Page 15

If you ever wondered what it’s like to stand at the base of a volcano about to erupt, live vicariously through me now. I dare you.

Kane stares at me, and I swear I can see the fires of Hell glow in the depths of his otherwise brown eyes. Ghost has crossed a line with him, and I can’t believe Ghost is dumb enough to do such a thing. He had to have known he was taunting a bull; but then, Ghost planned to kill me. Did he plan to kill Kane, too?

Taunt him?

What is really going on here?

Nothing good, and there really isn’t any way around telling Kane the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, no matter what it ignites in him.

I steel myself and get right to the worst of it. “Ghost called me from a burner phone.”

“Ghost called you?” Kane’s voice is low, steady, but there is the promise of death in those words. “How the fuck does he even have your number?”

“He clearly has his own version of Tic Tac.”

“Why? What did he want?”

“We need to backtrack a minute for you to have context.”

“What fucking context, Lilah?”

Okay, then. He’s prickly times ten fucking thousand. “There was a committee that denied Clyde Walker a contract for personal gains. He killed himself, at least officially per the records. We believe his grown kids tried to hire a hitman to take out the committee members, which included Murphy, as a point of interest, and the vice president. No one would take the job; therefore, the daughter, who’s a sniper, is doing the job herself.”

“And Ghost wants her dead, because she’s the one who took the number one assassin rank.” He says it as a matter of fact. This isn’t my first encounter with Ghost, and he’s made his mission quite clear. Only I’m not sure what he says is what he does anymore.

“That still doesn’t tell me why he called you,” Kane adds, drawing me back into the moment.

“I was notified that Mark Walker was dead. At that point, I didn’t know if his sister had turned on him, if someone on the committee went after them, or what. That is until I was at the airport preparing to fly out when my phone rang with an unknown number. I’m sure you can guess it was Ghost. His intent was to taunt me because he was at the crime scene and I was not.”

“He killed Mark.”

“I wasn’t sure at first, but for a variety of reasons, I am now. So yes. He killed him. I don’t have motive locked down. Perhaps to lure Elsa to him, since she’s off the grid. Her phone has been parked in Maryland, unmoving for days. Which, sidenote: Ellis rushed off to Maryland to find her, despite her ping saying she’s not with her phone.”

“Dirty?”

“Or scared and hiding. I’m not sure. I’m questioning what I really know about anything right now.”

“Which is a good reason to get back to Ghost.”

“Right. Ghost. Apparently, he’s been watching me. He wanted me to bring him strawberry pie. I figured a pie requires a knife, so I took him a pie.”

Kane pinches the bridge of his nose and mutters in Spanish before his hands land on his hips. “Go on.”

“I got there to find Mark was splayed across the piano, posed when the other victims were not. One might assume it’s to agitate Elsa, but I don’t like to assume. I’ll call it a hypothesis I’m trying to prove. He had plates and silverware waiting. Long story short, neither of us planned on the other leaving alive, but there were word games.”

His brows shoot up. “Word games?”

“Yes. Word games, during which I might have mentioned my love of blades and killing come from my first kill. The man my father sent to kill me.”

“And you let him live after you told him that?”

“I didn’t plan to,” I bristle. “He decided he would give me a gift and kill my father as soon as he has his number one status back. In other words, after he kills Elsa. He no sooner stated this then the lights went out and he was gone.”

I’ve barely finished my explanation, and he’s opening the back of the SUV, capturing my hand and dragging me forward. “Get inside.”

I rotate to find myself pinned between the vehicle and my man. “I have a murder to investigate.”

“You do not know Ghost like I know Ghost. Get in the fucking car, Lilah.”

I try to choose my battles smartly, and this is not one I’m going to win, so why fight it? I get in the fucking car.