by Rina Kent
“Don’t fuck with me, old hag.” I grit out. “Where is Zoe?”
She traces the rim of her glass with a red-manicured finger. “As far away from you as possible.”
I lunge at her. She jerks upright. Ghost stops me from murdering her by standing between us.
“Stop.” He places one hand on my chest and another on hers. I glare at her and she glares back.
“She’s seen you bathed in blood,” Mist bites out.
Ghost narrows his eyes. “What happened?”
I lift a shoulder. “Old grudge.”
Mist points a finger at me. “All of us are compromised because of you.”
My breathing slows. “So…. What? You cleaned her up?”
“Doesn’t matter.” She falls back on the sofa and focuses on her drink again. “This is the best for everyone.”
“If you so much as put a finger on her…” I don’t know what I’ll do. I think I'll fucking murder Mist. I wouldn’t even care that Ghost could hate me forever or that the monster title will be engraved under my skin for eternity.
“Enough.” Ghost breathes through his nose. “This isn’t the time. We need to evacuate our people from the factory tonight.”
“I’m busy.” I couldn’t give two fucks about the factory or Hades or Team Zero right now.
“Find the time. We need everyone for this.” Ghost throws a look over his shoulder. “You, too, Flame. We need you to cover our tracks.”
There’s a grunt before Flame sits up and rubs his face with the heels of his palm. “So noisy.”
I stare between the three of them. “Cover our tracks about what?”
“I’ve gotten a tip to the Met Police,” Ghost says. “The drug factory is going down.”
Too many thoughts and questions ran rampant in my head like starved predators.
One, how did Ghost get a tip out and why didn’t he tell me about it?
Two, this will drive Hades bloody bonkers. This is a huge investment. If it’s busted down by the police, he’ll drain us to replace the lost funds. Even if we make him think that we had nothing to do with it.
Three, and most importantly, Hades won’t let go of Team Zero’s hostages — including Ink.
I can’t even rejoice about that. All my rampant thoughts pour back into the same vein.
Where the fuck has Zoe gone to?
This obsession of mine is growing stronger than I can process. I don’t give a fuck. The moment I find Zoe, I’ll chain her to my bed and we’ll have a long talk about those panic attacks. After I fuck her senseless. Or before. Depends on whether or not she drives me mad.
“I have some unfinished business.” I turn to leave.
“She’s gone,” Ghost says in a levelled, calm tone.
My head snaps back towards him. “What do you mean by she’s gone?”
“Gone. Vanished. Disappeared. Poof.” Flame saunters to sit next to Mist. “Need another synonym?”
“Shut the fuck up, Flame.” I preferred him better when he was sleeping.
“She’s not gone.” I stare at the three of them, and I don’t know whether I’m convincing myself or them.
There’s a weird silence in my chest. There used to be some digging in there. A humming. A hope of something, what I don’t know.
Now, all that noise died. There isn’t even a stir.
I should be glad. Nothing will bother me anymore and I can indulge in my comfort zone like I used to.
Only, I’m not glad. Red smears my vision. All that plays in my mind is the need to commit violence.
Kill.
Maim.
Fucking destroy.
“Your eyes, you freak.” Mist motions at me with her drink. “Have you been detoxing like the rest of us?”
“Mate.” Ghost is approaching me with steady steps as if he’s afraid I’ll go berserk on all of them.
I step back and repeat in a more certain tone. “She’s not gone.”
I storm out of the office and into the surveillance room. Two guards stand in respect upon seeing me. One of them offers me a seat, but I refuse it. I don’t want to sit down. I want — no, I need — to find her.
After some rewinding, I check the surveillance camera from the afternoon.
Zoe stumbles through Le Salon’s front door. Her steps are robotic. Her face and clothes are smudged with that cockroach's blood.
She keeps rubbing at her arms as if she’s cold or scared.
