Page 98 of Maddening Fixation

The effort of staying awake was clearly becoming too much.

His breathing slowed.

His head tipped back against the concrete wall.

For several seconds, I simply watched him.

Without the tension hardening his expression, I could finally see him clearly.

The years had transformed him.

The carefree teenager I’d once admired had vanished completely.

His jaw had become broader and more sharply defined beneath several days’ worth of dark stubble.

His dark hair had grown longer than I remembered, falling untidily across his forehead, damp with sweat and blood.

Prison had changed him.

Not just physically.

There was something heavier about him now.

As though ten years behind bars had stripped away every trace of innocence and left only the man required to survive.

Yet beneath the scars...

Beneath the exhaustion...

I could still catch fleeting glimpses of the nineteen-year-old I had once pulled from the lake.

The realization settled heavily in my chest, tightening around my heart in a way I couldn’t explain.

Romeo.

It really was him.

His phone lay where it had fallen onto the asphalt.

After a moment’s hesitation, I picked it up.

The screen illuminated immediately.

A news alert flashed across the screen.

BREAKING: Multiple bodies discovered at Flynn Manor. Authorities launch homicide investigation into one of the deadliest mass killings in recent Florida history.

Newly released ex-convict Romeo Medved Flynn named the primary person of interest. The FBI has urged the public not to approach him and to report any sightings immediately, describing him as armed, extremely dangerous, and potentially linked to organized crime.

My blood ran cold.

Yarina’s words came rushing back.

She had claimed she’d witnessed it with her own eyes.

Romeo Flynn had executed an entire generation of the Flynn family.

At the time, I had dismissed it as one of her usual exaggerations.