Ghosted (Team Zero #3) by Rina Kent

I gulp and practically push Hayley through the restaurant’s back door.

My shoulders sag in relief once we’re inside. My fingers ghost to my bracelet and connect with flesh.

What the...?

I frantically check my wrist. The bracelet, my last momento from Zoe, is gone.





Chapter Two





Are fireflies supposed to be this spicy?

I stare between the bracelet I found on the ground and where its possible owner just fled into the restaurant.

The silver chain holds a firefly with some yellow jewel underneath its wings.

I asked the woman to wait, but apparently, the restaurant was a lot more interesting.

Or perhaps she was running away from me.

I fail to notice how scary I can come off sometimes.

Even after shedding the usual hood and stepping into comfortable-looking clothes. I’m starting to think it has less to do with my clothes and more to do with me.

“Hey, Ghost!” Shadow jumps from a window on the ground floor of an abandoned building across the street and reaches me in a few strides. No idea what the hell he was doing there, but then again, Shadow prefers windows even if the front door is secure.

He runs a hand through his blond hair and dusts off his white T-shirt. Colourful Chinese tiger tattoos cover his arms. They’re snarling, just like the wild side of the man wearing them. A wide grin stretches his lips as he hooks his thumb towards the corner. “The cockroach went that way.”

I cast one last glance at the restaurant’s back entrance and slip the bracelet into my pocket.

It’s not my habit to keep something that doesn’t belong to me, but if Firefly wants her bracelet back, then she’ll need to come get it.

The thought of seeing those fired up blue eyes again causes my lips to twitch.

“Did you just smile?” Shadow considers me with wide eyes. The man witnessed and committed countless murders but never appeared so shocked.

“What’s wrong with that?” I say as we quicken our pace after our guy. He wouldn’t have gotten far.

“You never smile. Stop doing it. That look will haunt me in my daydreams.”

“You mean nightmares?”

“Same thing, mate.” He sprints ahead and rounds the corner.

When I catch up to him, Shadow already has Johnny by the collar and pinned against the bricks of an old building. This alley is a darker than the other one. There’s more rubbish and a stronger smell of waste, but it doesn’t bother me.

We’ve been thrown in worse places than this. After a few years, it just becomes... normal.

No idea what that says about us.

A shaft of sun slips through the buildings, highlighting the crazed look in Shadow’s steel grey eyes. The expression of a killer.

I dash towards him, my shoulders becoming rigid.

Must be the remnants of the Omega drug messing with his brain.

“Back off,” I say when I’m at arm’s reach. Johnny’s bulging gaze meets mine with a plea. His body is shaking, and he looks like he’s about to piss his trousers.

Serves him fucking right. He should experience what it feels like to be cornered by someone stronger than him.

But he doesn’t deserve death. We’ve killed enough for a lifetime.

Judging by the iron fist Shadow is keeping around Johnny’s neck, he’ll snap it in a few seconds.

“I said. Back the fuck off,” I grit out. When he tightens his hold on Johnny, I clutch Shadow’s arm and shove him back. My friend throws a punch my way. I stare at him in the eye, unblinking and unmoving.

Shadow is an underground boxer. His punch is no joke, but I’m ready to take that if it will snap him out of his kill mode.

His fist freezes inches away from my face. Shadow blinks, and the robotic look slowly withers away. Colour returns to his cheeks. With a long sigh, he lowers his arm and steps back. “Fuck. My bad.”

“It’s Omega’s bad,” I say

If we hadn’t been forced to take that poisonous drug since our early teens, we wouldn’t have become killing machines who only understand the language of blood and violence.

My eyes zero in on Johnny who has been trying to crawl away. He freezes and puts his hands in the air. “I swear I didn’t do anything. C-come on, we have a truce so –”

“Shut the fuck up, cockroach.” Shadow massages his temples. Withdrawal symptoms. They will soon kick in for me, too. “One more word and I will rip your tongue out.”

Johnny thins his lips in a line but gulps audibly.

I crouch in front of him and hold the wrist I almost broke earlier. My tone comes out calm as I squeeze. “Does it hurt?”

Johnny’s face twists in pain, but he shakes his head frantically.

“Relay a message to President Joe, that is if he still listens to you.” I keep the pressure on his wrist until his face reddens and the scar turns an ugly faded white. “If one of you steps into our territory again to sell those filthy drugs or harasses the girls at Le Salon, I will burn his whole firm down.” I smile. “Understand?”

His head bobs up and down. The fear in his eyes and the trembling in his body calls to the unhinged part of me. My vision shrouds in red as if a dose of Omega has been shot through my veins.

Dots of blood splash in my mind.

Kill.

You’re worth nothing if you don’t kill.