the Raging Vipers and the Blazing Rebels.” Avery’s hand shot into the air, and Nick pointed at him. “Yes, Bullseye?”
“Squared, you know I’m not about to start questioning you, but this is getting a little out of hand.” He motioned over toward me. “CJ isn’t an officer. Payment, fine. He did a lot to help us get ready, but someone who’s barely been around a month shouldn’t get such sensitive information.”
“CJ was in the meeting,” Taylor said suddenly from the back of the bar.
