My skin prickles.
“How did you know I was in Valor Springs?” I ask, and the words come out faster now.
Dave’s gaze shifts away, just for a second.
My stomach turns.
Then another memory hits, like my brain finally stops protecting me from the obvious.
Knox in the truck, voice flat, decisive.
They can track your phone.
My breath catches.
The phone.
He tossed it.
But I still answered that call. I still spoke. I still stayed on the line long enough for someone to do something. And we were almost in Valor Springs.
My fingers go numb.
“Did you track me?” I whisper.
Dave doesn’t answer.
He doesn’t have to.
A door opens somewhere down the hall. Footsteps.
A man enters the kitchen like he belongs in it.
Tall. Broad. Baseball cap. That same annoyed slant to his mouth.
He looks right through me and at Dave.
“We need to go soon,” he says.
And his voice…
My blood turns to ice.
Get a room.
The stairwell. The landing. The moment Knox’s back shielded me while my whole body went traitor-soft under his mouth.
I recognize the voice.
My vision narrows until the whole kitchen feels like it tilts.
I set the sandwich down carefully because my hands are shaking.
I look at Dave.
I look at the man.
“You,” I breathe. “You were there.”
