“Keep me updated,” Adam warns.
“I will.”
I end the call and lower the phone, my hand hovering in the air long after the line goes dead.
For a moment, I don’t move.
The garage feels too still—concrete, cold, the faint hum of the water heater the only sound. My breathing comes slow, controlled out of habit rather than calm.
Once.
Twice.
A third time, because the first two didn’t take.
The wanking bastard hurt her.
Not theoretically. Not maybe.
Fact.
He broke into her home. Violated her while she slept. Left scars no one can see unless they know how to look.
And now he’s out. Free. Mobile. Unaccounted for.
He could be anywhere.
He could be watching her already.
He could be in the woods that wrap around Cedar Lake like a curtain no one ever quite pulls back.
He could be close enough to hear the way her breath shakes when she’s scared.
Something tightens under my ribs—slow at first, then sharp.
It’s not the kind of fear I was trained to override.
It’s the kind that hits in one clean strike, honest and human and unwelcome.
I’ve walked into ambush zones with a steadier pulse than this.
But this—her—changes the math.
Because for the first time in a very long time, the danger isn’t aimed at me.
And I’m terrified anyway.
Not for my life.
For hers. For Lily.
I pull up my parents’ number and hit call, pacing before it even rings.
Mum picks up on the second ring, her voice soft, the kind she saves for family.
“Ethan, love—everything all right?”
“No,” I say, too quickly. My voice comes out tighter than I intend. “Listen—I need you to keep Lily in Florida. Take her to Orlando, I’ll cover the cost.”
