That voice.
It can’t be.
My heart jolts violently in my chest, then seems to stall altogether. For a second I am certain I’ve finally crossed the line into madness.
Hallucinations would make sense at this point.
“Milo,” the voice says again.
My legs give out beneath me and I drop to my knees, my hand presses hard against my chest as if I can force my heart to keep beating properly.
This isn’t real.
It cannot be real.
Hope is a dangerous damn thing.
I have read the reports.
Her body was identified.
And yet…
There’s movement on the line, then a sudden scuffle followed by raised voices and hurried footsteps.
What the fuck.
I switch the call to speaker.
Isaak and Ido watch me now, something close to concern appears on their otherwise composed expressions.
The shouting grows louder, male voices raised and urgent as they close in.
“Get her!” someone roars in the background.
I clamp my teeth so hard a dull pain spreads along my jaw.
“Milo,” she whispers again, her voice trembles. “I’m not dead, baby… he—”
A strangled gasp comes through the line, and then a heavy crash sounds in the background.
“Let me go!” she screams.
The sound drives into me, and I grind my teeth together until the pressure builds behind my eyes.
Fuck no.
They will pay.
All of them.
The shouting grows louder, the voices crowding the line, and then it stops.
The line goes dead.
I stare at the screen.
My body doesn’t move. I just stand there, the world narrowing to that black, silent rectangle in my palm.
