3. The Phantom
The Phantom
Chapter 3
The evening air held a chill in the mountains that we never got in the concrete jungle I called home. I stood beside Ethan at the grill as he flipped steaks on an open flame, breathing in the fresh scent of nature that mingled with the aroma of seared meat.
“After killing Victor Delacroix… there’s no turning back now,” Ethan muttered, his light blue eyes reflecting the fire’s glow. “His mob won’t take it lightly. I didn’t have a choice, but they’ll want revenge.”
I nodded, his words sending a shiver through my body that had nothing to do with the temperature outside. “Even with the FBI potentially watching, you think his people will retaliate?”
“Retaliation is a given,” he replied, his gaze fixed on the darkness beyond the halo of light surrounding us from the bonfire and porch lights. “But it’s not just them. I don’t want Scarlett getting dragged into this thing. There shouldn’t have been any evidence left of her in the torched scene, but I’m hoping the feds don’t come sniffing around.”
The mention of the feds stirred a different kind of unease within me. My mind instinctively began to race, considering all the angles, all the potential digital trails that could lead to an unwanted knock on the door. “How hot do you reckon the trial is? I mean, I haven’t seen much on the news yet. Seems like they’re keeping it all close to the vest right now.”
Ethan exhaled slowly, the tension in his shoulders becoming more pronounced. “Although Scarlett has no contact with her father, we do know they’ve been digging. Victor’s operation was vast—drugs, weapons, you name it. And after what went down with Scarlett’s father…” He trailed off, the unsaid words hanging heavy between us.
“Well, I’ll do my best to make sure there’s no electronic trail of Scarlett being involved, and as far as the remaining members of Victor’s gang, all we can do is try to find out if they know who you are, and if they know what Victor had planned for her. There’s always the chance that his plans were kept to a small following.” Hesitating for a moment, I glanced toward the cabin only yards away, where I could just barely see Scarlett and Caroline through the window as they moved around the kitchen. “This isn’t the same location the two of you ran to last time, and everyone who was at that compound… They’re—”
“Dead,” he cut in. After everything he and Scarlett went through—after everything I was a part of—I understood all that he’d had to do in order to save the woman he loved, but I did not think I could ever get over the idea of taking a life, or if I could ever do such a thing myself.
I nodded, meeting his stare. “Right. They’re all dead. So, there is a chance the rest of his gang has no idea that you and Scarlett were involved.”
Turning back toward the grill, Ethan flipped the steaks, the sizzling steam making my stomach grumble. “I think there’s a higher probability they at least know Scarlett’s father was involved, and perhaps may, once again, try to use her to get to her father. But,” he said, using the tongs to point to a pan which I held out for him to place the meat on, “we have been doing everything we can to cover our tracks—especially Scarlett’s tracks, including changing her name and purchasing the store and home under a different entity altogether. Unless they come here and run into her in the street, they shouldn’t be able to easily find her, but that doesn’t mean they won’t. We just must stay vigilant and be prepared.”
With the food cooked, the conversation about Victor Delacroix and the events that had happened in New Orleans ceased. I followed Ethan back inside and we sat down at the long, wooden table where Scarlett, Evie, and Caroline were already seated. The atmosphere was warm and inviting, the cabin itself a true home. It was such a contrast to eating in my dark computer lab from take-out containers. Although I had the ability to toss ingredients together and have them taste half-decent, I didn’t cook often. Nobody enjoyed cooking for one. Back when I had a girlfriend… Well, it had been a while. Two long years.
“So, what do you think of our little town so far?” Scarlett asked, passing me a dish of steamed vegetables.
“It’s beautiful here,” I said honestly, my eyes flicking to Caroline’s for a moment, surprised when her cheeks flushed a rosy shade. “The scenery is breathtaking, and the people seem genuinely kind.”
“Most of them are,” Ethan chimed in. “But every town has its fair share of nosy busybodies. We’ve had to learn how to navigate around them.”
His words made me chuckle, and for the life of me, I couldn’t help but imagine Ethan, in all his darkness, trying to manage a nosy old lady and keep her in her place. He may have been intimidating, but I think even he would cower to an Alabama mountain grandma with a glass of sweet tea and the words ‘bless your heart’ on her lips. “Well, it doesn’t look like you have any neighbors near the cabin at least.”
The look on Ethan’s face told me it had very much been the plan. I didn’t blame him. Although I liked living where modern conveniences were a dime a dozen, I preferred to not hear my neighbors fucking through the walls. “Did you see the fight last night?” he asked, a casualness in his tone that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “That knockout was brutal.”
“Missed it,” I admitted, taking a sip of my beer. “Was running diagnostics on my systems.”
Scarlett laughed softly from her seat beside Ethan. “You and your computers. Sometimes I wonder if you dream in code.”
“Doesn’t everyone?” I didn’t miss how Caroline’s lips lifted in a smile at my response, which stirred something low in my belly. Beside her, Evie had ketchup all over her face, but seemed to be the happiest kid on the planet, no matter what was brewing beneath the surface of her skin. It was something I still hadn’t asked about.
Dinner unfolded with an ease that surprised me. We talked about the weather, the clarity of the night sky so far up in the mountains, and the latest book Scarlett was reading. I listened more than I spoke, letting the voices fill the spaces between us. It was strange, this budding sense of camaraderie between Ethan and I, two men who lived in the shadows now breaking bread under the same roof. It was odd, but I realized the longer I was in their company, the more I was open to it.
