The bouncing of the car had my eyes flashing open.
The slamming of a door had my grip on my knives tightening.
Panic turned my blood to ice when I noticed the rising sun outside the tinted windows.
I’d never fallen asleep on a job. It was how you got yourself killed.
Then again . . . I’d also never left the most crucial part of the job in someone else’s hands the way I had last night.
But I had no other choice.
I’d reached around the side of the SUV’s seat I’d tucked myself behind and held Jessica’s limp hand during the drive to Holloway from downtown Wake Forest last night. Keeping my ear trained to her shallow breaths and one finger on the pulse point in her wrist to keep myself from unleashing devastation on the world.
As soon as we’d pulled onto the estate and the ghost had carried her from the car, I’d forced myself to remain there and called Conor.
“Yeah?”
“Where are you?” I demanded.
“That girl in the guesthouse? Jessica?” he asked uncertainly, still not knowing what she meant to me. “She wanted food. I’m a few minutes out.”
I clenched my jaw and suppressed the urge to tell him to drive faster. “I think she was drugged by someone tonight.”
Conor didn’t respond or question how I knew. He wouldn’t. He knew when to listen and take orders.
“I can’t be there to watch her,” I ground out, my hand clenching the phone so hard I thought it would shatter. “Don’t let anything happen to her.”
“Got it,” he said firmly.
“Conor . . . do not let anything happen to her,” I repeated in a low, desperate tone.
There was a pause before he said, “Yeah, man. I got you.”
I’d hung up and turned off my phone and settled in to wait before I could do something stupid . . . like fuck the plan and kill the ghost and Mickey before finding Jessica’s mom.
I’d always trusted Conor and Beck with Lily’s life, but my entire relationship with her had been a job I’d been consumed by.
Jessica would never be anything less than the chaos that fit perfectly beside my darkness, but her safety while I finished this job was my priority.
And I’d let myself relax, knowing my priority was safe with Conor watching over her.
I felt my heart rate slow when the car began moving and tried to listen for a rustling sound. The sound of bodies moving. The sound of breathing.
There was nothing. And that’s when I realized I’d only heard one door shut.
As the SUV drove off the estate, I wondered if he knew. If he’d seen me.
Preparing if he had.
Because if he had, what followed this part of the plan was fucked. And it was on me. I wouldn’t know how to forgive myself for being the one who ruined it.
Jessica would be wrecked if I couldn’t save her mom, but the man driving wasn’t leading me to her anyway if he’d seen me waiting for his return.
I lifted one of my blades just enough to look over the seat, and found the man’s reflection in the rearview mirror. His eyes were on the road ahead. Now that I could see them in the light of day, they were exactly as Jessica had described.
Cold. Dead.
I lowered the blade before he could see it, and just over a minute from when we’d left Holloway, we slowed and turned onto uneven ground.
He knew.
I let that darkness spread until it was all I knew.
Let the monster inside stretch and seethe and consume.
Pray Nightshade doesn’t find you.
He’ll slit your throat and bleed you dry.
I felt my mouth curve into a grin, the action from something that wasn’t me.
And I couldn’t do a damn thing to stop it.
Trees covered the outside of the car as we continued at a crawling pace and finally rolled to a stop.
Not a sound. Not a trace.
Feed the blade. Watch the light fade.
I opened the back door just enough to slip out when he did, shutting it at the same time. I didn’t notice where we were. I didn’t notice anything except the sounds of his feet on the grass, tracking where he was as he came closer to where I stood.
Four feet.
Three.
Two.
I let him round the back of the car before I slid in front of him. Gripping his hair and yanking his head back, I drew my blade across his throat before he even had time to react.
I watched as the blood pooled out at a rapid rate.
I kept my grip on his hair as he coughed, spitting blood on me.
“You stalked my girl,” I said, watching his mouth open and shut as he choked. “You had a standing order to take out people I care about. To take me out.” I let him fall to the ground and felt the cruel smile cross my face as I stared down at him. “You should’ve known accepting a job from Mickey was my order.”