I hit pause and close my eyes for a brief second. I really shouldn’t have killed him in front of her. She was in shock. Maybe she already has a trauma and I worsened it.
When I find her, I’ll make it up to her.
I open my eyes and hit play. I follow her through the camera, but as soon as she goes into the lift, the screen turns black.
I force the play, rewind, and go back again. Still nothing.
“It’s been under reparations,” Lachlan says. I didn’t even notice him coming into the surveillance room.
“What?”
He points at the screen. “Nothing has been recorded since the afternoon until opening hours.”
“Fuck!” I throw the keyboard and run to the only other person who could have seen her. I don’t find Scar in the club and she’s not picking up her bloody phone.
She sends a text.
Busy. Don’t disturb.
I climb up her window. My shoulder wound opens and red soaks my T-shirt. I don’t pay it attention, not stopping until I step into Zoe and Scar’s room.
The psycho doll is sitting cross-legged in a meditating position while surrounded by a circle of candles that smell like vanilla. Some old rock music plays in the background. Her T-shirt has ‘Killing You in My Mind’ written in glitter.
I ignore her and search all over the room. My heart picks up pace when I turn the knob to the bathroom. I know Zoe probably won’t be here, but hope is a fucked up thing. It makes you believe there’s something better and then takes it all away.
The bathroom is empty.
I stride to Scar. “Where is she?”
She doesn’t open her eyes. “I’m meditating right now.”
I kick all the candles until they’re all out. Destruction is my thing.
Scar opens one eye and glares at me. “Scarce, arsehole.”
“Where is she?”
“I should be the one asking you.”
“Stop fucking with me and tell me where she is, psycho doll.”
“I really don’t know. I’m always kept in the dark.”
“You like being left in the dark.”
She closes her eyes and motions at the table. “She left you something.”
I stalk to the table, half expecting that perhaps Zoe is hiding in there, waiting to give me a scare. I’ll pretend to be scared. No problem.
Nope.
Not fucking close.
On the table, there’s a piece of paper. That’s it. A tiny piece of paper.
Shadow,
You’ve broken me, so I hope this breaks you, too.
Zoe.
Chapter Seventeen
Six weeks later,
I jam my fist into the man’s face over and over. Blood covers my bandage-wrapped knuckles. I don’t know if it’s his or mine, but I don’t stop or care.
His face becomes unrecognisable with every punch. His nose is broken and a few teeth fall from his gaping mouth. The crowd goes rampant asking for more. Violence excites them and makes them feel alive even though they’re only spectators.
The boxer’s coach and his team shout at me to stop.
I don’t.
I didn’t get my fix of violence yet. Unlike the crowd who are hazy by watching, my appetite is insatiable.
The man falls to his knees with a thud, gurgling on blood. He’s losing consciousness fast and hard and will probably go into shock.
Fuck this shit.
Wasn’t he supposed to be the strongest in his category? I even picked up someone who weighs more than me and who has been
fighting for years. Why isn’t he punching back?
Fucking hit me.
I shake him but only groans of pain slip through the gurgling of blood.
Forceful arms shove me back. Ghost. “You’re killing him.”
I kick my unconscious opponent and he falls backwards with a loud thud. The crowd roars with deafening excitement. The fight organisers swarm towards him like bees. His coach shakes him while a medic injects him with something.
The rush of adrenaline still flows in my veins and I struggle against Ghost’s hold. For what, I don’t know. I need to hit and be hit, but an unconscious opponent won’t provide that.
A pixie-sized brunette falls to her knees near the man’s mass of limp muscles. She’s sobbing and pleading with him to open his eyes. None of the crowd around the man pay her attention, but I do.
He was a weakling, but he had a different type of strength if he can make someone sob for him like that.
Something I’ll never fucking have.
Maybe I lost this night.
I don’t come to win in these underground matches, anyway. Every night is a different type of adrenaline rush so I can forget my bloody existence.
