Page 6 of My Ghost

I look up at her.“Let me handle it.I swear, Mira, I will do everything in my power to have this man behind bars before the end of next week if he was the one who hurt her.”

I will make damn sure of that.

* * * *

After work, I pick up takeaway on my way back to The Atrium.My mind is whirling, already considering all the possibilities.

When I sit down cross-legged on the sofa and power up my laptop, my heartbeat is steady, my mind is focused.I am in control.This is my world—this is what I do best.

I had discreetly checked the Rottweiler for any microchip or tattoos, and unsurprisingly there was none.My fingers fly over the keys.First I check the identity the man gave at the reception.Rick Danger.I snort.Fake name, obviously.

Then I pull up the clinic’s security footage to see if I can get a clear shot of his face.But no luck, he’d kept his head lowered as if to avoid being caught on camera.Luckily, there are other ways to identify him.I crop out a frame where his tattoo is visible and feed it into a tattoo recognition database.There are thousands of results.That’s not good enough.

Then I hack into the other vet offices’ records, searching for any similar patterns—severely injured dogs without identification.Two other clinics match—both treated unregistered, wounded attack dogs in the past month.And both had alerted authorities.However, without any real name or address for the owners, the investigations ended before they even began.

I lean back on the couch, eyes flying over the city lights for several seconds.That’s what I suspected, it must be a dogfighting ring.Now I know where to look.

I return to the tattoo search and this time I sift through social network pictures and videos linked to underground dogfighting until I find it—the picture of the man with the tattoo.He is proudly posing with two other men, each one holding up some kind of winner cup.From there it is easy to follow the crumbs to his social media account.

Gotcha, Travis Hoyt.

I dig deeper, collecting everything I can about him—criminal record, bank accounts and transactions, connections.Then I broaden my search to the whole network, names, evidence, pictures, transactions, dates, until I have a whole data package involving more than forty people in a larger-scale underground dogfight cartel.

The last part of my cleaning operation is the easiest—erase my fingerprints and send the FBI a nice little present they’ll find in the morning.With the evidence of fraud and the amount of money involved, I’m sure they won’t be overlooking this.

I lean back, breathing out slowly and steadily.That was easy.

If every takedown were this clean, I might sleep more than four hours a night.

The satisfaction slowly fades.My eyes drift to the encrypted folder on my desktop.

Manticore.

Every night after work, I comb through the underbelly of the cyber world, trying to find clues leading to them.However, every hint has led to a dead-end.They manage to cover their tracks with an efficiency even I have to respect.

Still, I keep digging.

Because someone has to.

One day, they will slip.And I’ll be right there to take them down.

Chapter Five

Erin

Sunday arrives faster than I would have liked and I’m stepping out of the condo prepared to meet everyone at Lily’s home.I decided to wear something comfy, so I went with stonewashed jeans, a black cropped T-shirt and black trainers.I also left my hair hanging in loose waves down to the middle of my back, and put on minimal makeup.

‘I like your hair down.It looks like liquid gold.’

His voice ghosts through my head, low and rough.And like the day he said the words, the memory sends shivers down my spine.I shake it off.That was more than a year ago, it meant nothing.

I slide into my car and drive to Lily and Damiano’s villa.

When I arrive, the gate opens and I park in the driveway next to several luxury cars that make my old Toyota look like a relic.The door opens and Lily comes bouncing out to greet me.I have to hold back a laugh, thinking that if Damiano witnessed this, he might just shoot me to prevent Lily from risking tripping and hurting herself because of me.

“Erin, there you are!Come, everyone is already here.”She grabs my arm and drags me inside and into the dining room before I have time to compose myself.

Four of the six seats around the table are already taken.My eyes scan the faces, Damiano, Chiara, Lucas.Then my gaze lands on the last person I wanted to see this early in the day.