6. The Phoenix
The Phoenix
Chapter 6
Tristan’s absence was not missed by my very perceptive daughter when I picked her up from school the day he left, but, just like any other seven-year-old, her attention quickly shifted as she poured the contents of her backpack out in the backseat of the car to tell me all about her science project. It was her first time going to a real school in a long time, and she was loving it. The opportunity to use a thousand craft supplies was like Christmas morning, so it was all she talked about the entire way home—Tristan temporarily forgotten.
Once we got home, Evie immediately spread her supplies out on the kitchen table, foam balls rolling onto the floor. I scooped them up before making her a snack of sliced strawberries. She climbed into the chair, her small, delicate fingers wrapped around the glue stick. Her other hand lifted a strawberry to her mouth, her eyes wide with excitement. “Mommy, do you think we should use glitter on Earth, so it’s super special?”
Sliding the glitter across the table, I nodded.“ I think that’s a great idea, nugget… lots of glitter.”
Eve giggled, her laughter like music to my ears. It was hard to believe that less than a year ago, she had been so sick, fighting for her life. Now, here she was, full of energy and joy, lighting up the room with her presence.
Her tongue peeked out the corner of her mouth as she coated the blue planet in glue and then dipped it in colorful glitter. In that moment, as I ruffled the soft fuzz on her scalp and the golden rays of the sunset reflected in her eyes, I let myself believe in the normalcy we were painstakingly creating. It was almost too perfect, and I was afraid to blink and have it all fall away. As I watched her work, the doorbell chimed, disrupting my thoughts.
Leaving Evie at the table, I walked to the front door, expecting to see Ethan and Scarlett standing on my front porch since they were coming over for dinner. Instead, my eyes landed on the face of a delivery man holding a package.
“Oh, hey,” I said, taking the stylus from him to sign on the pad.
He smiled, holding the box out for me to take it, but my attention was drawn over his shoulder. A few houses down, and on the opposite side of the street, a black SUV sat parked on its shoulder. It was clear there was someone inside, but I couldn’t see their features from where I was standing. Something about the vehicle’s presence sent a shiver of unease down my spine, but when I turned my attention back to the delivery man, the mysterious vehicle drove away, the tinted windows too dark for me to see inside as they passed by.
“Have a good day,” the delivery driver said, glancing over his shoulder to follow my line of sight before walking back to his vehicle.
Coming from the opposite direction, Scarlett’s SUV appeared from around the curve, headlights cutting through the darkening street between us. I set the box down just inside the front door, but remained outside, wrapping my arms around my chest as I watched them pull into the driveway. The moment I saw my brother’s smile, a matching one spread across my lips, the unease dissipating, at least for the moment.
With my belly pleasantly full of Scarlett’s jambalaya, Ethan and I moved to sit on the back porch while Scarlett took Evie for her bath. There was no doubt she would be an amazing mother. Scarlett had a naturally kind demeanor, and my daughter fell in love with her from the moment she’d met her. We all did.
A million stars sparkled in the sky as I gazed up, holding my mug of tea with both hands. Ethan sat beside me, staring up at the same sky.
“Beautiful up here,” he said, the tone of his voice pensive.
After a lifetime together, I always knew when he had something on his mind, but I also knew not to push for more. When he was ready to spill whatever was on his mind, he would.
I nodded, taking a sip, and closing my eyes as the hot liquid slid down my throat. “It is. It’s a different life here...slower.”
In the corner of my eye, I saw him nod. “But you like it here? You don’t regret moving?”
Suddenly, I had a better idea of what was on his mind. Guilt maybe? But there was no reason for him to feel guilty.
The side of my mouth tipped up in a grin as I shook my head. “Not at all. I didn’t leave anything more behind than you did… nothing but broken dreams and bad memories.”
Turning my eyes away from the sky, my smile fell slightly. “Why do you ask? Do you regret leaving?”
The side-eye he sent my way made me huff a laugh, but I didn’t respond, waiting for him to answer my question.
Blowing out a breath, he leaned back in his chair. “No. Leaving New Orleans was necessary for us to start over—for me to give Scarlett the life she deserved. I’ll never regret that.”
