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“One of the runners sees the car open, bag of cash on the seat, me bleeding out. Takes the money. The thief was-”
Sophie interrupted breathlessly, “My cousin? Gil?”
“-some jumped up prick who I’d hardly spoken to, called Hernandez-”
Carmelo, Colt and Sophie all exchanged a look.
“So we’ve got the limo driver, comatose but found by an EMT, hauled to the hospital. Elias, Elijah, on the run, sick as fuck, hallucinating, passed out and rescued by your kind selves, the MC.” Carmelo nodded at Colt when he said that.
“And my greedy idiot cousin, who steals the money, gives me some and disappears with the rest -”
“Yeah, except Elijah, in his confused gas-addled state, thought he killed them all. And he has been killing anyone else connected, as part of his vendetta against them all. He thinks he was betrayed by them. They were his family, but they let him down. Hurt someone he cared about. So he wanted revenge,” Carmelo said.
“Phantom didn’t kill them all,” Colt repeated, more to himself than anyone else.
“Course he didn’t, we all knew that,” Sophie said, throwing Colt a barbed look.
“He stabbed the limo driver, but didn’t kill him, and didn’t know that he was still alive. Phantom has been tracking down and killing others connected to the Demonios, who weren’t there that night…” Carmelo mused out loud.
“Elias doing okay?” The limo driver wheezed.
Sophie sat forward. “Yes, yes he’s doing fine. He’s found a new home-”
“Job, woman?” The limo driver asked.
Sophie flashed Colt and Carmelo a wide eyed look. “Yes, I’m his woman-”
The limo driver smiled. “I’m glad he’s landed on his feet, poor bastard, he deserves it.”
They all blinked at him.
“You’re not… angry? He tried to kill you,” Carmelo said, perplexed.
“He didn’t mean it. He meant to kill Horatio, and Horatio fucking deserved to die. They’re all dead anyway, right? The whole fucking lot of them? Well then it doesn’t matter. I’ll kick the bucket soon enough, I’m sure of it, all this fucking medicine and machines and wires sticking into me. Fuck that, I’ve lived a life, I want to rest now. I won’t press charges, leave the kid alone.” The limo driver suddenly turned hostile toward Carmelo, scowling at him in his uniform.
Carmelo held up both hands. “If that’s what you want.”
“Leave an old man to die in peace, and a young man to the fresh start he deserves, eh?” The limo driver gasped. It sounded like his throat was too sore to go on. He sagged back into the mound of pillows, closed his eyes, and snored deeply. Colt beckoned for Sophie and Carmelo to get up and quietly they crept out of his room.
Sophie’s heart was full of Phantom. The breath in her lungs was for Phantom. The blood in her veins was for Phantom. He’d have to do something really unforgivable to convince her to let him go now.
The darkness had eyes.
Phantom sat by the shed in a garden, watching, waiting. The kid was young, too young. Phantom had known he was a teenager but facing him now, Phantom almost felt a stab of remorse. This kid had no clue what he was getting involved in, when he’d shown interest in signing up to join the Demonios. That was clear to Phantom. He was probably just a lowly drug dealer or runner. He was just a typical teenager. Probably just keen to rebel, find his own way in life, and the Demonios looked like a good route to help him on his way. The kid was just outside on the decking, cleaning his skateboard, minding his own business in the gathering evening gloom. Phantom had crept into the garden, over the fence. The rest of the house had been quiet. It had been easy. Too easy.
The kid, the final person on his hit list, the final member of the Demonios in the state, the newest member, too, crouched over his board and was wiping it down with a rag, a bucket of soapy water at his feet. He had some sort of black eye thing going on, like he’d been in a fight then rubbed it raw, it looked sore. But Phantom didn’t think too much more about him, because Phantom was about to kill him.
Phantom held his throwing knife, checked his aim. He breathed in and out, into the darkness that surrounded him. That he felt at home in. It became a part of him. He let it pervade his soul, so that he was not a man anymore.
But something was off. This didn’t feel the same. It felt harder than before. His mind wasn’t clearing as easily as it had in the past. He kept thinking of Sophie. Her smile. Her sighs as he plunged into her. The heat of her body, the pulsing of her artery at the base of her neck. Fuck. Her, asking him, ‘no more’. Yet here he was. One more. Maybe he should let it lie. He was having second thoughts. Maybe he should step back…
Fuck it. Sophie was under his skin. In his mind. Sophie was in his bones now. He was a new person. He was Eli. He wasn’t the phantom in the darkness any more. He lowered his hand holding the knife.
And then he heard a noise. Just a little scuff.
He listened, he breathed. He focused. He closed his eyes and let his other senses take over for a moment, trying to decipher what he could not see.
He wasn’t alone in the darkness.
