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“I’m not leaving Delaney alone with you Neanderthals.” She plops down in the seat on the other side of me. “We’re still strangers, and after what happened to her sister, how can any of you think that she’s remotely comfortable sitting in a room by herself with a bunch of overgrown giants?”
“Thanks,” I whisper.
Jez scoots closer to me while Soul rubs the back of his neck, watching our interaction with concern. It’s not that I don’t trust them, per se, but Jez is right. It’s a little intimidating being surrounded by all this testosterone in the middle of nowhere.
Probably not a good time to mention all the weapons I have hidden on me.
“Fuck,” Soul mumbles. “I didn’t thi?—”
Grim thumps the tabletop. “Fifty bucks.”
Everyone laughs, breaking the tension in the room, and Soul flips him off.
“All right, assholes, enough!” The room quiets down, and Soul continues. “All of you have had a chance to meet Delaney, and you know her sister is one of the Phantom’s victims. Delaney’s gonna give us a little bit more background.” He motions for me to stand. “You have the floor.”
My legs wobble when I push away from the table. I don’t mind speaking in front of others, but talking about my dead sister is rough. Thorn nods in encouragement, and I tell the club all about Daphne. All the gory details fly from my mouth, and the more I speak, the more nauseous I become.
“He also took her locket.” I pull mine out from under the front of my shirt. “Our parents bought us matching lockets when we turned thirteen. We’d never taken them off, and she was wearing it that night. When my parents identified her body, her locket was missing.”
“Did the coroner lose it?” Rogue asks.
I shake my head. “No, the coroner swore there was no jewelry recovered at the scene or on the body.”
“Son of bitch,” Abyss hisses. “The fucker likes to take a trophy.”
Thorn clears his throat. “Tamara wore my class ring around her neck. It’s never been found since she was killed.”
I stare into Thorn’s eyes and see the same devastation that I see in mine every day when I look in the mirror. I place my hand on his shoulder to comfort him before I tear my gaze away and focus back on the room.
“I’ve been tracking the Phantom for the last four years. Thankfully, my job allows me to move around freely, but I’ve never gotten close to him until Nashville.”
“How’d you find out he’d be in Nashville?” Jez inquires.
“I saw the news story about the latest murder in Georgia and went to the PD. Of course, they wouldn’t tell me anything, but another cop overheard me talking about my sister and felt bad for me.”
“The cops in Georgia know your sister was killed by the Phantom?” Malice growls and shares a look with Soul.
“I didn’t tell them my name or her name,” I say defensively. “I also didn’t tell the cop who gave me the map. I’m just another nameless family member they couldn’t be bothered by.”
Malice’s face goes red. “You could be bringing trou?—”
Soul slams his fist on the table. “Malice! Enough. We always have shit knocking on our door.”
“Don’t mind him,” Jez sing songs. “He’s always grouchy.”
“Unless he’s balls deep in Apple,” Abyss teases.
Malice flips them both off but keeps his mouth shut. Jez turns on her computer, and the screen on the wall lights up with the same map I have a copy of in my suitcase.
“How’d you get that?” I ask, surprised.
Jez grins. “I’m very good at what I do.”
“What else you got?”
“Everything,” Jez says conspiratorially.
Multiple documents fill the screen, and we spend the next couple of hours going over the previous murders to see if we can find any other patterns. We comb over all the evidence Jez found and the details of each location.