With the fight slowly leaving my system, I let Ghost drag me out of the ring. The crowd erupts in cheers and applause as we walk down the path leading outside. Men clasp my shoulders in congrats and women in short skirts make suggestive remarks my way, but I tune them all out.
The noises hush in the background as Ghost takes me outside. A few guards wait there, Lachlan included. He must’ve been the one who called Ghost to come and stop my madness. To his credit, he and the other guards tried to stop me once, but that gained them a few broken ribs and noses. Since then, they’re smart enough to call Ghost.
My mate shoves me in the front seat of his Mercedes and takes the wheel. Lachlan and the others bow in respect as the car revs in the street.
I slump in my seat, still half naked. The blood of my opponent and some of mine coats my knuckles and my chest. My bottom lip burns from when I let him hit me at the beginning.
Omega’s withdrawal symptoms hush in the background for now, but since I’ve been actually detoxing, they’ll return.
“Do I look like a babysitter?” Ghost’s voice matches the tight grip he has on the steering wheel.
“It’s just a match.” I sound as detached as I feel.
“If I don’t stop you every time, you would kill them. The last thing we need right now is to clean up dead bodies.”
“Relax, mate. I wouldn’t kill an unconscious opponent. Where’s the fun in that?”
“I want your head in the game.” Ghost throws me a stern look. “We need everyone’s contribution to bring down the second factory.”
“Sure thing. Just tell me what to do.”
I don’t give a fuck about the second factory or Hades. The only reason I care a little is that one of our mates, Hawk, is being tortured and we need him out. That’s all. Ink won’t be leaving The Pit any time soon.
“First of all,” Ghost says. “Stop punching boxers to within an inch of their lives.”
“I would if you sparred with me.” I glare at him. “But you’re too busy with your love life and being a unicorn.”
The car comes to a halt in front of Le Salon. I get out before he says another word.
He keeps up with my pace as we head to the safe house. “Is this all about Zoe?”
Just the sound of her name slashes a knife through my already fresh wound.
A mixture of rage, hurt, and longing covers my vision, but I chase it all away. I’m not thinking about her.
Until I find her, I’m not sparing her a fucking thought.
Or that’s what I tell myself when I drown in a bottle of scotch every night. At least I’m trying to get off Omega.
Ghost sighs long and deep. “She’s gone. Let her be.”
He should know more than anyone that if I fixate on something, nothing — absolutely nothing — will stop me from having it.
She left a gaping hole behind, and I’m not leaving her alone until she fills it.
I’ve been running around like a madman since that day. I stalked the lake house like a first-class creeper. I tried tracking down everyone she’s ever known. No results came out. It’s like she disappeared into thin fucking air.
That’s when I knew it must be a Team Zero’s doing. I would’ve found her if anyone else hid her — including the witness protection program.
Mist became my target because that old hag is the last one who had contact with her. I’ll stop at nothing to make her talk.
“She’s not gone,” I grit out.
He’s about to say something, but Elle saunters from the safe house. She’s wearing simple jeans and a pastel green T-shirt that must belong to Scar. Her long brown hair falls on either side of her face which is free from any makeup.
She’s a new waitress around here that Ghost has taken a liking to. Or more like he’s become obsessed with her.
It’s weird as hell. I would’ve believed that Ghost was abducted by aliens before believing he’s in a romantic relationship.
Elle is a tough bean and knows how to hold her own, but I don’t trust her. Especially after she followed me to the lake house that day. It’s like I know her from somewhere. Not remembering her face nags at me.
Her soft features and electric blue eyes shouldn’t be forgettable, so where the hell have I seen her before?
She throws a wary look my way before she snuggles into Ghost’s side. His lips move into the closest thing he has for a smile. His latest obsession with Elle has made him loosen up despite all the chaos with Hades, the factory, and Team Zero.
I should be happy for him, but I’m petty, so I stalk inside and leave them be.
