Dante, who had been leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, pushed off and stepped closer. His sharp eyes narrowed as he studied the figure on the screen. "He carries himself like a soldier. Or a hitman." His voice was grim. "This isn't just some street criminal Camilla hired. She went to someone skilled—someone dangerous."
Jillian swallowed hard. The realization sent a chill down her spine. If Camilla had the resources to hire someone like this, it meant she wasn't acting alone. There was someone else, someone powerful, backing her.
"Then we find out who he is," Jillian said firmly, her voice steady despite the unease creeping in. "If we can identify him, we might figure out who's really pulling the strings."
Leo nodded. "I'll keep digging. Maybe there's something we missed."
Dante exhaled through his nose. "And I'll reach out to some old contacts. If this guy has a reputation, someone in the underground has heard of him."
Jillian crossed her arms, determination flaring in her eyes. "Good. Because if he comes for me again, I want to be ready."
The tension in the room was thick as Jillian, Dante, and Leo processed their next steps. They had a name—at least, a partial one. A whispered alias from the streets: "The Phantom." A man with no past, no records, only rumors that he was the kind of person who finished a job without leaving a trace.
Jillian exhaled slowly, her mind racing. "If this Phantom is real, then why would someone like him be after me? What makes me so important?"
Dante glanced at Leo before answering. "It's not about you, Jillian. It's about whoever hired him. Camilla must have made a deal with someone who has real power—someone who sees you as a threat."
Leo nodded, his fingers flying across the keyboard. "If Camilla could afford someone like him, that means she's not working alone. She's being backed by someone bigger." His voice trailed off as he clicked through security footage. Then he suddenly froze. "Wait a second."
"What is it?" Jillian asked, stepping behind him.
Leo zoomed in on a timestamp from two nights ago. A figure—too blurry to make out details—was walking toward a parked car, just outside a well-known safe house. Another shadowed figure stood by the car, exchanging what looked like a small envelope.
Dante frowned. "Money. A payout."
Jillian narrowed her eyes. "Can we track the car?"
Leo smirked. "Already on it." He typed quickly, pulling up another database. "If we can get a lead on this car, we might just have our first breadcrumb to follow."
Dante cracked his knuckles. "Good. Because I'm tired of playing defense."
Jillian clenched her fists, determination burning in her gaze. The Phantom had been hunting her. But now, it was her turn to start hunting him.
The night air was thick with anticipation as Jillian, Dante, and Leo worked tirelessly in their hideout. The glow from Leo's laptop screen cast sharp shadows on their faces as he traced the car's registration through multiple shell companies. Whoever was behind this had gone to great lengths to cover their tracks.
Jillian paced the room, her mind racing. "If this Phantom really is as good as they say, we're running out of time. We need to get ahead of him before he finds me again."
Dante leaned back against the wall, arms crossed. "We're not just dealing with a hitman, Jill. We're dealing with someone who operates in complete silence. If we make a wrong move, we could be walking straight into his hands."
Leo's fingers flew over the keyboard, then suddenly stopped. His face twisted in confusion. "This… doesn't make sense."
Jillian and Dante turned toward him. "What?"
Leo pointed at the screen. "The car was registered to a warehouse at the outskirts of town. But here's the weird part—it was marked as inactive in the system. No purchases, no maintenance, nothing for years. But two weeks ago, it was suddenly put back on the grid."
Jillian's pulse quickened. "Two weeks ago… that's right after I sent the fake lead to Victor."
Dante pushed off the wall, standing at her side. "That means whoever this Phantom is, they were either waiting for an excuse to move—or they were given one."
Leo started pulling up security footage from around the warehouse, but the cameras in that area were either offline or wiped clean. "They knew how to cover their tracks," he muttered.
Jillian exhaled sharply. "Then we force them out of hiding."
Dante arched a brow. "And how exactly do we do that?"
Jillian's expression hardened. "We go there. Tonight."
Leo looked skeptical. "You mean walk straight into what could be a trap?"
Jillian met his gaze with unwavering determination. "Exactly."
Dante let out a short laugh. "Alright, Jill. Let's hunt the Phantom."
As Leo's fingers moved swiftly over the keyboard, his eyes darted across the lines of encrypted files, breaking through layer after layer of security. The deeper he went, the more unsettling the information became.
"This isn't just a hideout," he muttered. "This place has been operating for years… tracking movements, arranging deals, handling disappearances."
Jillian and Dante stood behind him, tense and silent. The air in the room felt heavy with anticipation. Then, suddenly, Leo froze.
"Wait… no way."
His voice dropped to a whisper as he clicked on a file, pulling up a list of names—past clients, employers, and people who had dealings with the Phantom. As his eyes scanned the screen, one name sent a cold shiver down Jillian's spine.
Her heart pounded as she stepped closer. "Leo… tell me that's a mistake."
Dante leaned in, eyes narrowing. "This has to be fake. There's no way—"
But the name was right there, staring back at them.
Harlond Smith.
Jillian's father.
For a moment, everything around her faded into silence. The walls of the warehouse, the glow of the computer screen, even the concerned voices of her friends—it all blurred into nothing.
She took a shaky breath, gripping the edge of the desk. "Why… why is his name here?"
Leo swallowed hard. "I don't know, but this isn't just some random mention. There are records of transactions, meetings… direct involvement."
Jillian clenched her fists. She had fought so hard against enemies in the shadows, against people like Victor and Camilla. But now, a terrifying thought settled in her mind.
Had her own father been part of this from the beginning?
Jillian felt a storm brewing inside her. She wanted to believe it was a mistake, a trick, something planted to mislead them. But the more she stared at her father's name in the files, the harder it became to deny the truth.
Dante placed a steadying hand on her shoulder. "We don't know what this means yet. Maybe he was involved in something else—maybe he didn't even know what he was part of."
Leo, however, wasn't so optimistic. "These records are specific. Payments. Meetings. This wasn't just a coincidence." He scrolled down, pulling up a series of time-stamped transactions. "Look at these dates. Some of them match events in Victor's network. He was active in this."
Jillian forced herself to breathe. If her father had been involved with the Phantom, what did that mean for her? Had he known about her mother's fate? Had he been part of the reason she suffered all those years?
Her grip on the desk tightened until her knuckles turned white. "We need to find out what he was doing. Who he was working with. If my father is connected to this… then I need to hear it from him."