“Super-spy Tristan,” Evie’s small voice interrupted, her bright blue eyes fixed on me from where she sat across the table. She stood, clutching a stuffed llama in her arms, its fur matted from countless hugs.
“Hey, sweetheart.” Pushing my chair back, I leaned forward to lower myself to her level. “What’s up?”
She twisted on her feet, as though she was nervous to say whatever she wanted to say. “Will you play with me?”
“Of course,” I replied without hesitation. “Lead the way, Captain.”
Her laughter was like music as she took my hand and pulled me toward the bedroom Ethan and Scarlett had set up for her in their home. The walls were adorned with drawings, her imagination splashed across every inch. Leading me across the room to a shelf that was lined with action figures, she told me all about them, each with their own intricate backstory, and I found myself engrossed, following her narratives with genuine interest. I hadn’t been a child in a long time, but I admittedly missed the imagination that tended to fade with adulthood. I was still only twenty-six, but trauma had certainly already turned my life to gray.
As we built a castle out of her Legos and devised an epic tale of how her queen saved the entire kingdom from all the bad guys, I let the weight of the world slide from my shoulders—if only for a little while.
The laughter from Evie’s room faded into a gentle hum of a lullaby as Caroline’s voice threaded through the crack under the door. They weren’t staying for the night, but Scarlett and Caroline wanted to watch a movie together while Ethan and I worked, and Evie couldn’t keep her eyes open, so Caroline bathed and put her to bed before it began. I stood in the hallway for a moment, a little out of place as to where to go next. I’d ridden to the cabin with Ethan, therefore I didn’t have a vehicle to get myself back to the hotel. I wasn’t sure who intended to deposit me back in town, but I knew someone would at some point.
“Tristan,” Ethan said, coming around the corner from the living area, nearly startling me half to death. “Ready to see the brains of the operation?”
The corner of my mouth lifted as I nodded. “Hell, yes. I’ve been waiting to see some tech.”
With the women still in the living area and the scent of popcorn meeting my nose, I followed Ethan down the main hallway and into a spacious master suite. A massive bed made of carved dark wood stood in the center of the main wall, with complimenting pieces of furniture spread out in the space. The bedding was crisp white, which complemented the dark woods and gray walls. There was no baby furniture in the room yet, but there was a small pile of baby blankets folded on the bed, as though one of them had recently done laundry in preparation for their new arrival.
Inside the equally impressive walk-in closet, Ethan slid his nearly all black clothes to the side and pushed on the wall panel, which opened outward like a door. From the outside, there would have been no way for anyone to know it was there.
“There’s a door to the finished basement and below ground storage next to the laundry room,” he said, flipping the switch to turn on the light over a staircase that led down to the subterranean level. “But this safe room space isn’t on any of the blueprints.”
Following him down the stairs, I was impressed by the forethought it took to come up with the building plan for the hidden room.
When we reached the bottom, there was an open entryway with a steel door on the side wall. Ethan punched in a code that beeped in affirmation before the heavy door swung open with a hiss.
The air inside was cool and still, carrying the scent of concrete and metal. To the right was an open living area, already furnished with a sofa, television, and other pieces, as well as a small kitchen in the corner. The door to the bathroom and even a bedroom took up a side wall. Shelves lined with non-perishable food, medical supplies, and a few personal items lined the other side of the space. Directly to the back, a dark room was lit up by a bank of monitors, only a few with video feed running—silent sentinels keeping watch. It was clear the entire property wasn’t under surveillance yet, which was why I was there, but he’d already done a lot of the work himself.
“There’s an exit there,” he said, pointing toward the door against the wall opposite us. “The tunnel takes you to a cave that pops out about a half of a mile to the east.”
“This is outstanding, Ethan. I would have never expected this to be down here.”
“If it hadn’t been for the hidden basement in my other cabin, I don’t know where Scarlett and I would be right now.” A flicker of something I couldn’t decipher passed through his light eyes with his admission, but it faded quickly. “It allowed us to get a head start when Victor’s guys found us.” He shook his head, as though forcing the memory away. “Caroline doesn’t know about all of my…past. She’s been through so much, after losing Daniel, and everything with Evie. So, if it comes up—”
“I get it,” I assured him. Although I didn’t understand everything he’d done in his life, or the ins and outs of the relationship he had with his sister, I knew what he needed from me, and it wasn’t my place to share his truths with her. My job was to help him protect them—the fiercely independent sister who seemed to have already been through so much, the child whose laughter was a balm to the aches I didn’t know I carried, his unborn chance at a new life, and the woman who had survived hell to find love again.
Following him, I stepped into the surveillance room. My hand hovered over the console, fingertips brushing against the cold buttons. “I can add layers to the security system—more cameras, including those with thermal imaging and motion sensors that signal when the passerby is over a certain body mass. There are many options.”
Ethan nodded, his shoulders relaxing just a bit as he ran his fingers through his dark hair. “Good. After what we’ve already been through, I don’t think we can be too cautious. I’ve already added security at Caroline’s cottage as well, but hers will also need beefing up. There’s nothing more important than protecting my family. I’d burn the world down before I let anything happen to them again.”
The word family settled in my chest like a stone. My own family was a concept tangled in wires and distant memories because my parents were dead and I was an only child, but it didn’t mean I couldn’t understand how much this meant to Ethan. He and his family had taken me in without question, so although they weren’t my blood, protecting them was just as important to me.
With a dip of my chin, I lowered myself into the desk chair and opened the browser on the computer. “Then let’s make sure you never have to.”