Page 27 of My Ghost

Erin.

Her hair is pulled up in a messy bun, her face tense, eyes wide and frantic.

She hurls a bulky object into the dumpster like it’s about to explode and I finally recognize what it is—a laptop.Then she tosses a smaller device after it.I don’t need to rewind to guess that it must be a burner phone.

I stare.

No.No way.

I rewind.Watch again, slower this time.Every passing second pulls the invisible vise tighter around my chest.

She looked panicked.But she wasn’t acting sloppy, she knew exactly what she was doing.

She was covering her tracks, getting rid of evidence as best as the circumstances allowed.

Because she got caught.Because she tripped a goddamn wire.

My pulse jackhammers in my throat.

I sit back slowly, the chair creaking under me as the grainy feed replays her retreat into the building.The alley is empty again, like she was never there.But she was there.

My thoughts are a wildfire, raging too fast to contain.

Erin.

She was the one tripping the trap by accident.My thoughts spiral, too fast, too loud.

She is the Ghost.

The ghost I’ve been chasing.The one who kept slipping through my baits and traps, always just out of reach like smoke.

And she’s been here, all this time.Right under my nose, laughing, taunting, looking at me like—

I clench my jaw, drag a hand through my hair, still watching the empty alley on the screen.

“Jesus Christ,” I whisper.“It’s you.”

* * * *

Erin

Does he suspect?

I can barely breathe with the rush of blood in my ears.I still pace back and forth, my bare feet soundless against the floor, but inside my chest my heart pounds against my ribs as uncertainty starts to gnaw at me.I shouldn’t have panicked.I should have wiped the drive completely.What if I missed something?What if the scrub didn’t go deep enough?

I press my palms to my eyes, willing the spinning to stop.It’s fine.Maybe he didn’t see anything.Maybe he thinks it was just a random intrusion.

Or maybe…he knows exactly who I am now.

A chill runs down my spine.

What if he really is part of Manticore?What if this whole thing, this organization, this protection Lily thinks she has is nothing more than smoke and mirrors?Would Damiano really keep her vulnerable like that?Would he lie?

I don’t know.I thought I knew him.

Going to him feels too risky.If he is involved, even passively, if this network has its claws deeper than I realized, then one wrong word and I could put Lily in danger.Or myself.

My thoughts spiral, tangled like wire.I need answers.I need to know what the hell Matteo is doing, letting communications with Manticore transit through his server.