19

CHASING GHOSTS

Everything within Adelaide screamed that this was a bad idea. But despite the mental war waging within her, her feet continued forward, already resigned to the fact that she was running out of time and options. She’d replayed the last trace she had in her head. Over and over again she had tried to make sense of the scene and the man within it, but every time she had come to the same conclusion. The man was Father Jude. It didn’t make sense that the man from the trace was the same man from the graveyard, but there was only one way she would ever know.

Adelaide walked into the gym. The sharp scent of sweat and rubber seemed to radiate from the walls, having soaked into the pores of the sleek flooring. Thick wooden beams crisscrossed the ceiling above, running parallel to the crisp lines of the L-shaped room. Aside from a few pairs of figures fencing on the side, the gym was relatively empty. Though a larger gathering would have meant a better chance for anonymity, it would have also meant more wandering ears tuned to a conversation not meant for them.

She found the boxing ring near the far corner of the gym, lined on either side by a series of heavyweight bags suspended along the wall. A lone figure stood at the bag farthest from her. His hands were wrapped in linen, but devoid of gloves or other padding to soften the vicious blows he was landing repeatedly on the bag. Teo’s back was bare, leaving visible a series of thickened scars along the contours of his tanned skin like the scattered stars of a constellation. Bouncing on his feet as his fists fell fast and furious, he circled the bag. He paused, resetting his position. His eyes clocked her watching him, and he turned back to the bag as she approached.

Adelaide’s eyes fell on Teo’s chest. Scrawled across its surface, just above his heart, was the elegant loops of a woman’s handwriting inked on his skin. Someday they’ll go down together. Something about the line felt familiar, teasing the edge of her mind until she remembered it was a line from Bonnie Parker’s journal. The thud of a punch jolted Adelaide from her thoughts. She pulled her eyes from his chest, forcing them to look anywhere else, and took a breath, stealing herself for the words to follow. “I need you to do something for me.”

Teo scoffed as he released a jab, chains jangling from the impact. “And here I thought it was the pleasure of my company you were after. Pity.”

“Believe me, if I was looking for the pleasure of someone’s company, you would be far down on that list.”

Teo swung his fist in a hook and grabbed the bag to steady it. A sheen coated his skin as he caught his breath, a smirk teasing the corner of his lips. “But I would be on it.”

“That’s not what I meant—” Adelaide shook her head. “That’s beside the point. Can you arrange a meeting with Father Jude?”

Teo’s head shot up from unwrapping his hands. Curiosity lit in his eyes. “What do you want with Father Jude?”

“Does it matter?”

“I guess not.”

“So will you do it?”

Teo pulled a towel from the bench along the wall and rubbed it behind his neck. “I’ll think about it.” With that, he tossed it at Adelaide and walked away.

She caught it and quickly balled it up. “Hey,” she shouted after him and threw it at his back. The towel bounced off him, falling in a crumpled pile to the floor. “That’s it? Where are you going?”

Teo turned to retrieve the towel and slung it over his shoulder. “To shower. You’re welcome to come, but you’ll have to bring your own towel. I’m not sharing.”

Though Adelaide hated to admit it, chess with Gideon was something she was starting to look forward to. They had gotten into a routine of facing off across the polished mahogany board every couple of days. As it stood, she was currently in the lead. It felt strange walking past the corridor that held his office, but he had run into her earlier with a remorseful apology that he would have to cancel tonight’s game. So instead, Adelaide headed back to her room. She scanned in, opened the door, and was greeted by the sweet scent of rose from the candle Elise had picked up in the city. Adelaide had thought it was a little too on the nose to burn a rose-scented candle in the Red Rose Society, but the irony of it was precisely why Elise had bought in the first place.

She started to kick off her shoes but froze as she took in the sight before her. A white box with a crudely tied bow atop it sat at the end of her bed. The box itself would have been enough to stop her in her tracks, but the figure seated beside it had truly made her pause. Teo perched on the edge, his head bent over a book. Adelaide flicked her eyes to the empty nightstand where one of her mother’s journals had been and back to the leather cover between his hands. Heat flared on her neck as an invisible hand tied her stomach in knots. She ripped the journal from his hands and clutched it to her chest like it was a life raft and she was drowning. “What are you doing?”

Teo opened his mouth to respond, a sharp response on his tongue, but as he met her gaze his features softened. She could see herself reflected in his dark eyes. Though anger coursed through her like a tide, the girl who looked back at her looked small and frightened. “I’m sorry. I was waiting for you and… I didn’t realize what it was.”

Adelaide knew it was a perfectly logical explanation. No markings on the outside of the journal signified it was anything other than an average book. But it wasn’t an average book and logic had left the moment Adelaide had seen the journal in Teo’s hands. “Did you get enough information or did you want me to leave while you rifle through the rest?”

Teo’s eyes narrowed. “I shouldn’t have touched your things in the first place but—”

“You’re right,” Adelaide cut him off. “You shouldn’t have.”

“You know what,” Teo said, squeezing his fists as he sidled up to her. “I didn’t mean to read your mother’s journal, but I did learn one thing from it.”

Adelaide refused to move, even though they were mere inches from each other. “And what’s that?”

“You and I,” he said, his gaze unwavering, “are more alike than you think.”

“I am nothing like you.”

“Yeah?” Teo tilted his head. “Then why are you here if not to chase ghosts?”

“If you think you know me so well, you tell me since you don’t just chase ghosts. Everywhere you go you make them.”

Teo recoiled as if she had just slapped him. She hadn’t meant to press on a wound so similar to her own, but as the words left her mouth images of Barrow flashed in her mind: the crack of a gun, the spread of blood across her shirt, the shock on her face as she fell over the side of the platform and the barrel of a gun, gripped tightly between Teo and Colden’s hands as they grappled for it.

Teo’s eyes flared as his jaw clenched in anger. From the moment she met him, Adelaide understood Teo to be a lot of things—mysterious, charming, tough—but it wasn’t until this very moment that she had come to realize he was something else too, dangerous.

An eerie calm settled on his features as he thrust something small into the palm of her hand. He leaned in, his voice hard but edged in sadness. “You have no idea.” He stepped back. “I believe your father had a friend who can help me with that. Get him to run a test, off the books, and I’ll arrange a meeting with Father Jude.”

Teo walked to the door, and his hands poised above the knob as he turned back toward her. “Oh, and this one is a tradeoff, tit for tat. You still owe me. And I always collect.”

With that final word of parting, Teo left. It wasn’t until Adelaide heard the door click into place behind her that she let out a shaky breath. Her hands shook from adrenaline, and as much as she hated to admit it, from fear. She unfurled her fingers to find a small glass vial in her hand. Inside was a grouping of several dark human hairs. She gasped, holding the vial as far away from herself as she could, trying to resist the impulse to let it drop from her fingers and shatter on the ground.

She thought of Teo cutting silently through the water on the lake in the dark of night, of the scars on his back and the flame in his eyes only moments ago. Asking him for help back in Paris, like she had again a few days ago, had seemed her best option, her only option. She could only hope learning the truth would be worth the risk of what she knew she had to do with the vial. And with whatever Teo needed when he cashed in his favor.