Page 102 of The Phantom's Vice

“Go, Boy!” he yells, slamming his elbow back into one of the Masks as the other stabs his dagger into Maverick’s shoulder. “That’s a fucking order!”

I almost disobey. But then, I see the third mask slam his dagger through Maverick’s stomach, and I know my choice has been made. Maverick will die, and I will be left to avenge him. I take a moment to breathe, steeling myself for what’s to come. Madam is a skilled fighter, and with her tigers and Table members, there is almost no way I’m going to make it out alive—even without my current injury. But then I think of Brett, of the world I’ll be leaving behind if I’m not successful. And I step into the mouth of the beast.

“I’m sorry, Maverick,” I murmur, turning on myheel and racing toward the closing sleet wall as his pained grunts ring out behind me. I make it to the door just in time, barely having enough time to slide through before the steel wall slices me in half.

“Hello,” I greet, reveling in the shocked expressions hiding behind the Table member’s gold masks. Then I turn my gaze to the Madam, and the shock of fear in her cold green eyes confirms my every wish: she’s fucking terrified of me. Of the thing she created.

“Tell me…” I croon, taking a daring step toward her. “Have you ever wondered what it’s like to die?”

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

BRETT

“So do we have a plan?”I ask, staring in awe at the massive gold-hued skyscraper. I’ve driven by this building hundreds of times on the way to work, and I never would have assumed something so sinister was going on within its walls. I guess there really is some sense to the whole “hiding in plain sight” thing.

Orion cuts his gaze to me, his shoulders shrugging in answer to my question. “I mean… the best thing I could come up with is just… fuck it.”

“Fuck it… alright.” I sigh, unbuckling my seat belt. “Let’s go with it.”

Orion and I jump from the truck, Rupert following close at our heels and searching forthreats. The walk to the back alley is eerily quiet, but when we come to the secret back entrance Orion told me about, I nearly vomit as the metallic tang of blood and death smacks me in the face.

Four masked bodies lie lifeless in the alley—three by the hatch and one by the dumpster.Allgruesome and bloody. I try to keep my eyes forward, keep my focus on getting to that hatch, but all that goes out the window when Orion races over to one of the bodies.

Orion crouches by the masked man’s shoulder, his shoulders quaking. “Oh my God… Steve? Aw, fuck. No. Noooo.Fuck, man,”he moans, cupping his face in his hands. A surge of awkwardness lights my veins as I pat the boy on the shoulder, which only seems to worsen his woes.

“I’m so sorry. Were you two… close?”

Orion looks up, his brows scrunched together, and zero sign of the tears I thought would be streaming down his cheeks. “What? No! The asshole owed me money. Now I’m never going to get that fifty buck…” he grumbles, standing and dusting off his shirt before casually strutting toward the hatch.

“What?” he asks, his steps halting when he realizes I’m not following. “Something wrong?”

Fucking lunatics. All of them.I shake my head,stumbling after him into the dark hatch. Rupert lags to sniff at one of the corpses, and I nearly pass out when his tongue darts across the bloodied white mask—as if he’s testing if the man isreallydead.

“Rupert! Get the fuck away from that!” A large blue eye pierces me through the shadows, a few seconds passing before he decides to follow my orders. “Thank God,” I grumble. Rushing after Orion, who’s already halfway through the small hatch at the base of the building.

“How do you know about this place?” I whisper, fighting the urge to run my fingertips along the golden walls of the long—hallway?—we’re racing through.

“Ghost mentioned it once. Watch your step,” Orion whispers, veering left and racing toward an uncompromising-looking door at the end of the short corridor. “After you, love,” he murmurs, shoving me through the opened door and up a flight of wrought-iron stairs.

A gentletinkbreaks the silence as a bullet dislodges, smacking a lower stair in its tumble to the ground, and for the first time, I let myself wonder what I’ll do if Ghost is actually dead.

“Orion?”

“Mhm?”

“Is it weird that we haven’t heard anything? Like, don’t you think we’d hear gunshots or something?”

Orion shrugs, gripping my elbow and hurrying me toward the landing. “Maybe everyone’s dead.”

Maybe Ghost is, too…I shake my head, deciding not to think of that as a possibility. Instead, I try to focus on the various hallways and staircases we pass through, trying not to grow despondent by the amount of death we pass by. But there’s just so much of it, and I can’t help letting my mind wander to that dark little corner shoved all the way in the back. And then I start losing a grip on my control. I start thinking about morbid things—things like,how could Ghost still be alive after all this? How could any of them?

By the time we reach the top, I’ve completely lost track of how many stairs we’ve raced up—how many hallways we’ve traveled through. The roaring fire in my thighs tells me it must be in the hundreds, but I don’t care enough to ask. All I want—all I’m consumed with—is getting to Ghost.

Alive or dead.

Shell casings crunch under my heels as I climb, and when we get about halfway up, I realize why we haven’t heard any gunshots. So much blood andcarnage stains the way, it causes my stomach to turn. Bodies litter the stairwell like a trail of breadcrumbs, and Orion has to lead me by the elbow until we make it onto a bare, steel landing. There's another iron door with a hole where a handle should be, as well as spatters of blood along the rim alluding to what’s in store for me on the other side. More death. More blood.

The increasing probability that one of these lifeless, bloody bodies will end up beingGhost.I shake my head to cast the thought away, giving it a new home in the air of these hallowed halls. That type of thinking is better suited to die here, at home with all the other nightmares this building covets.

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