“For tonight.”
They didn’t argue.
They knew better.
As the SUV rolled toward the edge of town, Thomas’s gaze flicked once more to the darkened houses, the quiet streets, the illusion of peace.
“Let them think they won,” he murmured.
Because once he figured out where Trigger had taken her…
He wouldn’t come after her with noise.
He’d come with patience.
And patience, Thomas knew very well, was what broke people.
12
Trigger
Ifelt it before the radio crackled.
That was the thing about real danger—it didn’t announce itself. It didn’t rush in loud and sloppy. It slid closer, slow and deliberate, like a hand easing toward the small of your back.
The cabin was quiet.
Too quiet.
The fire in the woodstove settled into a steady burn, logs ticking softly as they shifted. The generator hummed outside, low and constant. Rylie slept on the couch, curled on her side with the blanket pulled up to her chin, one hand tucked beneath her cheek as if she were trying to hold herself together even in sleep.
She hadn’t moved in for over an hour. She was actually resting for the first time all week.
I sat in the chair angled toward the front door, weapon resting across my thighs, boots planted flat on the floor. Every sense stayed sharp—listening for the crunch of snow, the snap of a branch, the change in air pressure that meant someone else had entered the woods.
Nothing.
And that was the problem.
I checked my watch.
2:43 a.m.
That was when my chest tightened.
No sound.
No movement.
But the certainty landed anyway.
He knows.
Not where we were.
Not yet.
But he knew she was gone.
