Page 14 of Sinful
Phantom doesn't ask for help easily, but even he recognizes when the math doesn't work.
When pride has to take a back seat to survival. "I'll get it done," I tell him.
"I know you will." He stands, stretches, his back cracking audibly. "You're leaving at dawn. Six hours to Baton Rouge, then another few to Tallahassee. Should get you there by late evening if you don't stop much."
Tallahassee.
The name sits strange in my head.
I've been through there a dozen times, never stayed long.
Just another city on the way to somewhere else.
Another place to get gas, grab food, and keep moving. But something about it feels different this time.
Like maybe this trip is going to be more than just another negotiation.
"Need anything for the road?" Blaze asks.
"I'm good."
"Weapon?"
"Carrying two." I tap my hip where the Glock sits, then my ankle where a backup rests. "Plus the rifle on the bike."
"Paranoid," Blaze says, but he's grinning.
"No, just focused on staying alive."
"Same thing in this life." Phantom walks to the porch rail, looks out over his land.
The sun's almost gone now, just a sliver of red on the horizon like a wound in the sky.
The temperature's finally dropping, the oppressive heat giving way to something almost comfortable.
Stars are starting to appear, pinpricks of light in the gathering dark. "This ranch has been in my family for generations, since they came here from Ireland," Phantom says, his voice quiet but carrying in the stillness. "My great-great-great-grandfather won it in a card game, or stole it, depending on who you ask. Built it into something. Passed it down. Survived droughts and depressions and wars. My father gave it to me, and I'll give it to my son someday, whenever his stubborn ass decides to come back home."
He turns to look at me, and his eyes are hard. "Los Coyotes want to take it. Want to take everything we've built. I won't let that happen."
"No, sir."
"So, you go to Florida. You make this alliance work. You keep Runes from being a dick just because it's me sending you." He grins slightly, humor breaking through the tension. "And you come back with a plan to end Sebastián before he ends us."
"Understood." We finish our beers as full dark settles.
The ranch transforms at night—lights in the bunkhouses, the clubhouse glowing like a beacon, stars so bright they hurt to look at.
Out here, away from cities, the sky is something different.
Something vast and indifferent and beautiful.
The Milky Way stretches overhead like a river of light, and I can pick out constellations my father taught me before he died.
Before everything burned.
I've slept under this sky more nights than I can count.
Never stays the same, never gets old.
