For a heartbeat, nothing happened.
The shadow didn’t bolt. Didn’t flinch.
That alone set Duke on edge.
Then the man moved—slowly, deliberately—one step back, then another.
He retreated deeper into the darkness.
Duke broke into a run, boots pounding the packed dirt, breath controlled as he closed the distance. Ranger was beside him in an instant, matching his stride.
“There!” Ranger pointed between the trees.
The shadow darted left, slipping between trunks, moving with unsettling familiarity.
Duke vaulted a low barrier and pushed harder, lungs burning now as branches snapped against his jacket.
Then the ground dropped sharply.
A ravine, Duke realized.
The figure slid down the embankment, disappearing into a tangle of brush and rock.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-THREE
Duke skiddedto a stop at the edge of the cliff, heart hammering. He scanned the darkness below and listened—for footsteps, breathing, anything.
Nothing.
The night swallowed any sounds.
Ranger reached his side, chest rising and falling. “He gone?”
Duke swept the beam from his cell phone over the area, wishing he had something stronger.
There was no movement. No trail. Just darkness and the distant wash of water far below.
“Yeah,” Duke finally said. “He’s gone.”
His adrenaline lingered, sharp and sour.
Whoever that was hadn’t come to attack.
They’d come to be seen. To taunt.
Duke turned back toward the lights, toward Andi and the others, the unease settling deeper than before.
This wasn’t a warning shot fired in panic.
It was a reminder.
And whoever was behind it knew exactly how to disappear when they chose to.
For a few terrible seconds, Andi could only stare into the darkness where Duke and Ranger had disappeared.
Her pulse thudded in her ears. Every instinct screamed at her to move, to follow. But she stayed rooted, fingers curled tight around her phone, eyes straining for any sign of motion beyond the reach of the lights.
