Ghosted (Team Zero #3) by Rina Kent

I’m about to join him to clear my head when the door opens. Flame stalks inside, wearing a hoodie that camouflages half his face.

Nicotine smell fills the room as he blows smoke from a cigarette hanging casually from his mouth.

He kills the smoke in the ashtray and falls on the sofa in the back. “I can finally sleep now that the drama is over.” He meets my gaze. “Unless you have something for me to burn?”

“Not yet.” I’ll try to negotiate with President Joe when Johnny isn’t around. Perhaps offer him more than a small share of the factory as long as he forgets about Elle.

If it doesn’t go well, Flame will have to burn his whole place down. Then, I’ll go back to square one and think about a way to not flood the streets with drugs.

It will be us against Hades all over again.

My temple throb just thinking about it.

“By the way,” Flame says, eyes closed. “That girl ran away. What was her name again...? Zoe...”

Shadow jumps to his feet, scotch bottle in hand, and his shoulders straining against his T-shirt.

“No... not that one,” Flame continues. “The one with Scar the whole time... Emma something.”

“Elle?” I all but shout.

“Right. That’s what Scar calls her.”

In a few strides, I’m looming over where he sleeps. “Where did she go?”

“I don’t know.” He cracks one eye open and stares at me with a bored expression. “She heard something about President Joe asking to hand her over and then... poof.”

Fuck.

I’m running towards the door before I know it. Kyle calls after me, something about how I never drink with him anymore, but I ignore him.

A tightening sensation that’s been long forgotten grips my chest.

Where the hell did she go?

This is Johnny’s perfect opportunity to snatch her away. Why would she put herself in danger? She’s offering herself on a fucking platter.

I’m pissed off at myself that I didn’t tie her to the bed before leaving. Knowing how stubborn she is, of course she wouldn’t listen.

The unknown feeling I didn’t recognise earlier suffocates me again. And then... it becomes clearer the more I don’t see Elle.

It’s fear.

An emotion that’s been erased by Omega now grips me by the gut.

I’m fucking scared about losing Elle.





Chapter Sixteen





I’m running and panting and the bloody heels are digging into the soles of my feet.

Buildings and half-empty streets blur in my vision as I disappear into the night. I don’t even think about where I’m going or how to get there. I just need to escape before Ghost hands me over to Johnny.

After a long run, the torturous shoes prevent me from running anymore. Sweat trickles down my back and my muscles scream from exertion.

I find myself in an empty, dimly-lit park with a few broken streetlights. I fall to a bench that creaks in protest.

With a sweaty hand, I push rebel strands off my eyes and breathe through my nose and mouth.

I need to be level-headed about this.

If Ghost would hand me over so easily to Johnny, perhaps he’s sacrificed Zoe for his drug deals, too. She could’ve pissed off some gangster – which is likely considering how much she talks back.

Still, I can’t return. If I do, that wanker Johnny will kill me. I can’t search for Zoe if I’m bloody dead.

Perhaps she’s already dead. I could spend a lifetime in this world and I wouldn’t find her.

Tears blur my vision, but I wipe them away jerkily. I need to save both of us. But how?

The doors are closing on my face. Gloomy thoughts about Zoe’s fate loom over my head. Two urchins like us have no power in this world. We might have survived the streets, but this is deadlier.

I never asked for anything big. I just wanted to take her back to that lake house and have Liam meet us there like we used to.

My phone vibrates in my bra, and I jump. I forgot I had it. When I stare at the incoming call, my heart flips.

Julian.

I hate myself so much for having this reaction to him, for allowing him where no one came close, and for what? For him to plan my death with Ghost.

He was at the meeting. He’s high rank enough to witness what that old man demanded, but he didn’t utter a word. Julian is just a mobster and will follow the rules. If Ghost and Mist order him to kill me, he would finish me in a heartbeat.

A part of me wants to believe he wouldn’t. Julian would stand up to them for me. But that part is naïve.

I reject his call and dial the only person I have left. Liam answers after a few rings.

“Elle?” He sounds croaky and startled, like I’ve just woken him up. Right. It’s around one in the morning. “Is something wrong?”

I fill him in on the meeting and the possibility of Ghost and Mist forming a deal with Johnny and who I assume is President Joe. As I tell him about my part in the war, a renowned energy pulses through me.

Who the hell do they think they are to hand me over as if I’m an object? I’m not one to run away. I won’t start now.

“Bollocks!” Liam is fumbling around. A few things knock over and there’s a rustle as though he’s getting dressed. “Stay where you are, I’m coming to get you. This mission is over.”