Page 111 of Phantom
The question makes me blink. “Did he what?”
Rand waves his hand up and down in my direction. “I don’t see any skull jewelry or any of those stupid amulets. So did he brand you? Bordeaux followers are barbaric in their loyalty. The most loyal get branded. They can never leave after that. The shadow I tortured for information had one, although it didn’t do the Bordeauxs any good. So did Sol do it to you?”
Inappropriately timed butterflies flutter in my stomach at the thought, but I push them away and shake my head.
“Christ. Maybe he doesn’t like you as much as I thought,” he mutters.
My eyes blink as I try to compute all the information he’s spitting at me. “Why are you saying all of this?”
“Because, sweetLittle Lettie, you’re no good to me now. I went to New York to get away from this shithole of a city. But when I got there, I met some people who shed light on all the hard work my brother was doing to get New Orleans under Chatelain guidance. I was studying abroad when Laurent assassinated the patriarch of the Bordeaux family and then decided to use dear, artistic Sol as further leverage for our negotiations. It was genius. He even placated Ben once the fool suggested a truce.
“We split New Orleans to ‘avoid further bloodshed.’” He uses finger quotes and rolls his eyes. “Laurent didn’t care that we were denied the ports for our particular brand of business, because why would he? He was just biding his time, waiting for Ben to come out of hiding so he could kill another Bordeaux when he had the chance and take over the whole city. But then your fucking father meddled.”
“My… my father?” Blood drains from my face and gears begin to turn inside my dizzy head.
“Yes,your father. That one took me a while to figure out. It was only after I put one of my best guys on him that I realized what a thief and a con artist he really was. He and my father had an arrangement. If he spied on the Bordeauxs in the French Quarter, then my father would pay Gus Day’s bills.”
My heart is throbbing in my chest and I want to sit down, but I can’t put myself in a weaker position than I already am. Rand, thankfully, seems lost in his story as he continues to expose my father’s secrets.
“He was a fantastic snitch, and he rose so high in our ranks that my father confided in him about his plans to take over. But your father betrayed us by telling one of the Bordeaux shadows… and then you guys suddenly moved again and he went AWOL. A week later, my parents died and Laurent had to move up the time frame on their original plan.”
“Sol s-said they were in a tragic accident—”
“Bah! That’s rich, coming from the professional ‘suicider.’ Jacques Baron… are you really dumb enough to think he hung himself? No, Sol did it. Jacques was a Chatelain man—”
“Who hurt women—” I spit back, unable to hide my animosity, and Rand glowers at me.
“I don’t give a fuck what he was doing to women, he was my second-in-command and my proxy when I was gone.”
“Why would you want someone like that to work for you?”
“Oh, like the Bordeaux shadows are angels? Do you really think liquor is the only thing they spill in the streets? They’re easy to catch, though. If I hadn’t captured the one at the cemetery last Sunday, I wouldn’t have been able to teach your stupid friend a lesson, or unlock the roof door to give you this splendid view tonight.” He lifts the old phone he used to activate the door and shakes it for emphasis. “The Bordeauxs will never find their missing man though. Unlike Sol, I don’t leave my bodies out in the open.”
“You’re an animal…” I grimace and take a step back. He mirrors it forward, and sweat prickles on the back of my neck.
The laugh Rand lets out makes my stomach churn. “You know who’s an animal? Sol. I’ve seen the footage of what my brother did to him, and the guy howled like a dying cat when he burned.”
Vomit builds in my throat and I barely swallow it down.
“Afterward, your beloved Solstrangledmy brother. It was his first ‘suicide,’ as reported by the police the Bordeauxs paid off. I was too young and alone to do anything then, but I grew the fuck up while I was away. Now I’m demandingChatelainjustice—truejustice—for everyone who got off scot-free. No more of this Phantom bullshit. The businessmen I made a deal with in New York said I could have it all if I just secured the port for their specific… trade… you could say.”
My breaths are coming too quickly, exacerbating my light-headedness. As I try to force slow inhales and exhales, Rand prowls toward me and I back up just as slowly, my eyes darting around the rooftop for some kind of escape plan.
“The Bordeauxs wouldn’t budge and that’s when I realized Sol’s obsession with you would play in my favor. I thought about having the whole family killed, but Sol murdered our best assassin a year ago, and I couldn’t take the chance of fucking up my plans.”
“Y-your assassin? Why would Sol care about him?” I question Rand.
“Because Two-Shot killed the Bordeaux patriarch and kidnapped Sol a decade ago. That was Two-Shot’s last job, but I brought him out of retirement. And do you knowwhyI did that?”
“Why?” Suspicion drifts across my mind and my mouth dries while the answer remains on the tip of my tongue.
“To investigate your father. Once he found out it was your dad that tattled to a shadow about my father’s plans and got my family killed, I ordered Two-Shot to take him out.” He spits out every word, and each one feels like a slap in the face. “Your father lived unpunished for way too long. And, well, you know the rest. You got to meet Two-Shot up close and personal, didn’t you?”
My back hits the Athena statue. Our steps have steadily mirrored each other until now, and he smiles when he realizes that he’s cornered me. But his words have flipped a switch in my mind as he rants.
“From what I could tell from the police reports, he got a little sidetracked when your dad tried to hide from him. Two-Shot had a thing for unwilling girls. His fooling around probably cost him his life, though.”
Oh, you have no fucking idea.