When he stopped jerking and his pupils dilated, I looked down at his empty hands and the gun holstered to his hip.
He hadn’t known. He hadn’t known, he hadn’t . . .
Fuck.
My chest was heaving with ragged breaths when I grabbed the gun and took the keys from his pocket. Straightening, my gaze finally darted around, taking in where we were.
In the cover of the trees edging the cemetery.
Not ten feet away was a large, military-style camouflaged tent.
I kept my knife in my hand as I walked to it and unzipped the door flap, my blood running cold when I did.
Taped to nearly every surface were pictures of Jessica, Conor, Beck, and me. One of Jessica’s brother with his wife tucked against his side was circled in red. There were maps with highlighted routes with each of our names attached to them. And a paper for each of us with times and places scrawled on them.
No wonder I hadn’t been able to find anything in Mickey’s computers or phone.
It had all been here.
And as I looked around, I knew why I hadn’t been able to find the ghost.
I grabbed my phone from my pocket and waited for it to turn on, then hissed a curse when it kept vibrating with voicemails and texts.
Ignoring them for now, I called Beck.
“Shit, man, you left during the worst time.”
My body locked up. “What’s going on?”
There was a weighted pause, and I knew if I’d been standing in front of him, he would have that look. The one that meant he didn’t want to tell me what he knew.
“Beck,” I barked.
“I think it’s better if I wait until you’re back.”
My legs felt like they weren’t going to keep me up. I’d never felt so unsteady in my life. I was swaying and my breaths were shallow when I asked, “Jessica?”
“She’s here.”
Relief pounded through my veins. I hated feeling so out of control, but I’d only been that scared once in my life, and it was when I’d thought Lily had been kidnapped.
Even then, anger had overwhelmed every other fear.
But the thought of something happening to Jessica had me wanting to tear at my own chest. Had me wanting to go through whatever she’d endured so she wouldn’t be alone.
Even death.
“Kieran. Kieran,” Beck said loudly, snapping me out of whatever dark thoughts my mind had conjured.
“What?”
“Is it done?” he asked, his tone wary.
“He’s gone,” I said firmly. “Don’t tell Jessica yet. I want to be there.”
I want to be there when she finds out how I fucked everything up.
My jaw ticked from the pressure I was putting on it as my stare dragged from one corner of the tent to the other. Because there were two sleeping bags in the tent, but there wasn’t a trace of drugs or Jessica’s mom.
And I was sure the ghost had led me exactly where I’d wanted to go. I just had a sinking feeling we’d found him too late.
“Beck,” I continued quickly without giving him a chance to respond. “The ghost’s been living in the trees on the side of the cemetery in a military tent. There’s a stack of license plates he must’ve been switching out on the SUV. There’re boxes of MREs and an electric water heater so he wouldn’t alert anyone to where he was cooking. There’s enough water to last months.” I turned and looked at the far side of the tent. “And there’re a couple rifles and very little ammo.”
“Which means he didn’t plan on needing much,” Beck guessed.
“Yeah.”
“Jesus fuck, man.” He blew out a ragged breath. “Anything else?”
I let my stare drift over the paper-lined walls of the tent, my jaw tightening. “Everything he would ever need to know about us, Conor, and Jessica. Schedules. Driving and walking routes. Everything.”
Beck was silent for a long time before he said, “So Mickey does know . . . he knows it was us.”
I nodded to the empty tent. “And soon he’ll know his ghost is dead.”
“Well, you need to get back here but be careful. Mickey left not long after you and the zombie did. I don’t know where he is or when he’s coming back.”
“I need to get rid of everything in the tent so Mickey can’t use it again. I need to get rid of the body.”
“Just bring the body here,” he said, his tone beaten down. “We have another one.”
“Conor?” I asked, my jaw clenched.
“No, man. Just get here. Jess . . .” He hissed a curse. “She needs you.”