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“I’m sorry, kid. It’s not worth that much when it’s secondhand.” He lowers his glasses. “I can add a hundred on top of that if you give me that ring of yours, though.”
I lift my hand and stare at the ring my father once gave me after I’d made my first kill.
He was so proud of me.
A Phantom initiation ritual, he called it. My father and all of his friends once ruled this fraternity that I now lead. All of them went on to become some of the wealthiest businessmen in the world—some legitimate, some not so legitimate. None of it changed anything about who they were to each other; friends through thick and thin. Phantoms for life.
All because of the one secret they all carried to the grave.
I slowly push the ring off my finger and place it on the counter, the weight so heavy it feels like a drum is set off in my heart.
“Hundred.”
A hundred might just be enough.
The pawnshop owner smiles at me and takes both items below the counter, then starts sifting through his register for the cash, licking each bill as he counts before he smacks them down on top of the counter.
“Two thousand, as promised.”
“Thanks.” I take the money and turn around to watch my mother freak out over a skeleton in the back of the shop.
“Kai, do we really have to be here?” she asks, barely touching a bone before jolting up and down. “It’s so … musty.”
“Nope,” I reply, tucking my money into my wallet. “I’m done.”
“Wait, where’s your ring?” She grabs my hand to inspect it.
I jerk back. “Sold it.”
“¡Ay, Dios mío! Kai!” She throws me an insulted look. “You can’t be serious. Your father gave you that ring.”
“Sí. So it was mine to sell too,” I retort, walking right past her as I waltz out of the pawnshop.
The doorbell behind me rings as she steps out. “Kai, wait.”
“No, I have to get back to the Phantom house,” I reply.
“Why do you need that money?” she asks, walking beside me. “Your father and I give you an abundant allowance every month.”
I pause mid stride and look her dead in the eye. “Would you give it to me if I didn’t tell you what it’s for?”
She frowns. “Well… I mean … if you need something.”
“Not me. Mi amigo.”
She licks her lips. “Un amigo … Please tell me that Nathan boy isn’t involved. You know that boy and his parents can’t be trusted anymore. They’ve—”
“Fallen out of grace,” I parrot as she’s told me so many times before.
“Some things just can’t be undone.”
I look her dead in the eyes. “Would you give me the money?”
“No. Para nada.”
Of course she wouldn’t.
I walk back to the car.