I nodded, looking back up at the sky. With the light pollution in New Orleans, it was impossible to see the stars. Evie deserved to see the stars.
“Is that because of her ex?” Even in the dark, I didn’t miss the way his jaw clenched. Ethan had always kept what he told me on a ‘need-to-know’ basis, so I made it a habit of not asking questions. I knew all he ever wanted to do was keep us safe, but we were both adults, so I also knew I could handle more than what he chose to divulge. “You never did tell me what all happened there, and I normally don’t ask, but...”
For a long moment, there was silence between us, the only sounds coming from critters somewhere in the trees.
The air seemed to become thinner as anxiety squeezed my lungs with every second I waited for him to respond.
Finally, when I’d nearly given up on getting a response at all, he shifted in his seat, and I knew he was going to talk.
“Her husband was only part of the equation.” Ethan’s gaze cut through the moonlit darkness, sharp and penetrating. “I was sent to kill her, Cara, by her own husband.”
The revelation struck like a physical blow, twisting my stomach into knots. There was so much I wanted to know, like how close he had come to actually fulfilling the task, but I was afraid to ask, because I was afraid of the answer. My mouth, on the other hand, seemed to have other plans. “You were... What?” I managed to choke out, my vocal cords like sandpaper.
He blew out a breath, the turmoil in his eyes mirroring what tightened my own chest. “Joshua Prejean hired me to end her. But when I saw her...” As though shame prevented him from saying anymore, Ethan’s eyes flicked away, his head moving in a nearly unperceivable shake. “But when I saw her, something shifted inside me. I couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t. He was already killing her. He was a monster. I had to save her from him—to take her away from that life.” Looking up at the sky, his voice softened. “Even though he did everything he could to snuff her light out, she burned so bright—just like the stars. She deserved so much more. She still does.”
“Does she know?” The question clawed its way up my throat, although I hoped I already knew the answer. I hoped Scarlett hadn’t been left in the dark.
Ethan nodded, a silent affirmation that held a thousand confessions he would never speak aloud. “She knows everything. I don’t keep things about her life from her.”
A whirlwind of emotions tore through me: relief, horror, admiration. Through it all, one truth remained: Ethan had risked everything, defying the nature of the person he’d been for so long, to pull Scarlett from the abyss. No matter how much darkness lived in him, he was a good man.
For the next hour, Ethan told me the heartbreaking story of Scarlett’s past in more detail, and more about what had brought them into each other’s lives—the twist of fate that could have made life so different from how it turned out.
Even though my brother never explained where the money came from over the years, I always knew it was blood money. After our parents died when I was only eighteen, I petitioned the state to take on the custody of my younger brother, and they obliged. We had no other family, and at sixteen, he was too old to be adopted. I was a better choice than a halfway house. And although I’d given it my all to take care of him and keep him out of trouble, I knew I could never be a mother figure to him. We were siblings, and barely two years apart, so I wasn’t any more capable of taking care of him than he was of taking care of himself. I knew when he’d started hanging out with questionable people that his life was heading in a direction that would tarnish his soul, but I’d been merely a kid myself, and Ethan had a mind of his own. The more I’d tried to rein him in, the more he’d pulled away. We had grown closer over the years, through shared grief and trauma, but my brother unquestionably had literal skeletons in his closet, and that sent my stomach into a tumble.
“Are you worried about retaliation?” I asked after several long heartbeats as I tried to process everything he’d told me.
A muscle in his jaw flexed as he nodded, the one way to know when he was feeling the pressure. “That was why I had Tristan come here. I don’t trust just anyone with the safety of my family, especially when we’re trying to keep Scarlett off the radar. If they find out where she is, I don’t know what they’ll do, and I can’t take that chance.”
The admission chilled my blood. Knowing how good of a person Scarlett was, I couldn’t imagine her going through the hell she’d already been through. It wasn’t fair that, after everything, she would be targeted by those who wanted to get back at her father. “And Tristan, he knows everything? Are you sure you can trust him?”
