Page 9 of Phantom
But what about Tess? They knew where she was now. They’d caused all this damage as a way of leaving a message that they could find her if and when they needed to. If I ran and left her behind, Luther would have her head mounted on his wall by the end of the day. I couldn’t have that. She’d be difficult to convince, but I needed her to come with me. Given a choice, this wouldn’t be how I increased my time with Tess, but desperate times called for desperate measures.
I ran back into the house and down to Tess’ bedroom door. Unlike my quietly creaking it open a few minutes earlier, I slammed the door open, sending it colliding against the wall with a resounding crack. It alone stirred Tess, but I still clamored over to her bedside and started to shake her awake.
“Tess. Wake up. We gotta go.”
Tess stretched a little bit. “Huh?”
“We have to leave. They’ve found me. I don’t know how, but they found me.”
There were a few cracks as Tess twisted her head to one side then the other. She wasn’t exercising the urgency I needed her to be. “How do you know that?”
“I’m so sorry, but they broke in. They broke your coffee table, and they destroyed our bikes, and there’s blood on the floor. I don’t know whose…maybe Lockjaw.” It didn’t occur to me until that moment that I didn’t even stop to check for the dog. My stomach twisted, thinking that he’d be gone when I went back out—or worse, lying in his bed, gutted.
“Calm down,” Tess grumbled.
“Calm down? Someone’s trying to kill me!”
Tess looked at me with a mix of irritation for waking her up and pity for my fear. “Taylor broke the table.”
“Who?”
“Taylor. My brother.”
My fear abated. “Your brother?” That’s right. Tess had an older brother named Taylor. I very rarely saw him when we were growing up. If it weren’t for the fact that Tess mentioned him a few times when I would talk about Caid, I wouldn’t even have known the man existed. “Why would he do all that stuff? The blood was his?”
“The blood was probably Dr. Marteau’s,” Tess said with a yawn, “and he did it because he’s not playing with a full deck.”
“What did he do to Dr. Marteau?”
“No, that was me.”
I stood in silence for a second. Each additional thing she said brought the explanation further and further from anything I understood. “What?”
Tess snuggled one of her pillows closer to her and continued to look at me like it was just any other run-of-the-mill day. “I shot Dr. Marteau.”
She said it so simply. I recoiled a bit, but not out of fear. I was almost more impressed than anything. “Why?”
“Because I told him not to call my dad, and he did anyway. They came over, and when I mentioned that the friend I was helping was a man, Taylor flipped his shit, broke the table, and destroyed the bikes. I had to send Dr. Marteau a message. Don’t cross me. So I shot him in the shin and then left him to figure out how to get out of my house.”
“Wow.”
“I’m sorry about your bike, but we’ll get it fixed, don’t worry.” She scoffed. “The blood probably stained, huh?”
I was still trying to calm the errant ricocheting of my heart. “I think so.”
She tossed the covers back. “Shit. I’m gonna have to get it replaced again.”
Again?
Tess kicked herself out from under the covers and climbed out of bed, and the temperature in the room doubled instantly. She was dressed in nothing but a lilac lace nightie and a matching thong. When I’d last seen Tess, she was just starting to grow her feminine curves. She certainly wasn’t a little girl anymore. She had a form that rivaled some of the late 60s actresses like Marilyn Monroe. She wasn’t stick-skinny, but she had a flat stomach that umbrellaed into a wider waist and full thighs. Her backside was a plump peach shape, and with her shirt and jacket from the day before discarded, I could see that she had a large bust. It was unfair. All those dumb phrases I’d heard as a kid made much more sense to me now. All that and a bag of chips. A pocketful of sunshine. Good enough to eat. However one chose to describe it, Tess was the kind of beautifulandsexy that someone should have to pay to see up close.
Though it felt like trying to force away two magnets, I managed to drag my gaze away from Tess as she sidled over to her dresser. Her near-naked image was already emblazoned on my brain, but that didn’t give me the right to gawk; she deserved respect. I waited to hear her drawers open or for her to duck into her bathroom, but after a few seconds of silence, I felt a hand on my arm.
I glanced over, and Tess was standing there, still in her racy nightclothes, looking up at me with a begging, starved gaze. My mouth was suddenly as dry as if I had never drunk water before in my life.
I wanted her so badly.
“Why do you look away? I don’t look good?” Tess asked.
