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“Beck told me.” The guy was six and a half feet tall and a solid wall of muscle—a nearly identical build to his brother. But right then he seemed to crumble on himself. “You’ve gotta help me.”
“I’m trying,” I said in a low, placating tone. “Finding a ghost takes time.”
My eyes darted through my seemingly empty room as I wondered if the ghost had already come to me. And what that wraith of a girl would do with the things
she overheard then.
“Beck wants me to run.”
“Don’t.”
“Don’t?” he asked, his chest heaving with a stuttered breath. “Don’t? If I don’t, I’m standing here waiting for him to kill me. And I don’t know why my grave’s being dug. I tried to . . . I did everything to keep Lily safe.”
“I know you did.” I looked at Conor, cursing myself for being the reason he was in this impossible situation.
I’d put him on Lily’s guard because it was supposed to be the safest position in Holloway.
Supposed to.
Then one night I’d sent him away to spy on a meeting for me. And the Borellos hit, looking for the girl they felt they deserved.
The only remaining child of Mickey O’Sullivan. Lily.
A week and a half later, I’d left to do a job for Mickey, and they’d hit again—almost killing Conor in the process.
My fault. Always my fault.
And all the while, Lily had been seeing the leader of the Borellos without him ever realizing her true identity.
I’d been oblivious to it all.
Not noticing the knife slowly inching into my back until it was piercing my heart. Not noticing the shadows I’d spent a lifetime hiding in were betraying me. Blinding me to what was happening right in front of me.
But their betrayal had forced a truce between the Borellos and Holloways . . . and had been the ruining of Holloway.
“It’s nothing you did,” I finally said. “He chose you because no one would want to see you die, and he needs to ensure his safety. But, running? Mickey would send me to find anyone who ran . . . I have no doubt he would do the same to whoever he hired.”
Conor drove his hands into his hair, gripping fistfuls of it.
“If you run, you will die. If you stay, I might have enough time to make this all go away.” I stepped toward Conor and clapped his shoulder, then dropped my voice low enough so Jessica couldn’t hear. “We just need to keep Mickey alive until I can kill the person he’s hired. All right?”
Conor dropped his hands and gave a firm nod, but his face was covered in agony.
He should’ve never seen this life.
One day I’d get him out of it. I’d made that promise long ago, and I intended to see it through.
As soon as he was out of my room, I shut and locked the door, then turned, and crossed my arms over my chest. Waiting for when she would appear.
A few seconds later, she slowly rounded the corner out of my bathroom, her hips swaying like it was as natural as breathing for her.
“Beck,” she murmured, lifting a shoulder lazily. “I’ve only ever come to watch him. But sometimes you or Lily or others are with him. During meetings, for example.” Her lips twisted in a wry grin as she settled against the wall. “I’ve been watching people—spying on them—for as long as I can remember. All my mom’s drug dealers. Her boyfriends. My brother.”
My brow pulled tight at the casual mention of the last person, but I didn’t ask.
“It’s just what I do. I become nothing. But I hear and see everything.” A grim look passed over her face but was gone within a blink of an eye. “Then when I was fourteen, this young guy, who was built like a tank, came into the game and was able to put real fear into every other drug dealer in the city. It didn’t make sense. Of course, my mom went to him because she thought she could trick him out of more drugs. And trick him, she did. Or, at least, she thought she did.”
“Beck.”