Although I felt in my core that I already knew the answer, I still asked. I hadn’t spent much time with Tristan, but it had been enough to know he was genuine.
Ethan’s nod confirmed. “If it wasn’t for him, we would be in a very different place right now.”
No matter how much I knew he had done for Scarlett, a protective wave surged through my chest, like a mother bear roused to defend her cub. “Are we safe, Ethan? Will Evie be safe?”
“I killed Delacroix, her husband’s accomplice, and her husband is dead.” Even with fallen enemies, Ethan’s jaw clenched, telling me he was still worried. “But their shadows may linger. I’m not foolish enough to believe they won’t look for revenge, but I don’t know if there are any supporters of Delacroix left who even know Scarlett was involved in what happened all those months ago. They may know about her father, but not about her. That’s my hope, anyway.”
Turning toward me, he reached out and took my hand. “I know what we’re up against if they seek retribution. I’ve already gone up against Delacroix’s gang, and I’ve fought against darker demons than even them. I didn’t emerge from that world to stand by and watch it claim the ones I love. I’ll do whatever it takes to keep our family safe. This is something I promise you, Cara. You, Evie, Scarlett, and my baby.”
The last of the evening’s dishes clinked softly against each other as I set them on the drying rack. Down the hall, Evie slept soundly, but for some reason, my heart thudded discordantly against the peacefulness of our cottage.
Hands dripping and pruned, I turned the faucet off, a chill running down my spine as my eyes locked onto the black SUV parked across the street. The lights in my neighbor’s house were off. The SUV wasn’t directly in front of their house but in between our two properties. I didn’t know why it was there, but it cast an ominous shadow underneath the moonlit sky that filled me with dread.
Air seized in my lungs as I stared at the dark vehicle through the reflection of myself in the glass, my heartbeat speeding up.
“Get a hold of yourself, Caroline,” I whispered to myself, trying to shake off the unease that settled deep in my chest. Ever since Ethan told me about Scarlett’s haunting past the night before, and about everything they’d gone through together, my mind had been filled with thoughts of danger lurking in the shadows, ready to strike when I least expected it. The SUV could have been for someone visiting the elderly couple who lived across the street, but what if it wasn’t? What if a ghost of my brother and Scarlett’s past dealings had found its way to our doorstep, looking for retribution or leverage? What if we were just easy prey? A shiver danced across my shoulders, and I wrapped my arms around myself, needing comfort.
Moving away from the window, my feet were silent against the hardwood floor as I started my nightly ritual of making sure the house was secured before bed. Although we no longer lived in a city ripe with crime, it still seemed like a good habit to hang onto.
Evie’s soft breathing was the sole sound of peace in the deafening quiet that blanketed our home. As I turned the deadbolt on the front door, doubt gnawed at me like a persistent itch, making me wonder if I should call my brother, but I couldn’t rouse the sleeping beast without a good reason. Ethan had seen too much darkness, and he didn’t need shadows cast by my fraying nerves. Each window’s lock met my touch with steadfast resistance, offering silent promises of safety. Yet, for every latch secured, my mind drew tighter, strung like a bow waiting to strike at an unknown threat.
When I returned to the kitchen, I leaned my forehead against the cool glass of the kitchen window, peering out into darkness where shadows clung to the edges of the world. I searched for the SUV, but it had vanished like a phantom, leaving only the ghost of a presence behind. You would think its disappearance would have soothed the tension in my shoulders, but the unease remained, a stubborn knot in my gut refusing to be untangled by logic or reason.
“Mommy?” Evie’s tiny voice cut through the silence. I jerked upright, heart seizing for a panicked moment.
“You should be asleep, nugget.” Leaving the window behind, I rushed to her side, cursing the fear that made my voice sharper than intended. The last thing I wanted was to worry her.
Eyes barely holding open, she held the stuffed llama tightly in one arm, wrapping the other around my leg. “I had a bad dream. Can you sleep with me?”
Without another thought, I nodded, rubbing my hand against her back. I understood nightmares all too well. “Absolutely, sweetheart. Let’s get you back to bed.”