Page 55 of Phantom
“How nice,” I replied flatly.
“My drunk, high mother dragged Caid and me out to Rumble, chasing one of her suppliers promises to make her rich. To this day, I have no idea what she believed he was going to do for her, but he really just wanted her in Rumble because it was his turf and he could dope her up double that way. Any money that came into our household was wasted on drugs, and with as sick as Caid was, that was a problem. I had no choice. I wandered into the Unchained Dogs’ club and asked for a job. I dropped out of high school and started running with them. I was just an errand boy, at first, responsible for shit like securing and raising the new mascot pit bull puppy.”
I looked over at Lockjaw, who was staring at Colin with his tail wagging back and forth. “I took him from you.”
“And I got the shit beat out of me for it, too, because he was fucking expensive.”
“You want an apology?” I hissed.
Colin shook his head. “No. You don’t owe me anything. He probably had a much better home here than he would have had with Luther’s crazy ass.” He sighed. “Anyway, they started to pay me, and Luther kept offering me more if I would do more shit. Eventually, I ended up working for him as an assassin. If I got caught trying to take someone out, I got hell for it, so I was careful. In and out, quietly. As little damage as possible, and as quick and painless as possible.”
“Just like those prospects.”
Colin actually chuckled. “Yeah. They were easy pickings.”
I furrowed my brow. It’d be much easier to be angry at him if he weren’t so good looking. “Did you really steal money from a bank?”
Colin stuck out a finger. “I never told you I stole it from a bank.”
“Yes, you did.”
“No. I said I took it from a place where they keep a lot of money.”
Though he was right, his reliance on semantics made me angry. How many other carefully phrased sentences had he thrown me in the past month? “You must want me to blow a hole in your head.”
“I’m sorry.” Colin shook his head. “No, I stole it from Luther. They don’t have anyone like Bullet, and I realized that they were keeping their books really loose. Caid and I heard about this experimental treatment that could potentially cure his condition, but not only did it require him to fly to Germany, the treatment alone cost forty-five thousand dollars. I stole fifty.”
“That’s insane.”
“I didn’t have a choice! Caid was getting worse. He was gonna die, Tess.”
The sincerity in Colin’s eyes was similar to what I’d seen before. When he first told me he loved me, his eyes were the same. “So, they were the ones chasing you when you crashed.”
“No,” Colin grumbled. “I didn’t crash. They set my house on fire. With me in it.”
“Jesus.”
“I really didn’t think that he would figure it out so fast, but Luther’s smarter than I thought. My plan was to get Caid situated, earn a few more pay checks, and then leave for Germany. Even when I came here, that was always the plan.”
“So, you always planned to leave me?” I asked, my stomach knotting at the phrase.
“Tess.” The seriousness in Colin’s voice brought my gaze up to his. “When I first came to Hoppa, I thought, ‘Yeah, I’ll get some help and be gone in a week.’” His hand drifted past my gun to settle on my face. “That was all it took for you to fuck everything up.”
“Me?”
“Yeah. Being back with you again, it was like everything that I didn’t know I was dreaming of. I talked to your dad, and he…” his voice trailed off.
Finally, I set my gun down on the coffee table. “What, Colin?” He shook his head, and I stabbed a finger into his face. “Hey! You told me you were going to tell me the whole truth.”
He looked into my eyes. “I did, but I don’t want you to get hurt.”
The scoff that left my mouth was so loud that it made Lockjaw jump. “I think it’s a little late for that.”
“Yeah,” he replied. “I spoke with your dad. He told me he wanted to turn the club over to you but that the guys would never go for it. He was hoping that he could one day hand it to me, and then you and I could lead it together.”
Any wind left in my sails was knocked clean out of me with that gut punch. “He wasn’t even gonna try?”
“It broke his heart, but…” Colin shook his head.
