Page 2 of Zombie

My heart hammered in my chest. It had been a long time since I’d had a panic attack, but I recognized the symptoms as they flooded over me: ringing in my ears, labored breaths, tunneled vision.

I pushed off the table and swung my arm through a line of neatly organized instruments that lay on a table next to me. My tools clattered to the floor, piercing the silence of the lab.

I fell to my knees and fisted my hands into my hair, letting out a scream. A scream for my grief, my pain, and worst of all, my loneliness. I knew I would need to tell my team this secret if it were true. But I had to be sure before I rocked my very foundation of my life. This secret was too big to keep inside. But I needed the facts. I needed the results. Results, results, results. Ricci had a knack for always being a step ahead of us. We needed to act now that Sarah, his protégé, was running things, since we were unsure what she was capable of or what she had planned.

It was now time to find out if Ricci had been telling the truth or not.

TWO

ZOMBIE

I looked down at the results on my tablet screen, proving once again that Anthony Ricci was in fact my biological father. I had found out a week ago, but I kept looking at the results hoping that they would somehow magically change.

Badger was still healing from smoke inhalation. Machine was in the hospital after a rival mob had attacked him. Phantom was fighting her demons and healing from being tortured by Ricci. And all of us were still mourning the loss of Arrow.

I’d kept the truth about my parentage quiet because of everything going on. I needed my team to be ready to hear it without it having to be a game of telephone. The secret tasted bad in my mouth, like sour milk. Hell, I couldn’t even think about Ricci without wanting to throw up. Still, some of the questions I’d had my whole life were now answered. But so many still remained. Why had my mom never mentioned him, and how had she gotten caught up in his web of destruction?

And the most important question of all, that I wrestled with every single day: How could Arrow be dead?

Arrow and I had been best friends since our elementary school days in a small town in Texas. When he joined the Elite Squad, he’d immediately sent Chief my way, and the rest was history.

It was still unfathomable, existing in a world without my best friend, but life kept moving. I went through the motions of getting my tools together for my next autopsy. She was about fourteen years old, with blonde hair and ashen skin, and was the fourth child I’d had to examine in the past month. I was freelancing for the county for these autopsies which, based on my findings, were definitely related to Ricci’s operation based on the patterns. There was no way to deny that they were related. Clearly, the trafficking of young women had not stopped, based on the young lady in front of me who appeared to be the latest victim. And the team was no closer to finding Sarah.

“You know if you keep on frowning like that, your face will be a permanent scowl.” Arrow’s voice echoed in my mind as I imagined his figure in the corner of the room. “There’s nothing you can do. She's at peace now.”

I’d been seeing Arrow for the past two weeks, and I wished I could let him go. Would I ever be able to move past his death? I couldn’t go to my team for support because they were hurting just as much as I was. I’d been distancing myself from the people who loved me ever since I found out about Ricci’s claim on me. What if they could sense the evil that lurked within my veins? What if they could sense that I wasn’t right? But the logical side of my brain knew that was foolish. I planned to bring Chief the folder of the positive DNA test linking Ricci and I forever as soon as I was done this autopsy.

I shook out my revolving thoughts and set out to work, making the first precise incision in the center of the young girl’s chest cavity.

I was almost done with the examination when my phone began to ring in my pocket. Normally, I kept it on my desk and played Sleep Token. Today, however, I had fallen out of my routine. As soon as it stopped ringing, it started up again. Groaning, I disposed of my gloves and saw the call was from Kaden Romano, the infamous mob boss known as Ghost.

The only other time he’d called me was after Ricci’s attack on my team, so I immediately felt the urgency to answer. Had something else happened?

“Hello?” I answered, my tone clipped.

“Zombie, I need your help.” Kade sounded almost frantic.

“What do you need?”

THREE

LENNIE

Drip. Drip. Drip.

The sound of water against the cement floor was enough to wake me from my drug-induced sleep. Rough rope cut into my skin where it bound me to a chair as I looked around the dimly lit warehouse. I vaguely remembered a tall man with tan skin taking my picture, his phone flashing. Shortly after, I was knocked out again when my captor injected me with something.

Drip. Drip.

The abduction happened after a fourteen-hour day at RSS, and I was still kicking myself for letting it happen, but it had been a long day, and I’d been off my game. I’d used every trick I knew trying to track down Sarah, Ricci’s stepdaughter and Phantom’s sister, before walking home with my colleague, Jax. We’d split up two blocks from my condo. I was always careful at night; growing up with Kade and Evan meant I was all too aware of the dangers that lurked in the shadows. But I’d thought it was a short enough distance to walk alone. I never saw the ambush coming.

Four men had swarmed out of the shadows and thrown me in the back of a van. I’d tried to keep myself from spiraling, aware of the trackers in the sole of my shoe and in the heart-shaped necklace that Kade gave me. Jax would be alarmed that he didn’t get a text from me when I got home, and soon he would let the Hive team know that something was amiss. And if this kidnapping was connected to Kade, he would soon be notified of my capture.

I had to think positively. I had to stay vigilant. Kade and Evan were family to me, the only family I had left. They would come for me.

Drip. Drip.

An annoyed groan left my lips at the sound. I needed to get out of here.