As soon as I’m in my room, I wrench open the cabinet and snatch my bottle of scotch for the night. I don’t bother with a glass and drink until the burn nearly cuts my throat.
It doesn’t help. None of this fucking helps.
Unless I find Zoe, I’m stuck in this borrowed time with a borrowed life and borrowed everything.
Zoe barged into my world and challenged me. Not only that, but she also brought out a side of me I thought was long dead. There’s no way in hell I’ll let her walk out of my life as if she was never there.
Somewhere in my drinking spree, I fall to the bed. My mind crowds with ways to make Mist talk without murdering her. She’s been obsessed with getting Hawk out of Hades’ clutches and I thought about using that to my advantage. I can kidnap him and threaten her with his life because although she pretends to hate him, I don’t think she does. Otherwise, why would she be losing her shit whenever Hades sends a torture video of Hawk?
Not that I’ll harm Hawk, but it’s a good bargaining chip against the old hag.
“Stop looking for me.” A soft voice drifts from beside me.
I roll over with the bottle dangling from my fingers. Zoe sits on my bed in the black dress smudged with blood. It’s a cruel reminder of why she left.
Her illusion means I’m almost done with the bottle, and I do know it’s an illusion, but I still watch her anyway. Her scent disappeared over time, but her deep green gates remain the same. Her blond strands are streaked with blood and so is her mouth and nose.
Her eyes are sad and rimming with tears. “Let me go, Shadow.”
“Never.” My tone is quiet.
She can hate me all she wants as long as she’s with me. Hell, I’ll let her hit me and not react. I’d slash my own fucking skin and bleed for her if that’s what she wants.
“Have you finally lost your mind?” A bored voice calls from the entrance. The illusion of Zoe disappears.
I throw the bottle at him.
Flame ducks. The bottle splinters against the wall behind him. Shattered glass and the remains of scotch fall to the floor.
“Hello to you, too.” He raises an eyebrow as he stands by my bed with a hand in his pocket. “You look like shit.”
&
nbsp; “Screw off.” I erase his existence with a pillow over my head. Maybe if he leaves, Zoe will return.
“Do you want my help?”
“I’ll tell you when I do.” My voice is muffled by the pillow. I can use Flame’s intel to threaten Mist. “Now, piss off.”
“I retrieved the footage from the day she disappeared. What’s her name again? Z something.”
His words are like a shot of sobriety to my drunken brain. I throw the pillow away and slowly sit up. Flame has a smug expression as if he knows he got me.
“Weren’t the cameras under reparations?” I ask.
“Nope. The footage was cleared out.”
That fucking old hag. Why didn’t I think of that?
I stagger to my feet. “Give it to me.”
“You will owe me a favour in return?”
“Yes.” If I didn’t sell my soul to the devil Hades already, I’d be ready to sell it all over again at this point.
Flame retrieves a cigarette and stuffs it between his lips. “It’ll be ready tomorrow.”
Then he’s out the door.
Thrill shoots through my veins, chasing away any drunken stupor. Tomorrow couldn’t come any sooner.
For once, I’m not pissed off that Zoe’s illusion disappeared. I’ll find out what happened to her and then I’m going to get her.
This time, she’s never running away.
Chapter Eighteen
A shadow looms over me, dark and faceless, but I know it’s him.
The erratic heartbeat almost leaps out of my throat. It’s a strange sensation, suffocating, but there’s something else I can’t put my fingers on.
He’s here for me.
This time, he won’t leave me alone.
I’m supposed to be scared, to jerk up and fight, but my body has other ideas. The space between my thighs clenches — on nothing — and my nipples harden against my nightgown’s thin fabric.
Every fibre in my being propels me to run and disappear.
I remain completely still.
My hands twitch to touch his face. Kiss him. Make sure this isn’t another sick play of my imagination.
He reaches a finger to my cheek. The moment his skin touches mine, he dissolves and evaporates into thin air.
“No!”