“You think you could kill me?” My voice never rose past a whisper, but it throbbed with a threat.
The noise of fighters pummelling each other in Obsidian below pricked my skin with energy.
Violence. Blood. Pain. It was my DNA. The only reason I was born—the only reason why I was still alive.
I took one step toward Oscar. His healthy tan faded as fear whitewashed his features. Instead of backing down, he stepped forward until only a foot separated us. “I think you need some serious f**king help, Fox. The way you were with that woman last night, it was obsessive. You seemed completely different. Good different.” His voice lost the angry edge. “You seemed human for the first time since we met. You need to apologise if you have any hope of fixing it.”
A Ghost never apologized. A Ghost was there to obey. A Ghost was nothing and no-one. We existed above the law.
You have to destroy evidence.
You have to kill her.
The conditioning doused my body in a cold sweat.
“What address did she give you?” Images of squeezing her throat, sucking her soul plundered my mind. It was the only way.
She knew about me. I showed her too much.
Oscar looked over his shoulder at the fighters below. The Muay Thai ring held an eager duo going at it with wild ferocity. No one looked up here, no one paid attention to the stand-off between us.
The longer he kept me from her, the more pissed off I got. She was mine. I had the contract to prove it. Every minute that ticked past cost me one hundred and thirty nine dollars of the two hundred thousand I agreed to pay—she owed it to me to be here. Fighting with me. Letting me do what I wanted.
His jaw clenched. “I’m not giving it to you.” Taking another step back, he rushed, “You don’t know what life she leads. What about the woman who was with her last night? The black dude? You can’t go charging over there in your condition. It’s professional suicide. Do you have any idea what kind of shit-storm this could bring?”
My temper flared into nuclear. “That’s none of your f**king business.”
Storming toward him, I shoved him out of the way of the stairs. Instead of going willingly, Oscar slammed to a halt and braced himself on my shoulder.
The moment he touched me, I lost it.
My world swooped like a bad time machine, shooting me from present to past.
“You’ve passed the first test of three. Congratulations.”
My handler, and only person who I was allowed to talk to, came close and gave me what I so craved: food. Damn, I was hungry. After two weeks in the pit with just scraps for nourishment, they’d broken my will, and I’d done what they’d ordered.
My throat closed around the piece of chicken, remembering what I’d done only an hour before. I’d broken into a home—complete with Christmas decorations in the window and a fire flickering in the hearth. I’d sneaked up the stairs on silent toes and stood over a woman sleeping soundly in her bed.
I’d stabbed her in the heart while her husband slept on.
Then, I left.
I choked, throwing the chicken away, staring at my hands. Traces of blood coated my fingers, glowing bright with damnation.
“Well done, Fox. Well done for killing your mother.”
“Fox?”
“Fox! Goddammit, stop!”
A fist to the jaw shattered the flashback, and I hurled myself at the stupid culprit. I’d kill them. I’d kill them for making me murder my mother.
“Fox!”
My vision cleared from blood-smeared thirteen-year-old fingers to a bulging eyed Oscar.
His hands clawed at mine around his neck, his feet dangled off the floor. The burn in my shoulders spoke of the weight I held almost unconsciously. It was so easy. I didn’t know why I fought so hard. This was all I was good for.
Death.
Oscar spat in my face. His warm spit landed in my eye, and I threw him to the side disgusted.
“Snap out of it.” He threw a crystal ashtray at my head. It bounced off my temple, knocking sense back into me.
I blinked, bringing into focus his torn shirt and bleeding lip. Fear stank around him.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
Backing away, I looked down at my hands—at the symbol III tattooed into my palms. How could I ever let myself get so weak?
Pain.
I need pain.
I needed deliverance. I needed an escape.
Turning on my heel, I bolted. Adrenaline pumped thick and fast, chugging my broken heart.
Bulldozing my way through the fighters on the floor of Obsidian, I already knew where I would go.
I didn’t look back.
Twenty minutes later, I screeched to a halt outside Dragonfly. If Obsidian was exclusive and upmarket—created for skilful fighters who wanted prestige—Dragonfly was its sinful baby brother. A place where a disclaimer had to be signed and lodged just in case you didn’t make it out alive.
My favourite place for medicine.
I’d found it purely by chance. When I moved to Sydney, I didn’t know anyone. Cast out of the only world I knew, I fumbled in society. With no guidance or rules, I had none of my usual tools to stay together.
The only way to keep my temper at a manageable level had been to ambush. Most nights I hid in dark alleys, just waiting for random, clueless prey to stumble upon my trap.
The moment they were close I taunted and teased, hurting them just enough for them to hurt me. Then I’d force myself to stop—to give them the winning hand. Every strike helped ease my pain, and I welcomed the throws.
Only once they’d given me enough to exist another day did I knock them out and run. Leaving them to be found by another—keeping my identity hidden thanks to the tricks I’d been taught by my owners.
For weeks it worked, until one night I picked a guy who owned the Dragonfly and he gave me the beating I’d been searching for. He tore into me like he channelled a f**king velociraptor. He cleared my head completely of the mess inside.
A fight was mere aspirin, whereas Poison Oaks was my morphine.
His fighting name fit him perfectly—built like a thousand-year-old tree, his arms were the size of trunks, and his temper was poisonous. No one pissed him off. They knew better.
Double parking my black Cayman, I jogged down the dark alley before taking a sharp left.
A glowing dragonfly was the only signal the club existed. No garish signs, no hint of existence. Just like Obsidian, both clubs worked on referral and secrecy.
Knocking on the door in the correct code sequence, I glared at the bouncer who cracked it open.